Koulagirl -- the fight scenes in the last chapter were actually really difficult to write, so I'm glad you liked them. The fight scenes get steadily cooler as the story progresses, so without further adue...

Chapter Four

Before either of them could react everything went blindingly white, and both Ian and Brendan felt the sensation of falling quickly through an empty, bottomless void. This only lasted for a few seconds, and before long, they both felt solid ground form beneath their feet, and the world took shape around them.

The markets, park and city had all disappeared. Looking around, the Grey and Aqua Rangers were suddenly standing on a sparse windswept field. On one side, a crumbling rocky wall towered over them, the cliff curving around to open plains in the distance, while a few metres away on the opposite side was a sharp drop, the ground sloping steeply down into a scraggly, overgrown forest.

"Whoa," said Brendan, shaking his head and blinking away the bright light before turning to Ian. "Are you okay?"

Ian nodded. "I think so," he replied. "What just happened?"

Brendan shrugged and raised his communicator, but tapping the top button produced only static. "Can't reach the Command Centre," he said. "This keeps getting better and better."

Ian tried his own communicator. "I can't teleport either," he said, lowering his wrist. "So where on Earth are we?"

Glancing past the edge of the cliff beside them, Brendan followed the view to the horizon - his expression fell, and after a few seconds, he reached across and tapped Ian's shoulder. "I think we're a bit beyond that."

Ian turned to see what had caught Brendan's attention, and immediately stepped back in shock.

With the sun behind them either rising or setting, the Rangers couldn't miss the two moons hanging in the sky just over the horizon, the pale discs reflected in the stormy ocean below. But something else immediately caught their attention - between the Rangers and the endless black sea sprawled an ancient stone city. The city looked to have suffered some catastrophic past calamity - empty, silent and deserted, its buildings and towers lay in crumbling ruin, broken and shattered long ago, while the city's high stone walls were little more than rubble. Buildings which weren't destroyed were overgrown with vines and plants, and they saw that some sections of the city had been totally reclaimed by the forest. At some point in the past the city must've been a grand metropolis, but now it appeared to have been abandoned to the elements for centuries.

Brendan let out a low whistle. "There's something you don't see every day," he murmured.

Ian nodded, suddenly realising where they were. "We're on Horath," he said. "That's Azhron, it has to be."

Brendan turned to him. "Do you suddenly feel really alone, or is it just me?"

Ian shook his head. "The others will be here soon, right?" he said. "They'll figure out where we are, they'll have to."

"I guess Callan took over the city after he killed Varian," Brendan said. "He had the Shadow Knights with him, after all, and check it out," and he pointed to a huge building in the middle of the city.

"The palace," nodded Ian. "Just about the only building still standing."

Brendan turned back to Ian to reply, but something in the distance suddenly caught his attention. "Uh, Ian? We might have a problem..."

The Grey Ranger turned to look - on the field past the high rocky cliff, a familiar-looking figure dressed all in grey was leading an army of what looked to be hundreds if not thousands of Shadow Knights straight across the plains towards them.

"Now I feel alone," Ian nodded.

"The Shadow Knights must've been waiting for Callan," Brendan said. "We were supposed to arrive with him, but the funky teleportation worked in our favour."

Ian shook his head. "We can't fight them all at once and deal with Callan," he said, then paused. "But they can't teleport either, can they?"

"What are you thinking?"

"Look at Azhron," Ian said, looking down to the city in the distance. "We can lose them in the city, at least until the other Rangers get here. We just need a head-start," and he turned to the high rocky cliff beside them. "Here, take my blade-blaster."

Brendan reached across and unholstered Ian's sidearm with his right hand, taking his own blaster in his left, before following Ian's aim as the Grey Ranger raised his Power Blasters to the cliff-face.

"Let's rock this world," Ian said, and with that, they both fired, four side-by-side blasts punching through the cliff and throwing up a billowing cloud of dust, the two Rangers carving the blasts down the cliff-face before letting their blasters fall. For a half-second, nothing happened - then, with a slow rumble, the top half of the cliff began tumbling forward, the rockslide gaining momentum every second, the faraway rumble quickly growing into an earth-shattering roar as thousands of tonnes of rock crashed down the cliff-face, the entire field shaking under the avalanche. But it worked - the army's path towards the two Rangers was steadily being blocked by fallen rubble.

Even as the stones continued to fall, Ian turned back to Brendan, the Aqua Ranger handing him back his side-arm. "They're not gonna be risk a climb, no way," he said. "Not with all that bulky armour."

"Awesome," said Brendan, then glanced back to the city in the distance. "Let's move!"

Ian nodded, and following in the path of another Grey Ranger six hundred years earlier, the two Rangers turned and raced down towards the ruined city.

The castle doors flew open and slammed back against the wall behind them, the entire room shaking as Callan stepped through the archway into the entry hall, coming to a halt and lowering his blasters at the obstacle suddenly before him.

At least a hundred of Varian's Shadow Knights stood assembled in the hall, blocking his path forward. A knight in the centre of the room gave the order, and as one, the entire assembly raised their weapons and leaped towards him.

Without a second of hesitation, Callan charged towards the army, the soldiers striking out for him as he approached - spinning under the blows, he struck away an opponent on either side, sending a third back with a blow to the chest before blocking a high kick, launching the knight into the air with a powerful uppercut and continuing forward. Blocking and striking away every blow that fell towards him, Callan continued on through the entry hall as nothing but a blur of motion, moving forward with every step and flattening adversary after adversary as each Shadow Knight fell towards him and was lightly struck away. Finally, a trail of broken and beaten opponents behind him, Callan reached the end of the hall and broke down the doors with a kick.

The second chamber was empty of Shadow Knights, but Callan immediately saw that it had not been left unguarded - both Xerxes and Taltos stood facing him down.

Taltos stepped forward, raising his twin daggers. "We should've killed you when we had the chance," he buzzed.

Callan nodded. "Yes," he replied simply. "You really should've."

Xerxes' cool red eyes narrowed, his forked tongue flashing between jagged fangs. "Your hubris will cost you," he hissed, raising his clawed hands. "Kill him!"

With that the two monsters charged towards the Grey Ranger, Xerxes slashing out with his claws. Standing his ground, Callan raised his two Power Blasters and fired - the blast slammed into Xerxes and lifted him off his feet, sending him crashing back through a window in an explosion of glass where he immediately toppled out of sight. Callan spun back to Taltos as the second general attacked - racing along the wall, Taltos leaped down towards him, blocking a blast with his left dagger and slashing with his right. Callan stepped around the move and sent the monster crashing with a kick as he passed, and even as Taltos regained his footing, Callan aimed his blasters for the roof above Taltos' head and fired - with a roar like thunder, the ceiling came crashing down, the monster vanishing as half the room collapsed around him.

And with no-one left before him, Callan lowered his blasters and continued. There was no force in the galaxy that could keep him from his goal now, not a one.

"So it was all a set-up?" asked Teresa, once we'd returned to the Command Centre and demorphed, joining Billy and Tommy. "Nothing but an ambush?"

Zordon nodded. "An elaborate trap to draw us into the open and isolate Ian from the rest of the group," he replied. "With that accomplished, Callan could transport Ian anywhere he wanted, and guarantee we wouldn't interfere."

Sarah shook her head. "Why didn't you warn us?" she asked.

Zordon paused for a second, and I saw his gaze flicker down to Jason for a brief second. "I did not realise their intentions until too late," he replied softly. "But at least we received a small piece of luck - wherever Ian is, Brendan is with him."

"Were you able to get a lock on their teleportation trail?" asked Billy.

Alpha nodded. "Affirmative," he replied. "Tracking them was difficult because of the magic Rita employed, but we were able to follow their trail to the planet Horath."

"Callan's home turf," nodded Kim. "Of course."

"They'll be in Azhron," said Trini, looking around. "Where else?"

"I agree," said Zordon. "Given Callan's control of the Shadow Knights, that seems very likely indeed."

"But that's great though, isn't it?" said Zac, glancing from Zordon to the rest of the group. "We know where they are, let's go rescue them."

"Ayeyiyi," began Alpha. "If only it was that simple Rangers. Remember what Zordon said yesterday - we can't monitor the planet's surface and Horath is currently beyond our reach anyway."

Zordon nodded. "Indeed, something is actively blocking our scanners and interfering with our teleportation," he said. "The computers detected a signal being broadcast into Horath's atmosphere from somewhere on the planet's surface."

Teresa glanced around. "Well how long until we can get there?"

"Two hours," Alpha said. "I'm sorry Rangers, but the planet won't move back into range for another two hours, which is when the nearby stars will be..."

"Two hours?" I repeated. "We have to wait for two hours until we can do anything?"

Zac nodded. "That's crazy, we can't just sit here doing nothing."

Sarah looked up to Zordon. "What about the zords?" she asked. "The Pterodactyl and Rhamphorynchus zords, I mean. What about them?"

Zordon shook his head. "While zords are certainly capable of interplanetary travel, at top speed it would still take them the better part of a week to reach Horath from Earth," he replied.

"So what, we just sit here spinning our wheels for two hours?" asked Scott. "No way. There has to be something we can do."

Zordon paused, deep in thought. "We may be able to reach them through the communicator channels," he said finally. "The communicator network is fairly new, and it might be successful because we've never tried it before. But until Alpha can patch through a link to the planet's surface, I'm sorry Rangers. I'm afraid all we can do right now is wait."

"Hey, watch out here," said Brendan, climbing around an unstable boulder. Turning back, he took Ian's glove and helped the Grey Ranger pass.

"Thanks," Ian nodded, and they continued, the crumbling city wall only a short distance away. The sun had risen as they'd walked, so it had been morning when they'd first arrived. They'd made good time covering the distance between the mountain and the city, and were now passing through what had once been the farming suburbs outside of Azhron. Long since deserted, the buildings and farms were now little more than rusting, decaying ruin.

"No problem," Brendan replied.

Ian turned to him. "I wonder if we even can twist our ankles while we're morphed."

Brendan shrugged. "I guess so," he said. "I mean, we don't break but we can still bend."

The pair came to a stop, the city wall rising above them, and glancing around, Ian spotted a hole in the wall at ground level, half-hidden by leaves and vines. "Over there," he pointed.

Brendan nodded. "Still no sign of Callan and the scout troop of death, either," he said, glancing back up to the hills behind them. "I'd say we lost them."

"For now," Ian said. "C'mon," and they quickly crossed to the gap in the wall, brushed the undergrowth out of the way and climbed through.

The two Rangers emerged in a small square, strewn with rubble all overgrown with weeds. The fronts of several nearby buildings remained standing, appearing to be held up by nothing more than the twisting vines wrapped around them, the empty windows showing a city of ruins behind and the blue sky above. The square was totally deserted, even lacking the sounds of birds or other animals. There was only the two Rangers, the empty, alien landscape, and the total eerie silence, oppressive and unnerving.

"Guess this is a bad neighbourhood," Brendan said, then added brightly. "Bet there's a Subway in here somewhere."

Ian smiled. "Why do I have this feeling I'm being watched?" he said.

"I'm getting that vibe too," Brendan nodded. "Let's keep moving," and the two Rangers continued on, crossing the square and following an ancient cobbled street further into the city, keeping totally silent but for their footsteps and beating hearts.

After a few minutes, Brendan turned to Ian. "I'm sorry, by the way," he said. "For your first afternoon, back in the Command Centre, where I said we'd kill you if you said 'no' to us."

Ian laughed. "That's okay," he replied with a smile, "I think at that point I needed the laugh."

"I just really have a thing about awkward moments," Brendan said. Ahead of them, a stone tower had collapsed across the road, the rubble blocking their path forward, so reaching an intersection, they turned left towards the city centre.

"I wonder what this place looked like before, you know?" asked Brendan.

"Probably spectacular," Ian said, glancing around at the ruins on either side of them. "I just can't believe we're actually standing on another planet. I mean, this is pretty incredible."

Brendan nodded. "Scott and Peter were telling me, on their second adventure they had to travel to a desert planet somewhere to rescue a wizard from Rita," he said. "I'm glad I don't have to feel left out of the club anymore." Ian laughed, and Brendan continued. "So where are we heading, anyway?"

"Not much of a plan," Ian replied. "But I figure we can find a building that's still reasonably solid and hide out until help arrives or until our communicators start working again. Zordon did say teleporting to this planet was tricky."

"Works for me," Brendan replied, but hearing a noise in the distance that definitely wasn't crumbling masonry, he held up his hand for Ian to stop. "What is that?" he asked softly, straining his ears - suddenly recognising the sound, his eyes went wide.

Footsteps...

"C'mon, we need to hide," he said quickly - glancing around quickly, he saw an alcove in the ruins of a building a few metres away hidden from view by pieces of fallen masonry. Racing over, they leaped behind the alcove and tried to make themselves as small as possible, holding their breaths in tense silence.

As they listened, the noise grew steadily louder, and they heard a troop of Shadow Knights round the corner before continuing down the street the two Rangers had just been following. They waited in silence as the soldiers passed only a few feet away, and only when the footsteps had totally faded did they turn to each other.

"That was way too close," whispered Brendan.

Ian nodded. "Callan must've second-guessed us," he said. "There are probably troops all over the city, looking for us."

"We got lucky," Brendan replied. "But we can't stay here. We need to..." but his voice trailed off as another sound reached them, a different sound than the one before.

This sound was the six-chime tone of their communicators.

"Rangers, I've got them!"cried Alpha triumphantly, his metallic voice echoing through the Command Centre. As one, everyone in the room raced over to crowd around him.

"Alpha, way to go!" cried Kimberly.

The speakers on the console suddenly crackled to life. "Guys?" came Ian's voice. It sounded quiet and faraway, like he was shouting to us from across a great distance, and we all strained to listen. "Are... there? I can barely... you."

"Ian!" I shouted. "Ian, we're here! Where are you?"

"Is Brendan with you?" asked Zac. "Is he okay?"

"Brendan's here with... both okay," Ian replied, his voice growing fainter, the static-pauses growing painfully longer. "We're... Azhron, on Horath... hiding out from... Knights are everywhere..."

"Alpha, what's happening?" asked Sarah.

"Ayeyiyi, I've got them but I don't know how to keep them," Alpha replied.

"Try increasing the frequency," said Billy, as they both began furiously punching keys.

"Ian, if you can hear us, we're coming to get you, okay?" said Teresa. "We're not far away, we just need some time, but we will be there."

"... going to find... hide out anyway," Ian replied. "But there was something... saw Callan and... the book of Hades to Rita... don't know if... means any... soon..." And with that, Ian's voice faded away completely, and we were left with nothing but static.

"Ian," I said softly. "Come back."

"Alpha, can you get their signal back?" asked Scott.

"I'm trying," Alpha replied, "but ayeyiyi, they're so far away..."

Trini sighed and sank back. "I just feel so helpless," she said.

"At least we know they're okay," said Kim. "And we guessed right - they're in Azhron."

"What was that book that Ian mentioned, though?" Scott asked, looking up to Zordon. "The book of... Hades, was it? What was that about?"

Zordon shook his head. "I'm honestly not sure," he replied. "Although I know that I've heard that name before. Why does that sound so familiar?"

"It sounded like Callan gave it to Rita, whatever it was," said Sarah.

Zordon nodded. "Indeed," he said. "Alpha, please continue trying to establish a teleportation link-up with the planet's surface. And in the meantime, I think we need to consider something important we've so far overlooked," and he gazed around the room, suddenly thoughtful. "What exactly is Rita getting out of this."

The next ninety minutes passed with agonising slowness, made all the worse by the tense silence that filled the Command Centre. Tommy was sitting quietly over by the wall, Kimberly beside him knowing something was wrong but unsure how to ask. Jason, who hadn't said a word since we'd gotten back from the markets, had left the Central Chamber for the training room down the hallway, and while Billy and Trini helped Alpha at the control panels, the rest of us paced anxiously behind them.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Zordon spoke. "Rangers, if you could all return to the Central Chamber," he said. "I believe we have something."

Jumping to our feet, everybody immediately gathered together under Zordon's plasma tube, while Alpha continued working by the side of the room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jason silently step into the room and join us.

"You've found Brendan and Ian?" asked Teresa hopefully.

"Not yet," Zordon replied, "but they're not why I called you in. A few minutes ago, Rita herself left the moonbase, and our computers followed her trail to the snowfields of the planet Triforia."

There was a second of silence. "That's weird," said Kimberly. "She has to know we're looking for Ian and Brendan. Now would be the perfect time to attack."

"Unless it's something important," I said. "Which is probably really bad for us."

"Exactly," Zordon nodded, and he was about continue when Alpha suddenly burst into a fresh new fit of 'ayeyiyi's and spun around to the group.

"Rangers!" he said quickly, "I've managed to reestablish a link to Horath. We have a window of five minutes to get you there!"

"Great work Alpha," said Sarah. "Way to go."

"Well what are we waiting for?" asked Zac. "Let's roll!"

"You'll need to split up," said Zordon. "Peter and Jason, follow Rita to Triforia, and see whatever it was she wanted. Take the Tyrannozord in case you run into trouble. It will be cold, but your suits should protect you from the extreme weather. We'll upload all the data we have into the Tyrannozord's onboard computers."

"We're not going to run into any trouble from the locals, are we?" I asked.

Zordon shook his head. "The snowfields are completely absent of life, and we'll let the planet's crown prince know you're coming..."

"Four minutes!" called Alpha.

"Everyone else, Billy and Tommy included, head to Horath," Zordon continued. "It'll take too long to manually search for Ian and Brendan, but when we reached them earlier, we managed to get a lock on whatever it is disrupting planetary teleportation. We're going to get you as close as we can to that technology, and once you destroy that..."

"Ian and Brendan will be one button press away," nodded Trini.

"Exactly," Zordon said. "Good luck Rangers. May the power protect you."

"Awesome," I said, "let's go save our friends. C'mon," and everybody reached for their back pockets. "It's morphin' time!"

Jason and I soon saw that the Triforian snowfields were very aptly described. The entire landscape of mountains and valleys was covered in a thick layer of powdery white snow. Every so often, looking closely, I could see glimpses of dark cavern entrances or impossibly tall sheer cliffs that the snow couldn't fall on, but apart from that, there was only white that stretched for miles under a brilliantly-clear blue sky. In brilliant contrast to its surroundings, the magnificent red and silver Tyrannozord ambled gracefully through the snow-covered hills with Jason and I in the control room, the zord sending up a huge cloud of white powder with every colossal footstep, its armour sparkling under the frosty glare of the alien sun.

"So," I said, sitting in the zord's cabin and watching the scenery pass as Jason guided the zord over the landscape, "we're on another planet again."

In the front seat, Jason nodded and continued gazing out the window deep in thought, only half his attention on the controls before him. "Hmm."

I glanced back to him and continued, determined to fill the silence that had hung over us since we'd left Earth. "Talk about from end of the spectrum to the other, though," I said. "At least Nerimos was deserted. It sounds like there's a whole civilisation on this planet, and..."

"I'm sorry, Peter," Jason said suddenly, looking back over his shoulder. "About before when Staghorn attacked me. I never thanked you and I should've. I'm sorry."

I paused. "Oh. That's okay," I replied. "I knew you meant to. You can just be a little single-minded at times, that's all."

Jason nodded and turned back to the front, but I knew I couldn't let the opportunity go. This was the most he'd said all morning, and remembering what Zac had said yesterday, I leaned forward. "Seriously, Jason, are you okay?" I asked. "I mean I'm sorry for pushing, but I know something's really bothering you. A week ago a freak like Staghorn wouldn't have gotten close."

Jason hesitated, hit the 'autopilot' button, and swivelled his seat back to face me. "I guess I just let my guard down," he said, his gaze meeting mine. "Zordon was telling me something through my communicator, but for the first time ever, I had to stop and think about it - I didn't know whether I could trust what he was saying, I didn't know the right thing to do." He paused. "It's so easy going into battle when someone else is calling the shots, you know, telling you what needs to be done. Everyone looks to me to know that stuff automatically, right?" I nodded, and he continued. "So what happens if I don't know?"

Through the windows I watched the Tyrannozord cross over a high ridge between two gigantic peaks before continuing down the sloping valley on the other side. I couldn't shake the feeling that Jason was confessing a very private secret, showing me a side of him that nobody else even knew existed.

"Well maybe you just need to trust yourself more," I said. "We all do."

Jason shook his head. "But that's not good enough. You shouldn't treat me like I'm the voice for everybody. And how do you know I'm always gonna get it right?" he asked, then sat back in his seat. "Is this what happens to heroes who've fought too much? You just start questioning everything, you can't even trust yourself?" He shook his head, and turned back to me. "I just don't want to reach the point where nothing's black and white any more, you know? The knowledge of right and wrong is all anybody really has."

I nodded. "I don't think that happens to everybody," I said. "For what it's worth, I know I haven't been doing this for as long as you have, and I know I'm still not that great at it, but you're a good person Jason, and even when the entire world's against you, you'll still have me. I promise."

Jason looked up, hearing the sincerity of my words, and his mouth curled into a smile. "Thanks," he said. "That means a lot."

I nodded. "It's what I'm here for," I replied, but glancing out the window, I caught sight of a black dot against the side of a mountain several kilometres away. "Hey, I think I can see it..."

Jason turned back to the snowfields. "Yep, that's where we're heading," he said, his voice stronger. "Should only be a couple of minutes."

I leaned forward to watch the cave approach, but something else was on my mind.

"Jason," I began, "you know the book that Callan gave Rita? Well I was thinking about this. In Greek mythology, the word 'Hades' has two meanings. It refers to Hades the god, brother of Zeus and Poseidon of course, but it was also sometimes used to refer to the whole Underworld itself."

"It's good to have someone who knows their mythology," Jason started, but stopped as he saw a line flashing on the screen before him. "Okay, we're here," he said, and he brought the zord to a stop right outside the cave I'd seen earlier. Getting up out of his seat, he turned back to me. "Let's go."

We quickly climbed down through the zord's interior, emerging through a small panel on the zord's right leg. Stepping out into the snow, I instantly felt the blistering cold chill me to my bones, and my boots sank down into the snow up to my knees. Behind me, Jason emerged from the zord and immediately felt the cold as well.

"Yeesh," I began, my teeth chattering, "Weren't our suits supposed to protect us from the temperature?"

"They are," Jason replied, shivering. "Imagine how cold it would be without them. C'mon, let's get inside," and we raced through the snow towards the cavern entrance, taking twice as long as we should have from having to wade through the deep snowdrift. The cavern entrance was about fifteen feet in diameter, with stalactites and icicles hanging over it, several of which were now lying on the ground a few steps inside the entrance. We charged inside and stopped a short distance in, taking a minute to catch our breaths and thankful to be out of the cold.

The cavern extended on for several metres, and we soon saw that the walls were lit with flaming torches. Summoning our swords, we followed the tunnel deeper into the mountain, but within a few metres the tunnel began to widen into a gigantic cavern, with flaming torches all around the cavern walls and two huge stone pillars side-by-side in the centre of the cave. Coming to a stop, Jason and I took a step back in awed silence, gazing around the giant cave. It was incredible, an unreal sight. But as we looked closer, we could see that all along the walls were stone inscriptions, pictures and words carved into the rock. In the centre of the room, a stone table sat between the two columns, deep in shadow.

"Whoa," I said, slowly walking towards the cavern walls, my footsteps echoing on the stone floor, "this is amazing." I lightly traced my fingers over the stone carvings, written in an alien language that I couldn't hope to understand.

"I don't even know where to start," Jason murmured, looking around the cave. Reaching down to his belt, he unclipped the scanner Alpha had given us before everybody had left earlier that morning and held it up, aiming the lens towards the wall he was facing and hoping there'd be enough light. "This is as good a place as any," and he lightly pressed the small button on top of the device. Instantly, the scanner captured the image of the wall and transferred it to the computers inside the Tyrannozord waiting outside.

Jason continued around the cave, deciding that too many pictures couldn't be a bad thing, taking as many pictures as time would allow. "What do you suppose all these things mean, anyway?" he asked.

Across the cave, I shrugged. "Beats me..." I said, but suddenly, I spotted something carved onto the wall before me, and did a double take. "Jason, get over here, quick!"

The Red Ranger immediately sprinted across the cave towards me. "What is it?" he asked, the second he'd reached my side. "What did you see?"

"That," I replied, pointing to the wall. At about eye level was a large picture of what looked like a gate of some kind, but Jason immediately saw what had surprised me - underneath the picture of the gate was a line of circles with the fourth circle highlighted, and beneath that carving was what looked to be a map, an outline of a coastline with a headland drawn in great detail.

"That's our solar system," I said, realising what I was looking at. "There's the sun, Mercury, Venus and Earth..."

"And that's the Australian eastern seaboard," continued Jason. "If I'm reading this right, these arrows here point straight to where Caloundra is."

"Damn," I breathed, as Jason raised the scanner and took several shots of the wall. "Even with everything else, I am so freaked out right now. This is just... damn."

Jason nodded, but as he stepped back to take some more scans, he bumped into the stone table in the middle of the room. "Hey," he began, turning to the table and looking down, "I think I've got something." Crossing the room, I saw that the tabletop contained more strange writing, and was covered by about an inch of grey dust. But at one place, there was a clear outline showing the table underneath. No dust.

"There was something here," Jason said, "something on the table. And judging by the amount of dust on everything else, it was only moved recently. Like about an hour ago."

Leaning forward, I reached down and traced the outline, smudging the dirt on my white glove. "It looks like a key," I said, "one of those thick medieval keys."

Jason turned to me, and I couldn't mistake the fearful tone to his voice. "Remember what you said earlier about the word 'Hades'?" he asked. "If Rita stole a key from this cave, what kind of doorway is that key going to open?"

There was an eerie silence as I collected my thoughts, the cave suddenly a lot darker and creepier. "I've got a bad feeling about this Jase," I said.

The Red Ranger took one final look around the cave. "I think we've got everything we came for," he said. "We need to get this back to Zordon and Alpha, like now."

Scanning the roadway from behind a crumbling stone column, Brendan quickly beckoned Ian over, and they dashed across the street and disappeared into the maze of stone ruins on the other side.

"Maybe we lost them?" Brendan asked, as the two Rangers climbed through what had once been either a temple or a theatre. "I mean, we haven't seen any knights for a good half-hour."

Ian looked up, and pointed through the crumbling roof to a stone tower a short distance away. "It's probably more to do with that," he said. "The palace isn't that far away. They probably aren't expecting us this close."

"Still think you can get through to Callan?" asked Brendan.

Ian shrugged. "Maybe, I'm not sure," he replied. "I just can't believe that a Ranger could go bad, you know?"

Brendan nodded. "Like you said, he's supposed to be one of the good guys," he replied. "But you know, maybe after a while it just got all too much to... hey, what's that?" he asked suddenly.

Ian turned to see what had caught Brendan's attention - a short distance away, a high stone wall was running parallel to the street they were following. Too tall to see over, the wall was overgrown with vines but still looked relatively intact, leafy green trees on the other side giving the impression of a walled, private garden.

"Whatever it is, it looks like it's still in one piece," Ian said. "C'mon, let's take a look."

"Through there," said Brendan, pointing to a gap in the wall a few metres away, and jogging over, the two Rangers knelt down and quickly crawled through to the other side.

"Wow," said Brendan, stepping out of the wall and climbing to his feet beside Ian. They'd guessed only half-right - the wall wasn't protecting a private garden but what had undoubtedly been a cemetery, many years ago. The graveyard was as empty and as overgrown as the rest of the city, but somehow the silence here was even more unnerving. The graveyard was larger than it appeared, the crumbling, vine-covered wall behind them stretching away with no apparent gate, ruined tombs and collapsed mausoleums visible in the distance.

But as they looked around, they realised that the cemetery wasn't simply overgrown but had been actively attacked sometime in the past. The graves were shattered and broken, the tombs nothing more than rubble. Metal grates were torn, bent and twisted, and across from them, several statues appeared to have been physically broken down, lying in ruin across the grass.

Brendan stepped forward and picked up a piece of stone lying on the ground. "There are scorch marks on this rubble," he murmured, throwing the stone away. "What happened here?"

Walking slowly down the aisles of graves careful not to stand on any, Ian shook his head. "No idea," he said, then glanced up towards the nearby palace. "But given that stone wall and how close we are to the palace, I'd say we're standing in the royal cemetery."

Brendan turned to him. "Really?"

"Yeah," Ian replied. "Aren't all kingdoms supposed to have them?"

"You think Callan did all this?" asked Brendan. "Still angry at Varian so he took it out on the graveyard?"

Ian was about to reply when something caught his eye at the back of the cemetery - two tombs side-by-side, still standing in the face of the devastation and ruin around them. In fact, as he stepped towards them, he saw they almost looked to have been restored and looked after.

"That's weird," he said. But as he approached the tombs, he noticed the gate to one of them was slightly ajar, and the glint of something metal was shining out from within. What is that? It looks like a suit of armour...

"Oh..."

But just at that minute, Brendan glanced up to the sky and saw something that was instantly recognisable. Eight streaks of multi-coloured light, noticeably missing red and orange, were shooting down towards the city.

"Ian, it's the team, they're here!" he cried. Ian spun back around to the Aqua Ranger as Brendan watched the teleportation streaks approach. "It looks like they're heading down towards the coast, on the other side of Azhron!"

"That's not too far away," said Ian, already racing back towards Brendan. "C'mon, let's go!"

Except for a few Shadow Knights, Callan had found the rest of the palace deserted, but as he reached the gathering hall outside the throne room, a dark figure suddenly stepped out of the shadows, blocking his path forward and raising a bladed staff.

"Grey Ranger," General Wolfbane snarled with a predatory growl. "Your power is impressive, but I assure you that you are not taking one step past me."

Callan shook his head. "Conquerors and their arrogance," he said, then raised his blasters. "You enjoyed too many victories monster, and your time ends now," and he fired.

The blasts whistled across the room but Wolfbane took to the air, leaping safely over the blasts, rolling to his feet and slashing his blade for the Grey Ranger. Callan ducked and the bladed passed over his head, blocking the blunt end of the staff before landing a rapid blow to Wolfbane's chest and kicking high. Wolfbane stepped around the blow and blocked a low punch before slashing low. Callan jumped back and over the blade and Wolfbane followed after him, swinging a wide vertical slash, but Callan raised his blasters and caught the blade in a shower of sparks.

Striking the weapon away, Callan forced Wolfbane back, ramming the right blaster into the monster's stomach and smashing the left into the beast's snout. Dazed from the assault Wolfbane staggered backwards, and Callan spun around and kicked the bladed staff out of the general's hands. Wolfbane watched as the weapon clattered to the ground, and Callan took aim and fired - at point blank range he could not have missed, the blasts slamming Wolfbane back through a wall and into an adjoining chamber, the monster vanishing from sight as the room collapsed around him.

His heart pounding in his chest, Callan turned back to the palace doors, and striding across the room, he threw them open.

The throne room lay before him - in the centre of the room with his sword raised stood King Varian, waiting.