"I can't believe how incredibly stupid you are. You just let him walk in and steal the Zeonizers from me?" Astronema snapped, pacing back and forth in her thrown room.

"My apologies my princess, but…"

"I don't want to hear your excuses Darkonda. We're close to defeating the rangers once and for all, to conquering the entire universe for my own, and you go and do something foolish like this. Guards, take him…" she was interrupted as Zolara walked into the room.

"This may work to our advantage," she said.

"How?"

"The rangers have their morphers, but we possess the Eltarian crystal. Without the crystal in their possession, their morphers will not remain energized for very long, and will begin to draw power from their lifeforce energy to sustain they're morphed states. They will be unaware, and ultimately, it…"

"… it will destroy them," Astronema sighed.

"Yes. With them out the way, nothing will be able to stop us."

"So I did well," Darkonda pointed out.

"Consider yourself lucky this time. Assemble all available troops and proceed to the moon base. The rangers will make their stand there, and when they do, destroy them," she said.

"At once my princess," he said, bowing slightly, then rushing out the room.

Tommy stood on the bridge of the Astro Megaship, simply staring out at the stars as he put his hands behind his back. 'Its all so… infinite,' he thought to himself. His thoughts shifted to his times as a power ranger; first as the green ranger, then next as the white ranger, then finally his time as both the red Zeo Ranger and the red Turbo ranger. 'All the things I've done, everything I've seen, all the fights we've won, all the enemies we've destroyed over the years… seems like it was all for nothing,' he sighed inwardly.

He remembered defeated Lord Zedd, then defeating the Machine Empire to save the entire Earth, but Earth was just one planet in a universe filled with countless billions. The Machine Empire was still alive and well, Lord Zedd and Rita were still up to no good as well. 'So what did I really accomplish?' he asked himself.

'If we destroy this base on the moon and stop them from finding Serpentera, the universe will be safe, but for how long?' he wondered. In the grand scheme of things, he began to question if he was truly doing the right thing. 'Sure, saved the world a few times, but next week it'll be something else. And another. And another. More rangers will be called, more bad guys to battle, more missions to go on. But in the end, what will it matter?'

His thoughts were broken as Katherine walked onto the bridge. She didn't have to say a word, he knew exactly who it was without even turning to look at him.

"Almost time, isn't it?" he asked.

"Andros is in the infirmary now going over the final details with William. We're leaving in about ten minutes," she told him.

He paused. "How many times have we stood on our balcony back home and just stared at the stars?" she walked over to him, wrapping her arms around him. "Just seems so different out here. There are so many other worlds, so many different races of beings. It just makes you feel…"

"Small?"

"Yeah, small. Like nothing we do here really matters,"

"That isn't true, we've saved the world. The entire world. We've done a lot of good," Katherine pointed out.

"Have we? All the enemies we vowed to destroy are still out there. Mondo and Machina, Zedd and Rita, even Divatox. What have we really done to make the universe a better place?"

"You're being too hard on yourself. You've been the leader of the Power Rangers for years now, feeling the burden of responsibility more so than the rest of us. It was up to you to make the hard decisions, the choices none of us wanted to make. In the end, the world was safe, but you can't blame yourself for all the evil in the universe. That isn't your job. Andros is out here, and on other worlds, other rangers defend their planet with their lives. That's all you can do; its all any of us can do. We save the universe, one planet at a time," she explained.

Tommy leaned over, kissing her warmly on the cheek. "Thanks babe, I needed that. Come on, its time to go to work," he said as he grabbed her hand.

Katherine smiled.

"Is everything in position?" Astronema asked as she walked onto the bridge of her ship.

"Yes my Princess. Soon, we will release Serpentera, and all will fall to the Dark Alliance," Ecliptor told her.

"Very good. Have you been able to find the Phantom Ranger?"

He shook his head. "No, but I doubt the rangers will play a critical role even with their morphers. Your victory is at hand,"

"Excellent. After I get my hands on Serpentera, even Dark Spector himself will bend to my will," she said with a sinister look on her face.

Adam stood up, admiring himself in the mirror. Most of his chest had been bandaged up, including a bandage on his head, but he was determined to go out there.

"Are you sure you're up to this?" Tanya asked him.

"I didn't come all this way to watch while you guys do all the work. I'm ready, I can do this," he told her.

She handed him his Morpher. "I hope you're right,"

"Of course I am,"

"William and Andros went to the shuttle bay with Phantom Ranger, he should be on his way to Earth right now,"

"Good. Something tells me that the Turbo rangers are going to need all the help they can get," Adam sighed, putting on his shirt.

"So are we,"

'Andros to Tanya. Come in,' a voice said.

Tanya reached for her Morpher. "This is Tanya, go ahead," she said.

'If Adam is feeling up to it, meet us in shuttle bay one. Its time,' he said.

"We're on our way," Adam said as the two of them walked out the room.

In the shuttle bay, William went over the last of the details with them.

"This shuttle has been equipped with the most up to date cloaking equipment in the known universe. Astronema will still be able to detect it because of the ion trail the engines leave, but it will allow you to get within 50 kilometers without being seen. That should be more than enough for Andros to teleport down with the mesotronic bomb and get inside. They'll have to lower their force fields to allow the Quantrons to take Andros inside, but Astronema has the modulation of the force field re-sequenced every time the field is deactivated, so I won't be able to get the shields down. We have to hope that Andros can get close enough to one of the main generators with the bomb so the field will go off line. Once the fields are down, I can begin an uplink to Astronema's computers and find out exactly where Serpentera is, then send them false information. Because that base transmits subspace communications to the entire Dark Alliance, all the entire Alliance will have false information. That way, even if we don't destroy the base, they'll be on a wild goose chase looking for Serpentera," he explained.

"Good work William," Tommy said.

"Tanya, you should take one of the shuttles and wait on standby. Once Astronema finds out what we're up to, she'll no doubt have the teleportation and main engines on the Megaship targeted. You can stay cloaked, and as long as you're at a dead stop, there won't be an ion trail for them to detect. Use the teleportation systems on board the shuttle to get us out of there," Andros explained.

"Got it," she said.

"William, you have to stay here to make sure you can upload the information into the computers on that base. Once you have, you can join us on the surface,"

"Understood,"

"Tommy, you, Katherine and Adam take the escape pods down to the surface, but don't make a move until the explosion. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting captured,"

"We're on it,"

"Good luck to all of you, and may the power protect us all," Andros said.

Zolara stood in front of the control panel, watching a small flashing light as it moved across the screen. Going over the readings, she was able to determine that it was the real Phantom Ranger's energy signature, and he was on his way to Earth.

"What have you found?" Darkonda asked, walking into the room.

"The Phantom Ranger has crashed on Earth."

"What is his location?"

"Angel Grove, California."

"He is attempting to contact the Turbo rangers. We should send a…"

"Don't be so naïve. As long as Divatox is on Earth, the rangers will not be able to leave. His attempts to warn them will be futile. Assuming he survived the crash, there is nothing he can do to prevent what we have planned here," she said.

"Are you certain? Astronema does not take defeat lightly."

"I'm certain."

Just then, the screen blinked off, and a red light began to flash. "A perimeter alert, someone is attempt to break into the complex," he said.

Zolara switched the camera angles, showing Andros standing outside the complex. "What is he trying to prove coming here alone? He knows he can't get in here until the force field is lower, so what…" she paused. "Wait, he's up to something."

"But what?"

"I don't know. Move in to intercept and capture him. If he tries to escape, destroy him on sight."

"It will be my pleasure," Darkonda said, walking away.

"This is disturbing," William sighed, staring at readings on one of the on-board computers.

"What is it?" Tanya asked, walking up behind him. She glanced at the readings, but it was difficult for her to determine what they meant.

"Remember the explosion at the Command Center when we originally found the Zeo Crystal?"

"Of course?"

"That explosion prevented me from being able to the gold ranger powers. I was concerned that my body would reject the Zeonizer as well, so I ran a spectro-analysis to find out. My body can withstand the energy, but without the Eltarian crystal in place, the morphers won't be able to hold their power for very long," he said.

"What will happen?"

"The morphers will tap into our life energy, and we continue to use the power for too long, it will…"

"Oh God, we have to warn the others," Tanya said.

"According to my readings, our morphers have enough power to sustain us in our morphed form for a little over 20 minutes. Anything after that will put us in serious danger. If we try to warn them, we'll break radio silence and our cover will be blown. We'll have to wait until after the bomb has gone off and everyone is safely on board the shuttle before we inform them."

"But what if they morph before that?"

"Then the power will ultimately destroy them. You should get to your shuttle and wait, Andros is in position," he said.

Tanya sighed, walking out the room.