Author's notes -- Ghost, thanks for your feedback :). I'm glad you liked Tanith and Grind, thanks for the compliments. They're two great characters.

Chapter Five

"Well this is where the signal was coming from," said Zac, glancing around the empty park and then back to Teresa and Brendan. "But the only thing out of place is us. What do you think?"

Teresa shook her head. "There's nothing here," she said. "Ultramarine's just trying to wear us down."

"Hey guys, wait up a sec," said Brendan, jogging back to glance down a grove of trees to the empty basketball courts in the distance. "Courts are deserted," he called. "Must be an away match."

Zac smiled. "Should we head back?" he asked. "Tell the others it was a false alarm?"

Without warning, there was a flash of blue light, and Ultramarine himself suddenly dropped down in the park only a few metres away from them.

"Like so much else," he growled, "how very wrong you are," and raising his wrist blades, the warrior charged towards them.

Zac raised his communicator. "Guys, ambush, Ultramarine's here at the park... whoa!" he cried, leaping to safety as Ultramarine slashed his wrist blades for the Black Ranger. Zac landed and found his footing as Teresa attacked, leaping into the air with a high jump kick. Ultramarine ducked back under the move and slashed with his blades as Teresa spun to face him - the White Ranger blocked the warrior's left hand and struck away his right, aiming a judo chop for the warrior's throat. But grabbing her fist, Ultramarine threw the White Ranger away, before turning to follow after Zac.

A few metres away, Brendan had watched as Ultramarine materialised in the park, and was just sprinting over towards the warrior when a golden form leaped towards him from the side, taking him to the ground. Rolling to his feet, Brendan summoned his sai with a thought, and gazed across to see who had blindsided him.

"Scorpina?" he asked, raising his sai.

"Your fight is not with them this day," Scorpina replied, "but with me."

Brendan nodded. "In that case, I'm all yours."

Scorpina sneered and blasted several fireballs at her opponent. Brendan dived forward over the blasts, and as they smashed harmlessly into the ground behind him, he rolled to his feet, taking to the air with a high kick. Blocking the Silver Ranger's boot, Scorpina slashed at him with her sword, but Brendan caught the blade with one sai and struck forward with the other. Scorpina quickly stepped back out of danger, before pressing forward and swinging her sword wildly. Brendan ducked under one slice and spun around a second, and when she swung again, he blocked her arm and forced her back with a low kick. Regaining her footing, Scorpina swung back in a wide horizontal arc, but Brendan raised his sai and struck the sword away.

"Having fun?" he asked.

"Oh I've just begun," she replied. "You're not so tough. Feel my sting!" And running her hand over her sword to charge the weapon, she spun it through the air towards Brendan.

Brendan stood his ground. "Shield!" he cried, and a wave of light blasted out from his chest, continuing forward in an ever-expanding radius. The energy wave met the sword in an explosion of sparks, and the sword dropped harmlessly to the ground.

Across the battlefield, Scorpina watched as her blade landed on the grass, and gritting her teeth, charged back towards her silver opponent, leaping forward with a high kick. But Brendan easily sidestepped the move, and as she landed and spun back to face him, he lashed out with a low kick before slashing again with his sai. She dodged the moves and retaliated with a roundhouse punch followed by a low foot sweep. He jumped up and over the sweep, lashing out with his sai as Scorpina spun to her feet. Scorpina blocked the blows, and kicking away a low swipe, aimed for Brendan's throat with one hand while using her spiked wrist guards as weapons. Brendan blocked one arm and wrapped his own hand around Scorpina's wrist, suddenly locking the two opponents in place, neither able to move.

"Not as easy as you thought, huh?" grunted Brendan.

The villainess smiled. "I must admit, Silver Ranger, I found you a good challenge," she replied. "But you've already lost this fight."

"I have?" he asked. "When were you gonna tell me? To you?"

She shook her head. "No, to Rita. Now!"

Brendan's eyes went wide, and the Silver Ranger threw Scorpina away, spinning around on the spot and raising his arms to summon his shield. But he was a second too late - even as he turned, Rita had already stepped out from behind a large tree, and leveling her wand at Brendan, she sent a massive blast of energy spiralling towards him. The entire area went up in sparks and smoke as the Silver Ranger was slammed backwards into a treetrunk. For a brief second Brendan saw stars, before everything went black and he collapsed forward onto the grass.

A few metres away, Ultramarine blocked a roundhouse punch and smashed Zac away from him, and glanced past the two Rangers to Rita and Scorpina. "Excellent," he nodded, and turned back to Teresa and Zac. "Thank you for being so accommodating," he said, and with that, the warrior teleported away.

"What was that about?" wondered Teresa, then glanced over her shoulder to where Ultramarine had been looking, only to see Rita and Scorpina standing over the unmoving figure of the Silver Ranger. "Brendan!"

The two Rangers immediately turned and raced over towards their fallen comrade, but before they were even halfway there, they could only watch helplessly as Rita grinned evilly and she, Scorpina and Brendan vanished from the scene.

"We need to find him, as soon as we can," said Teresa, glancing around the Central Chamber. "He needs us, we can't let him down..."

"And we won't," said Tommy, "but we're not going to be much use to him if we're completely freaked out."

Teresa turned to him. "Ultramarine has Brendan," she said. "I'm panicking." But hearing her own voice, Teresa sighed and looked away, raising her hand to her forehead. "I'm sorry Tommy, it's just... Brendan. We were there, we should've done something, helped him."

"Don't worry," Tommy replied. "We will get him back."

Zac nodded. "We won't lose another Ranger to him, and sure as heck not Brendan," he said. "Alpha, tell us where he is and who we have to hurt to get him back."

"Ayeyiyi Rangers," Alpha replied, "if only it was that simple. Wherever Brendan is, he's shielded from our scanners, otherwise we never would've lost him in the first place."

"Indeed," said Zordon. "He is beyond even my reach. Short of Ultramarine telling us, the only way we're going to locate him is a manual search of the entire Grid."

"But that'll take too long," I said softly. "I mean he's counting on us, we can't lose him." I paused, and lowered my gaze. "I can't."

Beside me, Jason rested a hand on my shoulder. "So we get moving and we find him," he said. "We can do this."

Sarah shook her head. "This just stinks," she said. "Ultramarine already has the prism, doesn't he? Why did he need to take Brendan as well? This just doesn't make any sense."

"We can ask him," I said. "Right before we rip his damn head off."

Teresa nodded. "I second that."

"Well maybe they..." started Scott, but was interrupted as Alpha burst into a fit of 'ayeyiyi's.

"Rangers!" the robot cried. "We have incoming! Billy, Trini and Kimberly are..." but even as Alpha spoke, three bright energy trails shot down through the ceiling, and the Blue, Yellow and Pink Rangers materialised in the centre of the room.

The Rangers immediately glanced around the Central Chamber, and Kimberly turned to Jason. "Where's Brendan?" she asked urgently.

"Ultramarine lured us out, ambushed us and kidnapped Brendan," Jason replied. "We don't know why."

"We do," said Trini. "And we're in big trouble."

Billy nodded. "We followed the trail from the collector's files and found the two heroes he fought, a skateboarding cult-hero and a time-travelling Martian fairy princess."

Dead silence followed, and Kim nodded. "Yeah, it's been that kinda day."

"The thing is, back on the island, we heard the collector wrong," Trini said. "He wasn't talking about a prism, he was talking about a prison. Ultramarine was after a power-up, yes, but he was never going to use the light in the Rainbow Prison. I realise how this sounds, but the light in that prison was alive."

Billy nodded. "Not alive in any sense we'd be familiar with, but conscious, self-aware. Sentient."

"Alive?" I repeated, with raised brows.

"Exactly," Trini said. "The collector used the prison to capture the light, which is the reason Ultramarine went after it. The prison is what he wanted all along."

"Why?" asked Teresa.

"Because that's how he's going to steal Brendan's powers," she replied.

There was a moment of stunned silence. "Are you sure?" asked Zac. "I mean... that's..."

"Positive," Billy replied. "It fits all parameters."

"It makes sense," nodded Trini.

Scott shook his head. "We can't let that happen," he said. "Can you imagine Brendan's power in the hands of Ultramarine? Definitely not good."

Jason nodded, and looked back to Trini. "What about the light itself? If Ultramarine was only after the prison..."

"When Ultramarine returned, Rita must've seen the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone," Trini replied. "Once Ultramarine had stolen the prison, she sent him after us, to steal Brendan's powers and weaken us if not beat us outright. It didn't even matter whether Ultramarine's plan worked or not, just so long as we weren't keeping track of Rita."

"Yeah, because Rita got exactly what she wanted all along," finished Kim. "Pure light."

Jason sagged back the control panel in disbelief. "I can't believe we missed it."

"What?" asked Tommy.

Jason turned back to us. "She's got pure light," he replied. "She's gonna go back to the Temple of Lothos, she's gonna try to open those gates again." He paused and lowered his voice, as if even the mere suggestion were enough to make it true. "And this time, she's going to succeed."

Rita grinned with evil delight as several putties lowered the prone figure of the Silver Ranger to the ground, resting him against the cave wall and chaining his wrists and legs to the wall.

"Excellent," Ultramarine said, standing beside her. "They didn't even suspect our true intentions."

"They probably still don't," Rita replied. The putties moved away and Rita leant down to lightly place the rainbow prison on a rocky table a few feet away from Brendan. Stepping back, Rita waved her hand and muttered a soft chant under her breath - seconds later, the air between Brendan and the Prison began to shimmer, a thin beam of shining light soon extending from the Silver Ranger to the cube.

"The prison is siphoning away his power," Rita nodded. "Now it's only a matter of time."

"And his power will come to me?" Ultramarine asked.

The witch nodded. "Your life-force is now connected to the prison," she replied. "When enough of the boy's power is contained within, it will spill over and you'll feel the immediate effects."

"And you?"

Rita motioned Goldar and Scorpina over to her. "We won't be staying," she said, reaching into her robs and withdrawing a circular glass bottle, corked and filled with a bright light that seemed to be alive. "I must say, Ultramarine," she continued, "it has been most satisfying working with you."

Her two generals reached her, and Rita looked back to Ultramarine. "I've already told Finster to send Rhinoblaster back into the city to keep the Rangers busy," she said. "As for us, the Temple of Lothos awaits," and Rita raised her wand. "Have fun my old ally," and the three teleported away in a flash of flame.

Ultramarine grinned triumphantly beneath his visor, and glanced back to the prison, which was growing brighter every second. "Fear not witch," he murmured. "For I most certainly will."