The teens continued to stare at the gate that stood before them a feeling of guilt and despair began to creep in. It had been their job to prevent this from happening and they had failed. They had failed Udonna and the human realm. Who knew what horrors the gate being here would unleash on the unsuspecting people of Briarwood and the rest of the world. No one even knew of the Mystic realm and what was hidden in the woods, how could they possibly handle this?
"I'm sorry rangers," Claire muttered breaking the silence around them.
"It wasn't your fault, Claire," said Maddie
"Look up at the gate," shouted Xander pointing. The others turned back to look.
As they watched a stone gargoyle on the top of the gate glowed before it jumped down and brandished its staff menacingly at them and fired knocking them to the ground.
Before they could get up Koragg was beside them and he grabbed Claire, yanking her to her feet.
"Claire," Novi called out reaching towards her.
"You won't get away this time and the gargoyle of the gates will take care of you," he told them.
Nick who had already made it to his feet lunged at Koragg trying to get Claire away from him but he bounced off Koragg's shield and Koragg used it to push him to the ground. Novi and the others now back on their feet rushed over to Nick and helped him up. Koragg used this distraction to create a seal behind him and Claire and the rangers could only watch helplessly as he and Claire sank into the seal and were gone.
They raced to where she had been but the giant Gargoyle stomped its foot right in front of them, knocking them to the ground. It fired at them again but they were able to jump out of the way by powering up to their Titan forms. Nick and Chip in unison kicked the creature and it stumbled back which gave them time to form the Megazord.
Mystic Spell Seal!" Nick called out and the Megazord leapt into the air and sent the seal at the Gargoyle but he vanished before they could strike and they were attacked from behind. They turned to strike again but it was gone and it reappeared behind them, striking them and they slammed into the gate. Suddenly the tip of a sword touched their shoulder and from behind them, they heard Morticon's voice.
"Hello, Rangers."
"Morticon?" said Chip startled.
"Your Megazord cracked the gate enough for me to slip through. Now your whole world will know my crushing power," he said as he continued to pry open the doors of the gate. "Yes, the time has come the destruction of the surface world is at hand."
The rangers looked from Morticon now almost out of the gate to the gargoyle behind them. He was going to escape and without Claire to reseal the gate, there was no way they could stop him.
"YES I've done it. I'm free!" Morticon cried as he stepped through the gate. He swung his sword and it hit their Megazord as inside the Zord crackled as sparks flew off every podium and it rocked precariously.
"Oh no, he's out."
"What now?"
"We have to fight him," said Chip.
"Looks like we don't have a choice," said Nick.
They swung their blade at Morticon but he easily blocked it. They continued to try but he easily blocked all of their attacks. Morticon struck them and they stumbled back.
"Let's take it to the sky," suggested Nick.
The Megazord opened its wings and flew high into the air and they called upon the spirits of the Ancients but to their shock Morticon used his sword to block the attack and struck them, knocking them out of the sky.
"IS that all you've got?" he jeered.
"Hardly," said Nick as the Zord got back on its feet.
Novi let out a gasp as she felt a huge pull of dark energy being pulled together.
"Now you'll see what true power feels like, Dark Magic Strike!" Morticon said and he slashed them with his super charged blade.
It ripped through the Megazord which broke apart and the rangers fell to the ground demorphing as they landed in a heap.
"He is even stronger than last time," said Chip pushing himself up on his elbows.
"He's got more dark magic energy than before," said Novi.
"How are we supposed to fight him? We don't have that kind of power," said Xander.
Destroy it, destroy it all," Morticon ordered as they started to destroy the buildings around the gate.
"Is this really how it's going to end?" asked Maddie.
"No, this is not how it ends. Udonna said we were the protectors of this city. And that's what we're going to do.
"Xander was right about you not having the kind of power needed to beat Morticon but I might," said Novi quietly.
"What do you mean?" asked Nick.
"I can't explain it because I don't fully understand it myself but I—I can also use dark magic. If I can control it I might be able to use his magic against him. If you guys can take care of the Gargoyle I can try and take on Morticon or at least distract him until we can come up with another plan," said Novi.
"That's too dangerous. What if you can't control it or what if it's not enough. I can't let you go alone," said Vida.
"It's like Nick said, we are the protectors of this city. I will protect it and everyone in it with my dying breath. And it's not like we have another choice, is it?" said Novi. She was met with silence. "Well then, we all know what the plan is," said Novi as she pulled out her morpher and flipped it open.
"Magical Source, Mystic Force!"
Once everyone but Nick was back in Titan Form the others took on the Gargoyle while Novi charged at Morticon.
She braced herself for his attack and felt him once again draw on his dark magic. She closed her eyes and tried to reach the part of her that was Solar and tried to pull his dark magic from him, she could feel Solar wake and start to draw on the dark energy but the energy seemed never-ending and Novi could feel herself slipping as Solar grew stronger and she realized this was way too much for her to handle. She tried to stop but Solar hungrily continued to pull at the energy threatening to take control. As if she could sense something was wrong Vida appeared on her shoulder and Novi felt Solar retreat.
"I need help," Nick's voice echoed in her head. "I can get out but I don't know how to get Claire out." He added for the others to hear.
"I don't know if it will work but stay close to her and I can try to flame to you," said Novi looking to the others to make sure they could handle Morticon. Vida nodded and Novi powered down. She closed her eyes and began to search for Nick's fire energy, because of where he was it took her longer to locate his energy. She finally found it and focus on his energy as she felt the column of fire surround her.
~~~xXx~~~
She opened her eyes on hearing Claire's voice.
"Novi? How?"
"How the hell did you get control of Catastros again?" Novi asked looking up and the giant horse that stood in front of Nick.
"Claire and I combined our powers and were able to pull him here. I think he will give us the edge we need to defeat Morticon," Nick explained.
"Yeah, that would do it," said Novi.
"I can get out on him but I can't—" he trailed off as Novi cut him off.
"No worries, I can get Claire back to the other side of the gate," said Novi.
Seeing Claire was exhausted from using magic, she slipped Claire's arm around her shoulder and wrapped her arm around Claire's waist to support the young sorceress.
"See you on the other side," she joked to Nick before she flamed out.
Once back in the human world Novi stumbled as she had used nearly all of her energy in rescuing Claire. She felt her legs give out from under her as she felt herself start to lose consciousness. She heard Claire say something before crying out. She felt a sudden surge of energy and she opened her eyes to see the sky was no longer dark.
"Impossible, who has done this?" Morticon demanded. "My dark magic, who dares interfere!"
"That would be me," said Nick appearing riding Catastros.
"He made it," Novi cheered weakly.
Vida turned as she spoke and she powered down rushing over to her side.
"Novi, what happened? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Just overdid it a bit."
They watched as Nick combined with Catastros and used a Firetail attack against Morticon, slashing him several times with it.
"You insolent little ants, "Morticon roared as he looked at them.
"You guys ready?" asked Nick.
"Yeah," came the response from four of them and Nick turned to see Vida cradling Novi on the ground.
"You gonna be alright?" he asked.
"As I said to Vida, I'm fine. I just needed a minute," Novi lied. She slowly got up to her feet trying to hide how low her energy was, she stumbled slightly and felt hands reach out to steady her.
"You are far from okay, Novi. You know what can happen if you push it too far," Vida warned.
"I know the dangers and I said I'm fine," Novi said, and to prove her point she pulled out her morpher and powered up to her titan form joining the others behind Nick.
Novi was pushing things and she knew it, Udonna had warned them against overuse of their magic as when they used too much it could start to draw on their life force and Novi could feel it doing just that. She began to breathe heavily as her life force was being drained and she bit back a cry as a wave of pain washed over her and inside the cockpit she dropped her knees.
"Novi!" Nick called out.
"Don't worry about me, we need to defeat Morticon now!" she said weakly.
"Right!" the others agreed.
She felt like she was going to pass out and grabbed her podium to steady herself. It was taking a lot out of her but she wasn't about to let the others down as without her, they would be unable to finish Morticon off and he couldn't be allowed to remain in this realm.
Morticon swung his blade to strike them, but they easily blocked it, kicking Morticon in the chest and knocking him backwards. He stumbled but remained standing. Suddenly behind them, the seal glowed and it filled the Megazord with a bright light, they raised their wands and felt a new surge of power rush through them. Novi felt her breathing ease as the power gave her the energy she needed to stand back up.
Novi felt the dark energy growing as Morticon charged up for another attack while they used the new energy to create a spell seal, when the two swords collided instead of the dark energy overpowering them like it had before they watched as Morticon's weapon froze solid.
"How did we do that?" asked Vida.
"We froze it,"
"It's got to be…" Maddie trailed off.
"Udonna?" asked Nick.
"You mean the White Ranger," corrected Chip.
They felt something touch the hand of the Megazord and turned to see a spectral image of the white ranger materializing beside them.
"Udonna!" they called out and the ghostly image nodded at them.
"Alright! Now we can't lose," said Nick.
They raised the sword and felt Udonna rise and do the same adding her power to theirs, they swung the blade down as it struck Morticon and he sparked as he felt backwards and was gone. The Rangers powered down completely and started to celebrate their great victory.
"Great job rangers, Morticon's gone.
"Finally," said Xander.
"It's over," said Novi weakly as she collapsed and her world went dark.
~~~xXx~~~
As Novi started to come to, she felt something soft beneath her as she slowly opened her eyes, only to be blinded by colourful light that streamed in through the windows and she realized she was in Rootcore. She groaned trying to lift her body but found she was still very weak. She could hear the sound of voices coming from the main room.
"I warned her not to push herself, but she wouldn't listen," said Vida, there was a hint of anger in her voice but also a concern.
"Will she be alright?" asked Claire.
"I believe she will be but it will take a while for her to recover fully," said Udonna.
Novi slowly sat up and swung her feet over the side of the bed, resting for a moment to gather what little energy she had left before pushing herself off the bed and making her way down the stairs.
"How long before she wakes up?" asked Chip. "We've been covering her shifts but Toby is starting to notice and ask questions that we can't answer."
"That I cannot say for certain," said Udonna.
"Novi!" said Claire as she spotted her slowly coming down the stairs. "You shouldn't be out of bed."
"I'm—, " she started.
"Don't you dare say you are fine? What were you thinking?" demanded Vida as she came over and help her down the rest of the stairs.
"I was thinking we needed to save the city, and that you couldn't do that without me," Novi said.
"We could have found another way," said Nick.
"There was no time, I did what I had to and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I knew the risks and I was willing to die if it meant we saved this city from Morticon."
"Did you stop and think how that might affect…us if you had died?" Vida asked stumbling over her words a moment.
"I'm sorry but I didn't see any other choice," said Novi.
Out of the corner of her eye, Novi noticed Chip was staring at her as Vida was still holding on to her. Chip looked between the pair then directly at her with a smirk on his face and a glint in his eye. Novi couldn't help but smile as she lowered her head to hide the blush that rose on her cheeks.