Disclaimer: Trakeena, Villamax, and whomever else I've mentioned in this story are the property of Saban. This is my first fanfiction of any kind; I draw quite a bit, but have never tried my hand at writing until now. This story takes place during 'Journey's End, Part One' of the Power Rangers Lost Galaxy series.
By Leanne Shaw
"No!" a voice cried out in shock and surprise. The pain emitted in Villamax's single cry was evident to even the most uninformed onlooker.
It was the last sound Trakeena heard as she was roughly grabbed by a pair of mechanical hands. Metal ground into flesh, making her wince in pain. Diviot. The traitor had his hands on her, and was pulling her toward... something. Trakeena didn't know what was more shocking-- suddenly being grabbed and forcibly pulled, or the fact that Diviot had actually managed to scramble away from her prized warrior for this one last attempt at an attack.
In any other circumstance Trakeena would have laughed out loud at Diviot's foolishness. After all, Diviot was nothing compared to her. She had him outmatched in virtually every way, and there was no way he could ever escape her wrath, particularly now that she had discovered his true intentions.
But, however much Trakeena hated to admit it, he was stronger than her. For all her training and newfound strength, she was still no match for a machine, and her attempts at prying Diviot's hands off of her proved to be futile. Villamax made one last gallant effort, throwing himself at the one daring to harm his queen, but to no avail. Diviot slammed into Villamax, throwing him to the ground. Trakeena could have sworn she felt his body hit the cold, solid floor at her feet. She took one last look at him as he stumbled and reached an outstretched arm towards her, trying somehow to stop what was about to happen. At first she couldn't understand why he looked so scared and horrified.
And then she saw it. Diviot was pulling her towards the cocoon. In this sudden realization when anyone else would have felt at least some measure of horror, Trakeena only felt the cold sting of irony. The very thing she had been trying to escape and had successfully gone through so much to prove that she didn't need, was suddenly looming right in front of her. She could not move to stop her inevitable approach towards it. With his last bit of strength, the wounded Diviot threw himself into the cocoon, never relinquishing his iron grip on Trakeena.
Darkness surrounded her then, and try as she might, she could not scream out. But somehow she heard Diviot's screams inside her head, echoing and fluttering like a caged bird. And as she felt the electric charge of the cocoon's power begin to take hold, real fear gripped her all at once. Something was happening to her, invading her very being. In her mind's eye she could see the shadows creeping into her brain, trying to take over her thoughts and mind. Like the warrior she was trained to be, she fought them back as much as she could, with sword and skill, strength and determination. But they were too much, and too fast… As soon as she drove one back, another took its place, making her cry out in frustration tinged with fear and rage.
It was Diviot. It was his very essence that was trying to smother her out. Already, she began to feel the shadows overwhelming her... and she was terrified.
As if a bright light cutting through her shadows and the hollow thud of her own heart beating wildly, she was suddenly aware of a voice yelling from outside the cocoon. It was Villamax. He was yelling her name, and she could hear the panic and worry in his voice as he called to her.
Villamax. He went from being a complete stranger who rescued her from a severe beating at the hands of the thieves and scoundrels at the Onyx Tavern, to her trainer and soon her sworn enemy. She resented him for humiliating her and scolding her as they trained, until she finally realized that it was all done in an effort to kill the spoiled child that had lived within her then. Gradually those resentments, along with her anger, began to melt away and were replaced with respect and a deep feeling of friendship.
The shadows had nearly won, and she could almost feel she and Diviot becoming as one. He was slowly dying off, his metal body melting into forms of energy all around her, as his mind was still tearing itself into hers. It was when her heart was beginning to be infected with this new evil that Trakeena's breath nearly stopped with a new realization. She might never get the chance to tell Villamax what he meant to her. She might never be able to tell him how much she loved him.
As the princess and heir to her father's throne, she could not claim to honestly trust or care for anyone that entered her life, save her father. So it was a surprise to her when these feelings began to surface for another. And it was quite another surprise when those feelings began to form into something else entirely.
She dared not admit, even to herself, that her feelings ran so deeply for her former trainer. But she could not hide the overwhelming warmth that spread through her chest and made her stomach churn in a way she'd never known, when he knelt in front of her in the desert sand of Onyx. He had sworn he would never bow down to her until she had proven herself as the warrior he knew she was capable of becoming. It was then that he took her hand and kissed it, and pledged his loyalty to her at last. And he had always been there for her ever since. He watched over her and protected her when she was unable to protect herself, and even emotionally had been there for her when her father died at the hands of the Red Ranger. He was always there without question and never once asked anything of her in return.
But however deeply she felt for him, she had never let him know. Perhaps it was because of her damned pride, from a fear that he might not feel the same, or simply the fact that it had always been expected of her to marry someone of royal blood like her own. But somehow she knew that the latter would not keep her from revealing her feelings to Villamax. She had defied conventional ways of thinking before, particularly where her father's wishes were concerned. When she had run away from him and the cocoon he expected her to enter to gain unimaginable power at the expense of her mortal beauty, it had been her first step toward independence. She was not about to give up that newfound sense of freedom any time soon. Whatever it was that kept Trakeena from telling Villamax the way she felt, she began to realize that now it might all be too late.
She could not hold back the shadows any longer. Her last thought as the final dark strands threaded themselves into her mind and heart was that somehow, she hoped she would not forget him. She needed to hold onto some piece of this love for him for her to stay sane in the wake of Diviot's madness...
The cocoon's power suddenly died, finished with its task, and Trakeena found herself thrown back out onto the cold floor a few feet from where Kegler stood. At once, she found herself in Villamax's arms.
"My queen, are you all right?" he asked softly, his voice filled with a sense of relief and worry all at once as he cradled her.
Trakeena turned to look at him then, her eyes as unrecognizable as if Villamax had only just met her a split second ago. At first glance her form appeared very much the same, but it was clear that something was very, very wrong. "I'm okay, but Diviot's not," she said in a cold mechanical voice that he could barely recognize. "He's finished."
Trakeena began to laugh devilishly as she rose, walking away from Kegler, the cocoon, and Villamax, who still knelt on the ground where she fell. Had she looked at him then, she would have seen a shattered warrior whose heart had frozen in his chest, fearing that he had just lost the woman he loved.
As she walked down the dark corridor to her quarters, the last tiny piece of Trakeena's sanity cried out in mourning for a love never realized and a soldier whose heart was aching. With one last gasp, it vanished into blackness, and a final shadow took its place.
~ FIN ~