Chapter Eight: Kadix, Edenoi, and the Power of Mecha

Zedd flew through space. His innards felt as if they were liquefying. His vision blurred. He knew he had to keep going. He didn't want to end up floating in space until he absolutely couldn't help it. Until his body failed him. The whole situation to him was quite unpleasant, for that was no way for the Dark Lord to end his existence.

Getting hungry, I see... Commander Zedd taunted from the prison in his own mind.

"You!? I thought you were gone!" Lord Zedd shouted in space.

I've been busy is all. You know, fortifying my memories so you can't get to them. It takes a lot to create a secure mind palace. It's more like a fortress now.

"Hmph. It matters not. I have access to vast amounts of knowledge. I don't need anything from the likes of you!"

Then I guess we're good. So, after going through our shared memory banks, I see you've been busy getting defeated by your enemies. Let's see how that worked out, shall we? Commander Zedd suggested, triggering a memory trace to play.

Lord Zedd suddenly spasmed and lost control of his flight. Instead of seeing where he was going, Commander Zedd forced the Dark Lord to only be able to view one thing: his latest fight with Dulcea.

Suddenly, Zedd found himself watching a replay of the fight he had moments earlier on Phaedos:

Zedd landed on dry earth. His metal exoskeleton crunched the rocks under his feet. Conjuring his Z Staff, he approached a mountain. From space, when he had looked upon the planet, he detected movement in a jungle on the other side of the mountain. The mountain's presence explained the planet's sudden departure from desert to the jungle in which he had detected the activity. Jumping up into the sky, he leapt over the mountain and landed on the other side. Going into his own version of Shadow Modeby tapping his silver Zeo powers, he leapt through the forest to the location of the activity.

The Dark Lord groaned as he watched that act. It had been the first time he had attempted Shadow Mode, and he had not known how much it would drain what little power he had left. Had he been aware, he would not have used that power. He was certain he would have won his encounter with Dulcea had he been slightly more energized.

Returning his "gaze" to his flashback, he saw himself descend upon Dulcea. Sensing a disturbance quickly, Dulcea lunged out of the way with finesse. Saba, her companion, growled and protracted his claws. Saliva ran down his mouth as he bore his fangs.

"Dulcea, we must band together. This fiend is immensely powerful." Saba said.

Pulling out her staff Dulcea ran up to Lord Zedd. Zedd parried the attack with his own staff. As he did, he gave Dulcea an uppercut that sent her flying. At that, Saba jumped upon Zedd's back and maneuvered his claws to hit muscle.

"Argh!" Zedd yelled tossing the feline off of him. Green flashes of Lifestream began to course out of Zedd's body from the wounds.

"Saba, stay close..." Dulcea warned, looking around.

Zedd had suddenly vanished and she was apprehensive of a sneak attack. She knew the villain wouldn't go down so easily. As she stepped forward, she felt herself be thrown back with electric currents. Zedd descended from the skies, laughing as he did.

"Sorry, Deary! I suppose you wanted me to play fair? Fight you one on one? Ha!" Zedd said, curling his fingers in front of his face, holding his staff as it dug into the ground.

Saba lunged at him again, firing White Morphing Energy from his eyes. He was mistaken in the lunge, however, because at that moment he no longer had any base to ground him. Zedd easily was able to throw him into the jungle by simply punching Saba in the face as he got nearer. He had then pointed his staff and blasted where Dulcea had been. Saba had served enough as a distraction, though, and Dulcea had vanished.

"Hee-yaw!" Dulcea yelled as she landed on Zedd from a tree branch above him. She aimed her staff for his brain.

Quickly teleporting to the other side of the area in which they found themselves, Zedd grunted. "You know, Pretty... you shouldn't 'ki-yah' right before a sneak attack... it takes away the 'sneak' part." Laughing, he attempted another blast of his staff.

Dodging the blast, Dulcea quickly circled her way to Zedd. She could see by his panting he was being drained so she began to fight him up close. She swung her staff at his face and he blocked it, allowing her to trip him. As he fell, she attempted to stab him, causing him to roll away.

Leaping to his feet, he took another blast to her, missing again. That caused him to stagger a bit. Seeing that, Dulcea smiled.

"Leave now, Zedd. You cannot beat me while I am here." Dulcea said, swinging her staff around.

Zedd laughed, gripping his Z Staff. "You're just lucky I'm... dehydrated. Next time, you and your little pet won't be so lucky!" Then, feeling a familiar energy in the area, Lord Zedd turned to see the Gold Ranger.

"Ah... my Zeo counterpart... how is the power treating you, Deary?" Zedd said, menacingly.

Zordon, the Gold Ranger's companion, looked at her. She shrugged, not knowing what he meant by 'counterpart'.

"Toodles." He said as he teleported into space.

Kicking out of the memory, Zedd found himself badly damaged. He had floated into a nearby asteroid field and was being pummeled by the rocks.

Commander Zedd was surprised his plan had worked so well. He had figured if his body got weak enough, he would be able to start gaining control again over certain motor and cerebral functions. Experimenting, Commander Zedd focused. Suddenly, he was touching what was once his face.

No! The Dark Lord yelled. Instantly, Commander Zedd was no longer in control. The Dark Lord was using every last ounce of Willpower it had to ensure it stayed in control.

"Next time you won't be so lucky. I know your tricks... I'll just make sure to continually hibernate. Then you will never have the chance to strike! Haha!" Lord Zedd cackled.

With the last amount of strength he could muster, the big red menace bounded his way through space, arriving at the Moon Palace. Right before he had landed on Phaedos, Finster had communicated with Zedd through the device he was given, telling him Rita and her squad had left the Moon to attend to business. Upon entering Finster's lab, Finster clapped.

"Oh, my! You look absolutely dreadful!" Finster proclaimed.

"You're no spring flower yourself!" Zedd said, ripping his arms away from Finster as the canine attempted to take him by the arm to lead him to the back of the lab. That was where Finster stored his equipment: a secret chamber he had found while unloading his things. As they entered, Zedd sat at the bed. Finster hooked the serum up to his tubes.

"There, now. In a few days you shall be as good as new!" Finster said.

"I had better... I have a long list of people I wish to visit..." Zedd said, chuckling. Once he awoke, he knew he was going to cause trouble.

. . .

Dulcea looked around. The Ragnarok was an impressive ship. The king of Triforia had it commissioned for Tria once she had started her petition to leave the planet to help the fallen United Alliance. Although she had been scorned by virtually the entire universe, she knew she had a power and to let it sit, unused, would be more of a crime than the crimes that were committed against her.

Dulcea thought about how she had helped Tria, six months prior. She had always known Tria was on the side of justice, which is why she had done her small act of treason back then.

"Dulcea, may I have a word?" Zordon said, beckoning her to a room. She nodded and followed him. As she went in, she heard the door lock. She turned to see Zordon with a look of anger on his face.

"I have come to find that those who you think you can trust may not be those who are worthy of trust. Dulcea... I cannot allow you to stay on this vessel if you have allied yourself with the forces of evil."

"What!? This is ridiculous! Zordon, what is this all about?" Dulcea asked, hoping he did not know about her treachery.

"This." He said, throwing his old wrist tech onto the table. It still had the files he had downloaded from the computer he had found when he first returned from the Hall of Legends. As the hologram flickered on, it showed some files stating Dulcea had stolen the Ectomorphicons, Hornitor and Scorpitron. The Ectomorphicons were a special Droid project Zordon and Burai had been working on. They were trying to fuel those super Droids with an energy source that would allow them to run for very long periods of time without need to recharge. The project had been on hiatus at the time Zordon was called up by Orion to go on his first assignment on Solaris 8 to secure the Zeo Crystal and Commander Zedd's troop. They had been having a difficult time finding a resource to make the plan come to life.

"This is preposterous! I have nothing to do with this!" Dulcea demanded.

"The reports say eyewitnesses placed you in the holding bay the last time the Droids were seen." Zordon debated.

"That must have been when Saba and I were trying to find a ship to get us into space! We heard people and thought they might have been from Vile's army, so we ran to Research and Development and grabbed a ship! That's all, I promise you, Zordon."

"So Saba can collaborate this?"

Dulce nodded. He had no reason to doubt Saba at that point. He had already felt his connection to Saba grow again

"Okay... you understand I need to ensure this ship is safe. I mean, after Estro betrayed everyone-"

"Estro!?" Dulcea asked. "Estro was the mole!?"

Zordon nodded. "Yes. Tria told me about his deeds. He tried to destroy Tria on Triforia and nearly succeeded. He's been MIA for quite some time. No doubt lurking in some dreadful corner of the universe doing who knows what."

"Well, I'm glad we are okay. May I go now?"

"I'm sorry, Dulcea..." Zordon said. "There is another thing... No matter what you think may be the right thing, you can't keep secrets on this ship. Everyone must be of one mind on our mission. If not, we will be pulling in different directions, even if it is only slightly. That will end up costing us. We need to work together.

"... I know what you did back on the base six months ago." Zordon revealed.

Dulcea looked down. She was unsure if she was ashamed of being caught, or her actions that led her to be caught. She knew she was doing the right thing... she just hadn't felt at the time as if she had time to debate with the rest of the Morphing Masters. Help was needed and she had helped the best way she knew how due to the time constraints.

"Dulcea... sneaking the Triforian army onto our base to free Kamen was not your call to make. You should have informed everyone of your suspicions! We need to talk things out! What if you were wrong about Tria?" Zordon asked.

"But I wasn't!" Dulcea snapped.

"Sometimes gut intuition isn't good enough. You know this!" Zordon said, started to get flustered.

"You're right... I made a choice, and it was a bad one." Dulcea said, finally ashamed of the act itself more than getting caught. She had been convincing herself that it had been for the best, but she knew deep down that she had not done the act in the best way. There were other ways to deal with the situation.

Dulcea recalled how it had occurred. She had suddenly received an encrypted message on her wrist tech. Opening it, there was a message from Tria. She implored Dulcea to help her. Tria said she had received a message from Kamen, saying he was to be executed. She was going with some troops to break him out and ensure he was given a fair trial. Tria asked Dulcea to lower the shields momentarily to allow them entrance. Going against what her brain told her, Dulcea had done so.

She remembered the chaos ensuing during the battle. The Triforians did all they could to only incapacitate the Alliance Soldiers. That task had proven difficult, since those soldiers were shooting to kill. She remembered learning from a survivor that somewhere nearby, former Commander Scorpius had appeared and liberated his daughter Trakeena and other Edenite students from a round-up Sentinel Knight had ordered. Scorpius' liberation tactic was to brutally destroy all those young adults, barely out of their teens. Dulcea kept telling herself that she had done well in helping Kamen escape, but in her heart she knew if the Alliance forces hadn't been divided by the attack from Triforia, more people would have been available to fight Scorpius. Perhaps he would have been detained and lives spared. She would never know.

"So... leaving the past behind us... Dulcea, do you promise to stick with us as a team?" Zordon asked.

Dulcea smiled. "Sentinel Knight told me that my people, the Nathadians, were held together by a code of ethics. It was called the Order of Meledon. This order was meant to ensure people worked together. They had three rules by which they always abided:

One: To never use their powers for personal gain;

Two: To never escalate a battle;

Three: To never disclose their identities as members of the Order to the public.

"I believe, and feel prompted, that this is the time to re-institute this Order. I have had no evidence given to me that my people live. I want the legacy of the Nathadians to live on. Zordon, I promise to be a team player. I will abide by my people's laws to ensure we save the universe."

Zordon looked down. He felt something inside him he hadn't felt in a while: Hope. He looked up and nodded. "Dulcea, I will help you carry your people's legacy. I, too, will join the Order of Melenon."

Dulcea smiled. "Meledon."

"... Right..."

"So, let's go tell the others, shall we? We need to be on the same page, right?"

Zordon nodded and unlocked the door. Then, he and Dulcea went to approach the others to restart the Order of Meledon.

. . .

"I just don't understand why we have to defend Kadix." Reon said, flopping down on his chair. He looked at his comrades honestly looking for an answer.

"Because," Rahp began. "We have seen activity on the planet from vessels looking like they belong to Vile. If he's involved, the Alliance will do anything to take it down. That's that."

"But... The Scavengers... they're so horrible..." Reon complained.

"I'll hold your hand during the battle. Don't worry." Claire said from across the room, going over the terrain one last time before they beamed down.

"Okay everyone, listen please." Burai said as he entered the room. "I've pinpointed your target. You'll see it uploaded to your wrist techs. Go down there and shoot first, ask questions later."

Priscilla looked at Burai cockeyed. No one knew Burai to speak in such a manner. He shrugged.

"What? If I walk the walk, I gotta talk the talk, right?"

Michael, Gosei, Magnus, and Gerlit had spoken over their secured channels once word spread that Claire had become the Alliance's Yellow Ranger. They decided to promote Burai to be a General and co-commander of the ranger project they were doing, both due to his involvement in creating the powers, and also his past leadership abilities. Whenever Claire went down as a ranger, he would take over as the commanding general.

Filcar walked over to Claire to see what she was looking at. "Hey, Risp. You coming down with us?"

She shook her head. "Not unless I'm needed with you guys. My priority is here with Burai. The ranger project means too much for me to let it fail."

"You know, Burai is capable... He was next in line to become a Morphing Master, after all..." Filcar said.

"But I pledged my service to maintaining you guys. I will fulfill that pledge. Otherwise I'm no better than Louse, Wilson, and Miller. Deserters."

Filcar shook his head. "It's not deserting, it would be just helping the project on a more... hands on role."

"Stand down, Filcar." Claire ordered.

"But-"

"Are you going to argue with a commanding officer?"

"No, ma'am."

"Then get ready. The others are ready to go."

Filcar grimaced a bit and made his way to the other three rangers.

"Lovers' quarrel?" Priscilla asked, beating her eyelashes sarcastically.

"Oh, shush." He said, winking.

"Ready?" Rahp asked?

They nodded.

"Victory!"

"Alliance: Red!"

"Alliance: Blue!"

"Alliance: Green!"

"Alliance: Pink!"

And with that, they teleported down to the planet. As they landed, they looked to their wrist techs to look for power surges. Within moments, they all had a large ping appear above them.

"Duck!" Claire yelled over the communicators.

Dropping to the ground, the Alliance Rangers narrowly missed being hit by a devastating blow of power. Jumping up, they looked forward to see a humanoid beast staring at them.

"Something's wrong here..." Alliance Blue said.

"Yeah, the temperature just dropped, like, a lot." Alliance Green agreed.

"Who are you!?" Alliance Pink demanded.

"I am the one who has come to destroy you. Nothing can save you from the fate I have in store for you. Bow before me now, and I will consider sparing you for my army." The beast said. He had a gold colored face which shined against the sun's rays. Silver horns protruded from his head and what looked like silver tubing from his pectoral region. He wore a star on his chest.

"If you refuse, I will destroy you and give your powers to The Queen."

"The Queen? Who's that?" Alliance Blue asked.

Alliance Red shook his head in answer as he stepped forward. He pointed at his attacker.

"We stand for order and justice, for those who are too weak to defend themselves from bullies like you. I and many others have sacrificed too much just to give our powers up now. You are under arrest on counts of violence against the United Alliance and attacking Alliance officers."

"Pathetic. A Demon... Under arrest? Don't make me laugh." He said, producing a large staff with axe-like blades. It had a skull theme.

"Did he just say Demon?" Alliance Green asked.

"Risp, we need you." Alliance Red said as he turned his communicator to a setting only audible to the rangers.

Claire looked down, frustrated. She felt they hadn't tried before running to her for help. She felt as if she was becoming obsolete as a general and would become just the woman who is third in command for the rangers. That wasn't what she had strove to become after so many years of service.

"General, don't worry." Burai said, smiling. "I got this. Go help them. They need you."

Frustrated, Claire made her way to the teleportation pad. She grabbed her wrist tech along the way and uploaded the rest of the map of the area. She also synced hers to the other wrist techs the rangers were wearing.

Back on the planet, Alliance Red attempted to grab the Demon's staff with his whip. As the whip wrapped around the staff, the Demon pushed down on his staff and flung the ranger away. Almost immediately, his star blasted Alliance Pink and Blue as they rushed forward. He then turned and swung his staff, sending sparks flying as his blade connected with Alliance Green.

"Is that all?" He mocked.

"No." Alliance Yellow said as she walked stoically onto the scene. The other rangers ran to her. She looked at them and nodded.

"V-Formation?" She suggested.

"Get in place!" Alliance Red ordered. As they did, their morphers came in sync and began boosting their energy.

"Nice trick." The Demon said. "Watch my trick. Jinxer!"

"Yes, Diabolico?" The small, insect like Demon said, revealing himself to the rangers.

"Make me grow." Diabolico demanded.

"Right away!" He said, producing a card from his sleeve. He threw it at Diabolico and it stuck to his leg.

"Diabolico, for our master The Queen! Destroy each of the rangers: red, blue, pink, yellow, and green!"

Suddenly, surrounded by bat-like creatures, Diabolico grew up to enormous sizes. The rangers all took a step back in surprise.

"Come here, rangers!" Diabolico taunted, stepping down on the rangers. As his foot went to connect, Burai teleported them away.

"Thank you for the teleportation system, Zordon..." Burai said under his breath as the rangers arrived back on the ship.

"Ahhhh!" Alliance Green was yelling, curled into a ball. When nothing happened, he looked up at everyone staring at him.

"Oh... I mean... grrr?" He said, shrugging.

"Well, what do we do now!?" Alliance Red demanded before demorphing.

"We fight fire with fire." Burai said, smiling. "Follow me!"

They all demorphed as they followed him down the hall to the Holding Bay. There, they saw a large robot.

"A Droid? Like the one Zordon used during the Final Siege?" Rahp asked.

"It actually is the same Droid. I just designed some... modifications. Zordon is... was very meticulous. I found data from his battle with Goldar recorded on Leopardon's hard drive. I used it to find its weak points and made this."

"Wow... Our very own Megadroid..." Reon said in awe.

"Well... In honor of the late Zordon, I've decided on a name change. This is your new megazord. I call it simply the Alliance Megazord." Burai said.

"How intuitive are the controls?" Claire asked.

"Very." Burai said. "I've kept Zordon's set up for the piloting. The cockpit interacts with the pilot's brain and uploads information to it, helping the pilot learn quicker and understand the console's prompts with ease."

"Let's go, then." Claire said.

"Right. Ranger up, everyone."

As they remorphed and jumped into the Alliance Megazord, they looked around. The controls were already feeling familiar to them. The Holding Bay doors opened and the giant robot flew down toward Kadix.

Watching them as they approached the atmosphere, Burai said, "May the Power protect you, rangers."
. . .

Yuki-Onna staggered back, smoke coming from her shoulder where Kamen Rider: Decade had slashed her. He landed, then began charging up again.

"Rider Kick!"

As he gave the command, the cards from Edenoi's Rider Program appeared before him in a line to Yuki-Onna. As he jumped into the air, the cards created a diagonal line of descent to the general. As he was to make contact, though, a thick beast teleported onto the scene and absorbed the hit.

"Ahh!" Decade yelled as he flew backward. The Gokaigers ran to him and helped him up.

"Maligore!? What are you doing here!?" Yuki-Onna demanded.

"The Queen has made a change of plans. You are not to see Dregon. Report immediately to Aquitar." Maligore ordered.

"Yes, sir!" Yuki-Onna said, saluting by placing her fist to her chest. Then, she and her Tenga Warriors were teleported onto a ship in orbit.

"The Queen?" Gokai Red wondered.

"Aquitar!" Gokai Green said, thinking of his former students Tideus and Cestria.

"Now, my queen said nothing of your fate, pirates. Prepare to be destroyed!" And with that, Maligore shot a giant lava ball at the group.

Villamax looked over from the deck of the Galleon, standing next to Guy. He observed Gokai Red's swordsmanship. It wasn't as good as Gokai Blue, but it was definitely improving. He was happy with his team's progression over the past six months. He then flinched as he saw Decade and the Gokaigers fly back from a massive swing of Maligore's arm.

"Come on! Please! Let me help them! They won't be complete without me! I can help, I promise!" Guy cried.

"Fine." Villamax said.

"Really!?" Guy said, beaming.

"Only because they are being slaughtered. Hopefully another body will just cause Maligore confusion." Villamax said.

"Aaaalllllrrriiiiggghhhttttt!" Guy said, jumping into the air in excitement.

"Calm down and morph." Villamax ordered.

"Right. Gokai Change!" Guy said. Suddenly, he looked down and found himself with the Gokai Silver suit.

"Gooookkkaaaiiii... Siiilllvvveeerrr!" He cried out.

Villamax facepalmed. "We're doomed..."

"Gokai Spear!" Guy said, leaping headfirst into the battle from the Galleon.

As he flew down, he yelled, "Now for the finisher!" He inserted his fake Dilithium Crystal into the spear he had made, cranking it like a key. Doing thit, he began pouring his ever boosting Morphing Energy into his weapon.

"Fiiiinnnnalll Waaaaave. Ooooh!" The voice saying that echoed through the canyon in which they found themselves. It was a voice Guy programed into his weapon as an added effect. He thought it was intimidating.

Gokai Red looked up. "Who said that?"

Maligore looked up as well, confused. He saw a silver and gold blur approaching him.

The weapon spoke again, introducing the name of Gokai Silver's attack: "Gooookkkaaaiiii Shooooting Staaaaaar!" And with that, Gokai Silver flung the spear at Maligore. It hit him in the gut and instantly came out the other side. Bits of lava exploded out of him like blood.

He fell to a knee. He looked down to see a large hole gaping in his abdominal region. He knew he was defeated, and also needed on Liaria. He did not want to ruin the Queen's plans.

"Until... next time!" Maligore said, vanishing.

Decade, breathing hard, turned to the pirates. He looked them up and down. He then pulled out his sword and attacked.

"Dimension Slash!" Decade yelled.

Gokai Silver jumped in and blocked the blow with his spear.

"What's the big idea!?" Gokai Blue demanded.

"Yeah! We just saved you!" Gokai Yellow yelled.

"You were only saving yourselves so you can pillage my planet. These belongings may be strewn out across the surface of Edenoi now, but soon we will get our freedom back. So, I will protect Edenoi until that time comes, whether it be from power hungry maniacs like my brother Dregon, or wretched thieves like you!" Decade said, throwing Gokai Silver off his blade.

Gokai Red sneered under his visor. "Joe? Let's squash this bug."

"Right." Gokai Blue replied.

"No!" Gokai Pink blurted out. She placed her hands where her mouth should be, as if to trap anymore sound from spilling out.

"You have a problem, Ahim?" Gokai Blue asked.

Her mind was racing madly. She thought of what would happen to Edenoi if its sole defender were destroyed. She thought of her homeworld, Rashon.

"Let's not destroy him. What will become of Edenoi if we do this?"

"Not our concern." Gokai Red replied. "We're pirates, apparently." He looked at Decade and flicked his own collar. Nodding to Gokai Blue, he rushed Decade.

Decade parried both rangers. He quickly ran facing backwards to deflect their attacks. He then kicked Gokai Blue in the stomach, sending him flying.

Gokai Red took the opportunity and did the same to Decade. Decade flew back. Gokai Red leaped onto him before Decade could stand. He swung his saber down, while Decade's weapon met the Gokai Saber. They resisted against each other, staring into each of their expressionless helmets, seeing their own reflections through the glare from the sun beating down on them.

Gokai Red kept staring. Thinking. He then pushed off from Decade's blade and backflipped to his team.

"Marvelous?" Gokai Green asked.

"Our beef is not with him. It's with that big lava guy. He ruined our hunt." Gokai Red declared.

They each looked at each other. The four all hid smiles under their helmets as they listened to Marvelous.

"Let's go hunting. He probably has great treasure, ya' know..." Gokai Yellow said.

"Hey, Decade!" Gokai Red said as he slowly stood. "Until next time!"

Decade nodded, thankful for the pirates' mercy.

As they walked back to their ship, Gokai Pink leaned close to Gokai Red. Tuning her communication channel to be only between him and her, she said, "Thank you."

He didn't answer. He didn't look at her. He gave her no visual cues that he acknowledged her. But in her heart she knew that behind his mask, he was smiling.