(Time Compression)

Sitting in a throne-like chair, with her back to us, was a single sorceress, but... It wasn't Ultimecia.

I recognized the familiar female form all too well as she slowly placed her hands on the chair and stood up straight. Miko. Sorceress Miko. But, as she turned to face us, I felt a shiver run up my spine involuntarily as I saw her face.

Black, empty holes stood where her eyes should be, and a fangy smile took over her face, spreading inhumanly wide as tentacles sprouted from her back and she split into four. The dress altered into a red halter gown on a demonic sorceress, and an eery, echoing laugh reverberated through the room as the four sorceress' raised their hands and cast a hail of ice blades at us.

Luckily, we managed to dodge the worst of the attack, only suffering minor cuts as the sorceress' laughed again, in sync, as though they were one being.

Grabbing my gunblade, I raced forward and slashed at one sorceress multiple times before running to the next and following suit. After I attacked each, I ran back to my spot and raised my gunblade to the sky, concentrating my energy as a beam of light erupted from it, leading off the world and into space.

Bringing my blade crashing down, the resulting energy wave caused a massive explosion and all four sorceress' fell.

...Only to be replaced by four more.

Groaning, Hunter raised his rifle and riddled the battlefield with shots as the scene around us changed. The interior of the Presidential Palace melted and changed to the empty streets of Timber, the new battlefield settling into place as Dustin was hit by an energy blast and set careening into a nearby lamp post.

Kapri cast Triple on us all before beginning on the protective magics, and Tori used her Blue Magic to take care of the four new sorceress'.

And still, four more replaced them.

"What the hell?!" Dustin demanded, shaking off a hit and racing forward to vault over a sorceress and attack her from behind.

Kapri's eyes widened as she shot at the sorceress nearest her, with her crossbow. "Don't these things stay dead?!"

Marah sighed and cast Ultima on them all, destroying them completely.

...Four more took their places.

"Ok, this is seriously starting to piss me off!" I growled, unleashing another ultimate attack on them and taking them out. Raising an eyebrow, I shook my head and quickly took a Potion. At least they're easy enough to beat.

This time, when the four were beaten, an empty, echoing laughter raced through the area as the scene melted away, and we found ourselves on a massive beach. A light shone from above and two larger, more mutated and seemingly more powerful sorceress' descended from the sky, like they were floating.

Blinking a moment, I sighed and rolled my eyes. Spoke too soon. Racing forward, I slashed at the nearest one multiple times, ducking as I sensed Dustin racing in from behind me and rolling to the side as he began his volley of punches and kicks. Turning my attention to the other sorceress, I waited until Marah and Tori slashed her with their weapons before racing in and finishing my attack on her.

As I jumped out of the way, a cannon ball made of fur flew past me, and I watched as Angelo glowed brightly as he hit the sorceress', bouncing off them to roll away and run off.

They were, luckily, only slightly tougher than the last sorceress' though, so they soon fell.

And surprise, surprise, two more floated down to replace them as the battlefield changed again, this time, into Esthar city streets.

We kept fighting the seemingly endless number of sorceress', and soon, stronger ones took their places, as the scene kept meltiing away to reveal someplace else. It changed from Esthar to the Training Facility in Balamb Garden, to Balamb, to FH, The Galbadian Prison, Fire Cavern, and WinHill.

Finally, one large sorceress came down, horribly mutated beyond any possible resemblance of a human, and the battlefield changed into a dark, foreboding looking place that I'd never seen before.

Casting our most powerful magics and using our strongest attacks, we soon took this final sorceress down and I'm sure we all breathed a sigh of relief as the scene finally changed to Miko's House and the eery battles ended.

Still, seeing the change in scenery, I felt a frown come to my face as I saw the number of White SeeDs lying dead on the ground. There were giant, thick chains that held a floating castle in place, and my eyes narrowed as I looked up at the dark thing, seeing black lightning flashing through the sky all around it.

Changing my glance to the SeeDs, I closed my eyes and shook my head. "Future SeeDs... We're fighting across generations." I muttered out loud.

"And that's not all." Kapri stated with a clearly shaky voice as she looked at something else.

Following her gaze, I saw what looked like the rusted, long destroyed remains of a giant machine. The thing was easily the size of the castle itself, if not bigger, and vaguely resembled a yellow lion. Beside it, other machines laid in similar condition. A red hawk machine, a blue dolphin, and two giant bettles that looked so badly rusted, their colors were even faded beyond recognition.

But that wasn't what she was looking at.

It was six figures on wooden crosses, clearly long dead. They were displayed there, like some kind of sick symbol.

"What...?" I couldn't even finish the question as I took in their appearance.

One in a red uniform, looking exactly like something I'd seen from one of Kapri's memories, with a gunblade on his waist, hung limply nearby and I watched as she winced and her eyes filled with tears, even as her face paled.

"They're..." Shaking her head, she took a deep breath. "They were Power Rangers." Taking in the weapons on each one, her face changed to one of confusion. "But I don't think they're the ones from earth. The weapons are different."

And shockingly similar to ours.

The feminine form in light blue carried a whip that was tied around the top of the cross she hung on. A yellow, male figure carried gloves with metal knuckles. There was a green form that held a sword, that looked a lot like a rusted katana, and the navy form also carried a gunblade. Finally, the crimson form held a rifle strapped to his back.

Shaking my head, I took Kapri's hand and carefully pried her gaze away from the figures as I turned, seeing the others' glances changing from their weapons, or weapons the others were holding, to the figures and back, in horror.

Swallowing heavily, I looked to the castle. "Ultimecia's reign... We have to end it now." I stated firmly.

I led the way up the thick chains, finding it easy to climb and not a good sign that we didn't run into any monsters on the way. As we ascended to the main gate, I let my mind wander over the forms I'd just seen.

...Kapri stated they were Power Rangers. But, on her planet, we were the Power Rangers. And those weapons... Biting back a wince, I kept walking determinedly. Is that our future? Those strange powers?

...Ultimecia has to be stopped!

Finally making it to the door, I waited as the others caught up and glanced over them, allowing myself a moment to relax when I noticed they were all there and all alright, if a bit out of breath. "Good. We all made it." I was a little worried.

Looking at the castle, Dustin had to tilt his head back to see the top of it and took a step back in apprehension. "...Whoa!... So this is Ultimecia's castle?!"

"Finally." Marah muttered as she checked her nun chucks and items.

Hunter nodded thoughtfully. "You think what's-her-name really lives here?"

Kapri raised an eyebrow, her face still pale. "We've come this far." she muttered quietly, her eyes briefly flickering back to the figures. "She's gotta be here."

"I don't know what's going on." I stated with a frown as my own eyes fell back to the distant island that housed the remains of the orphanage. "But...we're still here." If this is the future, then those figures can't be us"I think we still have some time left."

"But, time for what?" Tori questioned with a frown of her own as her own eyes travelled back to the red and navy clad figures uncertainly.

"We'll divide into two parties, first of all. Who knows what we'll face inside, and it might work better if we split up." I stated hesitantly. Out of the group, I chose Kapri and Marah, seeing that they were the closest and that Marah's abilities would come in handy for our group, where as Tori's would come in handy for the other group.

"So, we're safe here, for now?" Dustin questioned quietly as we entered the castle.

I nodded. "It seems Time Compression hasn't started in this world just yet, but who knows how long until it will? We better work fast."

Bidding good luck to the others, we started off, fighting our way through many monsters. Difficult monsters at that. It was hard, and our supply of items was almost completely depleted by the time we made it to the main stairs to the castle, but there was a glowing ring on the floor that when we stepped on it, it restored our strength.

Soon, the other group met up with us, mentioning that they, too, had to defeat a lot of difficult monsters, but had managed to make it through. With a final glance to everyone, to make sure they were all still there and alright, we made our way up the stairs and down a long corridor, and outside, to cross along the top of a wall. Ahead of us was a large tower with an ominous presence, and I swallowed heavily, biting back the sense of fear that began to overtake me as I walked towards it.

"This really is it." Tori mumbled quietly, gripping her whip tightly. "We're almost there...almost finished."

I nodded silently as we made it to the door and went in. This is it... Ultimecia's here...

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Another shorter chapter, but the next will probably be really long, so... Wow, the final battle is upon us. Yes, the Power Rangers add in was out of the script. I don't know if it fit in ok, but I wanted to add in a sense of foreboding and such, so...

Hope you like it. I need a new computer screen... Sighs

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"SeeD... SeeD...SeeD... Seed, SeeD, SeeD!"

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R+R please.

Thank you.

Tenshi