Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

Chapter 36, in which the Downhill Momentum Continues and Rita Becomes a Chandler

Harry felt he could almost hear the wind whistling through Angel Grove Park. Once teeming with people there for the Power Rangers Day celebration, the complete absence of life aside from the Rangers, coupled with the cheery carnival music that now took an almost sinister tone, was more than a bit unsettling.

And then the Rangers were surrounded by a ring of Putty Patrollers before any plans could be made.

The Rangers gathered together in a circle, facing outward, and as always, it was Jason who took the lead. "Let's waste these clay brains!"

"Right!" The other Rangers, sans Harry, chanted before the entire group, this time including Harry, dashed forward.

Harry's first target stepped forward before jumping into a tornado kick that Harry ducked under while still on the move. Harry then sidestepped behind the putty before driving his elbow into the back of its head with a fierce "Aiyaa!"

Tommy had had a bit of an effect on his fighting style beyond just teaching him the mechanics.

Moving on to the next closest putty, Harry took the first strike, launching a flurry of punches to the golem's torso, stunning it long enough for a combined palm strike/wandless banisher to launch it backwards into one of its fellows.

Before he could select his next target, Harry found himself grabbed from either side by another pair of putties that then heaved him into the air, throwing him several feet away from the others. As soon as he landed, three more of the creatures began raining down blows, their hands transformed into large spheres for extra weight. It was all Harry could do to curl up and protect his head as the putties did their level best to beat him into the ground.

"Harry!" Billy's voice called out just as, with a deep voiced kiai of his own, the Blue Ranger kicked away one of the three putties keeping Harry pinned.

With one of them gone and the other two distracted, Harry was able to roll to his back and plant his hands on the ground over his shoulders before kicking out to catch both putties in the chest and springboard off of them, propelling himself into a backwards roll that ended with the Magi Ranger on his feet once again. The two putties he struck didn't do more than stumble back a few steps, but when Billy stepped up next to him and the two Rangers delivered a pair of simultaneous Power-enhanced kicks they found themselves as airborne has Harry had been.

"Thanks, Billy." Harry said, panting slightly even as he patted Billy's shoulder in thanks.

"No problem, Harry." Billy replied. "You looked as though you were in a rather difficult predicament."

Harry just nodded as he surveyed the battle between his teammates and the putties. It was only now that he looked at the entire group that he realized that they were fighting more putties than he had seen at once outside of Rita's palace. He, and the others he presumed, had been too focused on the immediate battles to really take notice, but there were easily twenty to thirty putties stumbling around as they fought against the Power Rangers. It would be a relatively trivial challenge if the Rangers were to morph, but with the whole "no escalation" thing, Harry knew that Jason wouldn't call for a morph against "only" putties and none of the others would morph without the leader's call.

"Bloody hell…" Harry breathed, shooting Billy a grim glance that the genius returned.

"Affirmative…" Billy responded. "I don't suppose you could even the odds a bit, could you Harry?"

Harry snorted even as he called up his magic and drew and transformed his Power Coin wand. "I suppose that that would be a good idea, yes." Without another word, Billy rushed back into the fray, leaving Harry to his magic while he moved to more directly support the others.

Taking careful aim, Harry let loose with a flurry of incapacitating spells. He knew he had to use less dangerous spells because of the putties' relative proximity to the other Rangers. Although there were a few close calls, particularly with Jason and Tommy who were much more aggressive and unpredictable in their movements, he managed to avoid friendly fire. And when, on a few occasions he spotted a clear shot away from his teammates, he would cast a stunner or reductor curse to take the putty out of the battle more reliably.

*Flash* A putty that was trying to launch a kick into Zack's back found its legs stuck together, causing it to lose balance and fall to the ground.

*Flash* Another putty found itself caught in mid-leap by a levitation charm, floating off to one side before being dropped onto a pair of its fellows, sending the three of them sprawling.

*Flash* A putty attempting to flip closer to Jason found its hands stuck to the earth when they touched.

*Flash* A flying kick from one putty heading toward where Trini and Kimberly were fighting together was intercepted as another putty was summoned into its path.

*Flash-BOOM* A group of three putties, deciding that leaving the larger battle in order to charge Harry were met with an exploding curse.

And on it went for thirty seconds stretched much longer by Harry's adrenaline fueled perception, until…

"MAGELING!" Goldar roared, appearing a short distance to Harry's left in a flash of light.

Already in a casting mood, Harry immediately spun and sent a blasting curse at the armored simian, not at all wanting to give the monster any advantage he could prevent. The curses traveled the distance between them quickly, catching Goldar off guard if his wide eyed look was any indication, before he was knocked back by the explosion.

Harry began pacing forward, his wand a blur as he cast a more destructive series of spells than he had used before, mixing cutters, exploding curses, blasting curses, and a few "darker" curses like bone breakers along with Snape's Sectumsempra. He cast all of his spells silently, of course, keeping in mind Rita's attempts to learn his magic, but it also felt good to let out a bit of his frustration on Goldar in his first chance to do so since his captivity.

With each spell that hit the armored monster, a new explosion and shower of sparks flew off him. Each time Goldar managed to dodge a spell or block it with his sword, another two were waiting for him or slipped past his guard as Harry's spell chaining amped up his casting speed. After another thirty seconds of continuous spellfire, Goldar was clearly struggling, his apparently magic resistant armor covered in scorch marks and even a few small gouges where some of the stronger spells hit.

"It's a bit different when you aren't the one in power, isn't it Goldar." Harry said with a smirk before sending another pair of exploding curses to knock the monster off his feet. Goldar's face was twisted in a sneer, though that was barely visible due to the swollen and abused flesh there. The lack of face protection in his armor was really working against him.

"I will destroy you, Mageling." The downed monster growled. "One day, I will destroy you and all you cherish."

Harry just rolled his eyes. "If you say so Goldar. I am more than accustomed to psychos swearing vengeance against me."

Goldar's eyes flicked to the side briefly before his look of anger changed to one of smug satisfaction. Harry's eyes narrowed and he snapped off a quick volley of curses that Goldar rolled to the side to dodge before rising back to his feet. "Another time, Mageling, my work here is done for now." And with that, Goldar vanished in another flash of light just as Kimberly's voice echoed across the area.

"TOMMY!"

Harry spun back toward the main fight and saw that all the putties had vanished from around his teammates, each of whom was looking rather scuffed after the battle. The worst off was Kimberly though, who had dropped to her knees and was staring ahead with fear and worry written across her face. Tommy was nowhere in sight.

Harry quickly jogged over with the others, coming in range soon enough to hear Trini ask. "What happened, Kimberly?"

Kimberly blinked a few times before looking up at her friends and spoke. "The putties took Tommy! There were too many for me, but Tommy fought them off at first. And then they grabbed him and vanished!"

-MR-

In short order, the remaining Rangers had teleported to the Command Center and reported Tommy's abduction. Zordon was understandably concerned. "Based on what you have told me, Rangers, and particularly Harry's report on what Goldar said to him, I fear that Tommy's abduction was the goal of this latest attack."

"But why did all the people vanish too, Zordon?" Jason asked, stepping forward as he was wont to do. "What does anyone else have to do with our battle with Rita?"

Zordon hummed in thought for a moment, closing his eyes briefly before speaking. "I have told you all about the Grid's focal point located in Angel Grove and how Rita's ultimate goal is gaining unfettered access to it. I spoke of how the Grid protects the innocents that are inadvertently brought into the line of fire during the course of our battles, but there is a bit more to it than that…"

Harry felt a frown growing on his face even as Trini stepped a bit closer to his side, taking his hand in hers in an attempt to provide comfort. It was no secret to the other Rangers about how Harry felt in regard to civilians getting involved in their battles against Rita's monsters. Hearing now that there was more detail to Zordon's initial explanation after Harry's whole fire rescue adventure brought more of those bad feelings to the surface.

Zordon too took note of Harry's rapidly souring mood as he seemed to choose his next words carefully. "The Grid not only protects the people around its focal point, the focal point is actually anchored by those people. It is the people of Angel Grove, and indeed all the sentient living creatures that have ever lived in this geographical location, that have kept the focal point here. Because of this anchoring effect, if any harm were to come to these anchors, the civilians, then the focal point could destabilize, potentially moving it early if not destroying it entirely."

"So is that why Rita kidnapped all the people?" Zack asked. "So she can move the focal point somewhere else?"

Zordon's head shook side to side, a singularly curious image for a floating head. "No, Zackary. The location of the focal point is not determined by the anchors, rather the anchors are determined by the location. It is less about where the focal point is and more about what state it is in."

Billy was the next to provide an idea. "So would kidnapping the people cause the focal point to begin to break down? Is that her plan?"

Again, Zordon shook his head. "Not at all, Billy. As I mentioned before, it is believed that Angel Grove's focal point remained undiscovered for five thousand years before our struggle commenced. To be honest, it is not a strategically sound decision for Rita to attempt to force the focal point into an early move. It could reappear within territory that evil forces control, but there is an equal chance for it to appear in an area outside her control, or even simply not at all. And that is assuming that the new location is even discovered in a timely fashion. And in any case, kidnapping the people wouldn't set an early relocation in motion, and I fear that this is not Rita's actual plan."

The silence seemed heavy as everyone processed this information. Finally, Harry was the one to ask the question on everyone's minds. "So what do you think she's up to, Zordon?"

Zordon sighed before responding. "I fear that the constant stream of losses in battle has pushed Rita in a desperate direction. The constant surges of magic Harry and I have been detecting these past weeks coupled with the abduction of the citizens of Angel Grove leads me to believe that she is going to attempt one final assault. Removing the people simply means that she won't have to limit her actions for fear of destabilizing the focal point."

As if in response to this somewhat dark portent, the alarms in the Command Center went off, making the Rangers jump. "Ai yai yai yai yai!" Alpha chanted, panicking as usual. "The sensors are picking up a surge of Power stronger than ever before coming from Rita's palace…" The robot paused for a moment before speaking again, fear and awe in his voice. "Zordon… I… I think Rita's palace is moving…"

Alpha turned to face the Viewing Globe, prompting the Rangers to follow his lead without a word. The globe lit up from within as always, showing the starscape background image of Rita's palace which was, just as Alpha had said, lifting off from the surface of the moon, the entire building cloaked in a visible miasma of magic.

Harry was rather taken aback at the amount of magic required for such a feat. Rita's palace was nowhere near the size of Hogwarts, which was really his only other experience with castles and the like, but it was still a respectably sized building. "Wha- What does this mean, Zordon?" Harry stammered, keeping his gaze locked on the Viewing Globe as he spoke.

Zordon sighed again. "It means, Harry, that my fears have been realized. Rita is bringing her palace to Earth in order to fuel her most dangerous weapon: Cyclopsis."

The image in the globe changed to show an alien landscape, buildings standing as tall as those in Angel Grove with trees of equal height growing alongside them, nature mixed with civilization. The alien cityscape was disturbed in a flash of light as a massive machine appeared amongst the buildings. It was humanoid in shape and was largely white in color with a few red accents here and there. It had a large spike coming from the top of its head and a rather large set of layered pauldrons that made its comparatively tiny arms look like they were a bit low on its torso. Its legs were just as bulky looking and the feet were topped by sharply hooked tips. As soon as the light of this machine's appearance faded, it set about destroying the surrounding buildings and knocking the massive trees to the ground as if they were nothing.

Zordon's voice provided a rather macabre narration to this scene of devastation. "This is an image of the last time Rita used Cyclopsis on an alien world many years before she was imprisoned in her space dumpster. It is a War Zord that was fashioned by Rita to cause the maximum amount of devastation in the minimum amount of time. It is arguably one of the most powerful of its kind in existence. Its main weakness is that it uses up far too much Power to run. However, by bringing her palace to Angel Grove and thus the focal point, Rita's Power will increase by nearly ten times, allowing her to provide for Cyclopsis's requirements."

"You said it's a Zord…" Trini trailed off, looking troubled by the image of Cyclopsis firing a barrage of missiles from disguised launchers in its shoulders to destroy another building. "Does that mean that someone is piloting it like we do ours?"

"Indeed, Trini," Zordon confirmed and the image in the globe flickered once again, clearing to show a very familiar golden armored simian working a control panel and laughing darkly. "Goldar pilots the Cyclopsis War Zord to great effect."

When the image faded out again, the Rangers once more turned to face Zordon. It was Kimberly who broke the silence this time. "But, Zordon, what do you think Rita would want with Tommy? Why did the putties take him?"

Zordon hummed in thought before responding. "It is highly likely that she wanted to take Tommy out of the fight to deprive us of his help and that of the Dragonzord in the fight against Cyclopsis. The Dragonzord is a very powerful ally to have and, as it was once under her control, Rita would know that." Zordon turned slightly toward Harry before continuing. "I believe that you might have been a target as well, Harry. That may explain Goldar's presence on the battlefield. He was just not expecting your rather… strong reaction to his appearance. I fear that had you not so successfully held him back that you too would be a captive of Rita's once again."

"Well, hey," Zack interjected suddenly. "If Rita's palace is coming to Earth… then that means that we can break in to rescue Tommy even easier, right?"

Alpha fielded this question. "I'm afraid not Zack. Energy signatures left behind when the putties vanished indicate that he was taken right to Rita's Dark Dimension prison. There is only one known way to get there through Rita's Palace, and no doubt that method has been changed since Harry broke in to rescue Jason."

Billy almost immediately stepped up next to Alpha. "Can you show me those readings, Alpha? I may have something I've been experimenting with that could help with our problem."

While the mechanical and organic brains worked over their numbers, Zordon continued his narrative. "Rita's palace will likely land in or near Angel Grove within the hour, Rangers, and I fear that Cyclopsis will make an appearance shortly thereafter. You must do what you can to prepare yourselves for the battle ahead. It promises to be one of the toughest you've faced yet."

-MR-

Over the next thirty minutes, the Rangers each tried to cope with their nerves in their own ways. Initially, Harry and Trini has spent some time together, all but cuddling on a conjured bench until Kimberly's fretting and pacing forced Trini away to try and calm her friend. Billy continued pouring over calculations with Alpha and seemed completely unaffected, but occasional tense glances at one of the other Rangers was enough to reveal his true state. Zack and Jason had broken into some light sparring off in one corner, trying to work off their nerves through exertion.

Finally, Billy broke the silence as he smiled and began pressing what looked to be a completely random sequence of buttons to Harry. "I've got it, guys! I know how we can reach Tommy!"

Kimberly was at his side almost before Harry could blink, peering at the computer console Billy had been working at only to be completely stymied by the advanced technology. Giving up on deciphering it herself, she asked the resident brain. "What is it Billy?"

Pressing a final button, the Command Center was briefly lit up by the light of teleportation before two identical devices faded into view. The main body of them was a rod about four feet long with a spike on the bottom. At the top of this rod, the devices split into three prongs, the outer two looking like silver pipes with five rings spaced along them extending up and out another three feet and the center one with a short antenna sticking out the top. At the junction, each device had what looked like a pinwheel, spinning constantly while lights at the tops of each pipe blinked.

"I've been working on these molecular decoders for some time, ever since Harry was kidnapped by the Twin Man to be exact." Billy explained. "I was performing some research and experimentation on the feasibility of long distance transportation through the exploitation of naturally occurring transdimensional folds in hopes of circumventing known deterrents to existing teleportation technology. My biggest complication has been that I have only been able to open dimensional doorways, but not create conduits back into our own dimension to be used to facilitate the travel. However, I feel that these results could be most beneficial in resolving our current dilemma."

Harry was not alone in staring blankly at Billy as the Blue Ranger tweaked the devices, a satisfied smile on his face. Even Trini, usually the first one to turn to when a Billy translation was needed, looked rather dumbfounded. Finally, Zack walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Billy, you know we love you man, but… What?"

It was Zordon that answered. "He had hoped to create an alternative to teleportation with these devices, likely a method that wouldn't be protected against by Rita's spells. Instead, he found a way to open gateways into other dimensions. I presume this means that his molecular decoders can open a doorway to Rita's Dark Dimension if given the right input. If you were to take them to the park where Tommy was taken, there could be enough of a trace left to set the devices properly."

Billy blinked confusedly. "Affirmative… but isn't that what I just said?"

Billy's question remained unanswered.

"Now the only thing left to figure out," Jason started. "Is who we're going to send in after Tommy…"

"I'll go." Kimberly spoke up immediately. "He was helping me when he got caught. It's only right that I go in after him now."

"No, Kim." Jason responded just as quickly. "I should be the one to do it. You haven't been to the Dark Dimension before. It's not an easy place to get used to." Somehow Harry wasn't surprised that Jason, the one who brought up the topic in the first place, was so ready to argue for his own direct involvement.

"I'm afraid that you cannot go either, Jason." Zordon interjected.

"What?" the Red Ranger looked truly befuddled as he turned to face Zordon. "Why not, Zordon?"

"Because we need the five of you here in case the rescue is not successful before Rita's Palace arrives and Cyclopsis is unleashed." Came the response, making Harry close his eyes, expecting what was to come. "The Megazord will be needed to battle against Cyclopsis, which means that Harry is the only real option to rescue Tommy. While Hedwig may be able to fight on her own, the Megazord is more suitable for battling Cyclopsis. Like you, Jason, Harry has been to the Dark Dimension, and while you may be a better fighter, Harry's magic gives him an edge that is harder to defend against."

Trini's grip on Harry's hand tightened as she spoke. "But Zordon, didn't you say that Rita might have been trying to capture Harry in the first place? Wouldn't sending him just be playing into her hands?"

"It is entirely possible, Trini, however I feel that sending Harry may be our only real choice. As long as the dimensional gateway stays open and Harry stays vigilant, Alpha will be able to contact him and teleport him out should something go wrong."

Harry squeezed Trini's hand, drawing her attention to him. "Hey, I'll be alright. Zordon has a point about you guys sticking together. We need to do what's best for the city. I'll be back with Tommy before you know it."

Zack spoke next, nearly dancing in place as his excitement for the impending battle grew. "If our communicators and the teleporters still work while Billy's gateway is open, why don't we just send in more than one? Heck, why not the whole team? Then, if Cyclopsis shows up, we can teleport back out to fight him."

"Ah…" Billy cut in before Zordon could respond. "Actually, that won't be possible, Zack. The molecular decoders are still experimental and aren't quite capable of handling more than two people passing through within a short time period. If we have more people go through, it's highly likely that they will overload and trap the travelers between dimensions."

Kimberly sighed. "And we can't send anyone with Harry because the second person slot will be taken up by Tommy on the way back, right?"

Billy nodded in response before continuing. "Affirmative. In addition, whoever goes through can't be morphed at the time. The dramatic increase in our energy signatures while we're morphed would have a similar effect on the decoders as having too many people going through."

Harry blinked as this new piece of news set in and Zordon began speaking. "Which brings us back to Harry's magic giving him a decided advantage over any opponent he may face."

Seeing everyone looking at him now, Harry nodded firmly. "Well then, I guess there's no point in discussing this further, is there?"

-MR-

With hope to reach Tommy and a plan to work with, it didn't take long for the Rangers to teleport back to the site of the Power Ranger Day celebration. Upon arrival, Billy, coordinating with Alpha, located the exact position that the putties had teleported out with Tommy and directed Zack and Trini to position the molecular decoders while he tweaked their controls.

"It shouldn't take more than a few more minutes to get everything aligned," Billy said, tilting the antenna on one decoder before checking it and then adjusting it slightly. "Once they're aligned, we'll just have to activate them and the gateway to the Dark Dimension will be open."

"And then Harry will go through, grab Tommy, and get back here in time for tea." Zack said with a smirk.

Harry just rolled his eyes, resisting the urge to send a stinging hex at Zack's backside. Only the fact that Zack was currently holding a rather delicate piece of technology that was rather important to their current goals really prevented it.

It was indeed only a few minutes later that Billy directed Zack and Trini to, carefully, drive the spikes at the bottom of the decoders into the ground. Once they were freestanding, Billy made a few more adjustments, turning the poles or tweaking the antenna a bit, before declaring them to be ready.

Harry took a deep breath and let it out slowly, fighting down his nerves even as Billy nodded to Trini and flipped a switch on the first decoder. "Molecular decoder number one, activated." From atop the antenna, electricity began crackling into the open air.

Trini nodded back and, after glancing down to make sure she was flipping the proper switch, turned hers on. "Decoder number two, activated." When her decoder started sparking with electricity, the energy seemed to reach out to that coming from Billy's. When they met in the middle, the energy started to swirl around itself before forming into a deep blue colored vortex floating in midair with electricity dancing around the edges.

"Alright Harry," Jason said with a nod of his own and his familiar serious look on his face. "It's all you."

Harry drew his coin and shifted it to wand form and stepped toward the swirling portal between the two poles. Before he could reach it, however, Trini all but crashed into his side, standing on tiptoe and planting a soft kiss on his cheek. "For luck… Be careful, Harry."

Harry smiled at her, doing his best to keep his own nerves from showing. "No worries, Trini. I'll be back before you know it."

And with that, Harry stepped through the portal.

-MR-

Harry's first reaction upon entering the portal was to wince slightly. The air around him was as supercharged as one might expect from a portal that had appeared to be formed from electricity, resulting in a tingle that constantly danced over his entire body in a nonstop sensation. The second thing he noticed was the incredible feeling of speed as he was pushed through the interdimensional tunnel toward Rita's Dark Dimension prison.

Finally, Harry saw a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel as the vaguely familiar bars and columns over a black starry background came into view through what he could only describe as a hole in the air. Harry tightened his grip on his wand as the exit rocketed ever closer only to find himself coming to a sudden and completely unexpected halt mere inches from it. Since he had been leaning forward slightly in anticipation the sudden stop, even though he hadn't physically been moving, threw him off, making him panic a bit and flail enough to stumble forward so his entrance in to the Dark Dimension was more of a stumble-flop that ended up with him lying face down on the ground and hidden in the fog.

And unfortunately not as completely unnoticed as he would have liked.

"Mageling! How did you get here?!"

"Crap…" Harry cursed before springing to his feet, his wand whipping around to find Goldar. The monster was standing across the thirty foot area with Tommy standing nearby. It appeared that Harry had shown up in the middle of a fight between the two, something that the unmorphed Ranger had been coming out on the worse side of based on his torn clothing, visible bruises, and panting, though not too bad off. Goldar himself wasn't exactly untouched, but Harry knew that it was more than likely that the scorch marks and pits on his armor along with the only partially healed damage to his face was probably the remnants of his own meeting with the Magi Ranger when Tommy was first kidnapped.

"Harry?" Tommy shouted, moving away from Goldar and toward his fellow Ranger in a stumbling gait, showing that he was perhaps a bit more injured than first glance suggested.

"Yeah, one rescue party at your service," Harry replied with a smirk, his wand never leaving Goldar even as Tommy neared him.

"Harry, he's got my morpher, and that's not all. We have to get that candle behind him!"

Harry raised an eyebrow in confusion, but nodded all the same. It wasn't really in Tommy's character to joke at a time like this, but a candle of all things? Still, questions were better saved for later when they weren't in eminent danger so he'd just have to take Tommy's word for it. "Alright then, beat Goldar, get back your morpher, get the candle he's guarding, and get out of here. Let's make it happen!"

Without another word and once more preventing Goldar from starting his pre-fight banter, Harry led off with a cutting curse, forcing the monster to dodge out of the way, opening the candle in question to Harry's view. It was a fairly normal looking green candle at first glance, if a bit on the tall side. It stood nearly a foot tall and several inches wide, the flame at the top burning merrily and letting out the occasional bright green mote of light that drifted upward instead of falling down like one would expect. After a few moments, the lights would vanish, though Harry got the impression that they weren't just odd sparks burning out.

Putting these candle-based thoughts aside, (and how odd was it that he was having them in the first place?) Harry tracked Goldar's movement with his wand, casting the same chains of devastating spells as earlier to keep the monster dodging and defending so as to better protect himself and his injured teammate. After several volleys, Harry took a chance and mixed a conjuration into his spell chain, creating a pair of pythons hidden amongst the fog. It slowed his onslaught a bit, but not enough for Goldar to do more than regain his feet. After a softly hissed command, more than hidden by Goldar's grunts and roars as the monster tried to avoid Harry's attack, the snakes slithered off toward Goldar, who quickly noticed their presence when they latched onto his legs and tripped him up. Once the monster was down, they began restraining him as quickly as they could.

"What? Where did these snakes come from?" Goldar roared as he struggled against the reptiles. Harry took his chance and snapped off a silent disarming charm, only to once again realize the folly in casting such a spell when one's opponent is holding a sword.

Harry hit the ground, pulling Tommy down with him and letting the sword clatter against the wall behind them. "You alright?" Harry asked, helping Tommy back up again and snapping off a few general healing spells now that he wasn't occupied with Goldar.

"I'll live," Tommy grunted, straightening slightly as Harry's magic did its work. "Did you see my morpher?"

Harry hummed slightly before casting a summoning charm and snagging the flying morpher out of the air and passing it back to Tommy. "Now, let's see about this candle, shall we?"

As the two Rangers stepped closer to the green candle, Goldar redoubled his struggling. "No! You shall not ruin my empress's plans! Not this time! PUTTIES, TO ME!"

With a flash of light, a half dozen putties appeared in the Dark Dimension, their high pitched mumbling noises echoing around. "Great," Harry sighed, turning to face the constructs with Tommy at his side. "As if we hadn't gotten enough of these guys already today…"

Before Tommy could respond, four of the six putties charged the two, one of them falling to a reducto from Harry on the way, before engaging them in close combat. Harry was forced to dodge away from Tommy to avoid running into him, pulling two of the three remaining combatants with him as he did. Sneering slightly as he got a bit of room, Harry lashed out at the nearest putty with a quick, off-handed punch, only for it to dodge the attack and for its comrade to land a kick to Harry's midsection, dropping him to the ground.

"Oh no," Harry growled as the two putties prepared to pummel him. "I'm not doing this again." With a quick heave and a pulse of Power, Harry launched himself off the ground and over the putties' heads. While the dimwitted clay constructs stared in what he could only assume to be surprise, Harry flipped through the air, his feet barely scraping the ceiling as he did, and landed behind them, lashing out with his elbows and smashing each putty to the ground where he finished them with another pair of blasting curses.

With a quick glance, Harry was able to see that Tommy had dealt with his opponent with his usual efficiency, but Goldar's voice drew his attention back to the green candle. "You may have freed your comrade, Mageling, but you will not have the green candle this day!" The sword arms of the two putties standing next to him explained how Goldar had gotten free from Harry's serpentine restraints, but the panic on Tommy's face at seeing Goldar with candle in hand only caused confusion. What was so bad about Goldar having that candle exactly?

Before Harry could voice this question, Goldar, and the candle, vanished in a flash of light, his last words and dark laughter echoing around the Dark Dimension. "Another time, Mageling and Green Ranger… for now…"

Tommy seemed to slump a bit in resignation before turning to face Harry. "Hey, thanks for the rescue, man. I owe you one."

Harry smiled, though still slightly confused at Tommy's reaction. "Not a problem, Tommy, glad to be of service. But what was the deal with the candle?"

Tommy just sighed. "I'll tell you once we get back to the others. I don't want to have to go over this more than once… You do have a way back, don't you?"

Harry just nodded and gestured to the still swirling portal, though its dark coloration made it a bit harder to notice in the Dark Dimension, which explained how Tommy had missed it in the first place. "Come on then," Harry said, leading his teammate toward their escape route. "Let's get you back home, Kimberly has been driving herself crazy."

-MR-

"The candle does WHAT!?"

Harry and Tommy's return had been met with a great deal of happiness from their fellow Rangers, especially Kimberly for obvious reasons. Once Billy had deactivated and collected his molecular decoders, the group teleported back to the Command Center both to hear Tommy's story and to wait for Rita's arrival in Angel Grove.

Tommy had then explained to them that, when he arrived in the Dark Dimension, Goldar and Rita had been there to meet him. As Tommy was still being restrained by putties, Goldar had stolen his morpher from him easily. Tommy's hand was then forced into a bowl of wax that Rita magically fashioned into a candle that was then lit. It was only when Rita left Goldar to toy with him that Tommy learned what the purpose of the candle was.

How Rita had used a magic ritual to link the wax to the first person who touched it.

How the candle that was fashioned would drain the Power from anyone linked to it.

How when the candle burned out, Tommy's Powers, and the Green Ranger, would be gone…

-MR-

AN: For those who are curious, a chandler is one who makes candles… See what I did there? *nudge nudge*

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12