With the shock lifted once they were inside the school, gathered again in a large room perhaps used for meditation practices, the various members of the group took positions around the room. The Renegades were ended up split between a few groups, all close but apart enough to be distinct. Against one wall Kendall sat beside Tyler who had carried Albert inside; the red had been unwilling to let him go, and there was no one who was willing to take the body from him even between his parents. His team was by his side along with his mother, her arm wrapped around his shoulders comfortingly, and of those who had met Albert, known him for even the tiny amount of time they had, not a single one looked any more happy than their red.
The awakened made up their own group, and with them were a small number. Heckyl and Andros both refused to leave Karone's side, though looks between the two were exchanged. Trent refused to leave his father alone, sitting with his head down in some state of deep thought as they stayed beside the others. And resting against a wall Tsuki sat, her eyes closed as everyone sat down and settled, as voices murmured all in preparation for what was to come. To her left was Billy, seeming conflicted between the act of checking her pulse and just staring at her in confusion. Her other side was empty and when his eyes fell over it there was something else to Billy's gaze that made him look darker.
The rest were all in their own group, sitting in various points but still close enough to count as one. And there sat Tommy, his gaze set on Anton, on Karone, on Albert, on anyone notably but the one person expected of him. This Zedd took note of but said nothing, settling to watch as everyone shuffled in and took spots. He saw the rest of the Mystic team there, Nick and Udonna trying to get some information from Chip and Vida about what had happened, why everyone was there and who the strange trio who glowed with morphing energy were. Jarrod, Camille, Fran and Master Finn were scattered within the group. All in all a massive collection of many voices, murmuring, muttering, questioning.
One rose, clearing their throat, and Abby was standing, staying close to her son, never leaving him. But she had been the one to raise the questions before and even with some moments to settle and think, it was clear they were still on her mind.
"Tsuki," she spoke clearly and slow, the tone of a mother trying to coax a child to tell her the truth without sounding angry, more scared than anything, "Please...what is going on?"
"Where would you like us to start?" Tsuki responded and there was a matching softness to her voice; Abby recognized it still as the woman she had known for years, who had babysat Tyler, who had stood by the Power Rangers multiple times yet there was something different, and familiar that tugged at her.
"Heckyl," Andros spoke up and he looked at the blue haired man, "How does Heckyl know my sister?"
"At the beginning then," said the man in question and he turned to Karone, seeming to share some thought through their eyes that ended in Heckyl sighing and sitting back, looking up at the high ceiling of the massive room.
"I know her because I met her what feels somewhat like a lifetime ago, back when I was allied to the United Alliance of Evil and was at the height of my status as an outlaw across the stars, destroying planets in my search for ten very special crystals."
"You were evil?!" Shelby exclaimed.
"You're after the Energems?!" Riley said at the same time.
Abby threw them both a look and Keeper put up a hand, causing both teenagers to settle back down. But murmurs erupted again and Andros stared at Karone who simply continued to watch Heckyl silently. Content it seemed to let him tell the tale.
Heckyl smirked lightly. "I am evil, dear Shelby. I've been evil for...longer than I can really remember; I've killed people, destroyed homes, brought ruin upon entire galaxies with nary a care to the pain and suffering that I caused. And yes, it was in pursuit of the Energems, the same gems that you and your teammates are now bonded to. To that end I went to Dark Specter, to give him my aid in exchange for his in finding clues to the location of the elusive crystals that had apparently been on this insignificant little ball of dirt all along. I never officially joined, more assisted and acted as part of his many allies, but I did work with the UAE and that...that was where I met Astronema." His tone changed from that of someone cocky, a villain's voice, to something softer, something warmer. "She was of course Dark Specter's heir apparent, a brilliant and powerful warrior who commanded respect; at first when I was introduced to her I simply thought of her as a potentially useful ally, more intelligent than the usual irritations in the Alliance and dare I say more beautiful than any other I knew. But it did not take long for my opinions and thoughts of her to change to something more."
"There always were rumors about you," Zedd spoke up and the ex-emperor of evil shook his head, "The way Astronema favored you, and how Ecliptor clearly did not, a fool without eyes could see that there was something dangerous going on."
"Ecliptor never did approve of how I felt about Heckyl," Karone said and her brother said her name softly only for her to smile, "I always thought Heckyl fascinating compared to all the other members of the Alliance; he wasn't corny like many of you, or just generally irritating. And he certainly was easier to look at than Divatox's creepy nephew. There were so few people within the group who I actually thought of as being worth my time and living the way I did, I didn't exactly get much of a chance to make any friends anyway. That would be a weakness, as was allowing myself to get close to the charming outlaw with the golden tongue who always called me his pretty princess."
Heckyl seemed unable to resist a smile at that and took her hand in his, laying a light kiss on her knuckles. The act of chivalry was sweet if not still strange and Abby cleared his throat again, recognizing that the two seemed to be slowly falling back into something from long ago. "So what happened? Because I get the feeling based on Andros' question you weren't around in the final battle when Zordon died."
"What happened was Ecliptor. As Astronema...Karone and I got close, her beloved protector became less and less trusting of me, and I'm certain he didn't trust me to begin with. And I will admit to some madness in the light of the situation, so when he gave me a map, saying that it would lead me to clues about the Energems, I believed him. I shouldn't have," Heckyl said and he squeezed Karone's hand, "I really shouldn't have. Sledge was waiting for me and he locked me up in a small dark cell, away from the light, away from the universe, and most importantly away from my Pretty Princess. I doubt Ecliptor ever told her the truth, I can't imagine how she felt when I just disappeared," her face was saddened but she didn't say a word, letting him go on, "But I know that I felt...angered. Anger over the betrayal, anger over my freedom being taken away, anger over having my quest stopped, anger over being forced away from Astronema. For a while all I could think about was escaping and getting back to her, being able to be by her side again...until the day of that final battle."
His tone turned cold and he glanced at Andros with a look akin to anger and pain. "Sledge came to my cell laughing and threw a newspaper at my feet. He just found it so funny, so amusing, to show me the news that the Alliance had fallen, the Power Rangers had won...and that my princess, my beautiful Astronema, was gone. He...he knew, he knew that she kept me going in the darkness, he knew that I cared for her perhaps more than I should have allowed myself to, and he laughed as I read the news and saw that she had been killed. By the Red Ranger of the Astro team, Andros of KO-35."
"But..." Zack piped up slowly, looking from the blue haired outlaw to the ex-princess of evil to said Red, "Karone's not dead..."
"We didn't let any of those not directly involved know the truth," Andros answered, his voice small, "The idea of what would happen if anyone found out the truth, that my sister Karone was Astronema, that we had been separated as children and she was raised to believe that her family was killed by the Power Rangers and thus had been molded into that dangerous warrior for darkness, I couldn't allow it. I couldn't let her be harmed when she had just gotten back to me again. So we held back the truth, we told them Astronema died and that was all. We never thought..."
"That there was a man locked up in a cage who would temporarily mad when he read that the one person he could remember actually showing him love was dead and gone?" Heckyl's tone was even and unaccusing but it still made Andros flinch as if cut. "I destroyed my cell in my grief, killed a bunch of his guards, they ended up moving me into another one with greater security. And when I finally calmed I just felt hollow, left with just my original purpose: the finding of the Energems. That's all that mattered anymore, that's all I could think of.
"So when Sledge brought me out of solitary confinement with the orders to go get the Energems from you, I was more than willing. The idea was that since I look human and I'm used to deceiving people I would be able to easily slip in with the rest of you, get my hands on the Energems you had and any information you had on the others, and bring them to Sledge. Though of course I was never actually planning on giving them to him, not after everything I've done to find them, the people I killed, the places I destroyed. Those Energems were mine and they were all that mattered."
"Until you realized Astronema wasn't gone," Billy said and he remembered how Heckyl had always seemed to be visiting the infirmary when not with RJ and the others, how he always seemed to want to be there. And how he had been so adamant about grabbing Karone. "How...How did you...?"
"It happened after RJ's first little training session with me and the new kids," Heckyl answered and shrugged to try and play it off, "I got injured, hit my head on the ground and he told me to go to the infirmary. I was admittedly annoyed about it, being dragged along to training, getting hurt. Then I went inside and I saw the sleeping trio and I just...froze. I couldn't believe it, I couldn't...understand how it was possible. Because I remember the day Sledge threw the news in my face but then she was. She might have looked slightly different than I remember, her natural hair quite pretty actually, and so much more peaceful than I remember but it was her, I knew it was her. I would recognize my princess anywhere, any time, and there she was, fast asleep, like some sort of fairy tale."
Karone had the decency to blush at his words and this made him chuckle in response, amused by her embarrassment. Andros sighed, running a hand through his hair. "So you were evil, fell for my sister when she was evil, got captured, were released then decided to help us because my sister was with us?"
"I think the more important thing here is that he is still evil and was sent by our enemies to steal the Energems," Hunter said and the navy Ranger stood up, frowning, "He never said he was actually on our side."
"That's because I'm not; I am evil and I'm still after the Energems." This seemed to only make Hunter annoyed and he took a step towards the other man, only for Phillip to move to get between them.
Hunter's eyes widened some in surprise then he tried to push past him, "Phillip, get out of the way."
"Calm yourself and sit down, Hunter," Phillip said sternly.
"He is an enemy of your team directly; he just admitted to planning on stealing your Energem. Who cares if he has some love story with a girl who once tried to kill her own brother? He's a bad guy and bad guys need to be dealt with."
"He is not my enemy and I will not let you harm him. Now sit down." The command of a royal seemed to have little effect on the ninja and Hunter look prepared to actually start something until he took note that Phillip was not the only one standing up now. Lyta was leaning on her crutches and standing by her brother's side with the kind of angry look only kids could summon up; behind them was Chase and Shelby, and though Tyler was still sitting with the body of Albert, his parents were watching Hunter carefully. Zack, Kendall, James, the ones who had come with him to Zandar were beside them as well and the tension could be cut with a knife, it was so thick. Even Andros had moved from beside his sister to stand with the others with a stiff and annoyed look
Abby in fact spoke, again with the mother's tone. "Hunter Bradley, it would be for the best if you sit down now."
Hunter stared at them incredulous. "You're going to protect him. He admits to being on the side of the monster who attacked our ship-"
"The same monster who locked him up and laughed as he grieved the loss of the woman he loved?" Trent interrupted, getting a glare from the navy ninja; this only made him smirk, especially as Hunter didn't immediately respond, "Yeah I thought so. And wait, remind me again who was it that twice betrayed the Ninja Storm Power Rangers?"
"I don't need to take that from a sociopath."
"You will not talk to my son like that," Anton spoke up, not quite yelling but his voice boomed with fatherly authority.
"Everyone," RJ piped up and stood, getting between the now glaring Hunter and everyone standing in his way; he put up his hands and gave a kind smile, "I think we're letting our emotions and the events of the last few hours get to us. I think we all need to take a deep breath, relax, maybe revisit the Heckyl situation another time."
"Heckyl is a threat!" Hunter exclaimed and voices murmured, more than a few that seemed to agree.
"If Heckyl's a threat then so am I and Merrick," Trent said then paused and shook his head, "No wait, I'm a bad example. Then Merrick is. And Tommy. And Leanbow. And Zedd. And every other person here who has been on the side of the baddies for one reason or another."
"I was the leader of my bad guys," Jarrod added in, "And Camille was my right hand woman," said woman smirked and gave a little wave.
RJ nodded and turned to Hunter. "And so are you Hunter. Being evil in the past doesn't mean that we're evil in the present."
"Except," Heckyl interjected, raising a hand, "I am evil."
"No you're not." The gentle denial was still jarring and Heckyl paused for a moment before frowning, "Y-yes I am."
"No you're not." Trent added his voice and having two people denying his right to decide what he was made the outlaw shake his head.
"Just because you don't want to believe that I'm evil-"
"You saved Lyta," Phillip said, making the count of deniers to three and Heckyl stared at him, "You didn't need to; the Gold Energem was already in the hands of the Renegades, you could have left him, an evil person would have left her. But you ran in while the rest of us were trying to think up what to do and you brought her and Fury out of the flames despite the effect it had on you."
Heckyl opened his mouth to argue, to try to play it in such a way that it was clear he was a monster, but the words wouldn't come. And he felt Karone squeeze his hand as Kendall added her two cents, "You have had many chances to take the Energems, you've been allowed inside my lab, you've spent time with plenty of the people who have the gems you're so intent upon getting your hands on. Yet you haven't taken any of them."
"You're not an evil soul, Heckyl," RJ continued and smiled, staring at him as if to see to the core of him, "I know that and I know you know that. You might want to say you're evil, that you're a bad guy, but that's just not true."
"You don't get to say that; you don't know anything about me," Heckyl said bristling some, "I've lied, to all of you, over and over. I have killed people, I have destroyed worlds, galaxies, all in search of the Energems. I. Am. Evil. Not a cuddly child like the rest of you. I'm no hero, I'm no good guy, I'm not like you and you need to understand that. So stop trying to dismiss what I am just because it doesn't fit your view of me."
Kendall looked to RJ and the man continued to smile, even as he walked over, even as he moved so he was right in front of Heckyl. And by instinct blue energy sparked to life at Heckyl's fingertips but the Pai Zhua didn't even flinch.
"Heckyl, do you know what an ocelot is?" The question was out of left field but maybe most of them didn't expect much different. "It's a medium sized wild cat of the Leopardus genus, known for it's beautiful spotted fur. It's territorial, carnivorous and prefers it's own company over others of its kind."
Heckyl frowned at him. "What..."
"They're no different than any other animal though and when it comes down to it it's not an inherently cruel animal. It will get along with other ocelots sometimes and it has been known to get along with humans too."
"RJ, you're making no sense," Heckyl told him.
RJ offered a hand. "I often don't. But an ocelot is what you are, Heckyl; that's your animal spirit, the core of your being. Not a wild wolf who prefers to stand with your kind like Merrick or Billy or Tsuki or I. Not a wild lion who hunts enemies and loves their family like Andros or Karone. Not even a snake that looks dangerous but actually isn't like one of you."
Anton gave him a look that seemed equal parts exasperated and irritated. The wolf master continued. "You can tell yourself you're evil but you can't change what's inside you. The ocelot that ran through the flames to save a child, the cat that struck at Fury for even approaching the one you love, the man who felt a pain no truly evil being would be able to feel when the news of what occurred long ago was brought before you. I may not know your past, and I may not know your actions, but I can see who you are Heckyl. You are not the evil one but I certainly invite you to try to prove me wrong; strike me down now, I will not fight you, I will not harm you. If you truly are as evil as you believe, then would you not take the opportunity to strike down a Power Ranger who is powerless before you?"
Heckyl's hand twitched and he told himself to do it. But the other side of him sneered that he even needed to do that; Snide taunted, of course the true monster found it disgraceful and a sign of weakness. Kill the idiot, growled Snide but Heckyl didn't move further; his neck burned, the tattoo shining bright and the monster continued. Fool! He's giving you an opening, take it! Kill him, kill them all, take the gem; that woman always distracted you, I was glad when I heard she died and I wish she stayed dead. Stop being such a weakling fool and kill the Power Rangers!
"I-I...don't want to. RJ's...my friend." The words surprised him too honestly but he thought of the way he'd hid the truth. Because after the fire he'd almost transformed, he knew he did, but RJ had protected him, and Snide hadn't won then. He didn't know how he knew but the wolf master always seemed to know and even as he took a step back, holding his neck and saw some watch him with concern and others with suspicion, RJ's gaze never changed. One of trust, one of belief. That repeated the words without sound "You are a hero, no matter what anyone says".
It echoed in Heckyl's mind even as he transformed and Snide drew his sword with a yell, attacking RJ who upheld his word. He did not fight Snide, nor did he have to; before the monster could even get to the master, he was grabbed and slammed to the ground, a familiar staff once more out and pressing on his chest. Karone was not morphed but the Wraith Staff was still held tight in her hand, eyes burning with hatred equal to the love with which she had looked up Heckyl.
"You mewling witch!" Snide snarled at her.
"Heartless parasite," Karone responded coldly.
"The only regret I had when we heard the news was that I wish I had been the one to kill you; you were nothing but a distraction from our real goal, a weakness that my pathetic other half-" He was cut off as Karone pushed the point of the staff deep against his throat, temporarily cutting off Snide's air supply. Her eyes were cold and for a moment it was almost like looking at the brainwashed Astronema again, a figure of pure darkness who only lived to destroy and rule.
"You couldn't kill me if you tried, Snide. Heckyl might have been able but I never trusted you one bit and I surely never would let a pathetic, weak, parasitic worm like you kill me. Now let Heckyl have back his body and go back to your slumber like the useless pest you are."
Snide struggled and based on appearance alone him being pinned like he was shouldn't have been possible: Snide looked like a monster and he was one too. But Karone seemed not to care and didn't budge, causing Zack to gulp and lean towards Chase, whispering, "Um am I the only one who finds Karone really attractive right now?"
"Well apparently she had a boyfriend so leave her be," Chase whispered in response, making the other Ranger sigh.
"I will not submit to a whore like you." Now Snide had two staffs on him as Zedd had somehow closed the space from his spot over by the Mystic Force team, all the way to across from Karone, and it was the Z of his own staff that was pointed at the monster. Skin mostly gone and covered head to foot in bandages the ex-emperor looked like quite the sight but the way he looked at Snide, the coldness in his eyes, gave Billy, Tommy and Abby a feeling of dread they hadn't felt in years. Not since they really had been teenagers.
"One, there are children present so be careful with what you say. Two, you will show her respect or you'll find out how it feels like to look like me," Zedd spoke and the Z glowed dimly.
"Zedd," Udonna said and approached the dark sorcerer, placing a hand on his arm gently, "He's not worth it..."
"If you hurt him you'll probably hurt Heckyl too," RJ said frowning.
Zedd looked from Udonna to RJ, never once lifting the staff, but after a moment gave a sigh. "You're right of course."
Snide growled and tried to move, despite Karone still holding him down with the minimal effort. Kira and a few others started to try to get up to help but Zedd muttered something under his breath and the staff glowed bright. Snide let out a scream and then lay still, causing a deep silence to fall over the group. Karone stared at the ex-emperor wide eyed and as Snide transformed back to Heckyl, she threw aside her Wraith Staff to lean down beside him. "Heckyl!"
"He's fine; I just knocked the other half out," Zedd said; he winced and blood started to stain his shirt.
Karone looked somewhat comforted by that but Udonna looked upset and grabbed Zedd by the arm, dragging him back to the other Mystic Force who immediately swarmed him in an attempt to check what damage he did to himself. RJ just shook his head and turned to the pink who had pulled Heckyl's head into her lap, stroking his hair gently. "I'm just glad that ended safely."
"Safely?" Hunter echoed and glancing at him, RJ could see the ninja shaking slightly, "He's a monster! Are we really just going to ignore that? He tried to kill you!"
"No, Snide tried to kill me," RJ said calmly, "Heckyl resisted; just because one side of a person is aggressive doesn't make the other side evil."
"He called himself evil, he admitted it."
"Hunter, if you were stuck with such a cruel soul growling in your ear for years and were made to believe the woman you loved was gone at the hands of the Power Rangers, would you really be able to believe you're a good person? Or even want to be?"
"That's why we're all here." Two voices in unison said this and Tommy looked at Tsuki for all of a second, their eyes meeting before he forced his gaze away. Her expression fell a little and Billy frowned with a dark expression.
The green took a deep breath and spoke, "One mistake, one misunderstanding, and we're all sitting here in this ancient school of martial arts, with the Emperor of Evil, the Princess of Darkness and Mesagog as our allies and Jason Lee Scott, Rocky deSanto and the Lightspeed Rescue team as our enemies."
"Speaking of Karone and Anton," Kira added and all eyes went to the two in person, of which only the latter seemed to pay any real mind to the stares.
"Those were Ranger forms weren't they," Tyler stated with some awe in his voice.
"They resembled the Dino Thunder and In Space suits, which I guess makes sense considering who we're dealing with," Tommy said and sighed lightly, "But not so much why they had those forms to begin with."
"Did something happen while you were sleeping?" Kira asked the closest one being Karone.
She didn't immediately look up but glanced at the Wraith Staff before shrugging. "I guess you could say that; I don't really know myself. I remember Anton and I knocking each other out and then floating about in my own mind and memories. Astronema was there and annoyed about being to sleep like I did but we've come to agreements before."
"Lucky you," Anton said with a light smirk, "I went to sleep and Mesagog immediately tried to kill me. That thing has no understanding of civility sometimes I swear. I ended up spending a lot of time trying to get him under control and truth be told I don't know how I managed to do so. For a long time I didn't even think I would able to win against him but I kept fighting. And when I heard all the commotion, and I heard Trent call out to me I just...I felt like I needed to wake up."
Only now did Tommy seem willing to actually look at Tsuki and more eyes followed him. The young woman was calm and collected, the blue Dino Gem popping into existence suddenly to float around her before she waved it off and it disappeared. Then she smiled. "You're all looking at the wrong person; I didn't do anything personally."
"Personally," the green echoed and she nodded.
"If you want an educated guess, I would say that Karone and Anton went through a similar sort of situation as you did when you went into a coma after the Black Dino Gem broke: the Morphing Grid kicked in to encourage a result where they would be able to become Power Rangers by empowering them through a confrontation with their dark selves. Karone only needed a little push in the dream since she already went through that when she became the Galaxy Pink but as for Anton, he never truly dealt with Mesagog one on one like that. And when the people they loved needed them and they were ready, they were forced awake, past the drug used to put them to sleep to start with, past the blocks they had tried to put up themselves, to where they were needed."
"Sounds pretty convenient."
"You're Power Rangers; when isn't there something convenient happening?"
"...Touche." She stuck her tongue out at him and he waved her off. "Still, that doesn't explain why you woke up too at the same time. You don't look to have become a Power Ranger."
"Well yeah, I'm not one. The Morphing Grid didn't choose me to be a Ranger; it choose me to act as it's conduit, like Shayla and Zordon more than RJ and you. I'm simply the point from which the Power flows now, like a living breathing Zeo Crystal, except not as useful. I only woke up because..." she trailed off and furrowed her brow before shaking her head. "Honestly I'm not too terribly certain of why either; I just felt like I needed to open my eyes."
"Is that so?"
Tsuki gave Tommy a glare and huffed at him. "Are you accusing me of lying or hiding something, Thomas Oliver? Because considering your past, I'd be really careful with accusations like that."
He had the common sense to look a little apologetic and sighed. "No, no, I wasn't..."
"Let's table the discussion of why for later," Abby said able to tell this could turn bad; she looked around at the collected forces, "I think we should discuss what we do now."
"The Megaship is in shambles," Hayley said, Andros looking depressed upon hearing that; his sister moved to hug him and Heckyl with a sigh patted the Astro Red's back carefully.
"I can't believe all our hard work had been made useless," Trent said grumbling, "If I get my hands on Sledge..."
"Revenge can wait; for now I think we need to bring the ship to ground," Hayley interrupted raising a hand, "If we want to do repairs again it will likely this time be safer while it's not moving rather than while it's still in space."
Andros nodded his agreement. "I should be able to do that much though I'm not too sure where we'll keep her; there's not exactly a lot of places it can hide..."
"You can bring it here of course," Camille said, causing eyes to turn to the ex-lieutenant who smiled in respond, "There's plenty of room here, the training grounds are pretty big after all. And no one would be able to find it here since we're hidden and protected."
"We already put up a masking barrier over the entire area so we're further hidden from anyone who wants to find us," Udonna said.
Hayley sighed in relief. "Thank you, we'd really appreciate it."
"So we're staying here in the temple for a while then?" Trent asked, "Cuz I have no complaints about that."
"It's probably the safest idea for us for the time being," Abby said, "Once the Megaship is again operative then we can return to our station above Earth but until then the Pai Zhua school with the Mystic Force's magic protecting it will be best. Plus we can help out here too."
A few murmurs sounded around the room; Hunter was sitting with a deep frown and Laura was talking to him softly. Abby realized that there were plenty of them who had never spoken up, nor moved to react to anything that had happened in the room; some watched Heckyl, Anton and Karone with something that even looked like suspicion. A slithering dread poured down her spine and she wondered whether this was going to lead anywhere, hoping it didn't, hoping that everyone would be able to get along for at least a while longer. But one Ranger had already spoken out and she knew it was only a matter of time before more did.
"Well with that settled, I think we've dealt with everything that immediately comes to mind; Andros will go get the Megaship and bring it down here, we'll be staying here for the time being," Hayley said clapping her hands once, "So for now we should move on to-"
"Um Hayley?" Kendall spoke and attention moved to her, "We actually need to deal with one other thing first."
Abby frowned and Hayley looked over at the ex-museum curator before speaking, "Oh? And that is...?"
"The Purple Energem isn't with Albert; I believe Fury or one of Sledge's mooks stole it while we were all distracted." The words left a bad taste in Kendall's mouth but a wave of doom over the rest of them. Abby moved to check, gently checking with her son to look over the corpse of their short-term ally. Kendall was right of course, she hadn't really expected any less but she had been hoping for it. The Purple Energem, any Energem, being in the hands of Sledge...
"We need to go get it back," she said trying not to sound terrified.
"How exactly do you plan on doing that?" Trent asked raising an eyebrow, "It's probably aboard Sledge's ship and we unfortunately do not have one to use right now to go invade his personal space."
"Well we definitely can't leave it in his hands," Kendall said frowning, "The idea of the destruction he could wrought with even one of the Energems..."
"But the problem is we have no way to get to him; even with teleportation abilities, which likely will require Tsuki to do anything, we can't just enter his ship, none of us have been inside nor do we have a coordinates to use like we do with the places on Earth we've visited," Billy said running a hand through his hair.
"I've been on his ship." The voice was somewhat shocking though far more so that it sounded far more resolute than a man who had gone through what he had should; they turned to look at Heckyl who sat up from his place beside Karone, and he continued, "I can get you aboard. I...will get you aboard. So let me help."