Chapter 6, Part 3 – Revelations

A/N – Warning! Chapter contains some pretty horrific stuff. Dark Stuff so you know. On with the show!

Matt Hall sat in the room, staring at the spot where his friends had vacated. Friends and team mates – people that cared about him and where he was going in life. Weihan had told him that a deep strength resonated within him and his connection to the Earth – his Element. He knew that was true, all his life he felt grounded and his friends had called him their "rock" at times. He turned his Elemental Caller in his hands for the umpteenth time, wondering how it had come to this. All his life, he had been and active advocate for peace – protesting the first reports of the War against Evil Aliens a decade and a half ago, campaigning against Bush's War on Terror after 9/11 and the recent attacks in Sydney. Now, he was caught up in a battle – no, a WAR – that he wanted no part in. He sighed deeply.

He didn't know what to do. He stood up and pocketed his Caller in his pocket, walking to the door and opening it. Instantly, the edges of the door crackled with an amber light, releasing the energy of the two spells. He blinked once, then shook his head. His mind flashed back to the first time he had looked into Weihan's eyes – after he had unceremoniously passed out. He had seen the haunted look in those deep brown eyes, he had seen untold horrors and fear in those orbs. He knew on some level that he had seen many life-threatening dangers in his Ranger service and kept them with him. He wasn't sure if he could stomach those horrors or not. Walking out of the room, he looked around the library – it was almost deserted, but through the windows, he could hear the sounds of battle. He walked to the set of armoured windows that looked out to Building G and was amazed at what he saw.

Eight figures in brightly coloured suits were fighting bizarre looking things. Some looked like misshapen humans, some were the Amorphids that he had recently fought and some looked like humanoid dinosaurs with blades for hands. He watched as the Rangers fought – how they moved was like some graceful ballet, a dance that he wanted to join but couldn't. Why not? He knew he had it in him to be a great Ranger, but what was holding him back?

"It makes you think, doesn't it?"

The voice took him completely by surprise. He turned around, opening his mouth to tell whoever it was to shut up – but the sound died on his lips as he saw that there was no one behind him. He shook his head, finally convinced that he was cracking up after all the pressure – no wonder, really, what with the –

"You were chosen to be part of a grand legacy, but you're declining it instead of accepting."

All right – now he was cracking up. He cleared his throat and spoke in an authoritative voice that had the slightest waver in it.

"Who's there? If this is someone playing a prank…"

He turned around again, drawing away from the window for the briefest of moments – before leaning on the sill as his brain tried to process what was in front of him. It couldn't be real, could it? He couldn't be seeing a green globe hovering in front of him. The sphere pulsated as it "spoke" in a very familiar voice.

"Why don't you want to fight, Matt? They need your strength and resilience in this battle. They need you to be whole. I need you to be whole. This is who I am. This is who you are."

As the orb spoke, it began to shift and contort – morphing into a human shape, then taking on features, the appearance of hair, nails and then clothes. Matt looked in shock. Despite the fact that the figure was emerald green and glowing, it was an exact replica of him. He couldn't process what was happening. It was him, but yet – it wasn't. He didn't know what to think, but the spectre continued speaking – an amused tone in its voice.

"I am you – just as you are me. I am the physical embodiment of the Green Earth Powers. I have taken on this form because it is the one that was presented to me thousands of years ago. I am bound to you, Earth Warrior"

Matt looked on in shock. He dimly wondered if this was like what Weihan received his powers, but he didn't think so. This was way out of his league. He silently mulled over the spirit's words, then did a double take. Thousands of years ago? Had he been prophesised to fight even back then? He wasn't a fighter – he was a pacifist. He wanted world peace – but not through bloodshed. He told this to the power in front of him, who merely chuckled.

"You are a fighter, Matt Hall. Myself and the other Ultra Powers – we chose true warriors to be our bearers. Granted, some of them still need work, but you have a warrior's spirit and heart. Do you not remember the first day? The fight that reconnected you with your Powers?"

"Wait a second," Matt started. "If the powers choose us because we're warriors, what about me? I've got no 'Warrior spirit or heart'. I'm just an average guy – what's so special about me?"

The figure paused, as if in deep thought, before speaking again.

"Matt. I said you have a Warrior's Spirit and Heart. That's got nothing to do if you are a capable fighter or not. Not all power is physical, certainly not the Earth Powers."

It held up a hand, causing the protest to die on Matt's lips. It shook its head and sat on the edge of the windowsill next to him. Matt could see that it wasn't really sitting down – just floating a few centimetres off the sill. He blinked a few times to clear his vision then looked again.

Still floating.

Ok, so he wasn't going crazy. Still, he had a lot of years left in him and sometimes you cracked before you were done. But that was strange what it had said, that Earth wasn't strong. That's had to be a lie, didn't it?

"What do you mean Earth isn't strong? Earth is what we live on and its strength is what's keeping us from exploding into atoms!"

The spirit sighed to itself. It knew that its bearer was having a few internal problems – all of them in his muddled head. It knew that he was walking a thin line – one push on either side, a fall and it would be looking for a new bearer, but a replacement could never hope to achieve the highest level of power in him or her. The figure shook its head to itself, all Powers had that failsafe encoded in them. All but one power, but the information on which one had been lost millennia ago in Zordon's War. That power would strengthen and its power would rival what its original owner could wield. The spirit sighed, knowing that Matt needed answers.

"Earth is strong. You are what we higher beings call the heart of the team. Earth can use its healing and fortifying power to strengthen the team in times of great crisis. If you will excuse the pun, you are the rock of the team – the physical and emotional grounder. If you do not accept the mantle, there will be no hope for the world."

Matt sighed and leaned against the armoured glass, just in time for a thrown Tyrannodrone to smack into the other side. He watched in morbid fascination as the mutated soldier slid down the glass, weakly using a partially melted claw to thump on the window – barely making a scratch. He watched the body drop to the concrete below with a repulsed look on his face, then stared at his doppelganger with a look of reflection.

"I guess it's all right. I'll accept, but I don't want to end up like Wei. I saw his eyes on the first day. There's so much hidden in them, so much pain and anger suppressed under the surface. I just wish I knew what happened to him."

The Earth Spirit sighed, but internally cheered. He was accepting, but he wanted to know about the dark past of the Ultra Team Leader. Ah well, if a trip down memory lane was what he wanted, then he would get it. It cracked its "knuckles" and nodded once.

"All right, Matt. You accept. That's a good thing. Now, it is true that Weihan has seen many things, but always be thankful that he has seen them and dealt with them. Do you know he was just thirteen when he received his powers?"

Matt shook his head 'no'. Thirteen? He couldn't believe it – but as he thought about it, it became clearer to him. Wei carried himself upright with an inner strength and an iron will – something only brought on by years and years of constant battle. Wait a minute – if he had only received his power at 13…

"He had no real teenage years," the spirit continued. "He was always fighting and battling through school. Come, we shall see what transpired on his first fight."

Matt didn't move, but the world shifted around him in a green glow. Suddenly, he found himself floating above a cliff, where a lone figure stood and watched a battle. A towering figure was being attacked by six small animal shaped robots. Matt saw a green sphere shoot out of a black lion and morph the monster into something greater. Even though he had no way of entering the robots, he could hear the talk between the pilots.

"Uh, guys – what now?"

"Hey, who's that on the cliff?"

"I don't know Tommy, but we've got bigger problems! Activating the Thunder Megazord!"

In a bright burst of light, a Megazord appeared in the place of five of the robots, drawing its blade and standing tall against the monster. From his vantage point Matt knew what was going to happen next. He remembered watching the telecast on TV of the disastrous first half of the battle. He watched in fascination as the creature swiped out with two of its four arms, catching the Megazord in the chest and ripping away a chunk of its torso armour. He could see the Tiger on the side changing to a more humanoid appearance, its tail becoming a golden sword. He winced as the Zord suddenly fell back, hit by a flailing sword blade from one arm – its left arm ripped off. He turned to his side to see that the Earth Spirit was beside him, its voice strangely flat.

"We are at the first battle he ever faced. Those are Zordon's Power Rangers. As you can see, they are being beaten by the creature that you see in front of you. They have unlocked their full potential, but they are still losing – badly."

"Wait a minute," Matt interrupted. "If those are Zordon's Rangers, then how far into the past are we?"

The spirit sighed before answering.

"We are in 1998, seven years back from where we were – 2005"

1998…then Weihan would have been 13 or 14. He looked again at the figure on the cliff and noticed that he was easing something out of a holster on his side. A blaster. The figure in Orange pointed it at the monster and fired once. A bright burst of light shot out, impacting against the side of one of the monster's heads – fusing muscle and bone together. The creature screamed an unholy scream and swung around to the cliff, breaking off its attack on the now crippled Zords. From its remaining head came a deep rumbling voice wracked with pain and rage.

"You did this to me!"

"Yeah, I did. What are you going to do?"

Matt couldn't believe his eyes or ears. The figure in front of him couldn't be his leader – could it? Before he knew it, his vision slowly blurred as the Spirit pulled him out of that time and into another time, its familiar voice echoing inside his head.

"I am merely showing you flashes of his life and the trials he faced. Brace yourself, this part gets a bit…hairy."

Before Matt could ask what that meant, his senses were assaulted with a whirlwind of images and sounds. Weihan standing tall with a group of people behind him, Weihan leading a charge against something that looked like a twisted Orc from Lord Of The Rings, him screaming in pain as a metal spike was rammed through his abdomen, everything turning into dust with one wave of a creature's hand, Wei hovering in mid air as flame snaked across him body, Wei with a veritable army of Rangers behind him – fighting against what seemed to be four misshapen dinosaurs. And then, the images slowly turned into much darker images – showing the torment that was under his calm exterior.

In one scene, a building collapsed as Weihan ran to the scene, him picking through the debris and trying to find any scant signs of life and crying in pain as there was no one alive. Another scene showed Weihan slicing and slashing with his Sabre. From the determined stance of the Ranger, Matt could tell that he was oblivious to anyone around him. He watched in horror as the razor edge of the Sabre caught an innocent pedestrian in his mid-section, cleaving him in two. As quickly as it had come, the grisly scene vanished, only to be replaced with a more horrifying one than before. On a desert plain, thousands of people were running away from a mass of alien monsters and being brutally slaughtered by them. Matt could see that many of the women and young girls were spared the killings, but what awaited them was a more terrible fate. From the desert plain, the scene shifted to resemble something out of Kings Cross – dark alleys everywhere, drunken aliens lying in the gutters and screams. Horrible screams everywhere as women from all planets and galaxies were molested and assaulted by all species of alien. He saw Wei laying waste to the scene after that – the Ranger's helmet off and tears running freely down his face.

Matt wasn't sure how much more of this he could take. The images and scenes started coming faster now, crowding his vision with their horrific images. An inferno raging everywhere, people being burnt to cinders within seconds. Screams from people and aliens as they were burned alive. Weihan in the cockpit of his Zord, destroying a monster that looked like a mass of dead bodies clumped together. Howls of the damned as Weihan trudged through the very depths of Hell, looking for the Dragon Breath Blade – the only weapon capable of transforming him and his team into more of an unstoppable fighting force. Finally, the scenes stopped, but not before showing him one Apocalyptic view of one possible future. What he saw made up his mind for him.

Sydney, Australia, was flattened. Buildings lay as shattered husks, trees uprooted, roads cracked in places as…things…burst from below. Scattered here and there were bodies, some of them still twitching and most bleeding from the most horrible wounds and gashes on their skin and flesh. And standing tall amongst the chaos and devastation was a lone figure, standing tall. It wasn't human, Matt could see that. It was something more terrifying and inhumane than he could ever imagine. It was so horrific that the image of that reptilian skull was imprinted into his mind forever. Then, with alarming suddenness, he was thrust back into the real world, with the Earth Spirit hovering near him.

"That is what lies inside Weihan. He carries the pain and sorrow of a thousand emotional trials, but he chooses to bear his burden alone. This does not make him weak – it makes him stronger than any person on the Earth. Do you know what to do now?"

Matt nodded once and walked to the stairs to go outside. He was facing his destiny. Watching him go, the Earth Spirit smiled and dissolved into a column of light. In that column was a face that was familiar to all Rangers everywhere.

Zordon smiled and then vanished, continuing to watch over his charges until his counsel was required again.

TBC…Read and Review!