A/N: Alright, time for chapter 3. Some new character show up in this one. Thanks to anyone who has been reading this, and remember that feedback is welcome and loved, positive or negative.

Element of Sound: If you think that's how it should be done, why don't you write your own fic? That has nothing to do with my fic. Plus, Red Phoenix, Green Minotaur, and Yellow Thunderbird were already used in Magiranger/Mystic Force, so obviously I couldn't use them again.

And now, without further ado, I give you Power Rangers Myths episode 3. Enjoy!

--

"Fire and Ice"

Jayse woke up with a start, sitting bolt upright in bed

Jayse woke up with a start, sitting bolt upright in bed. A cold sweat poured down his face as he panted for breath. For a moment, he remained that way, his eyes wide with fear, before he realized that there was nothing to be afraid of. He sighed, falling backwards onto the pillows again. It was only a dream. A terrible, haunting dream, but a dream nonetheless. Unwillingly, he went over the details of the strange vision in his mind.

He and the other Rangers were fighting Kurayami. At first, they seemed to be doing well. Jayse was leading, and the others seemed confident. Suddenly, the sorceress uttered a spell, and purple lightning shot down from the sky. The Rangers tried to dodge it, but it was too fast for them. To his horror, Jayse found that he couldn't move. Somehow the lightning never came near him, but he could only watch helplessly as his friends were destroyed by its power. Then, the lightening stopped, and Kurayami disappeared, her cruel laughter echoing through his mind as he was left surrounded by piles of ash that used to be his friends. Before he could fully react, he woke up.

Back in the real world, Jayse stared at the ceiling of his room in the darkness of the night, still horrified by the dream. He thought he could still hear the eerie laughing even while awake. The dream had felt so real…He could hear the crackle of electricity and smell the odor of burnt ashes. Even worse, he deeply felt the emotions of the dream. Most strongly, he had the feeling that he had failed his team. They were gone, and it was his fault. What kind of a leader am I?

--

Jayse put his hands on the sides of his head, trying to block the memory. It was a dream, he told himself. Nothing but a dream…At last, he forced himself to relax, and fell back asleep.

"Good morning everyone!" Dan's cheerful voice broke through Jayse's thoughts as he sat at the dining room table the next morning, picking at his breakfast. After that horrible dream, even a breakfast of bacon and eggs didn't seem appetizing.

"Good morning Dan!" Angie replied, mirroring her younger friend's enthusiasm.

"Man, last night was wonderful," the brown haired boy said as he sat down with a plate of food. "It's amazing how much sleep you get when you're in a mansion."

"Oh yeah, my bed is so comfortable…" his Asian friend agreed.

Michel walked into the room silently, sitting at the far end of the long table across from the others. He had his own breakfast with him. Unlike the two others, he wore a neutral, unsmiling expression. Dan looked over at him and grinned.

"Even Michel should be happy after a night like that," he said, laughing. The dark haired boy just shrugged, and Angie laughed as well.

"Come on, Michel, sit with us!" she said. "You don't have to be a loner."

He looked up at her reluctantly, then rolled his eyes, smiling a little. "Fine, if you insist." He picked up his plate and moved to the other side of the table, sitting next to Jayse. "Hey, you're sure quiet this morning." His friend said nothing, just stared silently at his plate. Michel raised his eyebrows. "Jayse? Are you there?" When there was still no response, Dan stood up and leaned across the table, waving his hand in the dark-skinned boy's face.

"Hey Jayse! Wake up!"

At last, Jayse shook himself and looked up at Dan, blinking. "Wh-what?"

Michel placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're spacing out," he said, sounding slightly worried. "What's wrong?"

Jayse forced a small smile and turned back to his plate. "Umm, it's nothing," he said softly. "I'm just tired. I had a hard time sleeping last night."

Dan slid back into his chair and laughed. "In a mansion? How do you not sleep perfectly in a mansion?" His friend just shrugged.

"Hey," Angie said suddenly. "Where's Peg this morning?"

Just then, the girl in question entered the room, yawning and stretching.

"Well speak of the devil," the Asian girl laughed. "You're late."

Peg just shrugged and took a seat. "I like sleeping." She paused and looked around the table at the near-empty plates of her friends. "What's for breakfast?"

"Bacon and eggs," said a new voice. Everyone turned to see Miles coming into the room, carrying two plates of food and smiling. He sat next to Peg and placed one of the plates in front of her. She smiled back at him.

"Thanks…"

"Hey, no pro…" Miles was interrupted by a voice that seemed to come from the walls around them. He looked up at a speaker in the corner of the room, and the others did too.

"Rangers, when you've finished with breakfast, please meet me in the basement for training." Alistair's voice sounded strong and commanding over the intercom, and no one felt inclined to disobey such a voice. "And please, hurry it along." With that, everyone exchanged glances, then began eating quickly.

--

In a dark, damp cavern, Kurayami sat on a throne made of gold. Around her were several Goblinoids standing at attention in various places in the cave. Behind the throne, bright early morning sunlight flowed in from the mouth of the cave, but the sorceress kept her gaze towards the darkness in the back. She hated the sight and the feeling of the sunlight. If she could, she would turn it into cold blackness without a moment's hesitation.

Breaking the silence with an echoing voice, she spoke out loud to herself. "Those pathetic children, calling themselves warriors, thinking they can stand up to me." She clenched her fists and glared into the dark. Her glare was enough that even the darkness would flee if it could. "But my Goblinoids are obviously not enough to defeat them. As much as I hate to admit it, I am going to need help…" She thought for a moment. "Yes, help like those two that I had in the past. Even though they were defeated, I could easy give their powers to others." An evil grin spread across her beautiful face. "I could give the powers to humans. It would surely weaken the resolve of the 'warriors' if they saw how easily the humans they are fighting to protect are corrupted by power." She laughed softly. "Now, to find some suitable humans to be my generals."

Closing her eyes, Kurayami focused deeply, and she began her search. It was amazing how much a sorceress could do without moving a muscle. While she searched, she thought back to all the time and effort she has spent gaining her powers. No, not the few months she had spent in this time trying to reconnect with her inner power, all the time it took to find the magic of this era, to recreate the Goblinoids. She was thinking of the time in the past, when she was merely a student, studying and training and honing her powers to become a sorceress. She had worked hard for many years, slowly building up all the power she desired. And like any sorcerer, she used her magic for her own gain. Why should she work so hard for anyone but herself? It was the only logical thing to do.

At last, she opened her eyes, and for a second they glowed with purple fire.

"Yes, they are perfect," she told herself. "Now, to bring them here." Focusing for a few more minutes in silence, she worked up a teleportation spell in her mind. When finished, she said the spell out loud. Instantly, the two humans she wanted appeared before her, without any flourish or fanfare. One second they weren't there, and then they were simply there the next. They looked around them with slight fear and curiosity, and to Kurayami's relief, they did not scream or try to run away when they saw her.

Standing before her were a young man and a young woman. The boy had medium tanned skin, and shoulder-length black hair. Over his upper lip was thin mustache, and his chin wore a thin line of black hairs that formed a beard. His face was handsome enough, although Kurayami was not interested in these humans for their appearance. What interested her more was his taut, muscular body. This was one of the things that had attracted her to him; he had some power of his own already.

The girl had dark, chocolate-colored skin and long jet-black hair not unlike Kurayami's. She had a thin frame, but she seemed strong enough physically. Her face was firm and serious, as if she had a strong will and was not a pushover. Kurayami liked that about her. She seemed to be a strong woman who could take care of herself.

After a few moments of looking around in silent awe, the two humans spoke.

"Where in the world is this?" the man asked. "And how did we get here?"

"More importantly, who are you?" The woman looked almost annoyed as she stared at Kurayami on her throne. "Someone who thinks they're the Queen of the World, I can tell."

"Silence, humans." Kurayami's harsh tone was enough to cause the two of them to obey. With a smile of satisfaction, the sorceress continued. "You are here because I brought you here. How, is my business. Why, you will find out shortly." With that, she gave them a brief summary of who she was, what she had done in the past, and how she had come to be freed from the seal in the present. Before she could continue, the girl burst into laughter.

"Wait, you really expect us to believe all that?" She shook her head. "I'm gonna leave now, and then I'm going to call the police and tell them that there's a madwoman here who thinks she's a sorceress from a million years ago." Still laughing, she began to walk away. The boy was about to follow when Kurayami stood and grunted in anger.

"How dare you insult me?" she cried.

She waved one hand towards the girl and a wall of purple fire stood in her path. When the girl only raised her eyebrows and attempted to go around it, the Goblinoids surrounded her, ready to attack. One of them moved towards her, ready to strike, when the boy rushed forward and slammed into it, toppling over on top of it. He then stood and turned back to Kurayami.

"I believe you, my Mistress," he said, bowing on one knee before her. The girl, after recovering from the shock of almost being attacked, faced the sorceress as well, folding her arms across her chest and trying to look defiant.

"Fine, just…tell us why you brought us here." Her voice shook only slightly as the fear faded away. Kurayami looked pleased with herself, and she sat back down on her throne calmly.

"Good…" she whispered, moving her eyes back and forth between the two humans. "Now, I brought you here to offer you a proposition." She gestured towards the goblin-creatures around them. "These are creatures of my creation, the Goblinoids. They are only a small sample of my power. What I want to do is to offer each of you a power of your choosing. In return, you must join my army. You will be generals, and you will lead the Goblinoids and do whatever else I bid you to do." She paused, letting this sink in. Her voice softened a bit. "Before you decide, tell me your names."

The boy lifted his eyes to Kurayami, but remained on one knee. "I am Steve, Mistress," he said.

The girl looked at him, seeming to be a bit flustered herself. "Uh, you can call me Ice," she said hesitantly.

Kurayami smiled, and for once she seemed almost gentle instead of just cruel. "Well, Steve and Ice," she began. "What do you choose?"

--

Back at the mansion, the five Rangers stood in the basement, along with Alistair, Miles, and someone they didn't recognize. Jayse noticed that the basement was set up like a gym. All around them were various weight lifting machines, and they now stood on mats in a large square. The man standing next to Alistair was a middle-aged Asian, and he reminded Jayse of the Sensei in the Karate Kid.

"Everyone, this is Sensei Ichiro. He is your new personal trainer." Alistair bowed to the Asian man, then turned back to the others.

For a moment, the Rangers were stunned into silence. Then they all started speaking at once.

"What do you mean a trainer?" Dan cried. "You saw how much we kicked butt already!"

"Yeah," Angie agreed. "We don't need to be trained."

"I thought the rings would give us all the power we needed," Peg said pointedly.

"We can do this on our own," Michel scoffed.

"Wait, guys." Jayse held a hand up for the others to be silent, and they quieted down. He took a deep breath before speaking again. "Sure, we won the last battle. But it was hard, and we almost got our butts kicked, if you don't remember. Maybe some training would be good for us."

His friends looked at him incredulously for a moment, seeming to think this over. Finally, Peg sighed.

"I guess you're right, Jayse," she said. Then she turned to Alistair and the Sensei. "What kind of training do you have in mind?"

The older Asian was about to speak when the shrill whistle of the alarm went off. Miles wasted no time and ran over to the computer in one corner of the room. He pulled up an image of what had caused the disturbance. Alistair and the Rangers followed him to see what was going on. They expected to see more of the Goblinoids they had fought the day before, but instead, they saw a boy and a girl about their age. They were standing in the middle of the street, and the observers could see little of what was around these strangers.

"We had an alarm for these two?" Angie sounded confused. "They don't look dangerous."

Miles tapped a few keys, and the view on the screen panned out to show the street around where the boy and girl were standing. Various noises of shock floated between the seven of them as they saw that the strangers were standing in the midst of destruction. Cars and buildings were on fire, and people were running and screaming. The boy and the girl looked satisfied and not at all afraid.

"Did…did they do that?" Dan could hardly get the words out.

"I don't know," Jayse answered slowly. "But we'd better go check it out. Come on, guys." The others nodded, and got into morphing positions.

"Power of the Dragon!"

"Power of the Unicorn!"

"Power of the Pegasus!"

"Power of the Sea Serpent!"

"Power of the Griffin!"

Each of them did their morphing sequence, and the armor appeared around them. They looked at each other and nodded, trying to be prepared for whatever was waiting for them.

--

The five Rangers ran up to where the boy and girl were standing. The two of them did not look at all surprised to see them coming. In fact, it seemed more as if they had expected them. This did not make Jayse feel any better, but he forced himself to be brave as he took a step towards them.

"Who are you?" he demanded in a firm voice. The boy chuckled softly and folded his arms across his chest.

"I am Steve, Wielder of Fire Power." As he said this, fire rose up behind him menacingly, and he wore a smug smile.

The girl stood beside Steve and also crossed her arms. "And I am Ice, Wielder of Ice Power." When she had said this, a pillar of ice appeared behind her. She kept a serious expression for a moment, then gave a small laugh. "I know, it sounds redundant. Ice with the power of ice. But that's the power I asked for from our Mistress Kurayami."

"What?" Peg blurted out, sounding shocked. "You work for Kurayami?"

"Our Mistress offered us power," Steve answered. He looked at Ice, then back at the Rangers. "And we accepted."

"She gave us whatever power we wanted," the dark-skinned girl continued. "And we chose fire and ice. In return, we get to serve the future empress of the world."

Michel scoffed. "You mean you get to be the dogs of that…" his voice softened, "beautiful," then his voice grew firm again, "yet evil woman." He clapped his hands sarcastically. "Congratulations."

Dan shook his head. "How can you guys fight for her? She wants to destroy the world…" he paused. "Or, take over the world. Or something!"

"Yeah, how can you do this to your fellow humans?" Angie asked.

Then, both of them broke into laughter. "How can you possibly understand?" Steve grinned evilly. "It's all about power. And one day, when our Mistress rules the world, we will have power beyond what you could even imagine."

"Right," Ice agreed. "And anyways, this world is corrupt as it is. When Kurayami rules the world, it will certainly be better than it is now!"

Peg sighed loudly. "Do you honestly believe that? She's trying to take over the world by hurting and destroying. Do you think it will be any different when she actually has control?" The smug, confident expressions on the faces of Steve and Ice faltered, but before they could say anything else, Jayse stepped forward slowly, his fists clenched.

"These two are traitors to the entire human race." His voice sounded flat and emotionless. "Who cares why they are doing this? We need to stop them before they hurt anyone else." He turned back to his team mates. "Guys, it's time to fight."

With that, he ran forward and threw a powerful punch at Steve. The boy, while caught off guard for a moment by Peg's words, was quick, and he caught Jayse's fist in the palm of his hand. He held onto it firmly while the Red Ranger attempted a left hook, but Steve caught his other fist as well. The two of them pushed towards each other, each grunting with the effort. Then, as if remembering his ability, the black-haired boy's fists suddenly burst into flame. Jayse cried out in pain at the heat, even though his suit protected him somewhat from the fire. Steve took advantage of this and pushed his enemy away hard, causing him to fall onto his back.

Watching this, the other Rangers decided to take action. Dan and Michel rushed to help Jayse, while Angie and Peg went after Ice. The Green and Yellow Rangers helped their friend to his feet, and the three of them surrounded the fiery boy. He thrust his still enflamed fist at Michel, who barely managed to dodge it. Having missed, Steve growled in anger and shot fire from his hand at the Red and Green Rangers. Thinking fast, Jayse pushed hard on Dan, forcing both of them to fall to opposite sides and miss the fire. While Steve was distracted, Michel charged into him, knocking him over.

The three girls were fighting furiously, aiming kicks and punches and dodging attacks deftly. Peg held out a hand to Angie, who grabbed it and used the extra momentum to kick hard at Ice. The girl flew backwards with the force of the kick, but quickly stood up again. She made both of her hands into fists and caused thick ice to cover them so that they were three or four times their normal size. With the new weight and strength, she punched the Blue and Pink Rangers in their chests powerfully. The girls cried out in pain and collapsed.

Steve pushed Michel off of him and stood up, his face wearing a scowl of anger. He went over to Ice and stood next to her. The three male Rangers ran to their female friends, helping them stand up.

"How about we double-team them?" Steve looked at the darker girl, who nodded. Putting her hands forward towards the Rangers, she shot out a beam of ice. The boy next to her put his hands out as well and surrounded the ice with fire. The blast hit the Rangers head on, sending them flying backwards. Their screams of pain were drowned out by the boom of the explosion. When they landed, all five of them demorphed.

Ice laughed as her enemies writhed in pain on the street. She turned to Steve. "Shall we leave these losers alone to wallow in pain?" He simply nodded, glaring hard at Jayse. Then, the two of them turned around and walked away.

The five Rangers lay on the street, watching the two enemies retreat. Dan chuckled softly with some effort.

"I…guess we do need that training, huh?"

Jayse closed his eyes in silence, his mind racing with memories of last night's dream. He had failed his team. They had lost because of him. What kind of a leader am I?

--

In a sparsely furnished apartment, a girl with long blonde hair sat on a white couch, watching the news. She looked bored, and she pulled her feet up onto the seat so she could hug her knees. Suddenly, something interesting showed up. Her blue eyes widened as she stared at the screen.

"Nii-san, come quick!" A moment after she had said the words, a boy ran into the room, his long brown hair flowing behind him. He stood behind the couch and looked at the TV as well, watching silently for a second. Then, he scoffed.

"So what?" he said with a shrug. "There's a new team of Power Rangers. How does that affect us?"

The girl rolled her eyes and pointed. "No, look closely at them." She paused, squinting at the screen, then pointed at it. "Look at their hands."

Her companion complied, leaning over her shoulder to get a closer look. What he saw made him gasp. "Those are…"

"Yep." The girl looked up at him.

"So that's what they do…" his voice trailed off as he looked back at her, his face showing excitement. The blonde grinned.

"I think we're going to have to pay these Rangers a visit, don't you think, nii-san?"

The boy nodded. "Hai, I think you're right, nee-san."

--

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this episode! Look forward to the next one!