Disclaimer: Power Rangers and all its related logos are property of Disney Entertainment and/or Saban Entertainment. I am using them without permission, but I do not expect to make a profit. If I do, I promise to split it 50/50 with the Disney people. I swear, I do. All original characters are mine, and I do have permission to use them.

A/N: This takes place a few years after Dino Thunder, and is loosely based in the "Future Imperfect" universe. Don't worry; you shouldn't have to read that one to understand this one.

Take a sec to review too, I live for those.

Utopian Mountains

'Auto-destruct will initiate in 2 minutes, 15 seconds,' the computer warned.

Emily stared down at the controls of the Astro-megaship, and couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. To her, all the buttons looked exactly the same. None of them were labeled, and she wasn't sure what do it, or even if there was something she could do. When she and the others told Jen that they could take care of themselves if need be, she had no idea she'd find herself looking at the controls of space ship.

"They should have been back by now," Krista said, breaking the silence between them.

When Jason finally did tell Emily the truth about his past, about his time as a ranger, she knew the time would come that she might find herself in danger because of it, but had no clue it would be this much danger. 'I'm on another planet while my husband battles the first known universe in the universe,' she thought to herself. Was this a typical day at the office for the rangers? She knew that as a ranger, they often fought the forces of evil, but it amazed her to think that the world came close to ending on a weekly basis, and the rangers were always there to protect the Earth.

"They'll be here."

"They have less than two minutes. We have to do something," Dana said.

"Okay, but what? We don't have power morphers or anything. What can we do?"

"If they aren't able to stop this thing, we'll have to blow up the ship and hope the blast is enough to send whatever it is back where it came from," Emily said.

"When you say blow up the ship, you mean…"

"We're going to have to ram the mountain just before the self destruct goes off," she turned around. "If the rest of you want to get off the ship, I understand. I know my husband, and if they were defeated, he'd tell me that it was important to finish this here and now. The mission is what matters," she said.

"This is suicide, you know that right?" Krista asked.

"To save the universe, its worth it. Now, if you want to get off, now is the time."

"I'm staying," Princess Shayla said.

"So am I."

"Then it's settled," Kendricks said, walking over to the controls. "I've had experience with this ship, let me do it."

Emily backed away. "Its been a pleasure ladies, it really has," she sighed.

"So is that it?" Rocky asked.

"I think so."

"See, that wasn't so hard," Hunter said.

At that moment, the Astro megaship collided with the mountain, causing the entire cave to shake.

"Oh no, the auto destruct! Its set to go off any second now," Aurico reminded them.

Kyle turned to Hunter. "Damn man, you just had to say something, didn't you?"

"Everyone, gather up our injured and get onto the escape shuttle," Jason instructed.

Hunter and Shane picked up Tommy, taking him onto the shuttle, while Jason picked up Carter. Wes and Eric put Cassie and Katherine over their shoulders while Aurico helped Karone to her feet. Jack grabbed Syd, and Alex hoisted up Jen, all of them making their escape. One by one, they entered the shuttle, and Charlie sat down in front of the controls. With a heavy heart, Kyle picked up the unconscious Kimmy, holding her in his arms. The loading bay doors closed, and the shuttle began to back up out the hole it came through.

"Okay guys, this shuttle wasn't meant to hold so many people, so the weight might slow us down," Charlie mentioned, then turned to Aurico. "What did you set the auto destruct on for the megaship?" she asked.

"Twenty minutes, but it could be any second now."

"Oh God, the girls! They're still on board the megaship," Conner said.

"Can you teleport them out?"

"This is only a shuttle, it doesn't have the technology to teleport," Charlie told them.

Kat slowly sat up. "The megaship has teleportation technology. I could teleport over there, get them and teleport back to my shuttle," she said.

"You'd have to hurry, we don't have much time," Alex said.

Kat reached for her morpher. "Hayley, this is Kat. Do you read me?"

Hayley leaned back in her seat on the shuttle, unsure as to how the battle was going. She knew that the megaship crashed into the mountain, and according to the onboard sensors, the auto destruct was about go off, but she wasn't sure what she could do to help. She wanted to contact Kat, to ask how things were going, but she was sure Kat and the others were locked in battle and wouldn't be able to respond.

"Hayley, this is Kat. Do you read me?"

She sat up, going over to the controls. "Loud and clear Kat, what's going on?"

"I'm going to teleport over to the megaship and get the civilians out of there. I need to prep the shuttle for launch and head towards the megaship. As soon as we're on board, step on the gas and get us out of there."

"Count on it Kat."

"See you in a minute."

'Auto-destruct will initiate in 45 seconds,' the computer warned.

The mood was a somber one as they sat there, staring at the controls. Even if they wanted to leave, there was nowhere for them to go. The ship was lodged into the side of a mountain, jamming the doors shut and preventing them from getting off. The ship was set to blow in less than a minute, and even worse, there was no way to know if their sacrifice would be worth it. They didn't know if the others were able to stop the First, or if they had all been destroyed. There was no way to even be sure if the destruction of the megaship would be enough to stop the First, but it didn't matter anymore. It was out of their hands.

"I regret never telling Conner I loved him," Krista sighed. "We've been together all this time, and I never said I love you. I'm going to die and he'll never know how I really felt about him."

"He knew. He always knew," Princess Shayla told her, putting her hand on Krista's shoulder.

Just then, there was a flash of light, and Katherine appeared. "Wow, you guys are all sitting around like this is a funeral or something. Come on, we have to go," she told them.

"How, the doors are jammed shut, and we have less than a minute to get out of here," Emily said.

Kat walked over to the controls. "D.E.C.A., is the teleportation unit still online?" she asked.

'Negative. Teleportation systems are offline due to auto-destruct sequence,' it responded.

"Oh this is just great."

"What's taking them so long? She should have been out of there by now," Jason commented.

"She'll be here, I know it."

"What if something is wrong? We have to…" he stopped as Alex grabbed his shoulder.

"She knew what she was doing when she went over there. We al knew there was a chance this wasn't going to work. There's nothing we can do now," he told him.

"I know what we can do. We can get the hell out of dodge before that thing blows up. I plan on being out of orbit long before that happens," Charlie said, engaging the engines.

"We can't leave them like that!"

"We have to, there's nothing we can do by staying here," Wes sighed.

"I have a plan," Andros said as he sat up, holding his ribs in pain, stumbling to his feet.

"You're in no condition to do anything," Eric mentioned.

"Still, we can't just let them be destroyed. I can't cancel the auto destruct sequence, but I can do a manual override in the engineering. I'll just have to…"

"Wait, coming that close to the override controls would…" before Alex could finish his sentence, Andros nodded.

"I know," he said as he reached for his morpher, disappearing into a stream of light.

'Auto-destruct will initiate in 15 seconds,' the computer warned.

Andros appeared in engineering, walking over to the control panel on the opposite wall. He opened the panel, revealing a set of wires and conduits. With no tools to use to deactivate it, he simply reached in, getting a hand full of wires and snatching them out, causing an explosion. 'Auto-destruct will initiate in 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4…'
There was an explosion, stopping the countdown. The explosion was enough to rattle the entire ship, and the girls had to find something to hold on to to prevent falling over.

"What was that?" Kat asked.

Kendricks looked at the controls. "Looks there was an explosion in engineering. Whatever it is, it disabled the auto-destruct," she said.

They all sighed with relief.

"What caused it?" Princess Shayla asked.

"Alex to Katherine, do you read me?"

She reached for her morpher. "Yes. There was an explosion over here. It was enough to stop the…"

"I know. Andros teleported over there and did a manual override before it was too late."

"An override? Being that close to the plasma manifold without the proper equipment would have…" Kendricks paused, putting her hand over her mouth. "Oh God," she sighed.

"Kendricks, are you able to fly the ship out of the mountain and back to Earth?"

She wiped her eyes. "Yes, I can."

"Good. We're going to dock with you after you get the ship free, and we need to get down to the infirmary. We have causalities and a few that are seriously injured. Have Dana meet us there so she can help tend to the wounded," he instructed. Kendricks glanced over at Dana, who nodded, then walked off the bridge on her way to the infirmary. "She'll be there."
Both of the shuttles docked in the Astro-megaship, and the wounded were sent down to the infirmary to be tended to, most had gone to be with their loved ones and friends, leaving the others on the bridge of the ship.

"So who is this guy? How did you…" before Jack could finish his sentence, Charlie stood up.

"Its all about history Jackie-boy. I remembered reading over a group of rangers who dealt with magic rather than technology, so I took the shuttle back to NASADA, used the time ship to go back in time and get this guy. May I present to you Nicholas, the red Mystic Force ranger," she introduced.

"Actually, its just Nick," he corrected.

"It was quick thinking Charlie, we all owe you one," Kyle said.

"Just doing my part, like I promised. When we get back to my time, I'm gonna let the big blue dog do the mind wipe on me and I'll forget about all of this. I'll finally be able to live a normal life again," she sighed.

"Even if you do forget none of us here will. You saved the world… the universe. We owe you a debt that can never be paid," Hunter mentioned.

"Don't sweat it, all in a days work. Besides, I know this is what my brother would have wanted," she told them.

Aurico turned to Psycho Red. "So what's next for you? I'm not sure if we have the technology to completely remove your android body parts and separate man from the machine," he said.

"I have done horrible things. Though I wasn't in control of my actions, it doesn't change the fact that they happened. I have my free will now, I can do good in the world. I am going to try to find the other Psycho rangers and free them just as I have. From there, I will let them make their own decisions as well," he said.

"You don't want to go back to your family? To meet your brother and your nephew?"

He shook his head. "Its an honor to know that my brother named his son after me, but I have no place in their lives now. I have much to make up for," he said.

"What is your name?" Jack asked.

"Sky Tate," he said proudly.

"Oh my God, you're…" he paused. "Sky talked a lot about his father being destroyed by Merlock, but he never mentioned his Uncle," he said.

"You know my nephew?"

"We serve in SPD together. Well, we did," Jack sighed.

"If you look at the history books carefully, they don't say Gregory was destroyed, only that after the battle with Merlock, he was never seen again," he paused, realizing he'd said too much. "None of you should know too much about your own destinies. Sky does go on to be the red ranger, and he did a hell of a job, but that's as much as you guys need to know," Kyle said, stepping in.

"Fair enough."

"What about you Eric? I know you lost your girl because of all this. What's next for you?" Charlie asked.

"I-I don't know. When I get back, I'll make sure she gets a proper burial. All of the rangers who fought today and lose their lives should get a proper burial. After today, I'm finished. I'm going to step down as the Quantum Ranger and let the SPD guys use my morpher for research," he sighed.

"I'm still going to give my morpher to Greg Tate. I have a company to run," Wes said.

"You know my brother?" Psycho Red asked.

"Yes, he's a Silver Guardian. He's a good man, and he'll be the next red ranger," he told him.

"Don't all of you find it weird that we're all connected one way or another? Psycho's brother is the next red Time Force ranger, his son will grow up to be the red ranger, Jack worked with Psycho's nephew, and both me and Jack are from SPD. SPD is merging with Bio-Lab, which is run by Wes and Eric, who are connected to Time Force. Wes use to bang Jen, who was kickin' with Alex, who looks just like him. Kyle is… nevermind, this is giving me a headache," Charlie groaned.

Krista sat patiently outside the infirmary, waiting to hear about Conner's condition. Everyone in the next room was so quiet, and the silence was getting to her. She needed to know if he was okay, if he was hurt. She knew there was a chance that he was injured, but not knowing was driving her crazy.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, the doors to the infirmary opened as Katherine stepped out.

"Well…" Krista stood up, rushing over to her. "How is he? Is he…"

"Other than a few broken ribs, Conner is fine. In fact, most of them are. There were only a few causalities," she sighed.

"Oh God, who…"

"There was nothing we could do for Carter, he lost too much blood. Leo was badly injured too. He hung on as long as he could, but…" she allowed her sentence to trail off.

"Oh my God."

"Tommy is hurt pretty bad, but he'll recover. And, other than a couple of bruises, Kimmy is okay. I feel fortunate that it wasn't any worse than it was for them," she said.

"I'm happy for you."

"You can go see him now, if you like," Kat sighed.

Krista nodded, then headed into the infirmary, where Conner was resting on one of the examining tables. His arm was in a sling, and his ribs were taped pretty heavily.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'll be okay. It looks a lot worse than it is," he told her.

"You had me worried there for a minute."

"Sorry about that."

"When you told me you use to be a ranger, I thought this was all behind you. I didn't know you'd have to go out and fight the forces of evil again, especially on another planet," she sighed.

"Well, I promise you this was the last time. I'm not cut out for this anymore. I'm content to run my soccer camps now, I'm not a ranger anymore," he said, removing his morpher and setting it on the table.

She picked it up, admiring it. "You're wrong. You are a ranger, you always will be. You were chosen, this is your destiny, and we both know that if the world needs you, you'll do everything in your power to help," she said, putting the morpher back on his wrist.

"Am I that transparent?"

"Yes," she nodded. "But I love you for it," she told him.

He paused. "What? You…"

"Yes, I love you Conner. I always have. I'm just sorry I waited so long to tell you, but I do. I truly do," Krista said.

"I love you too."

final chapter: The rangers return home to give their friends and family a proper burial, and attempt to go on with their lives