The four of them stood near the shore just a few feet away from the old steel mill, patiently waiting for the arrivial of the shuttle. Adam and Tommy ventured off towards the mill while Tanya and Kat admired the sun as it set just above the water.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Kat asked her as they watched.

"Yeah. Hard to believe that it's the last sunset we'll see for a long time," she mentioned as she leaned down, picking up a rock and tossing it into the water.

The rock bounced across the water, leaving ripples that reflected off the orange-ish yellow sunlight.

"I hear that Eltar has two suns, so you'll be able to see the sun set twice a day," she brought up.

Tanya cracked a smile. Seeing the water like that reminded her of her home back in Africa. It was years ago, but she remembered it all like it was yesterday. Aisha, the former yellow ranger, came to her village in search of a crystal, but found more than she expected. She eventually found the crystal, but ultimately decided to stay in Africa to assist with the animals. So instead, Aisha offered her the chance to take her place as a power ranger. Tanya happily accepted, and over time, had grown to believe it was the best decision she'd ever made. She'd come to enjoy the life she'd made for herself; she had a wonderful relationship with a wonderful man, and she'd truly made a difference ever since her arrival.

She remembered sitting on the shore in Africa skipping rocks into the water. It always seemed to relax her. Tanya leaned down, picking up another rock, throwing it into the water, then watched it as it skipped….

skipped… skipped… CLANK.

"What the hell?" she mumbled as she saw the rock stop in mid air, falling into the water.

This time, Kat picked up a rock and threw it to see for herself.

CLANK.

"Tommy, Adam," they called out.

Seconds later, the guys raced over to them. "What is it Kat?" Tommy inquired.

"There's something out there," she told him.

Both he and Adam stared out into the water. "I don't see anything," Adam admitted.

"You can't see it, but it's there."

At that moment, something began to materialize near the edge of the river. It seemed to shimmer, but when it stopped, there was a ship hovering over the water. It had an impressive design; rather small, but a sleek silver color to it.

"Our ride is here," Tommy told them.

A hatch on the ship opened slowly, allowing the four of them inside. At first, they seemed a little skeptical, looking at one another strangely. Tommy nodded, and was the first to climb inside the ship. Following suit, Kat climbed in, and not too long after, Adam and Tanya made their way inside as well. No sooner than they sat down, the door closed, sealing them inside.

"How do you work this thing?" Kat asked, glancing down at the buttons, switches and knobs on the control panel.

"Welcome rangers," a voice echoed through the speakers in the control panel.

"Zordon?"

"Yes. The shuttle is equipped with an auto pilot system; there is no need to plot a course. Once the cloak has been engaged, the shuttle will make it's way to Eltar on it's own. The journey itself should take approximately 2 hours. I will see you when you arrive, and may the power protect you," he said.

"What? No in-flight movie? No roasted peanuts?" Adam asked jokingly.

Just then, the shuttle seemed to shift. The lights inside went from bright to an eerie blue color. 'Cloak engaged,' the computer said. Before they knew it, the shuttle jerked forward, and they were on their way to Eltar.

*-* *-*

The two of them stood outside the building, glancing up at the name across the top.

"Red Dragon Dojo," he cracked a smile. "Looks like Rocky has done well for himself," he said as he reached over, grabbing his girlfriend's hand and walked inside.

As soon as they made it to the training room, they saw Rocky standing at the very back of the room, but the room itself was filled with children, all of them doing exercises. Rocky led them in their training, but paused when he glanced to the back of the room.

He saw a man wearing a pair of black over-alls and a yellow shirt underneath. The women next to him simply wore a pair of jeans and a yellow cut off shirt with her hair hanging down over her shoulders.

"Zach, Trini, is that you?" he called out.

Zach nodded. "Yeah man, it's us," he answered.

Rocky turned back to his students. "That will be all for today, but remember the martial arts tournament junior division is a week from this Tuesday. Be ready," he instructed.

"Yes sensei," they said in unison, and then headed down the door.

Zach and Trini stood aside, allowing them to leave. Once the last of the children left, Rocky headed over to them, first wrapping his arms around Trini, and then shaking hands with Zach.

"It's good to see you guys," he said cheerfully.

"You too, it's been a long time," Trini said.

"How was the peace conference?"

"It was great man, it really was. We got to travel all over the country and meet with officials from different countries. It was awesome," Zach told him.

"We came back as soon as we heard about Kim," she mentioned, changing the subject.

Rocky took a deep breath. "Tommy really took her death hard, but the others have been helping him through it," he said.

"What happened?"

The three of them sat down on the mats on the floor. "I wasn't there, so I don't know for sure. All I can tell you is that there was someone in a cloak and hood working for Divatox. They managed to get into the Command Center and kidnap Kim. By the time Alpha and the others found her, Kim had been stabbed. Alpha did his best to save her, but there was nothing he could do," he explained.

"Did they ever find out who it was that did it?" Zach asked.

"No."

"We stopped by Tommy's house first, but no one was there. We went to the juice bar, but no one was there either. Where is everyone?" Trini asked, changing the subject.

Rocky shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Tommy was suppose to come to class and help me prepare them for the tournament, but he called and said he wouldn't be able to make it," he mentioned.

"Maybe he got called away by Dimitri," he said.

"No, Tommy and the others aren't rangers anymore," he told them.

"What?!" they asked in unison.

"They stepped down and gave their powers to a new group. So far, they've done well, but it will never be like it was when we were all together," Rocky said.

"So if they're not rangers anymore and they didn't get called away on business, where are they?" Trini asked.

*-*

"Is that Eltar?" Tanya asked as they approached a planet.

The others turned to the view screen, where they saw a yellow-orange-ish planet up ahead. Just as they suspected, there were two suns in orbit, and a moon twice the size of the moon in their galaxy.

"It's beautiful," Kat sighed.

"Hard to believe that a planet so beautiful could be involved in a war," Adam mentioned.

Tommy was the only one who remained silent, looking past the planet with concern on his face. He sat up straight in his chair, turning his head slightly. The others were so enthralled with the planet, they barely noticed him.

"What are those?" Tommy mumbled.

"What?"

"Those," he repeated, this time pointed at small points of light on the view screen.

"Are they stars?" Kat inquired.

"If they are, they're coming right for us," Adam mentioned.

Just then, a bolt of energy struck their ship, shaking them up a little. Adam fell out of his seat, but quickly got up as Tommy turned to the control panel. "They're ships. From what I can, about 20 of them," he said.

"Where are the weapons on this thing?" Tanya asked, turning to another set of controls.

Before anyone could respond, another bolt of energy hit them, and another, and another. One of the panels exploded, knocking Tanya backwards out her seat. She fell to the floor, and Kat rushed over to check on her. Smoke came from the destroyed panels and an alarm began to sound throughout the ship.

'Hull breach in 45 seconds,' the computer warned them.

"Oh great. At this rate we won't even make it to Eltar. Adam, see if you can find the weapon controls," Tommy shouted.

"On it."

Both of them frantically searched for anything that could have been control systems, but came up empty handed. Another energy bolt hit them, this time knocking Tommy from his seat and down on top of Kat, who was trying to help Tanya back to her feet. Adam quickly jumped into Tommy's chair to take control.

'Hull breach in 30 seconds,' the computer warned.

"Come on Adam, think," he said out loud, trying to come up with a plan.

He glanced up at the view screen, where a huge group of ships were in an attack formation, all of them shooting bolts of energy at the exact same time. Adam saw them coming and closed his eyes.

And their ship exploded.

*-*

"The Eltarian shuttle has been destroyed," one of the soldiers said, turning around in his seat to face his commanding officer.

Astronema stood up with a wicket smile on her face, walking over to the control panel the soldier was sitting in, pushing him aside. "You idiot, Zordon isn't that stupid. Check the debris for life signals," she ordered.

"But an explosion that big would have……"

"I know, but even an explosion that big would have left something to find. An arm, a leg, maybe a head. Check the debris until you find me the remains of the people in that shuttle," she snapped.

"At once," the soldier said, scanning through the debris as ordered.

Astronema headed back to her seat, sitting down as Ecliptor walked over to her, bowing in front of her. "Princess, allow me to take a group of Quantrons and search the debris myself. We need to be absolutely sure that the occupants of their shuttle were destroyed," he suggested.

"Excellent idea. Take a dozen velocifighters and check for anything that may look remotely human," she said.

"At once my Princess," he said, raising back to his feet and walking away.

"With no more rangers to defend Eltar, and the Great Sage carefully locked away, Eltar will fall and the entire planet will belong to me," Astronema said with a devious smile on her face.

*-*

Tommy opened his eyes slowly, only to find himself laying on the floor next to Adam and the others. He felt a huge gash on his forehead, but when he reached to touch it, there was a patch of some type already over it.

There was a moment of disorientation that swept over him, and as he tried to get back to his feet, he stumbled over again, falling to the ground.

"I suggest you stay down, we've got about twelve velocifighters on our tail," a voice said.

Tommy recognized the voice, but because the room still seemed to be spinning, and his head was throbbing, he couldn't remember where he'd heard the voice before. He did manage to sit up and get a good look at the view screen about 20 feet away from him. There was something sitting in a chair in front of the screen, but because the seat was so high, he couldn't even see the back of their head.

On the screen, he watched as a group of ships and destroyed one by one. There seemed to be one, however, that escaped.

"To hell with it, I'll catch him later," the voice said. "Computer, set a course back to Eltar," he said.

'Course laid in,' the computer answered.

The chair spun around, but the lighting was so bad, Tommy still couldn't see who the pilot was. He tried to think back to the events leading up to that point, but his mind was a complete blank.

The pilot walked over to him, leaning down slightly and extending his hand to him. "It's good to see you again Tommy," he said.

This time, Tommy got a good look at him. "Billy?" he mumbled.

"Actually, it's William now. But yeah, it's me," he told him.

Tommy took his hand, and Billy helped him up, taking him over to the seat he had been sitting in earlier.

"But how? You still look so….. young," he mentioned.

"The water on Aquitar has what most humans would consider an anti-aging effect on the human body. I'm actually younger than I was the day I left to go to Aquitar," he pointed out.

"You look great man," he said.

"Thanks."

"So what happened to our shuttle?" Tommy asked.

"You were attacked by velocifighters on your way to Eltar. Because you shuttle had no defenses, you took heavy damage and the shuttle was ultimately destroyed. I teleported you onto my ship at the exact time of the explosion, allowing Astronema to think you and the others were destroyed by the blast," he explained.

"Astronema?" he inquired.

"She's the Rita Repulsa of space and one of the lead generals in the Dark Alliance. Ironically enough, Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd are also in the Dark Alliance," he said.

"There's still a lot going on that I don't know," he admitted.

"We have a little time before we get back to Eltar, I'll fill you in," he said.

At that moment, it was Kat and Adam who stumbled over to them, both still looking a bit groggy.

"Billy?" Kat mumbled.

"Yes, it's me," he said.

She quickly rushed over to him, wrapping her arms around him. "After you went to Aquitar, we thought we'd never see you again," she sighed.

"It is good to see you man," Adam said.

Tanya was the last to join the group, walking over to them with a bandage on her head as well. "Billy?" she mumbled.

He nodded.

"But you look so……" Kat paused, trying to find the right words.

"Young?" he said. They all nodded. "If you remember, the reason I went to Aquitar was because of an illness I contracted on Earth that caused me to age rapidly. Delphine and the other alien rangers were able to not only stabilize my condition and reverse the aging effect, but the water on their home world is so pure that as long as I remain on Aquitar, I will never age again," he told them.

"The fountain of youth," Tanya sighed.

"In a manner of speaking, yes," he said.

"So tell us what we need to know Bill….. I mean, William," Tommy corrected.

"When Divatox freed Maligore from the Nemesis triangle, she unwittingly freed his brother as well, Dark Spector. While you were battling Maligore, Dark Spector escaped into space, where he built the biggest army of evil the universe as ever seen. He has enlisted generals from the Machine Empire, Lord Zedd and Rita, Astronema and her group of henchmen, and countless others, including Divatox. Eltar was the first planet to fall to the Dark Alliance, and when they're GOD, The Great Sage was captured; most Eltarians lost all hope and surrendered to Dark Spector. Eltar enlisted a group of rangers and gave them the Zeo-subcrystals, but they were all destroyed in the battle. All that remains of the rangers are one sole survivor, but he was so injured that even couldn't survive in Eltarian form. I was able to construct a bio-mechanical body for him, and his consciousness was transferred into the new body," he explained to them.

"So if the others rangers failed, what makes you think we'll stand a better chance against an entire alliance?" Kat asked.

"The rangers chosen were inexperienced, and didn't know the power they possessed. What is needed is a group of rangers who know what they're doing, which is why Zordon selected you," he said.

"Are the Zeo powers still……" he was cut short.

"They weren't destroyed, if that's what you mean. Power can never be destroyed, only transferred. The crystals are intact and re-energized with the Eltarian crystal itself, giving us even more power than before," he said.

"Did you say 'us'?" Tanya asked.

He nodded. "Yes, Zordon contacted me and asked if I would come to Eltar and aid him in the war," he told them.

"So you're the fifth ranger?" Kat asked.

"Affirmative."

"When we make it to Eltar, Dark Spector and his goons won't know what hit'em," Adam said proudly.