Disclaimer: To quote Chris Rock from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, "I think George Lucas gonna sue somebody." I don't own them. Don't sue me. All you'll get is a dirty sock and my younger brothers and, trust me, you don't want them.
RESTLESS WARRIORS
By Etcetera Kit
Chapter Twenty-Six: Phoenix Tears
Taylor looked up blearily from where she was protected by the large body of the sphinx. Five other people in yellow ranger suits were standing on the balcony. More yellow rangers? Had that web of dreams Maya had made actually worked? Her finger clutched at the warm, soft fur on the sphinx's body. It had the body of a large female lion and served well as a barrier between Taylor and the raging battle beyond her.
Would these rangers do what they had done—announce their color and team affiliation in the time-honored ranger tradition? Because the only ranger up there she recognized was Katie, the Yellow Time Force Ranger. And how had she gotten here? Wasn't she supposed to be in the year 3000 or something ridiculous like that? Taylor was confused and her head was starting to pound.
"Ninjetti—the bear!" the one in the yellow ninja outfit called.
"Zeo Ranger 2—yellow!" the one next to her in a normal yellow uniform, but with strange gold writing around the color and gloves called out.
"Yellow Space Ranger," a woman in another normal yellow uniform called. She had five colored squares across her chest… interesting.
"Time Force Yellow!" Katie called.
"Four!" the last woman with a helmet that looked like a bug called. "SPD Yellow Ranger!" She must be the new girl.
The five of them jumped down from the balcony, landing gracefully on the ground. All the goblins and demons cleared the way, lest they be crushed by flying Yellow Rangers.
The dark cloud at the ceiling began to swirl ominously and the lightening strikes began larger and not confined to the clouds. Lightening was streaking down into the temple, leaving black marks on the dirt floor where it struck. The strange cloud thing that Vypra was working on raising from the altar was becoming higher and larger. It was like she was channeling her energy into that creation and was losing. Sweat was on her brow and she was starting to look like she was in serious pain. Taylor didn't know that demons could feel pain.
Maya whirled around from the altar and said, "Ashley?"
At the same time, Kelsey said, "Katie?"
The woman who had announced herself as the Space Ranger ran forward, some sort of weapon out and hit Owling in the shoulder. He snarled—he was quite good at snarling. Katie ran forward, firing a couple shots from her chrono-blaster.
"Where are the others?" Ashley asked Maya as Kelsey and Katie temporarily took over battling the fairy gone bad.
Maya pointed to Taylor who was still behind the sphinx and Kira who was on the back of the unicorn. The unicorn was proving to be their best weapon with the way his horn was causing goblins and demons to squeak and run away. Eric, Conner and Tori were still doing their best against the demons on the balcony, those numbers having seriously thinned between the creatures and the other yellows.
"That is a unicorn," the new girl said.
"Uh-huh," Kira replied.
"Delta blaster!" the SPD Ranger called and pulled a small blaster from her belt.
Unable to stand watching the battle anymore, Taylor pulled her growl phone from her pocket and struggled to her feet.
"Where are you going?" the sphinx asked her.
"To help my friends," she replied. She pressed the morph button on her phone. "Wild access," she said into the phone. A few seconds later, she appeared morphed. She still felt weak and wasn't sure how long she would be able to stay morphed, but, hopefully, it would be enough. She pulled out her crystal saber, aware that the sphinx was following closely behind her.
The lightening strikes were now connecting with the weird cloud Vypra had created from the things that were on the altar. "Jareth!" she was screeching. "I need you."
Taylor wasn't sure how that demon managed to do it, but he appeared next to Vypra at the altar, closing his eyes and combining his energy with hers. His pale hands covered hers as the storm that was brewing in the temple seemed to grow.
"What the hell is that?" someone yelled.
"You don't want to know," Taylor muttered, moving forward with a pronounced limp. One of her legs had taken the brunt of her fall—nothing was broken, but she would probably have one impressive bruise when all was said and done. She picked up her crystal saber and aimed it at the pair at the altar. The shot hit Vypra in the shoulder and she was thrown back from the momentum.
"Vypra?" Jareth asked, as if he were not sure what hit her.
Vypra pushed herself to her feet and launched a bolt of energy at Taylor. She ducked it and it hit the wall behind her. More pieces of earth began to crumble precariously at the treatment it was receiving.
The Yellow Zeo Ranger was at her side, helping her back to her feet. Taylor nodded at the woman as she used the sphinx to steady herself even further. "Thanks," she said.
"No problem." Pulling out a small blaster, the woman fired at the altar. The shot hit the side of the stone and sparks flew, but nothing changed about what was happening.
"We need to combine forces at the altar!" Taylor called.
It was correct. The demons would not be stopped if intermittent shots were fired—something bigger needed to stop them. From the individual battles raging, she felt like their best chance was to work together. Stronger as one… It was time that the lesson all of them had learned at one point came together.
"Bring them down!" Kelsey yelled to the Pegasus, meaning to get Tori, Eric and Conner off of the balcony and down on the ground with everyone else. The large white winged horse flapped his wings, driving back the goblins and demons, before lowering himself so that Tori could scramble onto his back.
He took two more trips—once more for Conner and then Eric. When the Quantum Ranger landed safely on the ground with the others, he came over to her, lacing a supporting arm around her waist.
The others on the ground took that as a cue to try to move it closer to the altar. The demons began to close in on them from all sides as that move came into being. It was like they were forming a circle around them and nothing could break it. Where in the world were all these demons coming from?
"There's too many!" someone cried.
"You can't win," Owling said, smiling.
Eric hauled her up by her belt, keeping her from collapsing because of her injured leg. Any other time, she would have been insulted that Eric and a huge cat-like thing thought she needed protection, but now, she was grateful to have them around. He supported her against his side, using his free arm to fire his Quantum Defender.
"We need to combine weapons," Maya called.
"How?" someone responded.
Taylor aimed her crystal saber as best she could from her awkward position against Eric's side. He held out the arm that had his Quantum Defender and moved to aim the weapon better. Her teeth felt like they were being rattled from all his jostling, but it was that or end up in a heap on the ground behind the sphinx like before.
"Everyone fire their weapons at once," Taylor yelled.
There were several cries that produced weapons—among them were 'Quasar Launcher', 'Thundermax Saber', 'V-Lancer' and 'Star Slinger.' Taylor didn't have time to comprehend what was going on. Owling was still standing before them and a crowd of demons were behind them. This was now or never.
The yellows lined up—in order of seniority, like she, Kira, Kelsey and Maya had earlier. The woman in the yellow ninja outfit was at one end of the line, while the newbie with the bug helmet was at the other end. She found herself next to Eric with Katie on his other side. Tori stood next to her. She felt a pang of grief as she realized who should have been on her other side. Dustin… no… there would be time to grieve later. Now, they needed to take action against this.
She looked down the line. Weapons were held at the ready—various types of blasters, launchers and other weapons were brandished.
"Ready?" she yelled.
"Ready," was the response. All blasters that had been at the ready were now aimed at the pair of demons at the altar and the fairy standing before them.
"Fire!"
A blast of yellow lights, mingled in with red and blue erupted across the altar. Owling fell the moment it happened. Taylor couldn't be sure if he was truly dead or just stunned. His still form was the least of their worries.
"No!" Vypra shrieked as she was thrown backwards.
Jareth didn't say anything, but his stunned look was enough to prove that he hadn't been expecting them to combine forces.
Both demons were thrown away from the altar and a strong wind between the storms began to blow. It almost looked like it was intensifying.
"You fools!" Vypra cried. "I will have my revenge."
She leapt forward onto the altar just as the storm exploded. Light and bits of herbs and blood were flung in all directions. Eric pushed Taylor down to the ground and the noise she made was muffled as most of his weight came down on her without warning. A stream of light came up from the altar, illuminating Vypra for a moment before the entire thing collapsed.
Then, it imploded in on itself.
All was still and Vypra was nowhere to be seen.
"Did it work?" someone asked.
Kira peered up from where she was on the ground. Conner had thrown her to the ground when that last explosion occurred and his body was covering hers. She nudged him with her elbow, getting him to move so that she could breathe.
"Sorry," he muttered as he moved so he was next to her.
She sat up. The temple was in utter ruins. Blood and bits of herb stained the walls and all of the rangers' suits. The balcony was truly crumbling now—bits of it falling in a delicate dirt stream. All of the demons and goblins were gone. She picked up her blaster from where it had flown from her hands when the storms collided and collapsed. Then she got sight of her uniform.
While everyone else was covered in gunk, she had somehow excluded herself from the equation. "Yuck," she muttered. "Power down." Her suit disappeared and was replaced by her muddy, albeit cleaner, civilian clothes.
There was a lot of muttering of 'power down' and people began to appear in their civilian forms. Everyone was rumpled and dirty—no worse for the wear than usual. She blinked at the rangers who had just joined them. She vaguely recognized some of them from the archives that Doctor O kept, but the newest one—the one who had stood to the left of her and Conner—was one that she didn't recognize. She was wearing an SPD uniform which meant that she was, for all intents and purposes, a cop.
Maya stood up and walked slowly to the altar. The pink sweater that she had valued so highly was ruined—it was dirt and blood stained. She laid a hand on the altar, which was now blackened from the lightening and cracked down the middle. "Their ceremony could not complete with no one to control it," she said softly. "It is over."
Eric stood up and helped Taylor to her feet. "We stopped it?" Taylor asked.
Maya nodded, a sad smile over her lips. "I think we owe this victory to the other yellow rangers who came at the right moment to help us."
"Yeah, can we introduce ourselves?" the woman in the SPD uniform asked.
The Pegasus pushed past her and leaned over to nudge Kelsey. The Lightspeed Ranger absently patted the stallion before using his mane to pull herself to her feet. The unicorn was at her shoulder, his long, lethal horn in front, protecting. The phoenix flew down and landed gracefully at Maya's shoulder. The sphinx was still flanking Taylor, as it had been since she had been thrown against the wall. The other rangers were probably wondering where all these mythical creatures came from as well.
Maya leaned over and helped Tori to her feet. The Blue Wind Ranger had a combination of relief and sorrow on her face. She had been the closest to Dustin out of all of them and was going to be the one most affected by his death. The Galaxy Ranger tucked a piece of Tori's flyaway hair behind her ear.
"I am Maya," she said softly. No one was talking, so there was no missing her words. She motioned to Tori. "This is Tori. She was the Blue Wind Ranger."
"You were the Yellow Galaxy Ranger," the Space Ranger added. "I'm Ashley," she added. "Yellow Space Ranger." She paused and motioned to the two African American women in yellow that Kira vaguely recognized. "That's Aisha and Tanya—the Yellow Ninjetti and Zeo Rangers."
Conner got up and held out a hand to her. She accepted it and he hauled her to her feet—she had almost forgotten that Conner could pick her up and put her wherever he wanted, because he was a foot taller than her and a lot stronger. "Kira," she said, picking up the introductions for everyone who didn't know. "And that's Conner."
Taylor elbowed Eric in the chest, since he had an arm around her waist. He glared at her, before picking up the meaning of the gesture. "Eric," he said, then pointed to Taylor. "That's Taylor." He then picked out Katie and motioned to her. "That's Katie."
"Sure am," the Yellow Time Force Ranger agreed. She gave Eric an appraising look. "I wasn't expecting to find you here."
"It's all this one's fault," he said, hauling Taylor to a better standing position against his side. Taylor smacked him.
"Let me go," she growled.
Eric ignored her.
"Uh, Kelsey," the Lightspeed Ranger picked up.
That left the SPD officer. "I'm Z," she said simply. "You guys are all yellow rangers too?"
"I'm not," Eric said quickly.
"Neither am I," Conner added.
"No," Taylor said to Eric. "You're just the sixth ranger hanger-on who got into his Silver Guardians command position by stealing a morpher."
"There's still time for me to take back that ring," Eric threatened.
Kira gazed at all the yellow rangers. All of them were so different from one another, but they shared the yellow ranger legacy. She wondered how many of them had chosen to be rangers and how many had it dumped in their laps, like she and Conner had. The connections between the others showed. Kira thought to Dustin… he had been the connection she and Conner had had with previous rangers, aside from Doctor O. Now… she fought against the lump that was growing in her throat. They had let him down. They had promised to keep him out of harm's way and what had happened?
Conner gently pulled her into his arms. The tears began to flow as she laid her head against his chest. The reality of the situation was setting in. Before, they had been engaged in a battle and there hadn't been time to think about… what had happened. She looked up and saw that Conner was not in any better shape than she. He had known Dustin as well. She almost didn't want to look at Tori, to see what one of Dustin's best friends was feeling.
She glanced at the others anyways. Kelsey and Maya were comforting Tori. Taylor was still leaning against Eric, but she was no longer trying to get free of his grasp. Both of them were silent, pain and sorrow written over their features. Neither one of them would cry. Both of them would deal with their grief in their own way. The other yellow rangers looked a little lost—not sure what was happening among them. But no one spoke, out of respect. Kira suspected that the other yellows knew about what had happened to Dustin, because the web of dreams would not have been awakened until the point of death.
"Guys, I hate to bring this up," Eric said. "But where is Jareth?"
"Was he destroyed with Vypra?" Kelsey asked.
"No," Maya said slowly. "Vypra was destroyed because she willing jumped into that maelstrom. No… he's somewhere."
"Think we better find him?" Eric asked.
"No," Taylor shot back sarcastically. "Let's leave him to his own devices."
"Hey!" Conner said loudly. "None of that."
"Split up," Taylor said. "And make sure someone with you knows their way around this place halfway decently."
Conner dropped his arms from her waist in order to take her hand. They started off towards the small side room off the temple. Z and Ashley ended up coming with them. Kira imagined that Kelsey and Maya were still trying to take care of Tori, while Katie was going to stick with Eric and Taylor, the former of whom had been part of her ranger team. The temple was in complete shambles since the spell had not been completed.
Kira knew that she should have felt happy, because they had succeeded. This was something that the ninjas and the spirit realm would talk about for some time. And it had shown them the way in their lives. Some happiness should have been felt, but all she could feel was a heavy burden. They needed to take Dustin to the Wind Ninja Academy and they needed to inform his family and other friends about what had happened. No one wanted to perform that particular task.
Ashley had very motherly and caring presence. She didn't seem to feel the need to pepper anyone with questions. Z, on the other hand, seemed to be restraining herself from asking questions about… everything. Kira was happy that she was keeping quiet. She and Conner would have to talk so that Conner could hand the history down to their Red Ranger and keep the tradition going.
They were silent as they surveyed the staircase—it had somehow managed to survive the impact of the balcony crumbling and that explosion of power. Kira did not see any other doors or ways that Jareth could have escaped from here. The unicorn was still at her shoulder, his large warm body as comforting as the hold she had on Conner's hand. She was glad to have two beings that were fiercely protective of her. It almost made her wonder how long the unicorn was going to stick around.
"No!" someone cried from the main temple.
That seemed to be their war cry lately. Her and Conner exchanged a glance before turning and running towards the altar, with the unicorn, Z and Ashley close on their heels. They entered the main temple and came to a screeching halt.
Jareth was standing there. He had an arm around Tori with one of the scattered knives held just below her throat.
"Just back away and leave here," he was saying.
"Why?" Maya asked, holding her hands out and taking a step forward.
Jareth jerked Tori back. She cried out in fear and pain, the knife coming ever closer to her throat. No… she was not going to suffer the same fate as Dustin!
"You have disrupted my plan and my kingship!" he sneered. "See how all the goblins and demons under my command fled when the spell wasn't completed."
"Let Tori go," Maya said in a low voice. "She doesn't have anything to do with this."
"Yes well," he said quickly. "You've heard all the stories of goblins and demons and fairies kidnapping human babies."
"Yeah, we've heard them," Taylor replied. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Jareth jerked Tori backwards again, as if one of them would run up at any moment and try to take her from him. Owling was still on the floor below the altar.
"Let her go," Kelsey repeated.
"Oh, I'll let her go," Jareth said. "When she has safely delivered her baby and that child is under my control."
Kira's mind froze. Tori? Pregnant?To Be Continued...
Author's Note: I apologize for updating a day late. However, I was in the car for fourteen hours yesterday trying to get home for spring break. Then, there was the oh-so-wonderful task of getting the internet set up and... you all know the drill. Updates will come regularly from now on. Also, I do remember a question someone asked in the last round of reviews about why I had Aisha in the Ninjetti stuff rather than the norm. To answer, it was more to set her apart from Trini than anything else. If you guys have other pressing questions, e-mail me with like POWER RANGERS in the subject line and I'll get back to you!
