Zordon Lives

A man in black came up to the silver SUV and motioned for the driver to roll down the tinted windows. A woman with blonde hair and a severe expression flashed him her access card. "Taylor Earhardt, US Air Force."

She stepped out of the vehicle and handed the man her keys. "I have an appointment with Wesley Collins."

The man checked her paperwork. "Welcome to BioLab."

Taylor entered the air-conditioned building and started for the elevator leading to the eighth floor of the massive building.

A few scientists and suits smiled at her wearily as she ascended in the glass elevator. Men with a wide array of firearms patrolled the corridors.

She stepped out and went to quickly to the last room in the stark corridor.

Taylor knocked to have a man in a navy suit and tie open the door. Wes didn't say anything as he motioned her inside.

"Be right there," he whispered into his communicator. Followed by, "Sorry about that."

"Meeting today?" she asked, as he removed the wireless phone from his cheek.

"Always," he replied, stifling a yawn. His eyes darted to the clock with a distinct look of exhaustion.

"Is there some reason I'm here, Wes?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Nothing illegal I hope. A new toy?"

"I wish. If you'd be quiet for a moment, I'll show you."

He brushed past her and started down the hallway. At the elevator he slid his thumb into a secret compartment and accessed the scanner. "Sub-level Twelve," he said clearly.

Taylor raised an eyebrow and followed him down. When they got out it was completely barren, there was no activity for as far down the hallway as she could see. Devoid of any sight of rooms, she expected sub-12 to be a collapsed mine shaft, deadly to even the heartiest canary.

"What the hell, Wes?" she said impatiently.

"Trust me, this is going to blow you away."

He led her around a corner and shifted away a piece of the titanium wall plating to reveal a door handle. "No one ever comes down here, and I've made sure that for the past few days, no one has had any reason to start."

Inside the room she could hear a distinct beep. A rhythm that sounded distinctly like that of a heart monitor.

"That's a life support beacon. You've got someone down here."

"Two people actually," Wes told her, handing her a mask to put over her face.

He let a retinal scan allow him entry through an air locked door.

Taylor gasped, realizing that things had just radically changed.

The two forms were parallel to each other, both in pods that were too futuristic to belong in her world. One was a woman, seemingly suspended in her thirties with a shroud of white across the bottom half of her face. The second was an old man cloaked in gray, completely bald and impossibly withered. On each side of them, unmistakably, were Wes and Eric's morphers, channeling whatever weak power survived in them from their power cores to the pods, making precious life stay within them for a little longer. The red streams hurt her eyes.

"How could you keep this a secret?" she condescended.

"They've been here for two days. Eric and I were on a routine check outside Silver Hills when we stumbled on Zordon and Demetria's bodies, haphazardly lying in front of us. From what we figured they were put there purposely, so that we would find them. Trust me, if I'd had the time, I would have contacted everyone sooner, but I need your help."

Taylor nodded, moving around the capsules, noting that they both were barely alive.

"It's taken every ounce of my strength, and Eric's just to keep them from flat lining."

"Where is Eric?" Taylor asked, suddenly sensing that something was terribly amiss. His Quantum Morpher was flickering crazily.

"Taylor, I'm afraid that's just it, he was admitted to the hospital this morning after collapsing."

"What happened?" Taylor asked, trying her best to remain composed.

"Zordon isn't doing well. Eric has been trying to keep him alive by channeling his own life force, but I'm afraid it isn't working."

"It's killing him too," Taylor realized, feeling a tear begin to well in her eye. She quickly batted it away.

"After Andros shattered Zordon's energy tube it was widely believed that what was left of Zordon was destroyed, along with the forces of Evil known as Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa, the Machine Empire, Divatox, and Astronema. Clearly, that was not the case. His essence managed to survive, and something has forced it back into his crippled body, and Demetria as well."

Taylor wanted to end Zordon's misery, save Eric from any more pain, but she couldn't. There was something greater at hand.

"I wanted it to be me, Taylor, but his powers were stronger..."

"I know, Wes," she said, putting a hand on his forearm.

"I need...I need to tell everyone, but I don't know where to begin."

"This is just a small piece of what I fear is to come," she confessed.

He nodded as they made way outside into the blaring daylight.

The stark white walls of the hospital and their ugly adorning paintings made the room appear all the more like a death cell. Monitors beeped all around Eric as he lay, eyes closed.

"Eric," Wes called from the doorway, dismissing the nurse. He grabbed Eric's hand. "I have a visitor for you."

Eric opened his eyes. "Hey."

"Are you doing okay?" Wes asked, sitting in the mauve chair beside the bed.

"Been better."

"Eric," Taylor murmured, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"Taylor," he returned, turning his head to look up at her.

"I don't know what to say...oh God, Eric."

"I'm not as bad as I look." He squeezed her hand with what little effort he could manage.

"You..."

"Don't worry about me, Wes is doing everything he can."

"I probably ought to go, I'm not doing much just sitting here. I need to get to the bottom of this..."

Eric touched her cheek. "You've already done something." He let his hand fall back against the white sheet and closed his eyes again.

"Hang in there," Taylor ordered him, brushing his forehead with her lips.

Eric smiled faintly. "...not giving up."

Wes dialed a number on his cellphone, "Meet me at the house, bring Major Earhardt's car."

He looked exasperated as they walked.

"Maybe you should take a rest, Wes."

"That's not an option."

"You're no good to anyone if you end up like Eric."

Wes threw his car into reverse and drove out onto the street.

"Taylor, saving Zordon and Demetria is going to take more power than I have right now, and I'm not going to stop until I know that I have enough to find out what's happening."

"You don't have to do this alone."

"It will take several days to organize everyone again, let alone find a way to make the meeting private..."

"Eric and you are doing enough already, let me handle this, Wesley."

He turned, letting her open the door to the mansion. "I have a feeling in my gut that nothing we do is going to prevent tragedy this time. Something terrible is going to happen, Taylor, and all we can do is hold out and wait for the storm."