So I bet some of you ware wondering (At least, I hope you're wondering) Where is Zen in all this? Well...Read on

White house-Zens office-Three weeks later-

Zen was once again seated at his desk, however it was apparent to the most simple of man that something had the world's president on edge. His foot tapped impatiently on the floor under his desk and motioned caused his leg to jitter. Finally after a few minutes of this he rolled back from his desk and stood up to walk out onto the balcony behind his office. Specially constructed it allowed him a view on the source of his impatience.

The structure currently occupying most of the view was a massive lattice of metal girders and gigantic machines that rolled back and forth while teams of welders ran over the super structure reinforcing it so that it would keep up with production. It was in fact a ship yard, one to build ships for his army's to take into space, to wipe out all things and let him rule like no man had ever before. A grand desire maybe but one truly within his reach ever since those two cat things, Lombax's, had visited earth twelve years ago. They had helped accelerate his plans for usurping Slade and giving him new goals to aim for. Why should one man rule a planet, when he can rule a solar system? Or, even a galaxy, maybe the whole universe?

Zen chuckled softly to himself, that was too big a dream even for him, right now he would settle for his ship yard, all over the world hundreds of these massive constructs we're being assembled, all under his order, all for one purpose: For man to march into the stars and rule with an iron fisted domination not since in the history of time. Sure others had tried, but they didn't have Zens patience, or his planning, most of them had steam rolled anything in their path and drew attention to themselves. Zens plan was much more subtle, for now at any rate. It little less then a month the shipyards of earth would be completed and start manufacturing their ships to take to the stars in. Zen had plans for the moon first, perhaps a resource driven goal, after all, Earth was the only one that mattered right now, he could mine the whole solar system to fuel his ships.

Zen glanced over his shoulder when a secret door in his office opened and a guard stepped out. He saluted while Zen sighed.

"Him again?" He spoke softly to the guard his voice carrying a hint of hatred.

The guard nodded "Yes President Zen, we caught him trying to kill himself with his own chains this time."

Zen sighed again before resting on his balcony for a few moments, he waited until the guard started to fidget before he spun around with a stiff back and walked towards the guard "Very well, let's go see if we cant convince him to live then."

He stepped into the elevator in front of the guard and waited for the guard to step in and key in his code for the doors. As they slid shut and the elevator began to descend Zen spoke up.

"How close did he come this time?"

"Almost dead by the time we got enough leverage to lift him clear of the chains."

Zen nodded and was silent until the elevator slowed to a gentle stop and the doors slid open again. As he stepped into the small room filled with consoles and cameras and screens two men stood up and saluted.

"At ease." Zen said as he stalked towards the door while one of his men quickly opened it. He walked in followed by the other guard into the small cell. A man in filthy rags of a suit sat against the wall tight chains leading from the wall to his arms and legs, not allowing him to move so much as an inch away from the wall.

"We shortened his chains so he couldn't try the same thing again, Mr President." The guard that followed him spoke up.

"I see" He looked back over his shoulder at the guard and gestured "Leave us." The guard nodded and retread backwards out closing the thick door as he went.

"Well-" Zen started while he watched figure for any movement "What are we to do with you? You've let yourself go I believe" he said pointing out the gaunt skin of the man, his flash pulled tightly over his joints from lack of food. "The guards tell me you refuse to eat, no doubt trying to starve yourself to death to try and escape?" Zen clicked his tongue and shook his head slowly. "My my, how we have fallen eh?"

Zen raised his head and a bright spark lit his eyes "How about I tell you how come you're still alive, how come you still have a use to me hmm? Maybe that will give you a reason to continue living." The man shuffled a little bit but did not say anything.

"Very well, as you know , your hmm, death, isn't the right word is it? You're disappearance was the catalyst that gave me the power to launch this campaign. That and Ratchet and Sasha too. However, my reins have been slipping slowly from my control, so, to solidify my position, I have come up with a plan. When we venture into space for the first time, I shall fake an attack on our fleet. Lead by none other then your self, at least that's the story I plan on portraying, the full thing will go something like this."

Zen took a step back and started moving like he was acting out lines. "A warp gate is going to open, three ships are going to emerge, your face will appear on the com screen, declaring war on us humans, having been brainwashed by the aliens who didn't actually kill you, but instead teleported you to a holding cell. We shall shoot down your ship then bravely capture you to try and restore your mental state, only to have an assassin take you out once you recover. Killing you for real and letting the hatred of humans cement my lines for control. Then we shall launch into space and conquer the galaxy."

Zen paused and walked forward to the man on the floor, leaning down to put his face next to his "What do you think of that Slade?" he asked softly.

Slade raised his gaunt and sunken face to gaze into Zens eyes for the first time and he opened his mouth and let out a raspy laugh.

"What is so funny?" Zen couldn't help but ask as he straightened.

Slade hacked and coughed for a moment recovering from his laughter "You're a fool Zen" he rasped out from in between yellow teeth. "You really think that you can control all of humanity with a few firework displays and some blood?"

Zen let out a small chuckle "You would be surprised at how easy it is to fool the average human."

Slade twisted his neck to look up at him "What about the abnormal ones, the ones that will see through you and possibly try to stop you."

Zen waved a hand like dismissing a fly "they are of no importance. A few crazy's in the crowd is all."

Slade coughed again before speaking "Zen, you're insane, and I hope I'm there when Ratchet takes that large wrench of his and smashes your head in."

Zen shook his head "That's no way to speak to your president" He said turning around "Oh, and we'll be force feeding you now, as well as importing some new restraint devices to make it harder for you to kill yourself, cant have you looking like a poorly treated POW when you lead the assault cane we?"

Slade simply lowered his head down and started looking at the ground again.

"Defiant to the last eh Slade?" Zen asked as the door slid open and he walked through, it slid shut on the frail form of Slade as he tugged feebly on his restraints.

-Three months later-Starship Phoenix-Bridge-

Ratchet and Sasha stood tall on the overlook of the bridge, once again dressed in their command uniforms, they awaited a briefing from the galactic president on what they would be facing in the upcoming months. Sasha was part mother and part commander right now. The Mother part was worrying about her kids and hoping they stayed out of trouble. The commander part was glancing about the bridge noticing various screens and their green displays. After the coolant leak she had refused to take chances and had the entire system for the engines stripped and new ones put in. Something Ratchet had agreed with as well. Ratchet meanwhile was attempting to focus on the mission at hand, but his thoughts kept drifting back towards what CR3 had told him on the way up to the Phoenix. The Rangers tended to exaggerate greatly, and Ratchet hoped that this was one of those times.

The giant screen in front of them blinked once and Aquagirl appeared on the screen, leaning back behind a desk with her arms folded across her chest. Ratchet and Sasha snapped to a salute as did every Ranger present.

"At ease" she said waving at the screen.

Ratchet and Sasha relaxed while the Rangers went back to watching the readouts.

:Had a little trouble while fixing the ship?" Aquagirl asked them right off the bat.

Sasha nodded once "Yes, the coolant line in an engine, we couldn't identify an actual source, so we deemed it best to just pull the whole system out and replace it to be safe."

Aquagirl picked up a small pad from in front of her "Hmm...Yes, I noticed-" she said tilting the pad towards the screen "-I received you're bill this morning. Quite a cost, I hope you make it worth while"

Ratchet nodded "We'll do our best Ma'am."

Aquagirl said nothing just studied the two of them before opening a new file on her pad. "I'm sending a report to your ship, let me know when you get it so we can continue."

A Ranger came up behind them and handed both of them a small pad with a receiving icon on it. "We're getting it now Ma'am" Sasha replied

"Good, time to get right into it, What he have is a grave threat on our hands, something that has not been seen ever before, and honestly, we're hard pressed to just to be able to keep a safe retreat line. If you two can't pull off something amazing, the Solana Galaxy may just end up burning."

Ratchet and Sasha shot each other a look "What are we facing Madam President?" Ratchet asked eventually

"I'm going to start off with a legend from Aquatos, for it relates to what we face."

Ratchet and Sasha nodded before Aquagirl spoke again. "Tell me, Have either of you heard of the legends on the Lords-Of-Fire?"

Ratchet glanced at Sasha who shook her head. Aquagirl nodded "Very well, from the start then."

She sat a little straighter in her chair and began to speak "The Lords-Of-Fire are a demonic race of beings according to legends. They stand six feet tall, their heads a burning torch, with arms strong enough to break through the shield of a reactor core and fast enough to get away before it explodes. They have a terrible hunger for anything that moves and use a sophisticated set of weaponry to kill whatever they fancy before they eat it. Master of close range combat and deemed the destroyers of Aquatos, these beings were something to be told in whispers around a campfire." Aquagirl sighed "Now, I feel they may be real. Take a look at you're pads"

Ratchet and Sasha began to study the creature on their pads, It measured about five and half feet tall, had lanky arms and short legs clasped in a skin tight black suit that was hung with a large degree of weaponry on the side of advanced that it had Ratchet wishing he had some. Its face as a snarl and covered in flames, not much of a head, mainly just the face and what looked to be skull behind it that just burned. In the clip that played, the creature charged forward and drove an arm into a galactic ranger, ripping right threw it while it used its other hand to blast another one with a small gun in its hand. The Ranger melted into slop immediately while the Creature took a bite out of the Ranger impaled on its arm. It chewed for a moment, melted metal running down its suit before it noticed the camera, It turned and roared at the device before lunging forward. The last thing they saw was what looked like lava dripping down its mouth.

Ratchet cleared his throat "That's quite a formidable enemy. What do they have towards space flight, and fighting?"

Aquagirl sighed "Not much, although that's not very good news. They use small nimble fighters with one pilot that bounces between our ships while its weapons are its fellow creatures. Two of them are stored underneath and shot out at their target. They quickly melt through the hull and begin taking the ship apart from the inside out." Aquagirl put down her pad. "They took out an entire fleet like that before we even knew what they were using." She glanced back up at the commanders "I really hope you can do something about this, I'm at a loss myself for now, everything we throw at them they just bounce off then continue to slaughter everything in their path. It's a war I'm truly not sure we can win. "

Sasha glanced back down at her pad "How much does the public know?"

"Enough to know that there is a serious threat to our way of life, but nothing concrete, They are no survivors from the planets they visit."

"Good, best to keep it that way" Sasha glanced over at Ratchet when he muttered to himself. "In the madness of War...When all traces of the old order break down...A new order rises to take its place...and Civilization looses its grip on sanity...we shall all soon burn upon ourselves into destruction foretold"

Aquagirl studied Ratchet with a new look in her eye while she leaned forward in her chair "How, do you know of that part of the Legend?"

Ratchet looked up from his pad "I heard it on Veldin a long time ago, but held no importance to it. Obliviously I should have."

"Apparently, do you know who said it?"

Ratchet shook his head slowly "Just that they were a wander to the planet trying to get off. At the time I didn't blame him." He glanced back down at the pad "I wonder if he knew this was coming?"

"I doubt it, but you may want to grab Veldin's shipping logs and try to find out how he came to be there." Aquagirl sighed "Well, that part's over, so just one last question: Is the Phoenix ready to run?"

Ratchet and Sasha nodded sharply

"Good, then you'll recive you're battle group coordinates shortly. I suggest you warm up the engines so you can get right into it."

Ratchet and Sasha saluted as the screen went blank, they turned to the Rangers on the bridge. "You heard her Men" Ratchet spoke up "Let get this ship back into the spotlight where she belongs."

An Enemy revealed, a secret said, Oh my, things are heating up...

Review please, They keep the inspiration flowing.

Emile