Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.

Author's Note: This chapter is longer and there is some actual action here so I hope you enjoy it, despite my failing in the area of writing action scenes.

When It Rains…

Chapter 12 – Fight

'Andros,' she thought. 'Andros, help me. Come back.'

Andros' weapon came back around for another strike but stopped still inches from cracking Jeff's visor.

"Ashley?" the Red Ranger whispered. He suddenly dropped his saber, bringing his hands to his head and dropping to his knees as if in pain.

Jeff turned to see Garthon suffocating his sister. He was suddenly filled with a rage he had never known, even before when he had lost her, and raced forward, batting Shreefang and Toady away like dolls as they tried to block his path. He brought his sword down, severing the serpentine arm from the body before Garthon could react. Ashley fell to the ground, the snake unraveling from around her. Jeff stopped. The arm wasn't changing back into the gelatinous substance that it usually did. He inspected it even as Garthon moaned in pain a few feet away. Where the arm had been severed it was cauterized, and still glowing faintly.

"Jeff," Ashley breathed once she had untangled herself, "your sword."

The Infinity Ranger turned and saw that his sword was glowing.

"Cool," Jeff said, and turned back to Garthon.

"Try and kill my little sister will you?" he asked, pulling the sword up to his shoulder and bringing it down as if hitting a very low pitch.

"Shreefang!" Garthon called shrilly as he dodged.

The creature seemed to decide that she should help her new boss and slowly began to rise, but was met by a wall of Black.

"We have some things to discuss," Carlos said, cracking his knuckles.

Shreefang smirked.

Carlos slowly opened his mind as Dulcea had told him: he let the animal instincts take over, but made sure to retain his logical human mind.

Shreefang raced forward and aimed a slash at Carlos' neck but was surprised to find her wrist caught in the Ranger's grasp inches from her target. Carlos stiffened his hold and pulled down and back, forcing the monster's arm behind her back. Shreefang tried to attack with her other arm but found that it was quickly caught by his other hand and held at her own neck line.

"You really shouldn't have messed with our love lives," Carlos said.

"Oh, but it makes you so much more fun. Wherever did you get the extra speed and strength?"

"Alternate reality created by a wish gone wrong."

Shreefang quickly unfurled her bat-wings and threw the Ranger back. "I suppose my mistress did that," she said, turning to attack once more.

Carlos picked himself up from the floor and rushed forward, a growl escaping the bottom of his throat. Less than a yard before he would have hit the monstrosity at top speed there was a flash of light from his right and Shreefang was knocked to the ground several feet away, unconscious.

"What?" T.J. asked when Carlos turned to him. "Did you honestly think we were going to let you have all the fun? Toady here wasn't a threat at all, Zhane and Karone beat him in two hits." Carlos looked around the Blue Ranger to find that Karone had successfully tied the lackey upside-down and duct taped his mouth. Zhane held up his hand, "Don't even ask where she kept the rope and duct tape, I don't even know." Karone gave a laughing smile.

"Ashley!" Andros said, running up behind the girl as she watched her brother battle his mortal enemy.

"Andros!" Ashley cried, throwing her arms around his neck. She quickly pulled back though when she remembered the past few days.

"Don't worry," he said quickly. "Apparently you're telekinetic and telepathic. You yell loud too." Andros rubbed his head to emphasize his comment.

"I did not yell!" Ashley slapped his arm lightly.

"Not intentionally," he explained. "You don't know how to keep your underthoughts and emotions from leaking through into what you project. It takes time, and most people never fully shield everything out."

"Oh."

The two suddenly ducked to either side as Garthon went flying down the steps.

"You're mad," Ashley observed as her brother passed between the couple.

"Really, I didn't think you'd notice," Jeff remarked, not bothering to raise his still-glowing sword as he advance on his enemy. "Now, I think I can do it right this time."

Jeff lifted the sword up before him, holding the hilt in both hands, and swiftly brought it down at his enemy's head. Garthon winced, turning away from his imminent doom… that never came. Several seconds later, when Garthon finally gathered the courage to look, he found a swirling vortex before him.

"Go." The Infinity Ranger's voice was hard and left no room for compromise.

Garthon crept into the dimensional prison and Andros threw his arm in after him. Jeff held up his sword again and focused his energy on sealing the crack. The room filled with light and when it cleared the Rangers and Karone stood in a small temple filled with cobwebs and dust. There was a gently winter breeze blowing a bit of snow through the window and a rather old man was crouching over a candle, trying to get it to light.

"Hey," Jeff said as the man stared at them.

The man simply sighed and shook his head, beckoning the heroes outside for a meal in exchange for the battle they had fought.


"So," Zhane began, taking a rather large bite of hamburger, "Carlos' leftover lizardness from the alternate timeline gave him the ability to beat Shreefang," Carlos nodded, "Ashley's unvoiced anger and indignation fixed Andros," Andros nodded, "Jeff's anger at his sister being in danger made him reach a new level of power that made his sword keep Garthon from transforming once he had been cut," Jeff nodded, "and also allowed him to cut a hole in the dimensional barrier and seal Garthon in it?" Jeff nodded once more. "Great, so now everything's fixed."

"I hope so," T.J. said, taking a few fries from the plate before standing. "I have to go, I promised the guys that I'd hit a few balls with them once I had an afternoon free."

"You should go too," Ashley said, kicking Carlos under the table.

"Why? I haven't had a good meal of Estelle's in ages," Carlos said, leaning forward to take some more fries.

"Leslie has been really worried about you."

"Well, um, how would I even find her?" Carlos concluded suddenly. "She could be having a game or something and-"

"I gave her a communicator."

"Oh. I guess that was a good idea, since she knows and all."

"Yeah," Zhane said, taking a sip of soda. "Just go so that the rest of us can get back to our own significant others."

"Fine," Carlos said, leaving to find a secluded area from which to call DECA.

"What happened to Ecliptor?" Andros asked suddenly.

"He decided to stay away for a while," Karone sighed. "He's not used to being around all this good yet."


T.J. took an unusually slow gate as he walked through the park. He hadn't really had to go to play baseball; he had only said that to get away.

"Zhane has Karone, Ashley has Andros, Cassie's off with Phantom, and now Carlos has Leslie." T.J. sighed. "I need someone."

A blur suddenly struck out from among the trees and covered the Blue Ranger's mouth, pulling him into the foliage.

"You're a Ranger," a voice said in his ear. The tone was hard, but the voice itself was soft, comfortable.

T.J. shook himself. He was being attacked, he couldn't be thinking these sorts of thoughts about his attacker. Although… it was rather comfortable being so close to her.

The woman seemed to hesitate. "Zordon sends his regards."

That got T.J.'s attention. He pulled away quickly and turned, lashing out at his enemy. She jumped out of the way, rolling into a crouching position and looking back up at him with deep brown eyes.

"What have you done with him?" He didn't give her time to give an answer before throwing a punch at her head.

She dodged again and threw a punch of her own. He pulled his arm back from his last attempt and grabbed her arm before she could make contact. She caught him in the stomach with her other hand.

"I—haven't—done—anything—to—him," she said between punches until she finally managed to grab on of his arms, pulling it down between them and bringing him close to face her. "He's on my ship. Phantom sent me to you."

"Phantom?" T.J. asked, not bothering to pull back.

"Yes," the woman sighed, out of breath. "He and I met in the Cerxus Galaxy. You know," she said, suddenly noticing something about their position, "this would be a lot easier if you weren't holding my back." And T.J. was in fact holding her lower back to keep her from moving back.

"Sorry," T.J. stepped away sheepishly, "I was going to hit you and then you started explaining and—"

"It's okay. I'm Ch'heeka."

"T.J." The Ranger held out his hand and Ch'heeka stared at it suspiciously. "I guess you don't do that in the Cerxus Galaxy."

"No, we don't do that, whatever that is. Look, aren't there other Rangers? I'd hate to have to explain this twice."

"Yeah, there are. But," T.J. bit his lip, turning to look out at the park, "Ashley's probably forced Carlos to go find Leslie by now and…" he turned back to the alien girl before him, looking her up and down before blushing and turning away once more. "Can't it wait?" he pleaded, he did not want to deal with ruining the first good day the Rangers had had in a while.

"Do you know the Pink Ranger?" Ch'heeka asked seriously.

"Cassie? Yeah, she's one of my best friends."

"Dark Specter has kidnapped her."