Hiya everyone! I thought I'd upload another chapter today because I spent the entire day yesterday dressed as a Blue Power Ranger for the school Athletics Carnival. We have a part called the Spirit Cup, which I guess is like a Cheerleader competition for those of you who are American, and we did 'Riley Rangers' for that, which involved myself and three other people dressing up as power rangers and leading the house. And, with the might of the Power Rangers... we won! Yay! Okay, you probably dont know what I'm talking about... anyway, on with the story! Please review :)

Chapter 9

Alura could feel Jason's breath against her scaly shoulder as they flew. As soon as they had cleared the city, she began to fly at a lower altitude, trying to keep Jason at a warmer temperature. At one point Jason began to slip, and Alura had to whirl around and grab him before he fell, so she decided to fly on her back, holding him against her underbelly, for the rest of the way. It took about fifteen minutes to arrive at the command centre, and when they got there, Billy was standing near the outside entrance, arms crossed. Alura gently set Jason down, and Jason stood clutching his neck.

"Good to see you Billy." He managed to say, looking stronger than he felt.

"I wish I could say the same to you, Jase." Billy marched right up to the Dragon and punched it hard across the face. The dragons head snapped to the side as he hit.

"Billy!" Jason was horrified at Billy's anger.

"What did you think you were doing?" Billy screamed at the Dragon. "You're dangerous! Get away from him!" Billy helped Jason away from the dragon. "You stupid… utter… moron! Go away! GO!" Billy swiped at the Dragon. "We have Zordon here so that we obey the rules that protect civilians as well as ourselves! You have nothing! You're the shell here! Go away! We'll all be safer without you here!"

The Dragon form melted away, like leaves in a breeze, and the Gold Ranger stood there. "…That's what I've been trying to tell you since I got here…"

They stood in silence for a second, Billy panting loudly from his outburst and shaking with anger.

"…I wish that you'd never come."

Billy spoke with utter hatred, and that hurt Alura more than anything. He helped Jason inside a door, but Alura just sat down outside. She didn't feel that she deserved to go in.

She sat with her back against the command centre and looked up at the night sky. She powered down, knowing that enemies wouldn't be able to use surveillance around here. She upturned her palm, resting her arm on her knee, and produced a small dark cloud, which began to rain, gently covering her hand with water.

She stared at the cloud. You're the shell, he had said. I wish that you'd never come. Alura saw her sorry reflection in the water. She could feel a bruise forming on her cheek where Billy had hit her. She felt anger, then disgust, and then emptiness and the cloud began to rain red, covering her hand in red liquid that mingled and then replaced the water.

Half an hour later Billy came out. Alura's little cloud had stopped raining, and was simply hovering above her hand. Billy swiped at it angrily, the cloud evaporating at his touch. He sat angrily next to Alura, avoiding her eye contact.

"How's your cheek?" he asked, but Alura could tell that he didn't really care.

"Fine," she replied. "…How's Jason?"

Billy was silent for a moment. "He's lost too much blood… and it's too late for a transfusion. He… won't make it to morning." Alura looked at Billy, and he finally brought himself to look back at her. He was crying, his eyes red from trying to hold it back. He took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. "He's asking for you."

Alura nodded. "Am I allowed to go to him?"

"I couldn't exactly stop you if you wanted to see him."

Alura decided Billy didn't want to talk, so she went in without another word. She found Jason in the first aid room, and she also found that Zordon and Alpha were in other parts of the command centre, giving them privacy. She sat gently on the bed beside Jason, and she took his hand. He slowly opened his eyes, and looked at her.

"…You… you must be an angel."

"I'm not."

"Have you… come to take me away?"

Alura saddened at the question. "No."

Jason seemed confused. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Gold Ranger."

"No… I meant… who are you, really?"

"I'm no one."

Jason squeezed her hand a little. "I've never met anyone who was a no one." Alura smiled slightly. "What's your name, angel?"

She hesitated. Surely she could tell him. "Alura."

"It's very nice to meet you… Alura."

Jason almost closed his eyes, but he forced them open again. "I know I'm not going to make it. I've done enough in my life to know when it's the end…"

Sheer determination passed over Alura's face. "The end is only the beginning, Jason." She stood and began rummaging through the drawers.

"What are you doing, angel?"

"I'm going to fix you, Jason. Too many people have died, and I'm not going to allow another death."

She started to fix her communicator with various pieces of junk that she had found in the drawers. To Jason's surprise, she had it fixed and operational in a couple of minutes. She teleported out, and then almost instantly teleported back in, holding two pale objects that resembled wristbands with some sort of circles attached. They resembled Morphers, Zeonisers, again to Jason's surprise, except they had no colour.

She put one on Jason's wrist. "Here," she said. "We don't have a lot of time."

She ran outside and threw one to Billy. He caught it, and then stared at her.

"What are you doing?"

Alura gestured for him to come inside. "I'm making things right. You and Jason need communicators, if you have any spare."

Billy fished two spares out of a drawer as he went back into the first aid room.

"Tommy, come in."

"We read you, Gold Ranger." Tommy's voice came over her communicator.

"Meet us at the entrance to the cave on Aquitar," said Alura. "We'll teleport to your signal."

"What's going on? Who's coming with you?"

"Billy and Jason."

"Jason? What-"

"Please, Tommy, I'll explain when we get there; we don't have a lot of time."

Alura sensed hesitation from Tommy. "…Okay, we're standing by to receive you."

"Gold Ranger, why are we wearing these?" Billy gestured to the colourless Morphers, as if they were an insult to them.

"Please, just keep them on. They'll save Jason's life."

"And why are we going to Aquitar? Jason is in no condition to teleport." Billy was getting angry again.

Alura stopped. "Your right… we'll have to take the pyramid."

After a small argument with Billy, Alura summoned the Pyramid, and they all clambered into the hatch. Despite being angry and supporting Jason, Billy couldn't help gazing in wonder at the interior. It was gold on the inside too, and there were several doors leading to strange rooms, as well as ladders that lead up and down, and lots of electronics that lined the walls.

"Locking on to Aquitar."

Alura morphed and began pressing buttons. Billy was almost amazed that she knew how to control this craft so well. There were thousands of buttons lain out before her, yet she seemed to know what each individual button did. Billy didn't remember the Zords being as complicated to control. The pyramid took off, but it didn't fly anywhere. Instead it shuddered, and then became surrounded by a blinding light. Billy had been looking out of the cockpit windscreen, but had to close his eyes as the light became blinding.

As the light subsided, the scenery out the windscreen had changed. They appeared to be in a large dark cavern, and they could see the Zeo and the Aquitar Rangers morphed and staring at them in surprise.

"What did you do?" Billy was still supporting Jason.

"The Pyramid has a teleport inhibitor, meaning that anyone inside will not feel the effects of teleport."

"Cool…" said Jason, before collapsing. Billy grabbed him as he fell, and Alura quickly checked for a pulse. It was there, but very weak. Tommy opened the hatch and fell into the pyramid, not anticipating the drop.

"What happened?" he asked, recovering and rushing to Jason's side. Alura didn't wait to answer him. She trusted that Billy would be doing that anyway. She jumped from the hatch and landed swiftly in front of the rest of the Zeo Rangers and the Aquitar Rangers.

There were mixed reactions to her presence. The Zeo Rangers seemed happy or relieved that she was here, but then again they didn't know the whole situation.

"You!" All five Aquitian Rangers immediately drew their weapons and aimed them at her. She drew her own sword, but then threw it to the ground, facing the swords and blasters unarmed.

"I'm not here to fight you," she said, switching to her male voice. "I come on terms of peace."

"That's likely," said the Blue Ranger, Cestro in disgust. "That is exactly what you said last time, and looked what happened."

"I do not come for myself. I come for the sake of Jason, Mighty Morphin Red Ranger. He will die if you stop me from entering the cave."

"You don't need to go in; we have the healing ice sword here."

"The ice sword will be useless for healing him, because he no longer has a connection to the Morphin grid. You know that is not what I seek."

"Gold One, we cannot allow you entry."

The Aquitians moved between her and the entrance of the cave.

"Don't make me fight you."

"Okay, everyone stop!" Tommy barrelled past her and stood between Alura and the Aquitians. "Whatever happened here in the past doesn't matter. What matters now is saving Jason. You need to all put these differences aside for the moment, and concentrate on our task."

The Alien Rangers hesitated, and then lowered their weapons. The Zeo Rangers began to walk back into the cave with the Aliens, supporting Jason between them.

Tommy stopped Alura, shoving her roughly in the shoulder. "You. You're going to explain everything when we get back to earth."

Alura didn't say or do anything. She looked at him for a moment, and then walked past him into the cave, picking up and re holstering her sword as she went. The time had come. She had to tell them everything. Her game was up.

"Kat," whispered Tanya as they went deeper into the cave. "Who's Jason?"

"He was the original Red Ranger. Tommy told me about him." Kat whispered back.

"Yeah," said Rocky. "He was the one that I replaced as Red Ranger."

"He's a good fighter." Adam whispered. "But he hasn't been a Ranger for a few years. What's he doing here, and in that condition?"

"Good question." Tommy glanced at the Gold Ranger who continued to walk in silence.

Tommy made his way over to walk with Aurico. Aurico still had his weapon drawn, and Tommy could tell that he was tense.

"Aurico, what else is in this cave?"

"It has been said that many years ago, two sources of great power were put in this cave."

"Being the ice sword and something else?"

"No, there are two other sources of power as well as the ice sword."

"But, what?"

"It was said that there were three Rangers of Aerovillia. One controlled lightening," Aurico glanced at the Gold Ranger. "The other two controlled ice and flame. There was a battle, and the ice and flame warriors were lost, and the lightening warrior stored their powers in a safe location, until two warriors were chosen to use these powers once again."

"But that's a Gold Ranger, not a lightening warrior."

"No one's called me lightening warrior for a very long time." Alura said. "I am the Gold Ranger. The other ones were that of the Silver Ranger and the Crimson Ranger. The names which you hear are the powers we use, not our colours. Didn't you ever wonder why I can summon electricity?"

Tommy and Aurico glanced at each other.

"The Gold Ranger of three generations back fought alongside these other two Rangers." Alura stopped for a second, and then continued. "They were killed in battle against the United Alliance of Evil."

"Wait," Billy stopped, Jason stopping with him, even though Jason felt compelled to keep walking. "You're going to make Jason and me active Rangers again?"

Alura nodded. "I know that you don't really want the power again Billy, but I have several reasons for doing this. One, these powers will save Jason's life. Two, I can't give one of these powers without giving the other. They are a pair, and that's why you are both only wearing one Zeoniser each, unlike the other Rangers who have two Zeonisers each. Third, I'm leaving, and you'll need the extra muscle power on your side."

"Wait, you're leaving?" Rocky sounded shocked. "Why?"

"Billy asked me to go. And I said that if you didn't want me to stay, then I would go."

Tommy put a hand on her shouldershield. "We haven't discussed this properly."

"It's not up for discussion." She shrugged his hand off.

"But, where will you go?"

"Away from Earth." Billy glanced at Jason, who would have been staring back at him angrily if he wasn't feeling so weak.

She stopped suddenly as the cavern came to a dead end.

"So, where are these powers?" Delphine seemed both tense and unimpressed.

Alura placed a hand on the cavern wall, feeling along its surface.

"They're here. We've reached the blood zone."

Alura kicked at the rock wall and it caved in to reveal a dark cavern. The cavern wall and floors were covered in crimson patches. The other Rangers shuddered at the sight, but Alura seemed to have little or no reaction to it.

"Billy, Jason," she gestured for them to come forward. "I'm afraid everyone else will have to wait here. It's called the blood zone for a reason."

Tommy tensed, reluctant to let Jason go into such a place when he was that close to death. But he knew that he couldn't stop them if Jason was going to get better.

The Gold Ranger and Billy helped Jason into the darkness. The Aquitians tensed further, powerless to stop them as they disappeared into potential danger. Tommy stared worriedly into the darkness.

"Aurico, you've got to tell us what happened here. I've never seen you guys so tense!" Tommy tore his gaze from the darkness and focused on his fellow Red Ranger.

Aurico didn't take his eyes away from the dark. "The Gold Ranger came here once before, a few years ago. Except… he seemed sort of power hungry. He was possessed or something. It was like nothing could stop him, not even us. He was the only one who we had heard of making it to the blood zone. Fortunately he wasn't able to get in."

"Are you sure it was this Ranger? How do you know that this isn't a different one?"

"Trust me, Thomas. It's the same one."

There was a growling sound, and Tommy turned his attention back to the cavern. They could hear sounds of a sword fight. Tommy drew his weapon, but Aurico held him back. The Rangers stood there for at least ten minutes, listening, and helpless to do anything. They heard a massive thump, as if something big hit the ground.

As Tommy squinted, trying to look into the cavern, there was a sudden blinding light, and everyone covered their eyes.

Tommy was suddenly thrown to the ground as something dived on him. He dropped his weapon as he struggled for breath. He heard hysterical laughing in his ear, and he realized that there was a Ranger hugging him. As he gently tried to pry the Ranger away, he realized that it wasn't a Zeo or Alien Ranger. The new Ranger had crimson armour, which looked even a little bit metallic, and a white semicircle similar to the Zeo Rangers' across its chest. The helmet, however, was fairly plain, like the Gold Rangers, except it was Crimson, and the visor looked like it had flames running across the top of it that spiked outwards at the corners.

"Bro!" exclaimed the Crimson Ranger. Tommy stared, bewildered, until everything finally fell into place.

"Jason?" he laughed and hugged him back. "You're okay!"

There were cheers from the other Rangers as a Silver Ranger emerged, with armour similar to the Crimson Rangers'. "Sources indicate that I am now an active Ranger again!"

The rest of the Zeo Rangers dived on the Silver Ranger as they recognized him as Billy. Amidst this happy chaos, the Gold Ranger emerged, her sword covered in blood. She nodded the Aquitian Rangers, and, without another word, they nodded back.

Thank you.

The words came to their minds simultaneously as the Gold Ranger re holstered her sword.

"Wow, what happened in there?" Tommy noticed her sword as he finally managed to stand and Jason proceeded to hug the other Rangers.

"Bro, you wouldn't believe it! There was this huge wolf thing, like a guard dog, and he defeated it."

Alura didn't react, not sure if the statement was meant as a compliment or not.

At that moment, Cestro's communicator went off. The Aquitians turned and spoke into it, using an alien tongue that the Earth Rangers didn't understand a word of, even though Alura understood a little.

"I'm sorry, Rangers. We have urgent business to attend to. We must leave."

"Thank you guys for all your help." Tommy shook hands with Aurico and Delphine. "May the Power protect you."

The Aquitians nodded and regrouped. "Power protect you." They teleported away, leaving the other Rangers alone in the massive cavern. They turned to Billy and Jason, looking closer at their armour.

"Whoa," said Jason as he drew his weapon. It looked like a sword with a crimson handle, but when held on an angle it resembled a gun. "What is this thing?"

Billy drew his sword, and it was the same, only with a silver handle.

"I wouldn't fire it," said Alura. "They're called ignis swords. You'd betterask Zordon about them before you use them."

"Alright, guys. We'd better get back to Earth." Tommy checked his watch, which he had strapped on next to his communicator. "It's 2AM, Saturday morning, which gives you plenty of time to explain everything before we have to get home."

Alura nodded. "I'll meet you at the command centre; I've got to put the pyramid in a safe place first."

"You have half an hour. Make sure that your there."

Tommy felt he was being a little harsh, but he'd had enough of the Gold Rangers secrets. He and the other Rangers teleported out, but Jason lingered behind.

"Aren't you going, Jason?"

"I just wanted to say," he started. "Thank you. For saving my life."

Alura was sure that if she could have seen his face it would have had a smile all over it. "Angel."

Alura smiled at this, before Jason teleported out.

Ninjor was waiting at the temple entrance when Alura teleported the Pyramid back there. She knew that it would be safe here for the time being. She climbed out and powered down.

"What happened?" Ninjor's voice had little tone to it.

"Rita," said Alura as she walked to Ninjor. "That BITCH. She injured Jason, and I had to give him and Billy the 'Three Rangers' powers."

"Well, you didn't have to, not unless-"Ninjor looked at her sharply. "You're planning to leave?"

"I have to Ninjor. I'm telling them everything, and then I'm going." She looked at her feet. "I'd like you to come to the command centre. You deserve to hear it too."

Ninjor crossed his arms. "There's no way that you're going to tell them everything. I know you too well."

Alura smiled slightly. "Okay, you're right." She handed him a small red cube on a chain. "Guard this with your life, Ninjor. It contains everything I know about the Alliances plans, including all of the information on Operation REDLESS. If I… If something happens to me, you should give that information to Zordon. He'll know what to do."

Ninjor nodded solemnly. "I'll guard it with my life, Alura." He raised a fist in a small way. "Never fear… Ninjor's here."

She went to shake his hand, but Ninjor pulled her into a much needed hug instead.

"Thank you."