Once and Always
Summary - After tragedy strikes, an unlikely young hero takes her rightful place among the Power Rangers to face off against the team's oldest archnemesis Robo Rita, alongside her husband, Zord Zedd.
Prologue
One fateful day in 1993, the evil sorceress Rita Repulsa escaped her Space Dumpster prison and attacked Earth. Five teenagers with attitude had their lives changed forever when Zordon chose them to defend the planet. In the decades since, many more heroes have continued their legacy.
The people of Earth rest easy, knowing their home is protect by Power Rangers.
But in 2023, Angel Grove is rocked by the reappearance of monsters they thought were forever gone…
…
..
.
Billy Cranston gasped, forcing his tired body to push itself into a standing position. His entire body ached. Lip split at the corner and a dull ache in his jaw from the scissor kick he hadn't expected from the Putty that wiggled and wobbled in front of him.
Taunting him.
Along with the rest of the putties that converged in a group.
Billy clenched his teeth and fists, glaring at the gray mass in front of him. More, importantly, glaring at the roboticized space with that stood before him. Robo Rita. She cackled, the same cackle that used to haunt his dreams through battle after battle against the forces of evil.
"Any last words?" Robo Rita taunted. She slowly but surely spun her staff in her hands. The red gem at the top gleamed in the sunlight, making Billy wince and look away every time it waved across his face. She chuckled quietly.
"Just a few," Billy replied. He reached down and grabbed his morpher. With gusto, he thrust it forwards. "It's morphin' time! Triceratops!" In a bright blue blast of light, he morphed into the Mighty Morphin' Blue Ranger. For the first time in several years. But it was just like riding a bike, the second he felt the power of the Morphing Grid flow through him, with the suit encompassing him…he was invincible.
Rita growled. Not that she hadn't expected it; she was no stranger to seeing her nemesis in front of her. But even the mere sight of a rainbow color made her circuits fry. "Putties!" She cried. Her minions all turned to look at her. "Grind him into blue dust!"
All at once, the putties leapt forward and attacked Billy once more. He easily fended them off. Knocking them left and right as he worked to get towards the Space Witch. Once he knocked enough putties out of the way, he swung a solid punch towards Robo Rita. She deflected the attack with a swing of her staff, catching Billy on the wrist. His arm flew aside, and she struck him in the side, knocking him to his knees.
"Ugh!"
Rita jabbed him hard in the ribs with the blunt end of her staff. When she pulled her staff back, the putties converged once more, grabbing Billy and threw him to the ground. As he moved to get back to his feet, a yellow light charged around Rita's staff and she sent the energy forward, knocking him in the chest and throwing him across the grassy top of the seaside cliff.
"Why'd you lead me here?" Rita demanded. "Was your grand plan just to die outside in the fresh sea breeze?" She mockingly waved her wand as another breeze blew across them. What would've been an ominous wind if the sky was dark, combatted by the bright sunshine surrounding them.
At that moment, a cascade of light appeared between Billy and Rita. Red, Yellow, Pink, Black, White, Orange, and Purple. Jason Scott, Trini Kwan, Kimberly Hart, Zack Taylor, Tommy Oliver, and Avalon and Bailey Mitchell.
Rita scoffed when she looked at the rest of the rangers that appeared before her. A far cry from previous years where she would've started to quake at the sight of the colorful team. "Oh, you brought friends. Now, it's a reunion!" If it were possible for the already slasher-like smile on her roboticized face to grow wider, it would have.
"Got your distress call," Zack declared, reaching out to help Billy off the ground. Kimberly stood on Billy's other side, hefting him up. "And we zipped here as fast as we could."
"Thanks, Zack," Billy replied. The group turned to face Robo Rita once more.
"Man, that's Rita?" Jason asked.
"I can't believe she's back," Kimberly said.
"Neither can I," Trini said.
"The robo look's not for her," Avalon agreed.
"She'll look better on a junk heap," Bailey said.
"But we can take her!" Tommy declared. The rangers all nodded, falling into their familiar fighting stances. Waited for the first movement to be made.
"Destroy them all!" Rita screeched.
The rangers raced toward the putties and leapt into attack the putties while Billy took on Rita. Jason, Tommy, and Bailey showed off their strong martial arts skills as they fought, taking on each putty that came toward them with a strong offensive. Trini's Praying Mantis style, slightly more on the defensive, had the Putties come toward her while she took them out with ease. Kimberly flipped back and forth—literally—between putties as they tried to take her down, she was just too graceful to be grabbed. Zack slipped in and out of the wiggling putties with his Hip Hop Kido armed with his strong punches and kicks that knocked the putties into dust. Avalon, with all the strength foisted in her, used a very combative fighting style that took out the Putties left and right with ease.
Billy, on the other hand, took on Rita himself. He had never fought her one on one before, and the mechanized version of her wasn't making the fight easy. Every time he moved to make a strike against her, she would parry it. Finally, she knocked him up into the air with a swipe of his legs from her staff.
As he spun around, Billy struck out his elbow, striking her directly in the face. The shockwave of that hit, bone against metal, shot through his body. Like smacking his funny bone times ten. Crouching, Billy looked to Rita's face, which was broken at the jaw, to his elbow. Surveyed the damage. It felt like she had actually bitten him.
The irony wouldn't be lost on me, Billy thought, looking back to her once more. He slowly curled his fingers, flexed them. Hissed through his teeth in pain. Maybe that move wasn't the smartest one you've ever made, Billy.
"Oh, my face!" Rita cried. She ran her hands over her face, from the smoothness of her forehead to the jagged mess just under her nose. With a deeply guttural growl, Rita turned back to Billy, tightening her grip on her staff so hard it sounded like it cracked within her grasp. "I was having fun! But you want to get serious?" Her eyes and the red gem on her staff started to glow a hellish red. "Come on, let's get deadly serious!"
"Oh boy," Billy murmured.
"You know I loved that face. Just like I love all that power in my new robot body." The redness glowed brighter and brighter, though also held a darkish tint to it. As if dark energy was coursing through her veins and into her staff. "But I'll gladly give up some of that energy for a spell that kills!"
A devastating beam of energy erupted from her staff and shot towards Billy.
"Billy!" Trini cried.
Billy turned his head away, raising his arm to shield himself. Waited for the pain. Found it didn't come. He turned and opened his eyes, seeing the exact moment Trini was struck by the blast meant for him, that hefted her up into the air, stuck in the swirling red and black vortex.
"Trini!" Billy cried.
The red-black energy lifted Trini overhead, towards the cliffside before it erupted in a dramatic energy blast that pinned Billy straight to the ground.
"NO!" Jason screamed.
The resulting shockwave knocked the rangers off their feet, destroyed the Putties nearby that were too close to the shockwave. Finally, the pressure relented and the rangers, scrambling to get up, raced to Billy's side. Billy took off his helmet, kneeling down by the cliffside, eyes frantically scanning for any sign of life. Suddenly, he pitched to the side from Jason's shove, where he yanked off his helmet and took Billy's place, searching.
"No…" Kimberly fell to her knees, grasping at the ground with her gloved hands. Tommy knelt beside her, pressing one hand to her shoulder, the other clenched into a fist. Avalon and Bailey grasped at each other. Zack let out a quiet curse under his breath.
Billy lay where he landed, shoved aside, stretched out on his side, breathing heavily, staring in disbelief at nothing.
"Goodbye Trini Kwan," Rita said then teleported from sight.
A/N: You didn't think this special would come around and I wouldn't do a Avalon/Bailey/Casey series version of it did you? Lol. Anyway, some of the special will be the same, other parts of it will differ as I always do with my novelization of the show. This will have some spoilers to the Bailey and Casey series if you're not caught up, but nothing too big.
Let me know what you think!
~Av