Chapter Twenty-Four: Inner Corruption

"Dimension Slash!"

Kamen's power was unbelievable. If one had arrived on the scene at just that moment, they would have beheld one warrior, encircled with his foes. At times, he was able to feel chroniton particles flow through him from the Morphing Grid, allowing him bursts of time defying movements. While he did so, Rahp charged at the former Morphing Master, jumping over a wounded Zordon, who was being pulled to the side by the medic Priscilla. With ease, Kamen as Decade parried the attacks. He then with an open palm hit Rahp in the chest, sending him flying.

Risp had a clear shot. She fired. The bullet flew down from the sniper's nest she had secured for herself during the fighting. As it approached its target, Decade spun around and lifted up his blade. Defying physics, Decade used the Morphing Grid to halt the bullet with his blade, but to keep the bullet in motion. He flung the bullet away, hitting an oncoming Orion in the leg.

Decade was very meticulous about this battle: he did not want to injure anyone. He knew they were doing what they were ordered to do. He knew they believed they were upholding the structure of the civilized universe. Decade knew better, though.

As his blade met Lieutenant Talp's, Decade thought about how he had been unfairly treated. How someone within the Alliance was manipulating everyone.

As he thought on that, Decade felt soldiers approaching from behind. He sighed in his helmet.

I guess isolating fighters can only work for so long... He thought.

Although he had battled many soldiers at once when the battle had begun, to ensure he didn't make a mistake and hit someone too hard, and to create an environment where friendly fire did not occur, Decade had been attempting to isolate the better fighters and defeat them individually. His plan was to later take on the weaker fighters in packs.

Once the encroaching combatants had gotten close enough, Decade jumped over and grabbed Reon Talp's wrist. Decade's grip had his fingers pointing laterally, with the back of his hand pointing towards his body. That ensured the most obvious way for Reon to force Decade to let go would be for Reon to swing his arm away from his body, breaking Decade's hold via Decade's thumb.

Perfect! Decade thought as he watched Reon's left arm abduct from his body.

Instantly, Decade lunged at Reon's left ankle. He leaned his shoulder into Reon, forcing Reon to shift his weight to his right leg to not fall over. As Reon did as Decade had predicted, Decade snatched up Reon's left ankle, since there was no longer any weight on it.

"Wha...? Huh? What just happened!?" Reon yelled, frustrated. The other three soldiers paused as they approached the scene.

Decade, using the massive strength granted to him from the Morphing Grid, being regulated through his Decade Morpher, swung Reon into the soldiers. He dusted his hands as he watched the lieutenant fly into the Alliance cadets.

"Whoa! Watch out!" He yelled too late. He crashed into the soldiers.

Decade turned around at that point. He saw something which touched him deeply: his fellow Edenites were being corralled into a War Star ship. During the fighting, Burai had taken the opportunity to take as many Edenites as he could as prisoners.

Burai leapt forward and landed twenty feet from Decade.

"Let my people go!" Decade demanded.

Sun beat down on them. The fighter standing between Decade and the Edenite prisoners was Burai, who had already summoned his battle armor. The light reflected off Burai's Dragon Shield. He lifted up his Dragon Dagger.

"I am sorry, Master Kamen. I cannot do that... Surrender now and I can ensure everything will go smoothly for you and your people." Burai said, confidence oozing from his speech.

Kamen smiled under his helmet. He knew Burai was a gifted fighter and a great leader. He and a few others had been planning on recommending him to become a Morphing Master after Master App's demise during the war on Decrof. Ivicar nominating Zordon threw a wrench into those plans, though.

"Burai... you are a good man... Please don't let it come to this..." Decade begged.

Burai dug his toe into the dirt and ran forward. Decade stood, his sword in hand. As Burai approached Decade, though, the ground around them blew up in a confetti of movement. They both found themselves floating through the air.

Meanwhile, up in orbit, Count Dregon looked down from his ship. He turned to his right hand man.

"Cyclopter: send down the troops."

Dregon smiled. The plan was working. The Queen had told him to sit and wait. He had doubted her at first, but decided to play along since her meticulous plans had turned out well up to that point. Now, he looked down at the Edenite army, basically gift wrapped for him. His revenge was going to be complete.

He looked down at Decade. "So... Lexian has a new weapon... I think those powers will suit me well..." He turned from the computer panel and marched back to his place in the center of the command room.

Back on the surface, Filcar picked Rahp up. "Wake up, buddy. We gotta get out of here."

Further down the field, medics pushed Zordon and Orion into the ship. In the ship, Cestria began her attempts at removing the bullet in Orion's leg.

"I need to get my vehicles..." Zordon said as he tried to lift himself up. Tideus rushed and asked him to lay back down.

"Your pet, Saba, has Lightning Cruiser. Burai is following him with Storm Blaster." Tideus said.

Zordon grunted. "He's not my pet... Orion? Why are we retreating? We need to defend Edenoi."

Orion shook his head. "No, we don't. They are no longer members of the United Alliance. They fend for themselves now."

Zordon nodded. It made sense to him.

No reason to waste our resources... Zordon thought to himself.

Suddenly, though, as if he was having an argument with someone else, Zordon thought about how wrong it was to leave them behind. His first inclination, he began to think of, was correct. Edenoi had innocent people on it and should be defended regardless of their affiliation with the United Alliance. Yet, a large part of him didn't want to give room to that thought. He was conflicted.

Back on Edenoi, Decade looked back to those soldiers he still had on his side.

"We must return to protect King Lexian. Everyone come close. Prepare for teleportation."

Some soldiers began to demand they stay and fight.

Decade shook his head. "We will be destroyed if we try to take on all of Dregon's forces. We must protect the king."

And with that, they teleported to Lexian's hideout.

"Well, it's been fun, Princess, but here is your stop." Marvin Louse said as the planet Rashon came into view. He had been having fun with her, and had been hoping that wouldn't be their only encounter.

"So... how does one get a message out here to Rashon...?" Louse asked, trying to sound as romantic as possible.

"Well..." Miha began.

"No one's going home today... Look!" Luka yelled from the pilot pit.

Everyone ran toward her to see what she meant. Looking at the monitor's up close view of Rashon, one could see a squadron of ships in orbit. In the midst of the small cloud of ships was what appeared to be a floating skull. It was the infamous Skull Ship.

"Vile..." Joe grunted.

Doc nervously tried smoothing out the wrinkles on his green lab coat. "ls there no way around them?"

Luka rolled her eyes. "Of course there is. Why would I want to get around them, though? If If the planet is to be invaded, there's no point in leaving them on a doomed planet..."

Before she could stop herself, the words rolled off her tongue. Tears filled Miha's eyes. Louse saw this and stepped forward.

"Then we fight them. Here and now."

Joe laughed. "Stop trying to impress the princess and start being logical. There's no way we can go up against Vile's armada with only one ship."

Miha swallowed her tears and started speaking at that. "We must escape. Rashon needs at least one member of the royal family free."

"Well, then, we'd better start running now. We've been spotted!"

As Luka turned her ship around, the commander of the ship that had spotted them smiled.

"What are your orders, Commander Novact?" The head pilot of the ship, the Dark Wave, asked.

"Hunt them down. We need to make sure they don't tell anyone about this." The newly promoted commander of his own ship answered coldly.

"Sir, my sensors detect they are already signaling for help." The ship's communications expert relayed to Novact.

With a deep laugh, Novact replied, "No one will hear them. The Alliance's communications belong to us now. We've made sure of that."

The pilot nodded and they set their course to Luka's ship. Back on the Alliance ship, the enemy craft's movements were noticed.

"It looks like they are following us!" Doc said, still running his hands over his lab coat absent mindedly.

"Let's head to M51, then. It's decently close to here and they wouldn't think to look for us in a system in which the Alliance has already been defeated." Luka said as she entered the coordinates.

"So... The Alliance is going to fall, huh?" Joe said privately to Louse as he sat next to the Alliance captain.

Louse nodded. "Like I said: the writing's on the wall. It's only matter of time..."

Joe stood back up and started walking away. Before he left the room, he turned back to Louse with a smile on his face.

"What're you smiling about?" Louse asked.

"Seeing as we're all gonna become pirates, what color bandana should I invest in?"

Louse returned the smile. "Blue. You definitely strike me as a 'blue'."

Scorpius, still in his battle armor, sneered under his helmet at the scene before him. From the Scorpion Stinger he could see Count Dregon's ships fly down to Edenoi. He could also see a War Star Armada ship fly away from Edenoi, with two other small vehicles flying next to it.

He turned to his daughter, Trakeena. She looked away from him, still unable to face him after he so brutally destroyed the troops who were attempting to arrest her and many other Edenite cadets. He had tried to convince her the Alliance had betrayed Edenoi, and he was defending her and all all of Edenoi. She hadn't been convinced.

With his new, deep voice, he placed a hand on Trakeena's shoulder. "Do you see, my daughter? Instead of running to help Edenoi, the Alliance flees. Would those who have our best interests at heart do such a thing?"

Trakeena peered out the ship's window. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She ran to the ship's monitors and zoomed in on the ship. She wanted to see if it was a fake. To her surprise, she saw a member of The Top, Burai, riding in Storm Blaster. Sad, she turned to her father, crying.

"Why would they do this to us!?" She sobbed as she buried her head into the cold metal where her father's chest should've been.

Trakeena wished she could feel some warmth, or her father's heart, for comfort as she rested her head on his armor, but that wasn't possible.

"it's like I told you, Trakeena," Scorpius said. "In this life, we must blaze our own trails. We cannot rely upon anyone else. By your own might and by your own grit do you accomplish anything. If we rely upon the organization of the Alliance, you put yourself in a position to be stabbed in the back.

"If you become a law unto yourself, though, you know you can always rely upon your own flesh to keep you going. You will never betray yourself. Then, it is up to you and you alone to accomplish greatness..." Scorpius finished, pleased with how he manipulated and twisted the situation to fit into his grand scheme.

"Okay... but we must help our fellow Edenites! Even though we may be... 'blazing our own trails', what of our people!?" She demanded.

"The best we can do for them is to become the best we can be. With enough power, we can lay claim to the entire universe! We can ensure everything is right, according to our own inclinations!"

"But where can we get such power?" Trakeena asked.

Scorpius turned to one of the brain dead henchmen Finster had created. "You! Set a course for Earth's moon! We have a crystal to get..."

"Wa-watsah!" The Gold Ranger shouted as she jumped into the air.

She spun around, kicking many Alliance members away from her. She landed, looking at the swarm of troops making their way toward her. She shook her head and sighed. The Alliance troops had landed on one of Triforia's moon and had attempted to infiltrate Triforia from there.

Magnus, in his Defender Armor, slashed his way forward. He did not care if he took the life of any of the Triforian fighters. To him, they were traitors. In his mind, he believed Kamen and those from Edenoi were innocent and that Tria and all from Triforia had framed his good friend. He was determined to get the truth and exonerate his friend.

"Tria! Prepare to meet my blade!" The Defender lunged at her. The Magna Blaster, in its sword mode, clinked as it hit The Power Staff.

The Gold Ranger, Tria, attempted to sweep Defender's feet. The Defender jumped, causing the Gold Ranger to spin and follow with a jump of her own. In midair, she kicked the Defender in the chest. He landed with a thud, his weapon skidding away from him.

The Gold Ranger landed on her feet, pointing the tip of the Power Staff at the fallen Defender. After a moment, she pulled her weapon away.

"Power down!" She said.

Tria looked down at the Defender. While looking up at her from on his back, Magnus pulled off his helmet and stared at Tria.

"Stop gloating and finish me!" He demanded.

Tria looked out across the battlefield. The bodies of good Triforian men and women were scattered around, lifeless. Tria of Courage counseled to stand up for Triforia and to destroy Magnus. Tria of Heart and Tria of Wisdom, however, advised against it. They reminded her of compassion and empathy. They were just doing what they thought was right. All of them were pawns in a deadly game of chess, whose orchestrators were yet unknown to them.

"No." Tria said, shaking her head. "I cannot do such a foul thing to someone I call my ally. I'm not goin' to allow more fightin'." She reached her arm down to help Magnus up.

"Ahh!" She yelled as she was hit in the shoulder. She staggered back and looked down at the scorch mark where the blaster's beam had grazed her.

King Estro ran toward Magnus. "Are you okay, Magnus!?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Tria," Magnus said, turning his attention to the former Morphing Master, heart softened a bit by her compassion. "If you come in now, our troops will leave. You can present yourself to a tribunal and have a fair trial. Tria... will you come with us?"

Tria, hiding a smile of relief, nodded. "Yes. Anything to end this."

Estro nodded. "How benevolent of you, Master Magnus. I will go and get her."

Magnus nodded as he leaned on the hilt of his sword that he had grabbed, blade digging into the dirt. Estro then walked toward his former council member.

As Estro walked forward, he ever so slightly reached into his robe's front pocket. After feeling around for a moment, he found what he was looking for. Right as he got to Tria, he smiled. He then dropped an implosion device at her feet.

"It's a trap, Magnus! Get down!" Estro yelled as he dived back toward Magnus, pulling him down to the floor.

Tria's eyes became as large as saucers. Even though it had occurred all in a matter of a second, she processed everything clearly: Estro had dropped the device out of Magnus' line of vision. He was trying to frame Tria for the attack. She was certain the earlier laser blast attack was from him, too. As she thought, the device went off while she leapt into the air.

"It's morphin' time!"

She yelled as she dodged the brunt of the explosion. Through the flames, the Gold Ranger walked out. She was looking for the one who tried to frame her. The one she had once known as an ally.

Magnus looked up, fury in his eyes as he searched for Tria. "You double crossing disgrace. I'm going to finish you this time!"

As he yelled in anger, Magnus staggered and fell as he tried to rush forward to attack the Gold Ranger, whom he had spotted in the flames. Several medics rushed to him and started pulling him away to a medical craft.

The Gold Ranger could see troops running back to their ships from both sides of the battle, scurrying for their lives. Tria shook her head in disappointment. Once again she had been blamed for an incident she had not caused. Once again, Triforia had been put at risk.

As she continued her search for the traitor, her eyes found King Estro standing amidst the flames about twenty yards from her. Although his form was disfigured in her line of sight due to the flames, she could make out what he was doing. He was waving at her, a big smile on his face. Before he turned away, he blew her a kiss and gave her a mocking bow.

As he walked back to his ship, he pulled out a communicator. He spoke into it.

"Maligore: tell The Queen it is done. Everything is going according to plan." Estro smiled as he entered the ship to return to the Morphing Masters' headquarters.