Power Rangers & All associated trademarks are property of Hasbro

I claim no ownership of anything except my own original characters.

I am making no money from this.

Chapter 71 – The Vanishing

They had escaped and that was a victory, though to those who had fled the resistance base stormed by Empire forces it felt like nothing of the sort.

A little more than a dozen ships had escaped from the besieged base and although there were larger vessels capable of carrying several hundred passengers apiece among that number more still were smaller, personal crafts intended to be piloted and crewed by no more than a handful of people, meaning that those who had evacuated had initially been fearful that there might not be space for everyone and that some of them may have to be abandoned and left to their fate; fortunately this had not happened however and the small flotilla of rebel-owned ships, paltry, ramshackle and entirely inadequate for any kind of combat as it was had been teleported away; using the Dark Empires' network of teleportation gates to vanish and materialise countless light-years away.

Naturally the first choice they had made was to split up.

It had been the most obvious and logical choice for Karone to make and the moment she and her allies had found themselves aboard the various spaceships still at their disposal she had sent encrypted messages out to each and every one of her cells and guerilla factions scattered across the Dark Empires' vast territory, hastily informing them of the loss of their central hub of organisation which would in turn prompt them to begin taking several precautionary measures including the changing of all codes and passwords used in both digital and face to face settings, countless thousands of insurgents would lay low for months or simply relocate themselves and their families and various raids, riots and other such activities would cease, only to be followed by sharp changes in their usual patterns intended to throw off any suspicions and mask trails and patterns that might incriminate people. Following that Karone had contacted every member of her faction with access to an Empire teleportation gate intended for space travel, those located in orbit around planets, moons, asteroid colonies and other space station or simply in the midst of shipping lanes so that warships could respond to pirate attacks and ordered them to prepare for her ragtag fleet of evacuees arrival; with the aid of Zhane and the pilot of her current ship the former tyrant had managed to create one final ploy, an act of misdirection that she hoped might save countless lives. With each gate her allies beyond the base had access to opening in near perfect tandem and in turn opening portals to other worlds and ports when Justin had finally begun the mass exodus of doomed base those dozen or so ships had begun a series of jumps from one location to the next, no two vessels making the same series of jumps or ending up in the same location and when each of them finally arrived at their end destination they would be in the presence of their fellow rebels and traitors who would move to hide and shelter them whilst the Empires' forces scrambled to respond to scores of false signals.

All whilst Karone and those with her made their escape.

She, Zhane, Billy, Cestria and Justin had found themselves aboard one of the smallest vessels in their motley fleet yet by far one of the fastest and most suited to the task of a hasty getaway, joined by both the pilot of the ship; a four armed alien smuggler named Lar'Zenn, a handful of injured rebels whom Cestria had insisted remain in her care and a considerably injured Charlie who had barely coherently warned her allies about the Aegis Rangers facing off against Goldar before passing out, currently she and Billy were being treated by Cestria who had set up a makeshift triage in the cargo hold of the ship whilst Justin, Karone and Zhane joined Lar'Zenn in the cramped cockpit of his ship, Karone fighting the urge to take the Captains' seat out of a sense of decorum; she did after all owe the pilot more than she could put into words.

"We have an incoming transmission" Zhane's voice, an exhausted but gentle murmur broke Karone from her musings and brought her back to the ever-increasing tension and sense of dread of the matter at hand

"Make damn sure it's secure before you answer it, we don't know what tricks the Empire might use" Lar'Zenn grumbled, the digits of all four arms drumming against the controls before them

"Tell me about it, I remember when they uploaded a living, mutating digital virus into the systems of the Aquabase" Justin murmured, choosing not to mention that the person responsible for uploading said virus was currently aboard the ship as the smuggler looked unsettled by the notion as it was.

"It's secure" Zhane assured her "It's the Rangers"

"Answer it" Karone nodded and a brief crackle of static the voice of Mercy Jackson, Red Aegis Ranger and the architect of the plan that had allowed them to escape with their lives filled the cockpit.

"It's done" she said without preamble "At least the first part of it….We've recovered Kay and Panthera and Goldar is gone; the Dragonzord made sure of that"

"But the base has not been destroyed yet" Karone noted

"We're in position and ready to fire" Mercy assured her "But the second we blow the base we're gonna lose comms and it's a long way to the next teleportation gate and even then we don't know if there's gonna be Empire forces waiting-"

"Mercy" Justin interrupted her softly "You can do it, none of us would be having this conversation right now if it wasn't for you. You can do anything you put your mind to"

"I know, with my team behind me I can do anything….Kay unlocked their Battleizer, I didn't even know Kay had a Battleizer" Mercy's initial tone of fierce confidence gave way to a bemused chuckle which she tried her best to stop from sounding bitter before adding "I just called to give you a status update before we have to go radio silent….You've got a head start and we don't know how much trouble we're gonna run into when we try and catch up….We all know what the risks are, I just wanted to say goodbye in case we don't get another chance"

"This isn't goodbye kid" Justin answered, swallowing the sudden lump in his throat "Not by a long shot, you catch up with us and when we get to Earth we're gonna hang out in Mariner Bay"

"Thanks" Mercy sniffed and swallowed thickly "You're on Lar'Zenn's ship….Is he okay, Panthera wants to know? And Tempestus-"

"We'll patch Tempestus through to his parents, they're not in the cockpit with us" Karone answered, sensing what the question would be though be before Zhane could do so Lar'Zenn himself made a quick interjection; trying to mask his genuine affection for the teens beneath a gruff and aloof scoff

"Well kid this ship of mine is definitely gonna be targeted by the Empire now….So if Panthera seriously wants then tell her I'll leave it a Smuggler Guild outpost somewhere for her to pick up, just as long as she doesn't bring up saving my skin too often" Mercy's laugher in response was cut short as he comms channel was transferred to the cargo hold, leaving the four people exchanging meaningful glances between themselves in the suddenly heavy silence

"They're going to something stupid, I can feel it" Justin noted, every syllable filled with tension

"The message did seem….Unusual" Zhane added

"You think they're compromised?" Lar'Zenn asked suddenly fearful

"I think they're running on adrenaline and considering doing something really reckless" Justin shot back

"I doesn't matter" Karone interrupted firmly before quickly correcting herself "I mean, obviously it does….but there's nothing we can do about it now; we can't make our way back to them in time and we have our own objective" with that she tapped the armoured briefcase that contained the LS Delta series Morphers.

And with that the ship continued towards the furthest edges of Empire space on a course for the Alliance where a new team of Rangers would be formed.

Mercy's mind buzzed with such feverish intensity that it felt as though the Hawk Zord were responding to her urgency, its' titanic form almost shuddering with its' pilots nervous anticipation as her own trepidation bled out into the neural controls.

With Goldar defeated, hopefully once and for all though it seemed that even death was an uncertain thing now, the Aegis Rangers had regrouped with Kay and Panthera first climbing into the cockpit of the Dragonzord whose animal fury had been quelled once the Green Ranger assumed direct control of it and then from there the Pink Ranger entered her own war-machine, the Sabre Zord coming to life with her presence and finally being able to move through the void of space under its' own power rather than be pulled and carried by the other mecha. From there the seven of them had made their way through the field of debris and ruined hulks of spaceships that had been pulled out into space by the Dragonzord's attack on one of the bases' hangars and located hollowed asteroid which contained the main power supply for the entire base. In typical Dark Empire fashion the technology was clunky and cumbersome, a mangled and forced melding of design principles and raw materials bastardised and stolen from a dozen or more cultures that the Empire had claimed, all of which had been optimised for simplicity and ease of installation and operation rather than safety or quality and the result was a ramshackle and volatile system that could be sent into a catastrophic cascade failure of all internal systems and a chain reaction of explosions that would ignite the very air within the base before tearing it apart from the inside.

Yet for a moment Mercy hesitated.

"We're ready when you are cousin" Kay's oddly melodic voice crackled through the comms, the exhaustion draining the usual chirpiness from the Green Ranger's tone bringing Mercy fully to her senses, though she did not open a video feed to their cockpit; she knew it was an entirely selfish thought and one that was utterly inconsequential in the face of the threat they struggled against but she had no desire at all to see Kay's new higher morphed state, the two of them were both the products of genetic manipulation intended to create a better Power Ranger and the knowledge that she'd been surpassed by the human Acheron hybrid stung no matter how much she tried to pretend otherwise. That was not what was important here however and Mercy quickly forced herself to think solely about what was; she and Kay were two of four Rangers who had moved into striking distance of the asteroid bases' main reactor, Tempestus and Marigold joining them whilst Rensa, Panthera and Aslaug hung back to avoid being caught in the blast that would soon come.

Yet still Mercy hesitated

"There's people on that base" she breathed out "Not our people….But still people"

"I understand" Kay mumbled quietly, showing just how much they had grown from the living weapon that Lord Zedd had first unleashed on Earth "It feels….dirty"

"It feels like murder" Mercy answered bluntly "Because that's what it is….This isn't defence, this is us going on the attack and that's not what being a Power Ranger is about"

"The best defence is a good offence" Kay offered

"Who taught you that?" Mercy muttered, trying to sound irritable rather than simply bemused

"Television" Kay answered "But it is right….If we don't do this then the Empire will use the information and the technology from Billy and Justin's teleporter to kill people; that's not a guess or a hypothesis it's a fact and you know it. So attack to defend"

"You're right" Mercy finally breathed before opening comms channels to the rest of her team and forcing her voice to sound more resolute than she felt "Open fire!"

And at those words the Hawk, Plesion, Winged Lion and Dragonzord unleashed every weapon in their combined arsenal in a concerted and destructive effort before finally retreating back as the bases' now heavily damaged reactor detonated, resulting in an explosion of white hot flames that vanished into the darkness of the void, scores of secondary explosions following it and tearing the entire base asunder; the tunnels and roads that had been constructed between each individual asteroid glowing with the light of the apocalyptic firestorm a split second before they were destroyed in turn. None of the seven Rangers saw the final blast, the four of them that had unleashed the hellish barrage had swiftly turned their Zords away in order to retreat and even those who had been at a safe distance averted their eyes out of pure instinct; though what none of them saw each of them felt as whilst a shock-wave could not damage the Zords in the vacuum of space massive amounts of debris and rubble ricocheted off of the hulls of each war machine until finally the carnage subsided and the silence of the void seemed all the more absolute.

It was Tempestus that broke it

"We should go" he noted solemnly, clearly regarding the space that the base had occupied as the graveyard that it now was "We should find a safe route to rejoin Karone and the others"

"And get the hell out of the Empire" Marigold chimed in, voice wavering with sudden elation at the thought "It's time to go home-"

"I'm not done here" Mercy's words cut through the building sense of relief and homesickness and destroyed any feelings that this had been other than a total and complete failure and a massive sacrifice on their part. Almost naturally it was Aslaug who asked the obvious question first

"What are you planning?"

"The Zords are too recognisable, if we try and make a run for Karone we're gonna be spotted. Empire scanners or patrols will pick us up before we get anywhere near a gate that a rebel cell controls and even then do you guys know which gates are safe and who all of Karone's contacts are?" Mercy let the words hang in the air for a moment, allowing their apparent lack of hope sink in before adding "So instead I'm gonna go the other way, I'm gonna fly deeper into Empire space and target anything that will get their attention; the Zords are recognisable, a random pirate ship on the edge of Empire space isn't and I'd rather create a distraction to make sure that those Morphers get to Earth safely….You're right Kay, we've gotta attack to defend"

"This isn't exactly what I had in mind" Kay noted, their tone giving the idea that they were shuffling uncomfortably in their cockpit

"It's crazy is what it is, it's a suicide mission"

"But there are things more important than us and it makes sense" Rensa countered, the conviction in the quiet boys' voice catching his fellow Rangers off guard and allowing Mercy to take advantage of the momentary silence

"I'm not asking you to come with me" she said simply, forcing herself not to betray any of the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her if given license "If anybody wants to try and make a break for it and catch up with Karone's ship like we planned to….I won't judge you and I wish you the best of luck, but I joined this rebellion to help bring down the Empire; I think our best chance at that is to hit them in a way that they can't ignore so that's what I'm gonna do" there was a moment of silence so total that it was profound, a heavy and almost palpable tension filling the cockpit of each Zord where the faint crackling of their comms could have been mistaken for the charged atmosphere between them as each Ranger waited for another to make the first move.

"Where you lead I follow….and I love you too much to let you do this alone" Aslaug's words were delivered with such earnest simplicity that Mercy could find no reply and simply allowed tears to roll down her cheeks beneath her helmet

"Lord Zedd made me to wage a war" Kay chuckled darkly "Let's go and show him what he made"

"Well I someone with some experience is gonna have to get you out of this mess, I'm in" Panthera sighed

"I've known my duty was to be a Power Ranger since I was a child" Tempestus murmured "I won't pretend that I'm not scared, but I won't abandon my duty or my friends"

"I'm with you" Rensa said simply, his reasoning having already been explained

"Home-" Marigold sighed and braced herself "Home can wait, this is the right thing to do"

"I love you guys, I really do you know that right?" Mercy forced out through tears caused by love combined with sheer overwhelmed exhaustion pushing her beyond her limits and with those words the seven Rangers set off, heading deeper in the Darker Empire to wage a campaign against Lord Zedd on their own.

And with her team behind her Mercy felt as though she could face anything, even Lord Zedd himself.

Far from the borders of the Dark Empire and the untold horrors and chaos taking place within its' vast domain at any given moment plans were also being made by others with less nefarious or belligerent goals.

Around the planet Earth, home of more teams of Power Rangers than any world in the known galaxy and a core, founding member of the Alliance of worlds was a ring of enormous colony ships, each capable of housing and providing for the population of an entire major city or equivalent sized gathering of people. Amongst these colonies were enormous orbital defence platforms, armed with terrifying weapons batteries capable of obliterating all but the most massive on assaults against the world, each platform housing a military force of its' own including hundreds if not thousands of smaller fighter craft as well as the facilities to refuel and resupply the massive warships that bolstered Earths' defences. Others were colonies that had been kept empty and on stand by for an event that would hopefully never come, a potential evacuation of Earth in the event that the world fell whilst many others were currently habited and were acting as industrial hubs, ports and research centres with universities that welcomed students from all across the galaxy.

Amongst the latter group was Promethea One.

Within the massive Promethea facility aboard the city sized colony ship which had become the effective heart and base of operations of the revolutionary company, a site which was associated and connected with both the local university and also Project Lightspeed to such an extent that it housed the Command Centre that the Aegis Rangers had operated from Professor Grace Sterling was taking a momentary break from the task that had vexed her for far too long now.

"Angela does know her robotics, I'll grant her that" the ageing and silver haired woman whose customary brightly coloured and sharply tailored power suit was currently hidden beneath a pristine lab-coat murmured to the empty laboratory, or perhaps the empty vessel that lay motionless before her on a table that was a combination medical slab and advanced fabrication system that would likely appear frightening to any outsider that looked upon it.

The empty vessel was Zebidiah's new body.

Or at least, Grace hoped it would be and that their attempts to return the former Lord Zedd to the land of the living would be successful, she had missed his company after all.

The body was of course humanoid in build and had thoughtfully been made to the same specifications and dimensions as the sorcerers' own flesh and blood body; with Grace enlisting the aid of both Project Lightspeeds' own Professor Rawlings, formerly Fairweather who had made functioning robotic automatons on at least one occasion and Andrew Hartford, an inventor whose abilities had been of great service and had resulted in a robotic body that outwardly appeared impressively lifelike.

If one ignored the visible mechanical workings of course.

The machines' head was intact and had been sculpted to resemble Zebidiah's face, though perhaps appearing a few years younger and more stylishly groomed than he had been known for; the internal workings of the cranium were covered by a layer of artificial skin though this final outer layer had not yet been added to the entirety of the robot and instead the torso and arms of the thing were laid bare to expose a skeletal superstructure and metallic armoured plates, each of said plates being etched and engraved with countless intricate runes and wards courtesy of a plethora of Triforian and Liarian mages who had leant the mastery of the arcane arts to the task of reviving Zebidiah, Grace openly admitted that she had no understanding of such disciplines but found herself with a quiet sense of assurance that the minds who had dedicated themselves to the problem were more than capable of solving it; even if she didn't have Billy Cranston here. Her thoughts were interrupted by her personal cell phone ringing, the private line that board members of her companies and other such people were not privy to. Grace hesitated for a moment, wondering who exactly would be contacting her in such a way; the private line was largely only used for emergencies at this point in her life though Mission Control was under the command the Aquitian Corcus at the moment and he would likely contact her through other means, not that there were any current threats that would require them to work in concert; Promethea Ones' Command Centre was currently doing nothing more drastic than monitoring some interplanetary criminals that would act as a proving ground for the Lightspeed Delta Rangers, eventually Grace snapped out of her dazed confusion that was clearly the product of too many long work days and simply answered the phone.

It was the head doctor of the team responsible for monitoring Zebidiah.

"Miss Sterling" the voice began and Grace was too taken aback by the sudden anxiousness of their tone to bother correcting them and have them use her title "We just had a massive spike in activity from the patient"

"Spike in activity?" Grace repeated "Be more specific, I need details"

"His body hasn't changed, it's in the same state of….self induced suspended animation?" the doctor almost questioned before continuing "But his brain activity, it was above normal functioning levels and the wizards we have on staff….well they don't know exactly what he's doing but there's ice on the walls and clouds forming above him so-"

"I understand" Grace interrupted, truthfully knowing that she did nothing of the sort but that wasn't entirely relevant at the moment.

"You do?" the doctor seemed almost hopeful"
"Have the mages on your staff do anything and everything they can think of to maintain that brain activity and have word sent to Doctor Fairweather, Doctor Hartman our friends from Liaria and Triforia….and prepare an operating theatre immediately"

"O-okay" with that the line went dead and Grace was satisfied that her instructions would be followed, quickly she turned her attention towards the empty vessel before her and decided that whilst it wasn't complete it would have to do; entering a series of commands into control panels and terminals around her to activate a series of robotic drones that would carry the tools and equipment she would need for the task at hand.

"I'll be seeing you soon my friend" she beamed as she marched towards the medical facilities, in her mind the outcome was certain and Zebidiah Lord would soon be amongst them once again.

The void of space was vast, dark and largely empty; a perfect environment to be left alone with ones' thoughts even if those thoughts were unwelcome, a predicament that Mercy Jackson, Red Aegis Ranger was becoming uncomfortably familiar with as what had started as a valiant charge petered out into something more akin to idle and aimless wandering, an odd sight to see from behemoth war machines such as the Zords.

She was beginning to think that she had miscalculated.

In her mind the plan had been simple, she would leave and perform a solo mission in order to buy time for Karone, Billy, Justin and those with them to escape Empire space using herself as bait and any consequences that followed from that choice would be worth it in her mind; then her friends had chosen to make her personal crusade their own and now Mercy found herself wondering what exactly she was going to do. For their plan to make any difference at all their target would have to be something so large that an assault against it would be huge, something that Lord Zedd's forces could not hope to ignore or overlook in favour of a larger prize; the struggle with applying that obvious truth however lay in the fact that where Karone had established her base of operations was an irrelevant and disregarded corner of the enemies' domain and no such targets were readily available and finding any Empire settlements of such importance would involve travelling further than the seven of them could hope to accomplish without stopping for food, water and rest, a necessity that Mercy had not considered in her haste.

She was dragged from her steadily more distressed introspection by the sound of the Hawk Zords' comms opening, the dull crackling startlingly loud in the silence though Mercy found the interruption welcoming, doubly so when she saw that it was Aslaug who was contacting her. Opening a video feed she saw that her partner was still morphed but had removed her helmet, a condition which quickly mimicked by removing her own helmet and treating Aslaug to a weak smile, the most she could manage at the moment while the Yellow Ranger herself simply scrutinised her lover, partner and leader intently, deep concern showing plainly in icy blue eyes that were, as always made all the more prominent by the band of dark ink surrounding them.

"I'm worried about you" she said without preamble, taking Mercy aback and catching her off-guard with frankness that made finding a witty or blasé reply impossible and so instead the Red Ranger simply ran her hand through loose curls that had grown out whilst letting out a sigh before answering honestly

"I'm worried about all of us….whatever we do to the Empire-"

"I'm not worried about the mission, about raiding" Aslaug murmured, shaking her head slowly before meeting through the eyes and giving Mercy a swooping feeling in her stomach at the feeling of the larger woman staring into her soul even through the screen "I'm worried about you….the others might not have noticed how you reacted to Kay becoming stronger. I'm not stupid Mercy and I'd like to think I know you….so talk, tell me what troubles you" there was a pleading insistence there, along with an undercurrent of accusation that hurt Mercy to hear and her deep brown eyes darted around for a moment, looking anywhere but at Aslaug before she finally ground out an answer

"It's dumb….I'm being jealous and selfish and putting myself-"

"I highly doubt that but until you talk to me I can't tell you why you're wrong" Aslaug noted, an amused edge to her low voice that made Mercy want to bury herself in her lovers' chest.

"Okay fine….I think Kay might be a better choice for leader than me, a better Red Ranger" she let that statement hang in the air for a moment before a sudden urge to continue overwhelmed her, a bursting of floodgates that compelled her to speak "I mean we're two sides of the same coin right, we were both literally made to be Rangers….so why do I feel like I'm being outclassed at every turn? The fact that they have a Battleizer mode now even though they never even had a Battleizer made for them just seals it….they can do magic that saves people, they literally have Empire strategies and stuff hardwired into their brain….I stayed in Empire space when there was a chance to leave because I felt like we could achieve something, you all stayed with me but I can't help but feel….I don't know maybe I should have given up my spot and told you all to follow someone else"

"Kay is certainly powerful" Aslaug noted, speaking slowly and choosing her words carefully after taking several moments to consider her response "They were made to be powerful and they grow and learn quickly….but they were made to be strong because you are strong Mercy, Kay was an answer to you because you're an amazing Power Ranger and even our enemies can see it….You think I would abandon my father and my people to follow just anyone?"

"I love you, you know that right?" Mercy sniffed, tears rolling down her cheeks once again "I love you so much….damn it I'm gonna learn to hate being stuck in this cockpit, I wish you were here"

"Even though you wanted to do this alone?" Aslaug asked, the accusatory tone returning to her voice as it dropped to a whisper "Where you lead I follow Mercy, because I love you to"

"Not if following me means I lose you" Mercy countered "I lost….We lost Kimberley, Zen-Aku and I know we didn't know Rocky for long but he was a Ranger….I don't know what I'm doing Aslaug, I don't have a plan here and I can't let my failures be the reason I lose you"

"Then don't" Aslaug whispered, her own voice suddenly cracking and revealing that she was just as close to her limits as Mercy; her years of experience of tribal warfare simply allowing her to keep her composure a while longer "Don't fail, don't lose me, don't lose any of us….We're with you to the end because we believe in you, we've seen with our own eyes how far you will go to do what's right, what's needed. Mercy, Karone would have sacrificed herself and possibly everyone on the base if it weren't for your plan" the silence between them was almost a palpable thing, yet suddenly it was not the tense and oppressive thing that it had been and instead was simply a dull ache, a longing that was physically painful for Mercy as she wanted nothing more than to lose herself in Aslaug's touch.

A distraction came in the form of another comm channel being opened and Mercy quickly wiped her eyes and composed herself as best she could, seeing that the incoming transmission was from Kay she found herself being ashamed and somewhat appalled at the jealousy towards her team-mate that her need to succeed had manifested itself as and forced the weak and now watery smile back into place as she opened a video channel to the cockpit of the Dragonzord where she was promptly greeted by the sight of Kay who had de-morphed which Mercy was quietly grateful for and had seemingly also lowered or entirely disabled the gravity in their cockpit, allowing them to float freely in a comfortable position

"Cousin, Panthera and I were talking….she may have an idea for how best to strike at the Empire but I wanted to ask you first before we do anything" Mercy's gaze shifted to Aslaug's face, still visible on the digital viewscreen of her cockpit and giving her a silent but knowing look upon hearing the way Kay deferred to the Red Ranger

"Go ahead, I'm listening" Mercy answered simply, hoping for anything that she could use to keep her friends' loyalty to her from being in vain.

"Panthera says that there are members of the Smuggler Guild who operated in Empire space and even though the Empire has purged pirates from its' territory there might be a friendly ear listening on an encrypted comm channel somewhere nearby….Karone wasn't the only one working against Lord Zedd or who had allies. She thinks that she might be able to find the location of the nearest Empire teleportation gate that way, one in their shipping lanes"

"Do you know how one works?" Mercy asked, the first hesitant flickers of hope beginning to fan themselves into something greater

"No and I'm not ready to risk using my magic for that again" Kay answered honestly "But Tempestus could help….Or we could just follow an Empire ship through"

"I like this idea" Mercy nodded expression becoming steely and determined "Tell Panthera to try and reach her people"

"I will" Kay nodded

"And where would you have us attack?" Aslaug asked curiously

"The idea was to draw attention as far away from where Karone and the others are gonna be as we can right?" Mercy's face morphed into a fierce smile as she gave her answer "We're gonna finish what Tommy Oliver started and hit Acheron itself"

The vast aura of shadows that surrounded Lord Zedd's throne like a blanket of tangible, physical darkness receded; rushing away from the throne and the dais it stood upon like a tide returning to the sea to reveal the armoured warlord and supreme leader of the Dark Empire himself who had risen from the throne and was now standing at his full, towering height with the visor of his mask glowing with terrible light as he stared down at his subject. Canis had returned from her mission, noticeably empty-handed and had presented herself before him bloodied and wounded with her attempt to show proper servile humility and bow before him resulting in her crumpling in a trembling heap on the ground as her bod refused to support its' own weight.

Such displays of weakness earned no sympathy from the supreme leader of the Dark Empire

"Report" Lord Zedd said simply, the rumbling bass note of his voice travelling the ground and leaving Canis with her ears pinned back against her skull as a pained whine escaped her, rather than risk defying the tyrant before her, clad in armour made of bladed metal plates and decorated with the skulls of enormous apex predators and subjecting herself to his horrifying wrath the former pirate dragged herself into a kneeling position, arm and shoulder that were yet to be treated for their injuries feeling as though they were being set alight with every motion before she spoke, her words delivered through teeth that were gritted in pain.

"The mission was a partial success my Lord" she had taken care to learn what she could of what had occurred following her departure from the rebel base, double checking every detail before appearing before Lord Zedd; the communications logs between the leaders of various squads that had been stranded in the bases' final moments had been most enlightening.

"Only partial?" Lord Zedd growled, the first notes of his ire making themselves known "Explain yourself"

"I was unable to retrieve any information regarding the rebels smaller cells or future plans….their Command Centre was too hard to breach and defended by Karone herself along with another Power Ranger" Canis spoke quickly, getting her failures out of the way before delivering news that she hoped would be more palatable to Lord Zedd and taking care to present it in a way that absolved her of any blame "The rebels managed to retake control of their teleportation system and stage a mass evacuation before detonating their base….I had to escape immediately to alert any further incoming waves of troops not to try and teleport to our location….It seems that the rebels also had plants within your teleportation gate network, a series of unscheduled activations masked the rebels movements though it seems most likely that Karone is in full retreat; effort to find the spies and traitors that aided her have-"

"Enough" she fell silent at the single word from Lord Zedd and found herself overcome by simple, base fear as a low rumbling chuckle escaped the warlord

"A pity" he continued "Karone's Morpher and skull would make fine additions to my trophy collection however with the pirates forced back and now the rebels in disarray my armadas can begin focusing on the true enemy….I have you to thank Canis, without you Goldar would not have been returned to life and I would not be able to enact my plans"

"My Lord" Canis's voice cracked, the words almost unwilling to leave her "There were no other survivors….Goldar is gone"

"Exactly as planned" Lord Zedd replied without hesitation "Goldar himself was never the real goal of your mission to Furrous….his death would be necessary in any event"

"I-I don't understand" Canis admitted, utterly lost by the sudden leap in her masters' apparent thought process, yet grateful that it seemed she would be allowed to live.

"I would not expect you to" the tyrant replied with no small amount of derision before explaining and clearly taking great pleasure in doing so, a living and thinking audience was far more receptive than Putties after all

"The people of Furrous use relics like the one that was in your position in order to return to their hidden home-world, Goldar had one such relic yet he never used it for its' intended purpose….Goldar created his own pocket dimension, his dark dimension wherein he was supreme; likely a variation of the magic which hid Furrous in the first place. The dark dimension was tied to Goldar's willpower and very soul, a soul and a magical essence which were merged with my own when he was restored"

"Meaning that you can control his dark dimension?" Canis spoke slowly, trying to see Lord Zedd's end goal "So you can hide Acheron now? Hide your ships….they already have cloaking fields"

"You think far too small" the tyrant chided "The dark dimension allowed Goldar to return to Furrous, or to my mothers' side from anywhere in the galaxy" Canis's eyes widened as suddenly comprehension dawned on her.

"Goldar could enter his pocket dimension from anywhere in the galaxy and use it to strike at an opponent anywhere he desired, bypassing the need for teleportation gates entirely and now that tool is in my arsenal, bolstered by my own power" Lord Zedd's voice turned savage and his eyes blazed with crimson light as power radiated outwards from him, the warlord being so overcome with his own vision that he failed to notice Canis backing steadily away from him in abject terror.

"HAVE MY FLEET ASSEMBLED, HAVE MY WARRIORS GATHERED AND PUTTIES MADE BY THE THOUSAND!" Lord Zedd roared in triumph with such unrestrained fervour that the air crackled around him "IT'S TIME TO STRIKE AT THE HEART OF THE ALLIANCE AND DESTROY MY ENEMIES ONCE AND FOR ALL….IT'S TIME TO CONQUER EARTH!"

Author's Notes:

I told you. I told all of you.
And if you think things look crazy now….just remember there's two arcs left.
If you an idea of how action packed things are gonna get, the final two arcs are going to be set over the course of less than a day between them both.
Also WE HIT 100,000 VIEWS ON FF NET

But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
So the good guys made it out….but absolutely not in one piece.
Karone has been a guerilla and has been on the receiving end of guerilla tactics, she knows the benefits and importance of having well connected people in place and she knows how to play the game.
Charlie made it out, she's alive and being patched up with Billy.
Lar'Zenn, the same smuggler that Panthera was talking to a few chapters ago.
So the Rangers are gonna go radio silent again without the base, just like they were when they were stranded on Mercator because the base was a communications hub, just like the comms tower that they attacked with Rocky.
To be honest you should have know something was up the second Mercy started saying goodbyes.
Lar'Zenn offering to leave Panthera a ship….she's wanted a ship of her own since "The Claw" was destroyed in literally the first arc.
So Karone and co are heading out of Empire space to get those Morphers to Earth meaning that for at least the next arc the Aegis Rangers are gonna have no Mission Control, they're on their own again.
Empire tech is held together with duct tape and blood sacrifices.
The first cracks starting to show with Mercy there….although can you blame her really? She was literally made to do one thing and she thinks she might not even be the best at it.
Mercy is not and never will be onboard with outright murder but these are enemy combatants.
I'm sorry but I've been watching Cobra Kai (And I've got the iconic Johnny Lawrence red leather jacket on order) and the idea of Kay quoting that "Strike hard, strike fast, no mercy" stuff whilst being bubbly as hell made me chuckle.
And the base is gone.
Mercy is absolutely making an emotional decision here, but at the same time her logic does make a lot of sense….the Dragonzord is gonna draw attention, so why not draw that attention somewhere else.
Was there ever any doubt that the Aegis Rangers would go as a team?
A little recap of just how well protected Earth is at this point, the planet literally has rings of orbital guns and colony ships and a fleet on standby at all times….This will be important later.
Zebidiah's body is ready to go.
Angela Fairweather, the inventor from Operation Overdrive and Triforian and Liarian mages….honestly it was just a collection of Easter Eggs, I won't be adding anything from Overdrive in the final two arcs; but I have got some other fun characters coming back so get ready for that.
Corcus already has a job lined up for the Lightspeed Delta team.
Zebidiah's mind had a spike in activity….which we know was caused by him interacting with Kay in the astral plane; but they don't.
Yeah things like food and supplies aren't really things that Power Rangers normally need to consider, they act as a rapid response or strike team; they're not usually involved in extended engagements.
The Zords being recognisable is something Mercy is relying on but at the same time it means she can't just land somewhere.
Aslaug just dropping all the hard truths.
Can you blame Mercy for those doubts?
But Aslaug makes a good point, Kay was literally made to be a counter for Mercy; Kay is capable because Mercy is capable.
And of course the moment is interrupted by Kay floating around their cockpit with the gravity off.
Panthera is an ex smuggler, she might not have Karone's experience, but she has her own contacts; we've seen her use them before.
Mercy's thinking big now, a hit on the heart of the Empire.
Of course Canis showed up still bleeding and battered, you've gotta make your bullshit look convincing.
Notice how Canis said the rebels took back control of the teleporters, except that didn't and couldn't happen until after she'd left; she twisted the facts to suit herself and explain the fact that she ran for the hills.
"Goldar himself was never the real goal of your mission to Furrous….his death would be necessary in any event"….Seriously did you really think Goldar was the plan? Goldar?
Goldar was a means to an end, access to the Dark Dimension was an end.
Lord Zedd has moved the pirates out of Empire space and pushed Karone's rebels onto the defensive after destroying their central hub and command….meaning that when he drops and entire fleet into Earths' orbit, when the Empire doesn't have access to that kind of technology, there's going to be no warning and no chance to react.
Also yeah I had to end it with "IT'S TIME TO CONQUER EARTH!" because of course I did.

Thank you to SkyWaterPlanet for their review on the last chapter.
I'm glad you found and enjoyed the story thus far.
Yeah tying the mythos into something more coherent was one of the original goals of the story when I started realising that some of the titbits ideas that canon has given us could be really interesting if they were expanded on.
Power Rangers is and always has been rooted in teamwork and the diversity so LGBT+ Rangers are a natural choice.
Well Rensa is humanoid, he's no more alien looking that the Aquitians are he just moves like something out of a horror film because he can scurry across walls and his joints have more range of motion….Also he has a poison bite but that rarely comes up.

As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review