Personal Affairs
Part V: Something That's Unholy and Evil
by MegaSilver

Brendan ought to have guessed by now that his girlfriend was mixed up with the Power Rangers, but to put it bluntly, he was the wrong race. For although the world over had heard the tales of the Power Rangers, the attacks from outer space had focused mainly on the epicenter of Zordon's activity in southern California; the villains were all to aware that to spread much further out too quickly could easily provoke an escalation of the conflict before they themselves were able to contain the Rangers' response.

Consequently, not everyone in the world was inclined to believe the fantastic tales of evil space alien invasions and mystical hyper-tech superheroes. In the developed world, Southeast Asians, Australians, Israelis and North Americans west of the Mississippi were generally believers; Europeans and North Americans east of the Mississippi tended to be more skeptical.

So it would be more accurate to say that Brendan was of the wrong geographical origin to make the connection—after all, Irish-descended Californians, for instance, readily believed the tales of the Power Rangers.

At any rate, Brendan was absolutely bewildered to find himself suddenly back on the living room floor at his flat. He looked around slowly. Nothing had changed. The couch was out of order, the dining table needed a good bit of work, the window was broken…

He began to render account of what had transpired. Just minutes before he'd been tied up in a crate on the Atlantic, then his girlfriend had rescued him, then she'd been abducted by… a shape-shifter.

Then, somehow, he'd been transported back to the living room.

His heart began pounding.

What the fuck is going on?

"I need a fucking drink!" he cried, racing towards the prized whiskey cabinet in the kitchen.

"You see?" Zedd turned off his visor through which Kimberly had been looking. "Just like you asked, he's back at home."

Lord Zedd had at least shown her proof that he had kept his word and not harmed Brendan. He had even gone one step further and teleported Brendan home when she had asked. As she backed out of Serpentera's main observatory pod, Kimberly wondered if perhaps Zedd did love her in some twisted way.

Not that it mattered much. His past and present iniquities against her far outweighed whatever emotions he might be capable of.

In her private chamber, Kimberly sat by the window and tried to distract herself by admiring the beauty of the cosmos.

It didn't work, and in any case there wasn't much to look at once they had jumped into hyperspace.

They still had a good two hours before they reached their intended destination, planet Noctana. Kimberly tried to tell herself that she'd be rescued… and then what? She smiled as she tried to Brendan's reaction when she explained it to him. Would he think it were cool? Would he just be dumbfounded? Would—

Cutting into Kimberly's hard-obtained distraction, Scorpina threw open the door to her chamber without knocking. "Lord Zedd wants you to wear these," Scorpina announced coldly, holding up a pile of clothes.

Kimberly felt herself burn with rage. "Get out," she said just as coldly.

Without a word, Scorpina dropped the clothes onto the floor and slammed the door as she left.

Kimberly shuddered at herself. Before she had retired to her chamber, Lord Zedd had assured her that with time, she would grow to fit into her role. So maybe that was why he had caved so easily on sending Brendan back? Maybe that explained her… anger? Sure, Scorpina was evil, but Kimberly was a bit shocked at how quickly she herself had become irritated in a non-battle setting.

Just remember where you are, she told herself. She couldn't get drawn into some sort of Stockholm syndrome drama.

Trying to forget it, Kimberly knelt down and took a look at the clothes she'd been offered; a black dress, some high-heeled white boots and an eerie looking silver tiara. The dress was a bit more goth than she would have liked, but at least it was nothing like those hideous Rita robes he'd put her in the last time.

She tried the dress on and found it reached down to the floor. In that case it would probably be a good idea to leave her own boots on and not go for the high heels.

Sighing, Kimberly lay across her bed, hoping no one could come back in to mess with her. The dread seized her for a few minutes before she was able to relax just a little bit. There was nothing she could do but wait and see where they would end up—and how she could cope.

It dawned on her that she might pray, but she would have felt totally hypocritical doing so. She'd been raised a Catholic up through her first Communion, but her family had become pretty lax about going to Sunday Mass after that and since her parents' divorce they almost never went. Her father's parents, however, were quite devout, and so was Brendan—he kept a nice set of golden Rosary beads dangling from his car rear view mirror. Since coming to Florida, Kimberly would go to Mass with her grandparents here and there, and she'd even asked to go to Mass with Brendan the last Sunday before she'd left for Denmark. Truth be told, it was all kind of growing on her, but she wasn't quite at the point where she felt a sudden urge to go to Confession and jump back into regular piety as a part of her life.

Maybe that would change soon. Well… maybe lots of things would change soon. Maybe she'd be spending years and years with Zedd—and maybe he'd brainwash her so that she wouldn't want to be rescued!

Try as she might not to, she kept coming back to that thought. It dawned on her that those few months between arriving in Florida and making friends with Cindy and Marlene had been about the only time in her life she'd ever felt lonely. For a while, she'd even started to fear that it would last. Then her new friendships had just jolted her out of it and into all sorts of cool adventures—much different and even more mundane than those she had known before, but certainly far more memorable than the loneliness she had to contrast it with from immediately prior.

No wonder she saw all those experiences with gymnastics, Brendan, Cindy and Marlene as so… huge to her. Just eight months and now… all gone. First she'd given up almost everything she'd known for seventeen years, including some of the very best things she could ever hope for, then for a brief moment, the emptiness had seemed as though it would be filled. And now… would it all be gone?

The great moments of her life started to run together in Kimberly's mind. Nothing seemed to matter any more except to get out. She missed her friends—all of them, past and present; she missed Angel Grove; she missed Florida; she wanted it all back and knew that she never could have it all.

Florida was the logical destination, she had decided. But if she did get out of this, it would certainly be because of her friends on the Power Team. And then she could just say "thanks" and leave again?

Why couldn't I just be left alone in my personal affairs?

This was all such a horrible, awful nightmare.

Noctana is about as distant from its star as Pluto is from the Sun, resulting in a constant nighttime. The planet is nevertheless at habitable temperatures, thanks to a thick layer of greenhouse gases in its stratosphere that does not let one bit of starlight nor volcanic outpouring go to waste, as well as a fauna adapted to be similarly efficient with regards to photosynthesis.

They disembarked from Serpentera on a rocky oceanic coast. Several dozen meters away began what appeared to be a thick forest In other circumstances Kimberly might have thought the planet somehow beautiful. In these circumstances, of course, the nighttime could only accentuate her fear of the unknown before her.

With Zedd and Kimberly immediately behind them, Finster led them down the shoreline by torch, ocean on the left, until a path broke into the forest. The procession made a right turn into the woods and a short while later came upon a stony building that architecturally resembled a Church, but with no cross atop. As they entered the building, Kimberly saw that the walls were decorated with hideous gargoyles and bat- and goat-like creatures. No statues of the Saints or of the Blessed Virgin to offer prayers to comfort the faithful.

Is this a Satanic chapel? Kimberly wondered to herself. Pious or not, the thought of being wed in a Satanic chapel was just sickening.

Her breaths became shorter and quicker as she and Zedd were led up to the forefront of the altar steps. They stopped, Finster ascended, Goldar stood a few feet away from Zedd and Scorpina stood a few feet away from Kimberly. Squatt, Baboo and the Tengas took seats in the pews.

Scorpina's my witness. Kimberly felt even sicker.

Arriving atop the altar, Finster spread out his arms and bowed his torso to begin the nuptial rite. As soon as he did, the doors to the chapel flung open and an orange fireball shot through, leapt over Finster's head, and landed on the altar, taking the form of a hominid face.

Kimberly yelped.

TO BE CONTINUED…