DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT THE OCS AND THE PLOT.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY

Dave walked slowly through the halls of the building, letting the silent hiss of the shadows around him guide him. So far he had obliterated what he estimated to be a brigade of triptoids, putties, tengas, cogs, tyrannodrones, and the like. And the wierd thing is, he wasn't even tired yet. He came to a stop outside a door, where he could sense great evil. A voice in the back of his mind had been nagging him on who was he to judge what was evil ever since he had killed Ecliptor. He came to a stop in front of a door. This was it. The final show down and all that other cliche mumbo jumbo. Dave looked down at his sword, which had been glowing a pale gold since he had heard his mom's voice calling out to him not to kill Darkonda. He had assumed it was just a breif power surge, after all, that happened a lot. But he was beginning to think that it was more than that.

Inside the throne room, Dave looked around in awe. To put it simply, it was as if he had just stepped into the Lunarian treasure house. There was a slight noise from his left. He stopped, and turned. Standing there was his father, Merrick. The Lunar Wolf. "So, you finally showed up." Dave looked at him as if he would love nothing more than to destroy him right then. "What the fuck happened to you? You were a ranger once too. Why did you start doing this?" Dave shouted as he lunged forward, slashing. Merrick stepped aside, and pulled out his own Dreagon gem. "Lunar Dragon, Activate!" he yelled. Dave sheilded his eyes from the intense light, and when it stopped, there stood what looked to be a fusion of all the lead rangers from history. With a sickening jolt, Dave relized what his power was: the manipulation over the flow of time. He glowered at his father, remembering a time when he would play the flute for him at night. What happened. His answer came in the form of the weapon his father drew: the sword of darkness.

Back at the ruins of the recording studio, Ian sat telling the dinothunder rangers the tale of how all of this got started. At certain points, he would be interupted by an exclamation of "I remember that!". Derak sat in the middle of the pile of defeated ones, meditating, and praying for their souls, even though they were his enemies. As Ian's story drew to a close, his psychic vision went off again, this time showing him what he could not see earlier: who was in charge. His breath caught in his throat. It wasn't Merrick, like Dave thougt it was, it was some one else entirely. "Derak. He was wrong. It's the sword." he said, making everything come to a screeching halt. Derak looked at Ian, and focused on what he had just seen. His eyes snapped open, and he fell to his knees. It was impossible...there was no way some one could follow them through the dimensional limbo!

At the dark throne room, Dave was having the fight of his life,not only against Merrick, but every sword weilding evil henchman that the power rangers had ever faced. Another of the lunar dragon's powers. It could summon evil warriors to do its bidding. Dave doged a slash from both Goldar and Rito, and gutted a few of the generals, their blood spilling onto the floor. His sword was as red as his hair with his foes blood, and the floor was covered in it. Every time he killed one, another wouls spawn to take its place. If this kept up much longer, he would be the one lying dead on the floor, not them. Then, it all stopped. Only he and Merrick remained, their swords held in front of them, their Dreagon gems casting an eerie glow, making their shadows look like they were dancing.

"Your skill has improved quite a bit, Dave." Merrick said, his voice sounding slightly distorted. "You have no right to call me by my name after what you've done!" he snapped back. The door was suddenly blasted off its hinges as Ashlee, Justin and Anthony entered. Merrick laughed and blasted them. They fell to the floor, thei Dreagon Gems rolling toward Dave. "So, you knew they were just projections after all." Merrick commented. Dave nodded and picked up the three stones. "Yeah. But still, you'll pay for that." he said as he charged again. There were two streams of light coming down from the celing: blue and red. As they reached the floor, they disappated to reveal Ian and Derak, who looked a bit on the shocked side to see Dave attacking in such a manner. "If he keeps this up, he's gonna break the power limit!" Derak yelled over the noise of clashing steel. "And thta's bad how?" Ian yelled back. "Good point!" Derak responded.

Their conversation was interupted by the generals attacking. Derak rolled his eyes, and pulled out what looked to be two tonfas with a steel ball on the end. Ian drew from his belt a bo staff, and the two went to work. After about five waves, they noticed dave was glowing a slight gold. "Oh SHIT!" Derak yelled as he duck another sword blow. Dave looked at himself, and grinned. "Super Dragon Mode, Activate!" he yealled. what appeared to be the triassic battilizer armor appeared on him, and with a singal slash, he destroyed the Sword of Darkness.

Somewhere in another dimension, a well dresed man stood watching the battle. When Dave destroyed the sword, he grabbed his head and began screaming. This wasn't supposed to happen! Now he had lost control over Merrick! The man looked up at the mirror he had been watching through, and hissed out a typical "It's not over yet, rangers.." before stepping through the mirror, and into their world.

Dave took a step back as the man emerged, holding the true Sword of Darkness. "Gincarlo.." Dave whispered as the man snatched the lunar Dreagon Gem from Merrick and activated it. "Ian, Derak, go. This is my fight." he said as he fell into his stance. "No." Derak said as he stepped up next to him. "You remeber our rule?" Ian said as he did the same. Dave looked at his friends, and said "Dragons fight together, or not at all." The two nodded, and activated their Super Dragon Modes, each resembling a past battilizer armor. Derak, the space ranger's battilizer, and Ian, the SPD battilizer. Gincarlo looked very unimpressed. "Is this supposed to scare me, rangers?" he hissed in his silken tongue. "No." Dave stated quite blandly, knowing that any sensible being would have retired from the battle by now. But he knew Gincarlo better than anyone, having faced off against him before, both in and out of the court room.

The three all ran at Gincrlo, who surprisingly held his own against all of their combined might. Dave grunted as he was shoved backwards. This power Gincarlo was using was not his own. Thankfully, the stone didn't recognize him as its master, or they'd be in real trouble. "You think this is the limit of my power, rangers?" Gincarlo hissed, his voice being distorted by the helmet. Ian got up, holding his left side. "Hell no, you bastard." he spat as he charged again, only to be intercepted by a group of putties. Derak clapped his hands together once, and and slapped one against the wall, and the other to the floor, ala Fullmetal Alchemist. The result was the floor erupting in small stalicites and the wall firing missles made of stone at whatever Gincarlo summoned to do his bidding, effectively destroying them. "Geomancy?" Gincarlo said, quite shocked. He heard Ian. "Let's kick it old school style. Saba, your up!" he yelled as his bo staff changed into Saba, the white tiger ranger's trusty sword. Dave, not wanting to be out done, used one of his grand arcanum powers to mind control the putties attacking him and make them destroy each other.

For the first time, Gincarlo felt like he was fighting a losing battle. All that would change when he unleasehed his Zord on them. All he had to do was gather enough energy for it, and then this fight would be his. The Dragon Rangers would fight bravely, but they would fail. Again. They would regret bot making him the leader of the original Dragon Rangers.

The evil is finally revealed. How will the ranger fare? find out next time!

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