DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT THE DRAGON RANGERS AND THE PLOT

CHAPTER SIX: DARKNESS FALLS

In the lab of Mesogog's fortress, Dave found himself strapped to the same table Dr. Oliver was in the 'Back in Black' episode. "What the hell do you want?" he growled. "The stone." Mesogog said, his face inches from Dave's. Bad idea. Dave chose that exact moment to spit a loogie in Mesogog's face. With a roar of anger, Mesogog punched Dave across the face. A trickle of blood could be seen running from the corner of Dave's mouth. "You should know, the Black Shadow Dragon chooses its own master." Dave said, struggling against his bonds. "Oh really? Have you bonded with it yet?" Mesogog asked. Dave froze. How could he know all this about the Dreagon stones? It was impossible. "I thought as much. Now, are you going to give the stone to me?" Mesogog hissed. "You obviously didn't get Anthony's message from Zeltrax, did you?" Dave snorted. "What?" "He said that if you wanted our stones, you would have to take them from our dead bodies." Dave said spitefully, knowing something about the stones that Mesogog didn't: the stonesd had to be either found, given, or won in a battle to the death. To say Mesogog was furious would be an understatement.

Back at the Dragon rangers's house, Ian, who was meditating, could hear avoice, whispering silently as the wind rustling through the autumn leaves. Ian's eyes snapped open, feeling a strange power flowing through him. Downstairs, Anthony and Justin felt it too. The third stone was bonding with Ian. Then they felt something else: the red stone, it was bonding with Derak! Anthony looked at Justin, who was racking his brain trying to figure out what was up. Then he remebered: the Red and Blue Dragons were twins, so they bonded together, like when the Dragon Ranger's fought: together, or not at all. Derak and Ian came downstairs, both looking like they had just ran a marathon. The phone suddenly rang, shattering the silence. Anthony picked up the phone. It was Kira.

Anthony: yeah?

Kira: is Dave there?

Anthony: I thought he was with you.

Kira: No, he left while I was talking to Conner.

Anthony abrubtly slamed down the phone, and looked at the rest of his team. "Mesogog has Dave." he said, a feeling of dread falling over the room. There was only one reason he would only take Dave: he had discovered which stone he needed for whatever he was planning. "Looks like it's time to go to work, compadre." Justin said as they all pulled out their stones and held them out in front of them "It's morphin time!" they shouted in unison, and there were four flashes of light. They all stood there, looking exactly like Anthony, except differant colors and weapons. "Let's do it." Ian said, anger in his voice. Mesogog had unknowingly envoked the considerable wrath of the Dragon Rangers by taking one of their own.

At Kira's house, she looked down at the phone, frowning. "What's wrong, Kira?" Conner asked. "Something's wrong. As soon as I asked where dave was, he hung up." she explained, pacing back and forth. Their communicators went off suddenly. "Yeah, Dr. O?" Conner said into his. "Get over here now. We have a bit of a situation." Dr. Oliver said, sounding slightly panicked. Conner looked at Kira, and nodded. The two ran outside and got in Conner's car, and drove to the command center. As they entered, they saw on the screen, were four of the five Dragon rangers, fully morphed. "I know the lot of you are listening to me, so listen good. I'm only gonna say this once." Anthony began, with an edge of anger in his voice. "Mesogog has Dave, and we're gonna go get him, and make him pay. If you get in our way, well, let's just say the affair with the white dino ranger will look like kiddie play." he growled. With that, the screen went blank.

Trent looked at Dr. Oliver. "What did he mean?" Tommy sighed. "Mesogog took one of their comrades, and their going to get him back. I pity anything that gets in their way right now." he said, turning toward Ethan. "Ethan, I want you to get a lock on the nearest invisiportal and-" he began, when trent interrupted. "There's one in my dad's study." he said, slightly worried about the reaction. Tommy nodded. "Ethan, see if you can get a lock on one of their communicators." Ethan went to a computer, and got to work.

Back at Mesogog's palace, Dave was beginning to resent the Dreagon gem, and was seriously considering just handing it over, when a female voice invaded his mind, sounding awfuly familiar. 'So that's it, Dave? Just gonna give up?' it tuanted. 'What else can I do?' he thought. The voice laughed cruelly. 'Listen to yourself. What else can I do?' it mocked. Dave was beginning to get sick of this already, and whoever it was knew it. 'Tsk, tsk. Impatient as always.' it chided. A sudden relization hit him right then. 'sis?' he thought. 'That's right. It's about time you stopped running from me.' her voice said. 'I wasn't running.' he said mentally. 'Then what were you doing?' she asked, not expecting the answer she got. 'I was trying to forget. You think it was easy watching my entire family die right before my eyes and not being able to do anything about it? No, you wouldn't. Afetr all, you always were the favorite.' he said bitterly.

Back at the command center, Ethan let out a cry of triumph. "I got it!" he yelled excitedly. "Patch me through." Tommy said, anxious to get this over with. "Who the hell is this?" Ian's voice came over. "We know how to get into Mesogog's palace." Tommy said. "Yeah? We're already in." came his response before the line went dead. They all looked at the screen to see them FLYING through the air, and blowing up the door. They heard Tommy. "How can they do that?" he asked, clearly remebering something from his earlier days as a ranger.

At the evil palace, all of hell seemed to have come out of hiding. There were dead tyrannodrones lying everywhere, as well as triptoids. Elsa and Zeltrax were currently engaged in battle with the blue Dragon ranger, Ian, who was weilding two daggers. The other rangers were dealing with the tyrannodrones and triptoids. "Is that the best you can do, you piles of mutant puke?" Ian asked savagely slashing, making both Elsa and Zeltrax break off their assualt again to avoid dying. "It would be wise to retreat right about now." Justin said as the rest of the team landed next to Ian, their weapons drawn. Elsa and Zeltrax both disapeared into an invisiportal, as the rangers walked confidently into the castle.

In the lab, Mesogog, took advantage of Dave's inner battle, and reached into his jacket pocket, and took the stone. With a savage roar of triumph, he clutched in his fist, feeling the energy within it. For some reason, it wasn't working. There was a massive crunching sound behind him. Mesogog spun to see the table in pieces, and Dave standing there, shaking in anger. "Give..It..Back.." he said, his voice shaking with as much anger as the rest of his body. Mesogog just laughed, and shoved Dave backwards. Or he ment to. In reality, Dave only moved a couple of inches before he swung his leg up into a roundhouse drop kick. Mesogog staggered backwards under the force of the blow, the pain evident in his eyes.

The stone suddenly began to glow brightly, casting shadows everywhere. Dave and Mesogog both looked at the stone. It was as if it was trying to choose between the two of them. "Be you the one who has found me?" a voice hissed from deep within the stone. Dave nodded as it floated over to him. Dave gasped in pain as it began to bond with him. "NO!" Mesogog shouted, trying to tear the stone away from Dave, only to hurled across the room by an unseen force. Dave clutched his skull like Justin had, as the spirit within the stone began to bond with him. As it finished, Dave felt a new presence in the room. Looking up, he saw one of the Power Ranger's oldest enemies: Lord Zedd. He was back. "I must thank you for freeing me from that stone, you fool!" he said with a sinister chuckle. Dave began to back away in horror, as if trying to make Zedd vanish. "No." he said. "No.."

Back at the command center, Tommy could only stare at the screen, in horrified disbelief. Zedd was back? How? Tommy could've sworn he had been destroyed by Zordon's wave of purity way back when Andros was the red ranger. "Dr. O, who is that guy?" Ethan asked. "That would be Lord Zedd. One of the first enemies of the Power rangers. I thought he was gone.." Tommy whispered, sinking into his chair.

In a random hallway inside the palace, Derak froze. "No..this can't be.." he said softly, his ability to sense the presence of others telling him of what was happening. "What? What is it?" Anthony asked. "A very evil presence has just appeared. I think its some one from the past." he said uneasily. The others froze. if he was right, the they were in big trouble. Whenever something like this happened, it had an unseen impact on the future.

Back in the lab, Lord Zedd raised his staff, and shot Dave with a massive blast of electricity, knocking against the wall. Cackling like a madman, he was unaware of Mesogog slowly getting off the floor. With an angry growl, he unleashed his mind wave thingy on Lord Zedd, who began to writhe and scream in pain, releasing his hold on Dave, who by some miracle of God, was able to get to his feet and limp out into the hall. As the door closed, he heard the sounds of battle raging. "Whoever wins, we lose.." he murmered as he limped off, clutching the black Dreagon Gem in his right hand, blood drippng from his palm, the stones sharp edge cutting deeper and deeper into his flesh. With an almost inhuman grunt, he teleported out, to a place he hadn't bee to in five years: the cemetary in his old home.

"Dave is no longer here." Derak said as the group advanced farhter and farther into the fortress, killing anything that got in their way. "Where is he?" Anthony asked, concerned. "I..don't know." Derak said sadly. He lost track of Dave's energy seconds ago. "You don't think he's..dead?" Justin asked. Ian bowed his head and began to think. Dave had just released an old evil from the stone, and was now injured. There was no doubt about that part. But where would he go? Inhaling sharply, he remembered Dave saying something about having a dream about his sister earlier. "I know where he is." he said suddenly relizing the one place he would go after something like this happened. "Where?" Anthony asked. "The place we buried his family."

In the command center, Tommy looked up from his computer, having spent the last five minutes searching for what was going on. Apparently, Zordon's wave of purity had sealed Zedd in five differant gems, and could only be realeased when all five have activated. Unfortunetly,(for Zedd) the activation would make whoever had activated them power rangers. Ironic, huh? they only way to release him was to activate the stones, which would create ANOTHER team of rangers to stop him. "Dr. O?" Trent said uncertainly. "What, Trent?" Tommy said, thinking hard about a way to reseal Zedd. "Kira and Conner just went to the cemetary." Tommy's head snapped up. "What?" Tommy jumped up. "We have to get them, before anything else does." "Like what?" "Like them." he nodded to the screen, which showed several grey beings with the letter 'Z' on their chests.

In the cemetary, Conner loooked like he was scared shitless. It was a little known fact that he did not like goign into cemetaries. Kira, on the other hand, looked right at home. Farther up ahead, Dave sat in front of a polished rock with the name of his sister engraved on it. "Hey sis. I know it's been a while, but, well, you know me. Anyway, there's this girl yeah? I like her and all, but I already hooked her up with the guy she likes. I know it was the right thing to do, but it still kinda hurt to see with him." he said as he sat down on a rock. "Does this conversation have a point?" he heard a voice behind him say. He grinned, and turned. Standing there, was his sister.

"Long time, no see." he said softly. "Yes. Five years to be exact. What did want to talk about other than this girl?" she said as she sat next to him. "It's about Zedd." he said heavily. His sister choked and fell backwards off the rock. "What about him?" she said as her raven black hair cascaded all over her face. "Trin, ya gotta tell me how to beat him!" he pleaded. "Why?" she asked, straightening her yellow shirt. Dave sighed, stood up, and looked out at the horizon. "Because I'm the one who released him." Trini froze, then stormed over and slapped him across the face. "You WHAT? After Zordon died, and he was sealed, you and your stupid friends just unseal him just like that?" She yelled at him. "I can see yer not gonna help. Guess I'm on my own again. Figures." he said angrily. he never should've come here and called her spirit back in the first place. Trini watched as he teleported again, going only God knows where.

Kira and Conner both looked up to see a black stream of energy shooting across the western sky. "What was that?" Conner asked, panting slightly from the battle they had just finished. Even though he was in top shape, it was still a long hard fight.. Kira shrugged, wiping the sweat off of her brow. "That would be Dave." a voice said. they spun to see a girl with long black hair, dressed in a yellow kung fu gi standing there. "Who are you?" Conner said as they relaxed. "His sister, Trini." They heard Ian say as the dragon ranger's landed. Trini looked at them, then back at Conner and Kira. "He was here, wsn't he?" Derak asked. Trini nodded. "Where did he go?" Anthony asked, confident that if anyone would know where to find him, Trini would. She lowered her head. "I think he going to fight Zedd." she whispered as the dino thunder rangers arrived. Tommy froze. "Trini? That you?" he breathed, remembering back then rather suddenly. "Hello Tommy."

Meanwhile, Mesogog and Zedd were both panting, clearly out of energy from their long battle. "So, do we have a deal?" Zedd asked, refering to the proposition he had just offered. Inshort, they team up to destroy the ranger's, Zedd get to destroy everything, and Mesogog uses both sets of Gems to recreate the age of dinosuars. Like Dave had said earlier, either way, they lost. "We have a deal, Zedd." Mesogog hissed. Now it was only a matter of time before the rangers were dead and his plans were relized. The day of reckoning was at hand.

END

Trini is Dave's sister? Where is he going now? How will they win? Will the rangers finally lose? check out next time! catch ya on the flip side. REVIEW!