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Chapter 68 – Memento
The sensation of travelling though a Dark Empire teleportation gate whilst on foot was one that Canis had of course experienced countless times in her career as a pirate, smuggler and bounty hunter operating in all corners of the galaxy regardless of which power claimed authority and dominion over any given world though it was nonetheless a feeling she would always find distinctly uncomfortable; stepping through the swirling, crimson edged wound torn into the fabric of reality that howled and screamed resulted in a skin-crawling sensation and shivers that went far beyond the simple tingling of the more reliable and far-reaching Alliance teleportation systems as a subjects' body was disassembled and reassembled by brute magical force whilst the sudden change in environment never failed to leave Canis's sensitive ears laying flat against her skull in discomfort.
Although all of that was entirely secondary to the all-consuming terror she felt in the presence of the being beside her.
"You have served me well Canis, come see what your service has uncovered" Lord Zedd's voice rumbled and shook the air, vibrating the former pirates' bones and feeling as though it made her very soul tremble as she followed in the wake of armoured warlord who strode forwards with utter certainty that his subject would obey without question.
Almost a month, at least by Earth's reckoning not that such things were of any importance within the Dark Empire had passed since Canis had been unceremoniously conscripted into Lord Zedd's service on pain of death and in that time she had, exactly as the arch tyrant had decreed been kept confined within the grand palace on Acheron where her movements were monitored by the black marble Putties of the Obsidian Guard and a steadily changing collection of heavily armed guards as she was brought before planetary overseers, Captains' of warships and Commanders of small fleets and strike forces that comprised mere splinters of the Empires' behemoth war machine; each of these meetings had seen her perusing various maps and star charts where she would turn on her former fellow pirates and betray every oath of honour amongst thieves she had ever taken as she gave up the identities of pirates operating within Empire space, the ports that they based themselves out of, the ships they used and their preferred targets and methods of attack and in a matter of a few short weeks piracy within Lord Zedd's domain was reduced to almost nothing as countless raiders ad marauders were either killed or captured and subjected to the full wrath of what passed for the rule of law within the Empire whilst those who remained simply fled.
It was then that Lord Zedd himself had appeared before Canis and bid her to follow him, marching through the enormous palace that served as the jewel in the crown of his Empire, all who fell into his field of vision bowing and averting their gaze until finally he reached the Teleportation Gate within the palace itself; whilst the tyrant was perfectly capable of rending reality apart with his own magic it seemed that he saw no need to do display his might at that moment and do the pair had stepped through the swirling portal to appear at their current destination.
Not that Canis was entirely sure where that was.
She followed after Lord Zedd, eyes darting around rapidly as she tried to get her bearings and she did so she discerned that she was almost certainly within a Dark Empire command post of some description; located upon one of the countless worlds or colonies under Empire control as the air of hurried importance that permeated the place was unmistakable yet Canis could feel none of the telltale vibrations of subtle tilting that would suggest she had been brought aboard a warship. Ahead of her Lord Zedd seemed to sense her curiosity although he had not turned or gave any indication at all that he had been paying attention to the scaled and doglike alien trailing behind him before speaking.
"The information you provided was most useful, most enlightening" the tyrant chuckled darkly, his voice rising above the cacophony of the plates of his own armour moving against one another "It would seem that you are not the only one of your former allies to break the codes of honour you upheld….some of those who would dare steal from my Empire have been aiding the rebels and therefore working alongside the Power Rangers; come Canis, come and see them punished for their crimes" with that the pair continued onwards, Lord Zedd clearly cruelly amused at the thought of honour amongst pirates and the hypocritical irony of Canis being outraged by its' abandonment whilst Canis herself simply tried to mentally prepare herself for what she would witness; taking care to show no trace of fear or hesitation as they finally reached a thick, armoured door flanked by a pair of warriors carrying halberds behind which there could only be a prison or torture chamber of some description.
The stench of blood assaulted Canis's nostrils the moment she followed Lord Zedd inside.
The being hanging suspended from the ceiling by chains embedded into the flesh of their arms had once had an armoured and chitinous carapace covered much of their segmented form, Canis knew this because that same carapace lay in a neat pile in a corner of the room after being sawed and cleaved away; by far the most extreme example of what had befallen the captured pirate but by no means the only instance.
Canis was simply thankful that this was not somebody she knew personally
"You know who I am and you know what is about to happen...I will grant you a moment to embrace your death" Lord Zedd declared simply as he strode into view of the pirates' sole remaining eye. Cracked and bloodied mandibles twitched weakly as the captured pirate Captain tried to power through their agony and the sheer terror of Lord Zedd's presence to give an answer that they knew would be their last words yet before they could speak the tyrant's armoured hand flew out and seized their skull with an audible cracking sound, fluid spattering onto the already stained floor as taloned finger sank through bone and tissue without resistance; Lord Zedd had allowed his interrogators to spend days attempting to break the mind, body and spirit of this individual so that he might learn something of value from them yet their resistance and resolve had proven to be far greater than expected which, whilst begrudgingly impressive only proved to the tyrant that they had vital information and so he had elected to attend to the matter in person.
Canis audibly retched as the prisoners' body jerked and was visibly drained of some vital essence until it became a dessicated husk; Lord Zedd tearing the information he wanted, along with the last vestiges of life and sanity out of them along with their very soul before turning to Canis herself, the light from beneath his visor redoubling and filling the torture chamber with its' hateful crimson glow.
"Did you….find what you were looking for my Lord?" Canis asked, voice trembling
"Karone, the once Princess of Evil; the Pink Astro Ranger; she is the one leading these rebels….They are clever little pests Canis, they've been using spies and double agents to turn my own teleportation network against me, using my own tools to strike at my Empire"
"What do you want me to do my Lord?" the scaled canine asked carefully, not daring to sound to presumptuous or self important and risk becoming the next target of Lord Zedd's insatiable bloodlust; yet the tyrant himself barely seemed to register her as a person, rather a convenient vessel to project his own thoughts onto as he mused aloud
"A full scale assault would require too much time, sending warships would be fruitless" he rumbled before something in his demeanour shifted and he radiated a calm satisfaction that was no less fearsome than his rage, his voice becoming something akin to a purr "Come Canis….it's time to see what my other endeavours and violations of the boundaries of what was possible have yielded"
"Oh God damn it!" Mercy yelled frantically before pressing herself flush against the metallic crate she was using for cover as a series of dull thuds pattered against its' surface, the unmorphed Red Ranger checking herself over hastily before letting out a sigh of relief as her heart hammered in her chest and her breath came as ragged pants and gasps.
She maintained that using the asteroid bases' fabrication facilities to make a series of paintball guns for training purposes had been a great idea.
Since Carnifex's defeat on Furrous the Dark Empire's steady advance and encroaching outwards into neutral space and sovereign systems had come grinding almost to a halt and from what Mercy understood Karone had almost considered the possibility that the deceased Acheron hybrid had in fact still been an integral part of Lord Zedd's command structure. The truth of the matter was soon revealed to the dissident faction however as various spies and other insurgents Karone had managed to recruit began to report that the Empire had, for the moment at least turned its' attention away from the spate of rebellions and uprisings that were being sown across its' territory and focused instead on purging any and all pirates that dared to operate within its' borders. Mission Control, along with several other individuals with enough experience and authority to speak on such matters had convened in the bases' Inner Sanctum and discussed what this change in approach from Lord Zedd could mean, coming to the conclusion after much debate that this was in part an effort to cut down the resistances' supply lines and also an effort to maintain the appearance of being all knowing and all powerful, the perceived strength instilling enough fear to counteract the recruitment drives that were taking place and bolstering rebellions on dozens of worlds all whilst being a simple act of spiteful retaliation against the pirates who had failed Lord Zedd on Furrous.
None of that however was anything that the Aegis Ranger's were immediately concerned by.
It had been, by Earths' calender almost a month without a major battle and had in truth spent weeks engaged in little more than acting as a security detail for members within Karone's rebellion as they reached to as yet undeclared groups within the Empire; allowing the teens to see just how vast the Empire truly was and the plethora of different worlds held under its' control as Justin's teleportation system continued to be improved until it was almost as far reaching as those that they had enjoyed whilst still in Alliance space, many of those worlds being truly beautiful places whose landscape of unique culture and ecosystems had not yet been fully subsumed into the subservient hegemony that inevitably befell all under the yoke of the Empire. Mercy and to a lesser degree her fellow Rangers had quickly become restless however and sought out a way to continue to train and keep themselves in fighting shape despite the inaction and after the Red Ranger had half-jokingly suggested paintballs as dummy rounds Kay had offered up the unfinished area of the asteroid base with a faulty gravity and atmospheric control that they often spent time with Panthera in as a potential training area.
Which was why Mercy had found herself floating a dozen feet above the ground and taking cover behind a metal crate as Panthera opened fire on her from where she perched on the scaffolding that formed the arm of an enormous crane.
"I've got her pinned!" the teal-skinned alien declared as she stalked, catlike along the surface of the machinery with her paintball gun, modelled after a laser rifle she had been fond of before becoming a Power Ranger at the ready whilst seeking out another angle of attack.
Marigold had been unable to join them, the Gold Ranger was currently working alongside Cestria in the medical facilities after offering her services which left the six remaining teens forming two teens of three; Mercy, Aslaug and Tempestus against Panthera, Kay and Rensa in a battle that was good natured and humorous yet just as intense as any other training session that they might have engaged in and the Red and the Red Ranger was the only member of her team remaining, whilst Panthera still had Rensa to aid her.
"Come on Mercy, think" the Red Ranger hissed through clenched teeth as she racked her brains for any half-forgotten lessons that she could apply to her current predicament until she shifted her weight and the sensation of an utter lack of a floor beneath her caused her eyes to widen as a solution came to her. Listening closely and keeping track of Panthera's movements Mercy slung herself under the metal crate that she had taken cover behind and used the drastically weakened gravity to crawl on her belly whilst upside down along it's underside before emerging out of cover yet completely unseen by Panthera who continued to prowl along the length of the crane arm until she was sent tumbling backwards, vivid red paint splattered across her torso as Mercy aimed and fired
"Gotcha!" the former Lightspeed and Silver Guardian cadet beamed with a smile that she couldn't help from seeming a little cocky; the light brown skinned woman blowing dyed red curls from her hair as she relished scoring a point in her friendly but long-standing competitive rivalry with her fellow Ranger.
And then pain exploded through her back as a jet black paintball struck her between the shoulders.
"You missed one" Rensa's soft and gentle voiced taunted, wafting up to her and bringing an annoyed pout to Mercy's face.
"And that's the match guys" she sighed before spinning herself and repositioning so that she was stood more upright and making her way down towards the ground in a series of leaps aided by the reduced gravity, her friends gathering around her, each of them with the exception of Rensa wearing clothes stained with paint.
"We fought well" Aslaug noted, the Yellow Ranger having been the first to be disqualified from the training session as she simply had no appreciation for stealth and subterfuge in war.
"I think I'm losing my touch" Panthera grumbled as she draped herself across Kay
"Well we can go for another round if you want?" Mercy offered, though in truth it was more of an open challenge even if she did wince and roll her shoulders which would likely bruise "Just give me five minutes"
"I can't" Tempestus interjected, voice apologetic as he added "I promised my mother and Marigold I'd meet them for lunch"
"No problem, tell your Mum we said hi….and tell Mari to take a break, you know she won't otherwise" Mercy replied casually
"The irony" Kay noted, giving Mercy a pointed look before adding "I think I'm going to go and meditate….I feel like I'm close to something with my study of magic, even if I don't know exactly what"
"I'll come with you" Panthera offered with a slight shrug "It's fun to watch you and besides, I think I rolled my ankle trying to keep my balance on the crane"
"Okay cool, I'll see you guys later then" Mercy waved off her friends as they left and a moment later there were only her, Aslaug and Rensa remaining in the dome whose lowered gravity felt almost like floating in water
"So….Now what?" Rensa murmured at which point Mercy stretched and let out a low groan as her aching shoulder popped and after letting out a sigh and allowing her eyes to refocus again she managed to give an answer
"First thing I need to do is shower and get this paint off of me"
"Good idea" both Aslaug and Rensa answered in unison.
Billy Cranston had spent much of the last month sequestered away in his laboratory, a space that went far beyond anything that should have been possible with the limited resources of an insurgency working deep behind enemy lines as the Dark Empires' lack of direct assaults against the resistance movement he was a part of and the slowing of their inexorable advance as Lord Zedd seemingly cleaned house had allowed the former Blue Ranger to work without distraction or delays.
His task had still been arduous one however, requiring a seemingly endless amount of recalculations, modifications and adjustments that amounted to a workload which would have seen a less driven or dedicated mind simply decry the task as impossible.
Billy felt guilty on some level, lamenting the fact that even as they fought against tyranny in circumstances that could see them killed at any moment he had continued his work in favour of spending time with his wife and son yet he would not be swayed; privately he was thankful that both Cestria and Tempestus knew and understood the importance of the task he had been given by their allies on Earth.
The Galaxy needed Power Rangers and it fell to him to provide them.
Now, with a weary smile on his face that spoke of pride and a deep personal and professional satisfaction Billy wiped sweat from his brow and rubbed at eyes that burned and itched with fatigue whilst his skull pounded after spending days using caffeine as a substitute for a healthy amount of rest before taking a moment to simply gaze down at his work; the completed Lightspeed Delta Morphers. They were arguably not as impressive in terms of raw power output as the Aegis Morphers and no corresponding Zords had yet been manufactured for this as yet unformed team of Rangers yet they stood as a testament to human ingenuity as they refined the Lightspeed Morphers made by Professor Rawlings, then Fairweather and harnessed the Power of the Morphing Grid without the use of Power Coins or any similar magical artefacts
Now all that remained was to get them into Alliance space.
The teleportation system that he and Justin had worked tirelessly to create had been expanded gradually and was certainly an impressive feat and indescribably useful; using the network created by the Dark Empire's teleportation gates as a sort of galactic map whilst not being limited to using those same gates as fixed anchoring points, allowing the subject to appear almost anywhere within Empire space in much the same way the Alliances' teleporters operated yet the fact remained that neither side in the war had the raw power to simply leapt from one side of the galaxy to another in a single burst of power.
With notable exceptions such as Lord Zedd and the now comatose Zebidiah Lord of course.
"And just how is his recovery going?" Billy murmured to himself, a habit he was becoming more and more aware of and mildly concerned by despite Justin's assurances that all the best mad scientists talked to themselves. Stepping away from the immaculate workbench where the now completed Morphers were being held in a nondescript but heavily armoured steel case Billy allowed himself to sink into the blissfully comfortable chair positioned at a smaller desk in a corner of the room and used the console there to open a long range communications' channel, an Alliance frequency that was naturally encrypted to the highest degree possible; a statement given weight by the calibre of the various minds who had lent their intellect to the task. Several moments passed as the signal traversed the void of space yet finally a video image, pixelated and lagging owing to the distance and the layers of security yet thankfully with clear audio appeared on the screen.
"Hello Billy, it's been too long" Grace Sterling's voice was a welcome break from the monotony of his work, though Billy noticed that she too was clad in a burned and stained lab-coat rather than her one of her usual sharply cut and ludicrously expensive suits.
"It has" Billy nodded "Although perhaps this was a bad time?"
"Not at all" she shook her head and a weak but unmissable smile tugged at her lined and weary face "Doctor Rawlings and I have been working on the matter of Zebidiah's new body….we're still making steady progress but we're still not certain if we're ready-"
"Is there any change to his condition?" Billy asked, surprised as always by how much he could come to care for and appreciate the man who had once been a tyrant determined to enslave or destroy the people of Earth.
"Little if any" Grace admitted with a sigh "It's honestly annoying, we know he's in there somewhere and if we could just speak with him we'd probably have this finished by now"
"Well speaking of finished" Billy let the sentence hang in the air for a moment, not mentioning the Morphers by name despite the security already in place yet Grace understood perfectly and her eyebrows vanished into her steely grey hair
"They're ready?" she gasped "Corcus will be pleased….he's gotten very invested in the role of leading Mission Control while you've been away and it clearly bothers him that there are no Rangers here for him to lead"
"I almost pity the kids that are chosen for the new team for that alone" Billy chuckled before adding "I'll inform Karone of the developments and she'll have her agents arrange transport….obviously this will have to be done in secret, I'd suggest Charlie being the one to do it-"
"But you're worried she might keep one for herself?"
"I'm worried that our arrangements might be ignored by an overzealous Silver Guardian and she'd be taken back to a supermax black site" Billy countered, still visibly disgusted by the existence of such facilities
"Fair" Grace admitted, accepting that there was in fact a very reasonable chance of such a thing occurring but quickly moving the conversation forwards "But you'll do nothing. I will tell Karone, you will get some rest and spend some time with your wife….God knows I would have divorced you by now Cranston"
"That was….a little uncalled for" Billy grumbled
"Was it though?" and with that the video call ended and the former Blue Ranger was left muttering irritably to himself in solitude and looking every part the mad scientist he had been described as; eventually however he resigned himself to the fact that as blunt as she had been Grace had a point and with that in mind he decided that he would rest first and then begin making up for lost time with his family.
With that in mind his eyes began to drift closed and he fell asleep at his chair in a matter of moments.
Kay had, as they had told Mercy that would do sought out a new secluded area of the asteroid base in order to meditate and work on harnessing their arcane abilities; they did not regret showing their friends the dome with lowered gravity that had been almost exclusively the domain of themselves and Panthera up until that point but it would be undeniably more difficult to focus with all of their team-mates present.
Fortunately Panthera had both known a place that would be suitable and had dedicated herself to helping Kay realise their full potential in any way she could even if that involved simply remaining silent so as not to break his concentration.
Currently the two of them were sequestered away on the very edges of the asteroid field base, hiding out in a half empty storage area connected the rest of the abandoned asteroid colony Karone's insurgency had appropriated by a sturdy, air-locked tunnel that formed a road wide enough for vehicles to drive down; Panthera watching from a safe distance in a crouched position, nose scrunched and wrinkled as the stench of ozone assaulted her nostrils when Kay rose from their cross-legged meditation position to stand with their feet shoulder width apart, hands held close to their chest in a circular pose; small particles of flickering and glowing light streaming towards the centre of their hands where the air and reality itself seemed to crackle and distort.
"Come on, you've got this, you can do it" Panthera's low and husky tone were barely above a whisper as they light gathered between Kay's palms, pulsing and condensing until; for a brief moment it became a physical thing.
And then it exploded
"Damn it!" Kay's usually melodic and oddly hypnotic voice became a pained yelp and Panthera struggled not to be flung backwards by a rush of icy cold air, flinging herself from the crate she had been perched on rushing over to their side just in time to see them pull a long shard of glass from the end of their thumb and watch with morbid fascination as they wounded skin knitted itself back together in a matter of seconds.
"Glass?" Panthera arched an eyebrow and cocked hair head, tail swishing behind her as she regarded her partner and tried to understand their intentions; Kay's eyes, vivid pink irises as striking as ever against black sclera were downcast and they ran a hand through unnaturally spiky hair that faded from glossy black to a chalky white at its' tips, looking awkward as they fidgeted slightly despite their imposing form
"I was tying to make you some new jewellery" they eventually mumbled, gesturing to the many items of gold and other precious metals from across the galaxy that Panthera still wore as a holdover from her former career as a smuggler.
"Cute" she purred "But why?"
"Because Carnifex knew how to use Acheron magic to create things and I didn't know that was possible….I wanted to learn and I don't have my Grandfather to teach me"
"I get it, and you'll figure it out; I've got every faith in you" Panthera stepped closer and took their hands whilst resting her forehead against theirs before adding in a bemused tone "But out of all the things you could make why that?"
"Grandfather always said that mastering the arts was a matter of finding the right motivation" Kay shrugged "Seeing you smile is definitely a great motivation for me" they offered her a bright smile and Panthera was certain she felt her heart skip several beats as he cheeks heated and flushed a brighter shade of blue
"You are too pure for this galaxy" she chuckled tone becoming sultry as she leaned closer and whispered in Kay's ear "Although….I think I can help with motivation" with that she took one of Kay's hands, still held in her own and guided it upwards, allowing them to cup and gently caress her breast
"You know I'm not doing this for that right?" Kay noted, their amused tone becoming far less teasing and far more earnest as they added in a hushed mumble "Piggy was the first person I spoke to when I was awoken but you were my first friend, you trusted my after everything I did under Lord Zedd's command and I want to see the whole galaxy with you….I love you"
"I love you too you idiot" Panthera melted into them and the two of them remained there "So take all the motivation you need, because I wanna see you win" hearing this Kay moved their hand from Panthera's breast and held her hips gently, pulling her into a slow tender kiss that seemed to last for an unmeasurable amount of time as the two smiled against one others' lips until finally pulling away from each other and as they did so Panthera saw fresh fire and determination on Kay's face to match the confident smile they wore
"Okay" they breathed out "Let's try again"
Canis followed in Lord Zedd's wake as the tyrant strode through the heart of his domain; those he passed once again bowing and averting their eyes lest they face the warlords' wrath if their gaze offended him.
Still retching and reeling from the sight of her fellow pirate being killed by having their mind magically flayed and all useful knowledge forcefully ripped from it the doglike alien had forced herself to remain composed, standing at attention with an expression of total neutrality forced firmly in place though the terror in her eyes continued to betray her she had remained close to Lord Zedd, not having been dismissed or instructed to leave his presence as he returned to the palace on Acheron via another screaming teleportation gate and promptly summoned the master of his personal Dread Forge, military officers, overseers responsible for the slaves and serfs whose backbreaking labour produced the endless supply of materials required to run the Empires' war machine and informed them to prepare; there would be a surgical strike in a matter of hours and it would be a decisive blow that decide the fate of his war against the Alliance.
All of that had been far less worrying than the sights that greeted Canis now.
Fear gripped at every part of her psyche and some deep, primal part of her being screamed that everything about her current location was wrong; the entirety of her willpower being focused on keeping her fight of flight instinct in check and leaving her hands trembling in fear and a series of low whines escaping her. She had followed Lord Zedd deeper into the bowels of his enormous palace until finally entering the chamber she now stood, a freezing cold place illuminated by a series of flickering candles that gave off green flames and purple smoke and guttered in some winds that went unfelt by Canis herself; those candles provided just enough light to melt the ice and frost around them and had been placed strategically on the walls and floor so that their heat created frozen geometric patterns of incredible complexity and with indecipherable yet no doubt terrible meanings.
At the very centre of this artistic yet unsettling display was a sight that sent deep pangs of Dread into the former pirate; she had seen countless dead bodies over her career with many of them being of her own making but the sight of several hundred dead bodies arranged neatly and angled so that their blood, countless colours owing to the various species of the sacrafices ran downwards and through the frozen geometric maze into the very centre of the room where it stained the surface of an object that Canis froze upon seeing.
The very same casket she had stolen from Furrous on Lord Zedd's command.
"My Lord" the speaker appeared seemingly from nowhere and with a thin, rasping voice as ephemeral as their frail and dessicated form; whatever this creature was they were so stooped by age that they were almost bowed even when stood upright. The speakers' body was hidden almost entirely beneath faded black robes, save for a sickly yellow light from beneath its' hood to denote a single eye and a skeletal hand wrapped in faded and ancient scrolls which took the place of bandages held out to Lord Zedd with the palm upwards in a gesture of supplication and as they performed this gesture a veil of arcane energy enveloped the limb, causing all of Canis's deep, instinctive fears to suddenly be centred on this unspeakably ancient and inexplicably perverse being whose very existence radiated wrongness of the worst kind.
"You have made progress" Lord Zedd intoned coldly, evidently being subjected to none of the distress that his whimpering underling was; his words pointedly not being phrased as a question.
"It is all but complete my lord, all that remains is the final touch….forgive my presumptions but I thought that you might wish to be the one who performed this role"
"I do not normally allow such sentimentality and weakness to delay my plans" the armoured tyrant answered, the ground trembling over so slightly as the first hints of an annoyed warning crept into his tone though he relented as he added "But perhaps this is different….he was one of my Fathers' personal retinue after all"
"Your will be done my lord" the robed wraith bowed even deeper "Though I must stress once again that he will be….different"
"So be it" Lord Zedd growled before striding close enough to touch the casket which Canis now realised contained the remains of some fallen warrior.
"This was once Goldar, servant to both of my parents and personal honour guard of the last Lord Zedd….Slain by Zordon in his final gambit, the same attack that perverted my parents and turned my father into a wretch of a thing that insults his own memory" bloody crimson lightning flashed around Lord Zedd as he spoke ad Canis quickly realised that she was the sole audience for his words and that she was being told this solely to make her more receptive and more suitably awed by what would follow.
"And now" Lord Zedd continued, power continuing to roil and gather around him "He will rise again!" with that thunderbolts of pure darkness struck the casket and the warlord who to countless billions of souls represented power and control incarnate let out a pained and prolonged howl as he dedicated every ounce of his being into perverting the most base and fundamental laws of nature; this was not the process that Canis had heard tales of wherein a new body complete with old memories was produced, not was it some act of the Morphing Grid restoring a lost Power Ranger, this was a simple unmaking of reality and a sundering of the proper order of things as Lord Zedd completed the work his finest necromancer had begun and reached into the realm beyond the physical to simply drag Goldar's soul into the material plane and construct a new mortal shell for it to inhabit out of raw willpower, arcane darkness and the ashes and powdered bone of his previous body.
An explosion rocked the chamber.
Canis was flung to the ground and when she rose to her feet what she saw left her stunned, even Lord Zedd had been forced back by the exertion of his own powers and the bloodstained geometric ice-hewn wards had been broken whilst the candles around the chamber finally flickered out, yet with her keen night vision and the hateful glow cast by the eyes of those she shared the chamber with Canis could see that a new figure had joined them.
Goldar.
The figure was huge, almost rivalling Lord Zedd's enormous nine foot stature and truly fearsome in appearance. At first glance it seemed that they were wearing heavy and intricately decorated golden armour yet as Canis looked closer she realised that it was in fact that armoured hide of the revived warrior, what had once been armour becoming fused with the body and granted life of its' own to cover much of Goldar's form in a thick golden carapace that reached from his clawed feet to his impossibly broad shoulders and was formed of ridged and stylised plates which shifted and moved like liquid metal to form a series of ancient runes and glyphs or snarling monstrous faces. Goldar's arms were bare, the deep blue fur that had once covered his flesh burned away to reveal the rippling and leathery black skin beneath it; their bulging and muscular forms littering with fiery golden veins running across their surface like magma leading down to his elbows where a pair of bracers that resembled enormous golden talons were placed, their clawed digits twitching slightly whilst his hands were covered in golden gauntlets that were fused to his body. With a stretch of his new form Goldar unfurled his wings, obsidian feathered things like those of a raven yet each of them larger than the average man and dripping with liquid metal which showed no signs of cooling yet it was Goldar's face that held Canis's attention; his blunt and flattened features were much as they always had been and resembled those of his people yet now they seemed to be a metallic mask, a black metal faceplate rimmed with short spikes set within a golden crown which sported a pair of swept forward horns whilst hair that had once been braided hung over his shoulder in a series of cobalt blue, segmented whip like appendages; all of which was overshadowed by the sheer, unmitigated power radiating from his glowing, fiery red eyes.
"Where….am I?" Goldar surprised Canis by being able to speak, their mask like visage proving that it was indeed a functioning face as his mouth moved and revealed countless fangs and some blazing, infernal fire emanating from deep within that cold be glimpsed as he spoke.
"You are home Goldar, on Acheron….you remember me do you not; though perhaps I was smaller when we last spoke?" Lord Zedd asked, their voice closer to gentle and delicate than any being that still lived had ever heard before "You were laid low by Zordon himself. My Mother is gone; Thrax, my brother is gone, my Father was taken from us and….In my efforts to wage war against Earth and its' allies my own child joined our enemies and is their Green Power Ranger" a low, guttural snarl escaped from Goldar; rising in volume and intensity until it became a roar that spewed flames high into the air and made the ground shake, an expression of equal parts unbridled rage and inconsolable grief which ended with him sinking to his knees at Lord Zedd's feet
"I failed….I failed Lord Zedd, I failed to protect your father-"
"You did" the armoured tyrant agreed, looming over Goldar before holding a hand out to him "But I am Lord Zedd now and I am offering you a chance to redeem yourself and once again wage war against the Power Rangers"
A lone figure that anyone born on Earth would describe as alien, owing to their lime green skin and four eyes with oddly shaped pupils sat at a chair that was at least comfortable enough for many of the galaxies more prominent species as they oversaw their duties. They were working in the asteroid base that Karone and her faction of rebels and insurgents had procured for themselves, primarily they were in charge of logging incoming and outgoing shipments; a task that had become more complex of late owing to the work of two former Blue Power Rangers.
Ever since the teleportation system that Justin Stewart and Billy Cranston had devised had been installed and activated, with a successful test run being used to deploy the Zords to the world of Furrous which lay entirely outside of the Dark Empires' control and the network created by its' own teleportation gates the amount of goods being shipped to and from the base had begun to decrease as the resistance cells across the Empire simply used the teleporters to send contraband, weapons, stolen supplies and other necessities to the central hub that united their various splinter factions with less risk to themselves; though that was not to say that the traffic to the base had subsided entirely and the various hangars were still respectably full of vessels at any given time as they base both maintained a level of readiness to respond to any threat and was frequented by those both within and outside of the Empires' command structure who did not have the necessary authority or connections to use its' teleportation gates unquestioned.
For the alien currently lounging in their moderately comfortable chair this had lessened work in one regard as the reduction of spaceships travelling to the hidden base had meant spending less time liaising with those responsible for verifying the identities and clearances of the various crewmembers of those vessels and searches that could take inordinate amounts of time owing to the various secret passageways and storage areas common to all smugglers' ships simply no longer needed to be performed; on the other hand however the task had been made difficult as the teleportation system had bee expanded to include features more in line with the systems operated by the Alliance, whose teleporters were based on reverse engineered Eltarian principles had been expanded and improved, allowing goods to be teleported directly where they were needed; a feature that had left the alien and those she worked alongside frantically rushing from place to place on more than one occasion as something was delivered without proper clearances and the paranoia that came from working in enemy territory saw those in the affected part of base enter a state of tense panic as they regarded the sudden arrival of undisclosed goods as though it were a bomb sent by some unknown assassin.
The sounds of several such unregistered incoming teleportation signatures being reported by her computer made the alien roll all four of her eyes
"Will these idiots just dock and unload their goods manually; Karone needs to have a better system put in….what in the ancestors-" the alien trailed off, hearts suddenly hammering and four eyes widening in sudden shock as she realised that the dozen or more teleportation systems were not coming from a nearby spaceship and that they were being joined by more small incoming signatures which had been scattered all across the base.
With alarms and warning systems being activated in each and every area the.
"Oh no!" she gasped out, fingers frantically dancing over her keyboard in a desperate attempt to shut down the teleportation system in its entirety and stop the incoming forces, only for her blood to run cold as she realised that she was entirely unable to do so and that her attempts were being halted by some outside source. Seeing this for the undeniable sign that it was she quickly entered another set of commands and thanked the deities of her people that whatever technical malfeasance was at play seemed to only be affecting the teleporters before opening a comm channel to every single speaker across the entire base
"WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! CODE RED, CODE RED! ENEMY FORCES HAVE TELEPORTED ONTO-" she feel silent as a warbling sound interrupted to warnings and she looked up just in time to see a Putty expire, its' body teleported halfway into a wall and collapsing at it was bisected vertically though any sense of relief she may have felt was cut short as several distortions in the air announced a fresh wave of teleportation.
The Putty had simply been a test and now that the attackers had course corrected living and experienced soldiers could be sent to fight.
Lord Zedd's direct assault against Karone's uprising had begun.
Author's Notes:
So….welcome to Arc sixteen.
I told you, you were all warned.
This one is gonna be crazy.
There isn't really anything to say here, so let's summarise shall we?:
I feel like if we're leading off with the villains it's probably gonna be a bad time.
Canis is still struggling to get used to the Zedd factor and absolutely does not want to be here.
The resistance has been starting rebellions and shutting down supply lines, so Lord Zedd is responding in kind and instead of chasing the Rangers around he's used Canis to go after the pirates and smugglers; which would have shit Karone's forces down if they weren't getting supplies directly from Acheron forge worlds because of how many people she's turning.
Yeah….the Dark Empire are not people you want to be captured by; especially not if you've managed to attract the attention of the big bad himself because he can and will physically mind-flay you.
I think you all knew that we were gonna see the casket full of Goldar dust again from the end of the first scene.
Yay for training scenes, hand to hand sparring gets boring so I decided to spice it up with paintballs.
I kept making a point of bringing up the teleportation system in this chapter, you should have guessed it was going to become one of the plot points.
Training in the low-gravity dome that Kay and Panthera hang out it in….Means that the fighting gets a lot more three dimensional and you can do sneaky stuff.
Also yeah Mercy and Panthera have been low-key competitive with each other from day one but it's not an open rivalry type of thing.
The irony of someone telling Mercy 'Overachiever' Jackson to take a break.
The Lightspeed Delta Morphers are finished.
Despite the teleporter working they won't be able to get them across the galaxy to Earth, the only people with that much raw magical power are Lord Zedd and Zebidiah, Ninjor or Dulcea could maybe have done it but they're dead and Kay is nowhere near ready for that kind of jump, he couldn't even power up an Empire teleportation gate without it misfiring.
Zebidiah's condition is basically stable but subject to change as they're trying to bring him back.
Charlie is still wanted for literal crimes against humanity.
Kay is trying to learn the trick Carnifex pulled off and use Acheron magic to make something rather than destroy, all I'll say is that Kay said they felt like something was changing with them….And their magic is more focused when they Morph.
Kay is an absolute dork and of course that was how Panthera tried to motivate them.
And now that tender moment has ended, let's get back to the nightmarish shit.
Bringing back Goldar is being described as the key to a decisive victory, but it won't be in the way you think.
Let's be honest that's exactly what you want an alien Necromancer to look like.
Goldar is back baby...for his new look I took aspects of classic Goldar, 2017 Movie Goldar and Beast Morphers 'Goldar Maximus' and added my own flavour to it.
And immediately Lord Zedd starts with the manipulations and gaslighting, playing with Goldar's pride and making him feel as though it was his fault that the villains were defeated and at the same time giving him a new Green Ranger who's also a traitor to hate; because Goldar and Tommy really should have gotten some closure.
Unnamed character = red-shirt.
Come on you knew where this was going the second you saw that things could be teleported to anywhere in the base.
And here we are, the Rangers and Project Lightspeed attacked Zedd's base on Unus; now it's payback time; now he's attacking their base in his territory and his forces have taken control of their teleporter because it was connected to the Empire's network.
….This is gonna be fun.
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