Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. Saban does. Or Disney. or Saban. I don't really know anymore. Anyway, they aren't mine but I'm using them. You know the drill by now if you've read fan fics before.

Setting: The main storyline takes place in the present (between "Power Rangers Ninja Storm" and "Power Rangers DinoThunder". The flashback happens right after "Power Rangers In Space".

Power Rangers ZEO Sigil

Episode 1: "Destiny Reclaimed - Part I"

Destiny. It's a curious word. To some, your destiny is just your inevitable future. It could be as simple as, "if you're hungry for some pizza, it's you're destiny to call Dominos". Others don't believe that destiny really exists. Everything we do and all of the choices we make change our future and nothing is predetermined.

Well, for five very special people, destiny will return to them and things will become very clear. They thoughts that their time as protectors of the universe had come and gone, but they couldn't be more wrong. Some of these people know each other well while others have met before as casual acquaintances. But they will all be drawn to one another by a familiar source of power. The power wasn't lost as they may think due to it's energies being converted into a new form of power. No, it's still very much alive and calling out to those that it truly belongs to.

And color isn't anything more than what we sometimes choose to see.

Adam Park wasn't exactly in a good mode. It had still only been a couple of months since his lover, and former teammate, Tanya Sloan had left him. They had a long, emotional and tearful conversation in his apartment. Hours must have gone by time stopped for him the moments she gave him a hug with her trembling hands and walked out that door. He didn't understand it. According to her, they had grown apart. He didn't want to accept it but, truth be told, they didn't spent much time with one another anymore. It had become more of a relationship out of convenience and while there were good friends, they were never really lovers.

On top of all of that, he'd had a burning pain developing on his right arm. It was nagging, but definitely there. He had gone to a few doctors who all examined the dark red skin but they all dismissed it as stress pains. They said that he developed it in his mind to counteract and distract his mind from thinking about losing Tanya.

He didn't buy it.

Sure, he was mad as hell that it had ended so suddenly, but he was a martial arts champion. He knew how to block out emotional trauma to get down to business if need be. No, there had to be something more to it.

As he sat in his office at the local community college he gently rubbed his wrists. It was still there. He didn't know exactly why he still wore his green communicator. Zordon and Alpha weren't around anymore. He had gotten an e-mail from Tommy a couple of years ago. He was busy helping some scientist in dinosaur research but apparently the former leader of the team found some spare time and had used some of his residual ZEO Ranger energy to assist Andros, T.J., Aurico, and even Jason, along with a lot of other Red Rangers that he had never heard of destroy Serpentera and the remains of the Machine Empire up on the moon. It made sense that he still had a few morphs left in him. After all, Adam himself was able to make one last go as the Black Mighty Morphin' Ranger to aid Carlos and those powers were completely destroyed.

So why wear the communicator?

"I duhno," he muttered, "Maybe a bunch of black and green rangers will call me for some help.

KO-35 was a beautiful planet. It always reminded her of what the Earth must have been like before humans made it their business to destroy the ecosystem. The humans on KO-35 had managed to become so much more technologically advanced as a race than those on her home world but they kept a balance with nature. She envied them. But it was always nice to visit her husband's world.

She and Andros had gotten married a couple of years ago but they still remained fairly active as the Yellow and Red Space Rangers. After all, Andros had the Astro Megaship Mark II at his beck and call and even without that, their Galaxy Gliders had never failed them. As a couple, they would always answer any distress calls that would come their way.

Carlos had settled on Earth and he remains a local hero in Angel Grove as the High School Soccer coach. T.J. was hard to get a read on. She had always thought that he had a thing for Cassie but he stopped his advances once he realized how much she truly cared for the Phantom Ranger. After all, the girl had never even seen the man's face and yet she would do absolutely anything for him. He could look worse that Elgar for all she knew! The last Ashley had heard from her best friend, she was still searching for the man. As resilient as Cassie is though, Ashley knew she'd find him eventually. T.J. understood this and he too decided to settle back on their home planet. He was playing for a minor league baseball team but prospects of him getting moved up to the majors was good. Ashley was happy for him and even more so when he mentioned that he had found a girlfriend named Angela.

Ashley grimaced in pain suddenly. She tried to sooth the pain but it was pretty unbearable. She hadn't told Andros because it was pretty embarrassing. For all intents and purposes. her left boob really hurt.

They were a rather unlikely couple. They knew that but never really made mention of it. It wasn't an ideal romance to start with. It began because both of them felt like outsiders on their team. They were extra baggage and were both casualties of another couple. Kimberly Ann Hart and Tommy Oliver were THE couple on the Power Rangers team. But once Kim left, Katherine was left to fill her spot in what turned out to be more ways than one. It didn't happen automatically and no one really noticed it. One minutes Tommy was kissing on Kimberly and the next his arm was wrapped around Kat.

Now that she looks back on that time in her life, it was more of a relationship born out of convenience. Tommy was filling a void in his life going from one Pink Ranger to the next and Katherine was just looking to be accepted after her evil deeds and what better way to do that than to go to the ranger that can relate to her problems due to his own bad streak and the guy that the rest of the team had looked to as their rock. She was much happier now with HIM.

Rocky DeSantos was the second Red Mighty Morphin' Ranger. But more than likely he'll go down in history as the Blue ZEO Ranger, or - worse than that, he'll be known as the guy that had to give up his powers to a child. Wasn't the Red Ranger supposed to be the leader and the guy that the rest of the team respected the most? Before he had even joined the team, the color red was stripped of that distinction and given to Tommy. Hell, he wasn't even invited to defeat the Machine Empire when it was resurrected on the moon. Aurico was. Even the Quantum Time Force Ranger was and he's not even a Red Ranger.

But of course, once the ZEO crystal was used, he was bumped down to blue and red was given the distinction of leader again thanks to it being Tommy's. Rocky wasn't really bummed out about losing his color, he could care less about his color. He was just depressed that no one ever took him seriously. And once Jason returned, it seemed like everyone had forgotten that he even existed.

Everyone except for Katherine.

Kat was a great friend throughout it all. She noticed his pain all the while when even his best friend Adam didn't or at least, we too nonconfrontational to mention it. Adam never was once to get in someone's face. Rocky had always likened him to the snow in an avalanche. He was powerful and devastating if agitated. But more often than not, he just sat there in pristine fashion.

Since ending his tenure as a ranger, he had talked to Adam on and off. He was willing to write a foreward in Rocky's book, "A Ranger's Story". When Astronema attacked the Earth before Zordon's energy wave destroyed or neutralized all the evil, Rocky and Katherine along with Adam and Tanya had been doing their part with what little ZEO energy they had to protect Stone Canyon. From what Alpha had tried to explain to them when the Turbo powers were formed was that the Turbo powers drew their energy from the ZEO crystal but were not connected to it fully.

To the best of Rocky's knowledge from what he was able to piece together, when the Turbo powers were destroyed, that severed their connection to the ZEO crystal, leaving it in needs of repair. But that made it all the more curious. Their powers faded when Zordon's wave hit, revealing their identities to the public, but yet he felt very empowered.

Since then, the four rangers had locked their Zeonizers away within a vault on the Astro Megaship Mark II, able to materialize them on their wrists if need be. Tommy did the same later but he must have used them once on the moon.

After that is when Rocky wrote his book, detailing the history of the Power Rangers. He called old friends to get some facts straight from what happened during the first year and a half of the team's formations. It was a #1 Best-Seller on the "New York Times" list for 38 weeks straight. Since then he's opened a karate and ballet school along with Katherine and has finally found true love in his life and he has a sense of closure on his career as a Ranger.

But God, the throbbing on his back won't stop and Kat's complaining about some hand pain herself.

Andro's throat was raw. He ran through his mind a list of reason's why. K0-35's winter season didn't start until August and it was only June. And besides, he couldn't think of any air-borne disease that affects the throat that they didn't have an immediate cure vaccine for.

He grew more concerned when Ashley started to complain about chest pains. Could Darkonda have implanted something within the Space Rangers before his destruction that they never detected? There was nothing wrong with Zhane who was on cloud nine since Karone returned from Miranoi telling them all about her experiences as the Pink Galaxy Ranger. Andros was proud of her. He can still remember her as Astronema and how evil she truly was. To go from that to a ranger was a great accomplishment but he knew she could do it. And it made him glad because he could remember the moment that Kendrix died saving Cassie's powers from Psycho Pink. To know that Kendrix was alive again and thanks to his little sister made him beam with pride.

But that still didn't explain why his throat was raw and a dark shade of blue.

Far across the universe in another galaxy, news is just reached a familiar figure of Zordon's energy wave. Even though it's been a little over five years since it happened, many inherently evil forces have been scared to travel and to make it into the Pyrixian Galaxy with a message tended to cost a lot of money and lives.

It was worth it to her. She needed to know what happened. Her beloved had fallen in battle. She knew it from the moment it happened. For five years she could tell but only now was it confirmed. A bloodcurdling scream filled her lungs as she took our her anger by killing the Piranatron messenger with a wave of her hand and the pulse of green energy that flowed from it. As his charred corpse hit the floor of her ship, she paced on determined, yet trembling, legs.

She cursed the day that the Rangers sent her here. Following a Megazord battle in her monster form she was overwhelmed by the Ultrazord. After being knocked out they sealed her away using Zordon's energy to create a canister much like that which had housed Rita, her beloved, and the other bumbling fools that Rita felt like keeping around.

It had taken her 10,000 years to find Goldar again and after one together they were sperated once more and now, he was gone forever. She couldn't just wait to see him again even though she would wait one million years in a heartbeat if it meant just one more day with him. But that was impossible now. And to make matters worse and to rub salt in her wounds, it seemed like Zordon's last bit of power was used to turn Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa into human beings. What a joke. That floating head kills the one who means so much to her but the foolish leaders of the armies get to live together as a human couple?

"I will make both Zedd and Rita suffer. They used use, disposed of us as trash, and are then granted happiness? There will be no more joy for them. Justice will be served."

Scorpina's blood red lips pursed into what can almost be described as a smile. In her own sick fashion, she finally had something to be happy about.

Approximately 5 years ago.

Shortly after the Zordon Wave hit.

He hadn't been here in a while. It was amazing that he made it back anyway. Angel Grove wasn't the first place on his mind but it felt right to come back. Something was tugging as his very soul to return. He wanted to see his friends, at least, however many of them remained. Things had changed a lot from what he had heard and a bit of catching up seemed necessary.

So you can imagine the shock in his eyes when he tried to teleport into the Power Chamber only to be standing in the rubble of the remains.

"What the hell is going on here?"

He hadn't heard about Zordon's sacrifice yet. The only knowledge he'd received was that things have changed a lot and he wouldn't recognize the current team. But this? Nothing could have prepared him for this.

"Jason?"

"Kat?"

"Tommy?"

Nothing. And his other friends were still is Switzerland or Florida. That didn't leave much.

"Tanya?"

"Um. Adam?"

"Rocky?"

Nothing. No one answered.

"Dig."

What was that? Some sort of voice in his head was telling his to dig in the rubble. But why?

"Dig. Do it for them. They will need it some day.

He didn't know why he was doing and he didn't know why he knew the exact spot to dig but he did it. And there it was right where the voice told him it would be, locked safely in a metal case underneath the remains of Zordon's energy tube. He slowly moved the glass to the side and picked up the case, placing in on a nearby control board.

"082893"

Again, he didn't know why but something spoke to him, telling him that those six numbers were the combination to the casing and indeed, upon inputting them it clicked open and like the sound of air deflating from a tire, the inside warmed up to room temperature as a blinding glow took the man aback. He stumbled to the ground, landing hard on his hands and ass. He didn't feel the pain as he was too busy mesmerized in the light of what he saw.

"The ZEO Crystal."

To Be Continued.