Volume VII - The War of Rangers

Chapter 55—Against the Wind, Part I: Authority

Matt

In just three short weeks, everything had gone to hell.

For starters, Amy was out. She wouldn't be able to morph because her body was rejecting the Sigma Force Morpher—or vice versa. Either way, it meant we were down a Ranger. But if that wasn't bad enough, the Mecha Rangers were getting harder and harder to work with. They were decent people, but they weren't Ranger material. Even though the Fury Rangers sacrificed our Digital Orymeka powers and the majority of their Cronus Jewel energy to "purify" the Mecha Morphers, the ragtag group of would-be Rangers had no motivation. It was like they lacked conviction or something.

It didn't help that their Zordians—the Digimech—were basically the scourge of the Zordian race, their arch nemeses in life. The Digimech refused to work with the Zordians, and the Zordians didn't trust the Digimech in battle to begin with. Luckily, they were back on Earth for the time being.

Corey, Aaron's little sister, was trying to change that, though. In light of Aaron being elected the new King of Eltar, Corey had effectively taken Aaron's former position of Prince of Eltar as the Princess of Eltar. And she didn't take it lightly. Maybe it ran in the family, but she took to her duties with barely any hesitation. She was 18—a year older than I was when I started fighting Mesomorph's Aleph Beyt army. I would have had no idea where to begin, but she must've inherited Hunter's cold, calculating stratagem or something.

It could've been the fact that I was heading to Aaron's first official speech as Dyr Ban Eltar, but his family was slowly starting to make sense to me. Maybe it was because I'd been spending more and more time with Zordon as he taught us more about our Ranger powers and our bond with our Zordians. The more time I spent around them, I realized their family's tradition—their one true belief. Freedom to choose. Freedom to live.

And that's what Aaron was here to explain, in an enormous underwater sphere that acted as an emergency headquarters for the Council of Eltar. Hundreds of the planet's highest ranking military officers and regional councilmembers were seated throughout the all-glass amphitheater. All their eyes were glued to Aaron, who stood on a pillar that hung from the ceiling like a huge crystal chandelier. The other Rangers and I took our seats quietly, gazing up at our leader—the planet's leader—with something no less than the utmost respect.

"Thank you all for convening under our planet's hostile conditions," he said, his Eltarian echoing in the transparent room. "I can't say what an honor is to address you as your leader, though I wish it was under much better circumstances, and in about another 20 years." He laughed nervously, and the sound was mimicked throughout the glass bubble.

"As all of you know," he pressed on, the room going silent, "Eltar has come under the invasion forces of SPD—Terran Division. Dyr Huntyr requested Emergency Powers and issued a planet-wide defensive squadron of the Eltarian Land Forces and the Eltarian Fighter Forces. Though their efforts were ultimately successful, victory came with heavy sacrifices." He seemed to give a short moment of silence to all the lives lost in the past two weeks before he continued. "Dyr Huntyr used the Dyr Orion ability to teleport our Zordian allies—the Divine Data Beasts—all the way from Earth so they could help us repel the SPD forces. The strain was too much for his last healthy heart and he entered the Rejuvynashyn cycle. That's why I'm here. I'm here to carry on his legacy. To remind you all of our legacy as Eltarians. Not councilmembers or princes, or kings, or soldiers—but Eltarians. We were created by our all-father Zeta with one purpose—to give all sentient life a chance to live life. I'm here to remind you of that." He pointed at the audience. "And you." Another point. "And you."

I felt my skin bristle with goose bumps.

"This isn't about whether the Universal Council wants us to go to war—it's about fighting back for our freedom. Messiah isn't here to 'defend' Earth. He's not here to ask us to leave Earth alone, or to get off the planet altogether. He's here to destroy us, enslave us, and conquer us. And I, or any member of the Zeta family, believe in giving every living being a choice to choose."

He paused now, his alien eyes sweeping the room and letting his words settle.

"I'm not my Dyn, and I won't pretend to be half the Dyr ban Eltar he was—still is. I know that if he were standing here, before all of you, he would ask each and every one of you to think about what you have to fight for—what he fought for and what I am fighting for."

I happened to glance over at Patrick, who was staring at Aaron with some form of pride and admiration. As my eyes moved over the rest of my teammates, I could see the same look in their eyes. I'm sure it was similar to what I looked like when I looked at him up there. It was so weird to see him now and think of how he was four years ago. Just another annoying football player.

"Regardless of how you vote, or how they vote, there will always be those who will rise up to fight for freedom. Some call them rebels. Some call them revolutionists. But my family," he said, pausing dramatically and inhaling proudly, "we call them Rangers."

—54—

"Dude, that was sick!"

Jay grappled Aaron into a hug, patting his back several times.

"You killed it up there, Aaron," Grace said as she linked her arm with mine. "And here I thought you hated public speaking."

"I do," he replied, sighing exaggeratedly, "I felt like I was gonna barf the whole time I was up there."

"I dunno why you were so nervous," Patrick said, shaking his head, "I knew you'd be fine. And so did Hunter."

Aaron grinned modestly, his hand rubbing the back of his head uncomfortably.

"Little Aaron."

He turned around to see Zordon and his dad, Dustin, coming through the exit of the Royal Family's balcony. Nike and Andrea were close behind, Nike's face ecstatic.

"You sounded so good," Nike half-shouted, ruffling Aaron's hair. "If Hunter was here, he'd be crying like a baby right now."

Aaron laughed skeptically. "Yeah right. I've seen Dyn cry like, twice."

"Trust me," Dustin suddenly interrupted, sniffing as he wiped at his slightly puffy eyes, "he would've cried. I did."

"Aw, dad."

"Seriously, Aaron, you sounded so much like Hunter. Seeing you up there…taking on the entire planet's burden and knowing you had to lift it…it was one of the proudest moments of my life."

Aaron looked like he was having trouble finding the right words—luckily, Corey had just exited the balcony and needed to fulfill her purpose as little sister.

"So tell us," she said, jumping on her older brother's back, "how many times did you practice that in the mirror?"

Aaron chuckled, Corey still hanging off his broad shoulders. "Enough times to where that mirror could've probably made that speech for me."

"I dunno 'bout that, dude," I chimed in, "you did your thing up there, man."

Aaron looked at me, smiling, his sincerity clear. "Thanks, Matt; it means a lot that you guys have so much faith in me."

Corey unlatched herself and fixed her hair just as Doc Ol's hand rested on Aaron's shoulder. "We're all proud of the man you've become, Aaron."

"Indeed," said Zordon, "you have all impressed me over the course of your short time on Eltar. We must strive to spread the honorable reputation of the Power Rangers and rekindle mankind's faith in not only its guardians, but mankind himself."

—55—

"I'm just trying to say that you need to get out of your room—and maybe spend a little bit of time away from Matt."

I frowned as I overheard Doc Ol's hushed and whispered voice. He and Grace were tucked away in a corner, an empty expression on Grace's face that contrasted sharply with the one her father was wearing.

Sometimes, I hated my super sensitive hearing.

"Hey," I interrupted, pulling away from the group and heading toward the two of them, both dressed in black. "What's uh…what's goin on?"

"Nothing," Doc responded heavily, "just…talking to my daughter, if that's okay with you."

Grace looked uncomfortably between the two of us, almost pleading her dad to calm down and ease the tension.

It had been like this for a while, now. We had apologized for the way we reacted when Grace was captured by Messiah, but things were never the same. I could tell he was worried about how much time Grace spent with me. But part of me wondered if it was jealousy that was making him act the way he did. I couldn't blame him for being jealous. He was never there for her as a father when she really needed one—I was. Granted, I wasn't there as a father. But I was the only male in her life who made her feel like she was wanted. Like she wasn't worthless. I knew it wasn't Doc's fault; he had no idea he even had a daughter until 4 years ago. But now that he was trying to act like he took priority because he was her dad…well…that bugged the shit out of me.

"Perfectly okay in my book," I replied evenly, "Whatcha guys talkin' about?"

My smugness must've gotten the better of Doctor Oliver, because he placed a hand on my shoulder and began guiding me away from Grace and the others. "A word, Matt."

I risked a glance back at Grace, who was running her hand through her hair in frustration.

"Look," he said forcefully, "I don't know what your game is, but I'm trying to reconnect my daughter with the world. And you following her around like her shadow isn't going to help."

"You don't think I know she needs to break her shell?" I shot back. "What do you think I've been trying to do?"

"By keeping her pent up in your room? How, exactly, is that helping?"

"I'm giving her space and time to get herself together. She needs to be able to help herself before she can get caught up in everyone else's problems again. She needs to be away from all this extraterrestrial shit!"

He shook his head, laughing at me mockingly. "You have no idea what you're talking about. You have no idea how she feels right now."

"Oh, and you do? Because you're Doctor Thomas Oliver, savior of all mankind and the wisest of all, right? Daddy knows best, all the sudden?"

"Oh, that's rich. You're, what, 21? And you think you know everything there is to know about being a Ranger?"

"This has nothing to do with Rangering. All of you think that being a Power Ranger is all-consuming—that there's nothing else to the person underneath the suit. You think that if you're a Ranger, you're invincible. But that's not how it works. Not anymore. Maybe when you and Kimberly were fighting that joke of a villain Rita Repulsa, things were easier. You got to keep your identities secret. You got to do all your extracurricular bullshit, and you got to kick back and relax every once in a while. You never had to save another world. You never got sucked into an intergalactic war and forced off your home planet. You don't know how we feel. You only assume to know. And trust me, dude; you assume way too much."

Even I didn't realize I'd been bottling up so much hostility toward the extraordinary situation we were in. I didn't realize how much I hated being a Ranger.

He sighed, rubbing his face agitatedly. "Look, I don't wanna fight with you, Matt. I like you—you're a good kid. But you don't understand that there are some things that time doesn't change. Time doesn't make it easier to admit you've been used against your friends. And believe me, I know. When have you ever had anything to atone for? When have you ever had to admit that something was out of your control? That someone else was pulling your strings and you were just a puppet in their game of warfare? You have to realize that there are some things you just can't do on your own. And one of those things is helping Grace. I admire what you're trying to do, but you need to let us try to help her, too."

"I will," I said, quiet now, "once she's ready. Until then, stop trying to pull us apart. Because right now, I'm the only one she wants to be around. And that's something you're just going to have to realize."

And I was done. I didn't want to talk about it anymore. I made my way over to Grace, and the two of us left Doc Ol and the others behind. But even though I tried to shake Doctor Oliver off, I felt his eyes burning into my back with his words still haunting my ears; I knew he was right in some ways, and we both agreed on one thing.

Grace needed help.

—54—

I absolutely hated working with Amantanine, Grace's Zordian partner.

It wasn't that I hated her, it was that I hated not being able to connect with her. We tried everything—bonding over the way we felt for Grace, talking about our lives, delving into our inner beliefs—but nothing worked. I was just a guy riding on an alien, futuristic motorcycle when I paired up with her. Despite my protests to Zordon, and asking him for a new "Beta Bonder" Zordian partner, he was adamant that the black Eltarian speeder and I were meant to BURST Execute.

So as time went on, Amantanine and I started to blame each other for our inability to perform. The others had at least completed the BURST Linkup process, where the Zordian and the Ranger were able to partially fuse while the Zordians were in vehicle mode. Patrick and Frankilos seemed to be getting along swimmingly, and their BURST Linkup happened within the first week of our training with Zordon. Grace and Sofyetta had been paired together, but Grace seemed to be having absolutely no trouble with working with my Zordian. They bonded like it was nothing. And of course, Jay and Beth had already been able to merge with Tonion—Amy's Zordian, and Omega—Aaron's Zordian, respectively. They had all but perfected the process now.

"In this exercise," Zordon was saying, "Patrick, Grace, and Matt will be taking on Jay and Beth with their Beta Bonders."

"No offense, Zordon, but how is that fair?" I asked, completely irritated with the idea of facing two fully BURST Executed Zordians.

"Your opponent isn't going to fight fair," he answered, seemingly unperturbed by my question, "and there will be times where BURST Executing will not be possible. You and your Beta Bonders, or even your Prime Bonders, must be able to maximize the abilities of the vehicle mode. It is not just an energy saving mechanism employed by Zordians, but a means of versatility to accomplish things not possible when at their full humanoid form."

"Basically, you're handicapping us," I said, still upset.

"If that's what you'd like to call it."

Grace and I exchanged looks, but I didn't say anything else.

Zordon folded his arms as he began to float above the rest of us, excusing himself from the battlefield. "You may begin when you are ready."

A thick tension hung in the air as Zordon's words echoed in our ears. Neither Grace nor Patrick budged, and I didn't see Jay or Beth make any sort of visible move.

Then, out of nowhere, Frankilos sped off toward Patrick. The Green Ranger summersaulted in the air as Frankilos' roof sprang open and Patrick fell inside flawlessly. In the blink of an eye, Jay was speeding off to clash with his usual Zordian partner (or as Zordon called them, Prime Bonders), the yellow and black futuristic sports car. The trail left behind by the Yellow Ranger left a path of yellow-golden flames that scorched through the earth, and Beth took no hesitation in her movement as she stomped her feet and punched forward to command chunks of burning rock toward us.

Grace moved like fluid, a wave of black shadow energy reached out and absorbed the rocks into nothingness, and then spitting them out of a sort of shadow portal. Beth's burning rock attack shot back toward her, and she was forced to raise up a wall of rock to keep herself from being crushed by her own technique. Grace whipped her head in my direction for just a moment in time, and I took to the air no sooner than it passed, a whirlwind swirling down from the skies right behind Beth. My attack slammed into her and tossed her into the air, but Tonion dove in from nowhere and grabbed her with his jet form's wing.

"Switch!" I heard Beth yell down to Jay, who had just back-flipped out of the way of Frankilos' lightning-powered lasers. Patrick and Frankilos had already used the BURST Linkup and were making good use of it.

I watched Tonion circle around and drop Beth, who seemed to be pulling herself toward the ground as she plummeted through the skies. Meanwhile, Omega had joined the battle in her sleek speedster mode and was able to blast Frankilos off track. As soon as Beth landed in a crater-making shocking-wave, an enormous rocky ramp erupted from the ground, and the pristine, white shape of Omega sped off it into the skies. Following her at an even higher speed was Jay, who had jumped off the ramp into the air. As he passed by Omega, he slowed temporarily to spring off her hood, climbing into the air even higher. Tonion tore through the skies faster than I could blast Jay with a torrent of wind, and the pink spacecraft pulled Jay into his cockpit quickly.

"They're gonna merge!" I shouted to Grace and Patrick.

Patrick and Frankilos fired a barrage of lightning bolt lasers, but Tonion dodged them swiftly.

Grace stood perfectly still, hardly acknowledging my warning in the least.

And then, explosions crackled through the air as bombs seemed to fall from nowhere and knocked Tonion and Jay spiraling through the clouds. Then, I saw the skies begin to shift as the sleek form of Sofyetta's Jetchopper mode became clear. Her cloaking abilities wore off in splotches of black-and-blue energy as she continued her onslaught on Beth and Omega, who were launched from the ground by the force of Sofyetta's Phantom Bombs.

That was all the opening we needed.

I lifted Grace into the air with a wind current and she flew up and docked in Sofyetta's cockpit. I glanced over at Amantanine and immediately felt apprehension sink in.

"Let's just try not to get killed," she spoke into my mind.

I rolled my eyes inside my helmet and flipped onto her seat. Her engine roared as we wheelied into action, her lasers firing into the skies at Tonion and Jay. One blast clipped their wing and sent them barrel rolling out of control, but our laser fire was still off. It lacked the oomph of any elemental power. Without Grace, Amantanine didn't have her Spectral Cannons or anything useful really, and without my Hurricane powers, she wasn't getting any extra energy boosts.

"Try to embrace the powers of darkness," she suggested, "I've already bonded to the element of Shadow, so that will be our easiest route."

"Except my element is air, not shadow. That's not gonna work."

"Well, being an airhead all the time certainly hasn't helped at all."

"Well being a pessimistic bitch sure as hell isn't getting us anywhere."

Before she could respond, a blast of energy flew by us and forced Amantanine to swerve dangerously. I saw Frankilos' car form spiral through the air and Patrick ejected hurriedly.

From the smoke, Omega and Beth rose in their Infinity Archangel Mode.

"Oh, great," I groaned aloud.

"Matt, Amantanine—move!" Patrick roared, hurtling toward us as a bolt of green lightning.

I slammed my palm downward and a jettison of air lifted Amantanine and I through the air about 50 feet.

"Now what?" I asked Patrick, my mind drawing a blank on ideas.

He commanded a flurry of lightning bolts to strike Omega, but the Archangel took the attack as the electricity rolled off her armor like drops of rain. His helmeted head turned toward me slowly, his disbelief almost visible behind his bright blue visor. "Um…let me get back to you on that."

Now, Omega and Beth took aim at us as their wings spread and flexed. A barrage of missiles flew toward us, but I dug deep and was able to pull up an enormous tornado that sucked them up and flung them into the stars like fireworks.

"New plan," Grace said to us through the commlinks, "you guys take care of Jay and Tonion. I've got Beth and Omega."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"I've got this."

Patrick and I exchanged visor-covered glances, but he summoned another storm of lightning from the skies that slammed into Tonion and sent him reeling.

"There's your opening," Patrick said to Grace matter-of-factly.

No sooner had Patrick finished speaking, Grace and Sofyetta sliced downward in a rain of shadow-powered blasts. Archangel Omega stumbled backward, the blasts blinding her and Beth and buying Grace and Sofyetta more time.

Sofyetta seemed to be floating in the air calmly, her rotors and turbines all but silent. Patrick and I watched silently, Amantanine and Frankilos mimicking us without a second thought.

And then, Sofyetta exploded in a dark flame that grew into an enormous black hole. I pulled up a dome of air as quick as I could to keep us safe, but I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it for long.

"What's going on?!"

"They're BURST Executing!" Frankilos shouted to Patrick.

I tried in vain to see through the veil of darkness that had overtaken my Black Ranger girlfriend and my Prime Bonder, but I couldn't see anything.

But then, all the sudden, the darkness dissipated and I could make out navy blue and teal metals. I could see a shiny black hull and short, curved, wicked wings. And I could see the new humanoid form of Sofyetta. Every piece of her seemed to be as sharp as a razor blade, but she was small and stealthy. Even the smallest of pieces on her glinted in the sun so that she almost seemed to be camouflaged to blend with every surface known to man. Her stark body was decorated sharply in rich blues, translucent teals, and deep purples that accented her jagged body armor.

"TWILIGHT THRONOS MODE!" Grace and Sofyetta announced together, their voices streaming together seamlessly.

Even Zordon looked shocked.

None of us had really thought Grace and Sofyetta were that far along in their bonding process. They had always performed above average, but not like this.

"Round Two," I heard Grace and Sofyetta's voice mutter arrogantly.

Their feet pushed off the ground and the black-and-blue bio-mechanical warrior took to the skies. She crossed her arms and then stretched them outward, a flurry of shrapnel flying into Beth and Omega like a swarm of hornets. I saw the sparks fly as Twilight Thronos' attack collided with Infinity Archangel's armor, but in retaliation, a barrage of boulder's flew from the ground at Grace and Sofyetta.

The attack was too fast to dodge, but not too fast for Frankilos to blast a hole in the onslaught, giving Sofyetta just enough room to jump through the hoop. In the blink of an eye, she fired back with several shadow energy blade projectiles, nailing Omega in the shoulder.

One of the benefits of this being a training exercise was the use of the Eltarian scanners built into the palace's HoloDome—a holographic gym of sorts. It fed all the data of the fight into a computer database that fed the information right back into our Cyber Network Morphing Grid Link. My HUD was going crazy inside my visor with all sorts of new data as soon as the being known as "Sofeyace" launched an attack. So far, I had learned the Sofeyace was different from what Sofyetta and I were known when we merged into the female Zordian/Human "Mayetta"—who was a "Samurai Class" warrior specializing in high-speed melee and bladed techniques with limited projectile abilities. Sofeyace, on the other hand, was a "Ninja Class" Zordian who was capable of both intense hand-to-hand or blade-to-blade combat, and was exceedingly skilled with swift, accurate, long-ranged attacks. Her main distanced offense was a burst of Shadow Spikes, which were small, sharp explosive stunners that were painful alone and crippling together. In combination with her Shadow Shuriken—triple bladed attack disks with energy draining properties—and her Phantom Katana's deadly and near invisible blade, she was a force to be reckoned with.

"Her power and technique is incredible," Amantanine said aloud to Patrick and me in sheer respect. "Her speed is flawless, and Omegabeth is a heavyweight brawler—it's going to be nearly impossible for her to catch Sofeyace."

Tonion was circling now, coming back into attack range, no doubt.

"We need to knock him from the sky, but we're all grounded," I mumbled to myself. "Maybe if we could hold Omegabeth off, Sofeyace could take him out."

"But Omega is like, a million times stronger than either of us at this point. She and Beth are perfectly in tune. Our only hope is that Patrick and Frankilos can BURST Execute and gain some sort of flight capability."

My eyes narrowed in irritation. "Really? That's our best battle plan? To sit and hope that things get better? I don't think so—I'm not waiting."

I cranked her handlebars, but I heard her breaks squeal in protest. "We need to be patient."

"We need to help them."

"ENOUGH!"

The entire area seemed to settle entirely, Sofeyace and Omegabeth stopping mid battle and Tonion hovering in the air apprehensively.

Zordon was floating in the middle of the battlefield.

"You two," he said coldly to Amantanine and me, "you're done. Matt, turn in your Morpher to Tommy and wait in your quarters for further instructions. Aman—"

"What?!" I snapped, cutting him off entirely. "What do you mean 'turn in my morpher?' What's your deal?"

His eyes locked onto mine and didn't blink for what felt like hours. "Just as I said. Your refusal to follow my instructions—both of you—has forced my hand. Eltar does not have the luxury of time, which is apparently what it would take for either of you to learn to work together."

I had to fight from screaming at him. You know, since he was Zordon and all. But I was close to going off on him regardless. Luckily, Grace spoke up. Or Sofyetta. One of the two. Or both, I dunno, to be honest.

"With all due respect, my ProtoDyr, both of them are trying. BURST Execution is no easy task."

His head snapped in their direction, but his demeanor didn't change. "Do not assume to educate me on matters in which I have no shortage of experience," he said without the slightest hint of hesitation. "I am well aware of the difficulties of the BURST Execution process; however, that does not excuse the lack of effort on neither Matt's nor Amantanine's parts. We are at war, and childish bickering will not strengthen our cause in the least." His eyes swiveled toward Amantanine and me, both the electric irises piercing through my helmet's visor and gazing into my mind. "I expected more from both of you."

—55—

"No, fuckthis shit! I'm done!"

"Dude, you need to calm down."

I glared at my Green Ranger best friend. It was weird, because in that moment, I felt déjà vu lingering in my mind as our eyes met angrily.

"Are you kidding me? I don't care if he's Jesus fucking Christ, he's not just gonna undermine everything I've been through in the past four years. That's bullshit! Do you know when the last time I talked to my parent's was? Two months ago! They don't know if I'm alive or dead, if I'm on Earth or being sucked into a goddamn black hole. My life has been turned upside down since the day we got into that fight with Jay and Aaron! And now, I'm expected to put my life on the line for an entire planet of people I don't know anything about. Who knows? Maybe Messiah is telling the truth!"

His eyes snapped back to mine as soon as the words were out my mouth, but I knew he was understanding exactly what I was feeling. I saw the doubt creeping through his steely eyes and knew he'd thought the same thing. Felt the same thing.

"Look," he stammered, obviously just as caught off guard by Zordon's reaction as I was, "I-I know things are hellish right now. But just…just try to calm down. Let me talk to Aaron and see if he can't talk some sense into Zordon. If there's anyone who can go toe-to-toe with Zordon's authority, it's Aaron. I mean…he is kind of the King now."

I ground my teeth as I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, well, Zordon's the first king. So he must be the best fucking thing in the universe."

I didn't make it difficult to see through my sarcasm.

"Just let me talk to him, dude."

I sighed, crossing my arms in agitation. "Fine. But seriously, dude—unless a lot of shit gets better soon, you'll be missing another color of your Ranger team."

As I turned to walk off, I cast one last look at Sofyetta and Grace, who, in a spark of blue-and-black energy, separated seamlessly. As Grace's long legs guided her feet softly to the ground, I saw her remove her helmet and shake her hair loose. In the background, I could see Omega and Beth had separated, and Tonion and Jay had been knocked from the air and forfeited.

She had won singlehandedly.

Our eyes met for just a second, but eventually, she looked away. She didn't follow me. She didn't try to stop me from leaving. Instead, she cast her eyes to the ground and walked blindly toward Zordon. I felt Sofyetta's mind nudge mine subtly, as if to ask me if I wanted to talk. But I shut her out faster than she could get in, and I ripped in to the skies, breaching the bounds of the HoloDome and high into the stratosphere.

I was so pissed. So angry. So full of hate that I didn't know what I wanted.

I was torn.

I loved helping people—I really did. But…I just wondered if it was just too much sometimes. Here I was, lightyears from home, and not a single clue as to when—or if—I'd ever see it again. I missed being a kid. I missed going to my parents' house and calling it home—missed having chores and a curfew and worrying about a test or if Grace would magically fall in love with me. I missed the small things that made my life mine. Now, everything was apocalypse this, Armageddon that. I missed sleeping in until the afternoon and having breakfast at 2 PM.

I would never have believed anyone if they'd told me where I'd be in four years. When I gave that speech my senior year at Reefside, my five year plan definitely didn't include participating in an intergalactic war, fighting against Earth's unified elite army of Rangers. No matter what happened, I did what I was told was right. I obeyed Doc Ol, almost failed out of college because of the constant interruption of being a Ranger, enrolled in SPD to help protect the world, and then got tricked into working for the very person we were trying to stop.

I just didn't know what was right from wrong or important from unimportant anymore. And it seemed like only I really felt that way. Everyone else just knew they were doing the right thing. They trusted Doc Ol and Zordon and Hunter and Dustin to just be right all the time. They believed that what they were doing was the most important thing in the universe and that nothing, not even the small pleasures of life, took precedence. Ever. And sometimes I wondered if maybe I was the only human. The only one to really question authority.

Even as I floated above an alien planet that reminded me so much of my home planet, I wondered if any of this was really real, or if it was just some insanely realistic and unending dream. I wondered if I would wake up in my bed, still in the first month of my senior year at Reefside High. I knew it was childish to think about it, but at this point, nothing really seemed impossible anymore.

And then, out of nowhere, a massive beam of energy split the air around me and almost slammed into my body. If it hadn't been for my elemental connection with air, I would have been just as fried as the ground below where the beam hit.

Immediately, my head whipped up in the direction of the beam's origin.

Above me by at least two or three thousand feet was an SPD aerial transport. Its cannons were locked onto me, and as they realized I had survived, they picked up their attack speed.

But they were still too slow. And they were in my domain. The skies.

I quickly whipped up a sphere of air around my body, deflecting their laser fire. Without giving them a chance to adjust their firepower, I lashed out with two air slices that slashed through two of their starboard cannons. As they tried to reposition, I flew toward them faster than they could anticipate and flipped so my feet faced them. From the bottom of my armored boots, I let out a jettison of pressurized wind that knocked their craft into an uncontrollable spiral. My HUD lit up to target their main engines, and as soon as I had locked on, I flung two Wind Spheres at each of the large thrusters.

The explosion was satisfying, I hate to admit.

I saw the pilots abandon their ship, their white parachutes easy to spot from my vantage point up above them.

"Matt, what's going on?"

Aaron's voice was easy to identify over my commlink and part of me considered ignoring him. But I knew he meant well, so I responded.

"Nothing. A stray bogey. It's taken care of."

"You know better than anyone that SPD never has 'stray' bogies," Patrick's voice overrode Aaron's. "You should get back to the palace before the other transports lock on to your position."

"I'm fine."

"Matt," Patrick said, obviously shaken by my carelessness, "please. Just come back, dude."

I thought about it. I really did. But I just couldn't bring myself to go back. I knew what would happen when I did. Zordon would chew me out, telling me I couldn't just go off on my own anymore. Aaron would agree, and Patrick would say something about being worried. And Doc Ol? Oh, God. He'd have a fucking field day. And after it all, Grace wouldn't say anything. She barely did, nowadays.

So I shut off my commlink and continued to fly aimlessly.

I fixed my eyes on the horizon, but wasn't paying attention to my coordinates.

Not until an entire fleet of SPD transports closed in on my position.

—55—

When I woke up, I was strapped to a chair, my arms and legs bolted down by thick metal bands.

I didn't recognize my surroundings, but I sure as hell recognized the SPD troops posted up around the small, metallic room.

"Ah, you're awake."

One of the troops had turned to fix his gaze on me, and I immediately inhaled deeply and exhaled a gust of wind that slammed him into the wall. The other four leveled their energy pistols at me, but I whipped my head in a quick circle and forced another gust at them. Their weapons flew into the other walls, but before I could inhale again, I felt a hand around my mouth and nose, cutting off my air supply.

"Ah, ah, ah."

My eyes bulged as I recognized the voice.

Messiah.

I knew he could feel me stiffen with fear and apprehension, because he rubbed my shoulder calmingly with his free hand.

"Don't be afraid," he said, "I can remove my hand whenever you are ready to cooperate."

I forced my body to relax and he moved his hand away slowly.

"You make it difficult to hold you captive," he said, moving in front of me now so he could see me. "Air is all around us, and you control it like its simply an extension of your body. I essentially have to suffocate you to keep you from retaliating. And I would hate to lose such a valuable Ranger—such a valuable man—simply because you cannot hold a civil conversation with me."

I remained silent.

"Now, I'm sure you hate me," he continued, waving a hand at the SPD troops to leave us alone, "but try to see where I'm coming from. All I want to do is free Earth from the alien influence of Eltar—and something tells me you are slowly starting to see things my way."

My eyes shifted from his uneasily. Doubtfully.

He detected it, and feasted on it.

"You are, aren't you?"

I nodded.

"It is a common misconception that I brainwashed Grace—but you and I both know that's not true. I'm sure she's talked to you about it."

Another nod.

"I could go on and on about right and wrong, but I know the two are a matter of perspective—both one in the same, actually. And to be honest, as humans, we fluctuate our perspectives every second of every day. But the one thing that is constant is our sense of free will—to do what we want. And something tells me that the Eltarians don't seem to share that notion with us. Not anymore."

"You're wrong," I finally said. "That's what Aaron's fighting for. That's what we're fighting for."

"And you see the opposition with which he is met, do you not?"

I fell silent again.

"His entire planet despises him as leader—so much that they have tricked him into becoming the Dyr Ban Eltar so that they can capitalize on his lack of experience. They are manipulating him to do exactly what they want. They have turned him into nothing more than a figurehead with a morpher and unknowable power. The planet Eltar is as corrupt as Earth was before SPD came along. They have been at war since the creation of the planet—constantly trying to spread their beliefs across the galaxy. Have you ever wondered why the Universal Council refuses to acknowledge any more Declarations of War on Eltar's behalf? It's not because they are a 'goliath' compared to Earth. No, it's because they know Eltar is a warmongering planet, only interested in expanding its empire even further than its colossal, supposedly 'pure' home world."

And now, everything was starting to make sense.

Suddenly, Messiah didn't seem so insane.

"Join me," he said, "help me bring an end to this war and free your home of the unending oppression of the Eltarian forces once and for all. Help me uproot the poisoned and corrupted Eltarian Council. Help me save your friends from being sucked into a life of never-ending servitude to the Eltarian ways of Rangerhood. Help me save the galaxy while there is still a galaxy left to save."

His eyes, the bright yellow irises surrounded by a ring of crimson, didn't seem so malicious and feral. I saw past the mutation he'd forced on himself in an effort to level the playing field with Eltar and saw the man behind his mask. I felt his humanity, understood his cause, and sympathized.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked, my voice low and somewhat confused.

—55—

"Grace and Sofyetta are on their way here. They've tracked my morpher here," I said emotionlessly. "They'll most likely be cloaked and BURST Executed."

"How do you propose we intercept them?" the Red SPD Ranger asked me, though I could sense the distrust in his voice. "Our scanners can't detect them since there is Eltarian energy throughout the entire planet."

"I'll handle it."

I saw his eyebrows furrow and his mouth open to argue with me, but I turned and exited the command center of the SPD outpost, signaling I was done with the conversation.

He didn't object.

In one swift motion, I morphed, hardly moving as I began to float into the air and pick up speed until I was in a full-blown flight.

Somehow, I felt stable. Right. None of my worries bothered me. None of the bullshit I'd been thinking about earlier mattered. And even the fact that I was about to betray Grace, Sofyetta, and the entire Cyber Squad didn't mean anything to me.

I was cold, calculated, and concentrated.

A small part of me, a very tiny bit deep down in my core, thought maybe Messiah had done something to me. But the larger part of me told me that all he had done was wake up the dormant doubts in me that had known all along that the Eltarians couldn't be trusted—that they were really the enemy.

As I exited the metallic confines of SPD's makeshift outpost, I felt the stillness in the air greet me with thick tension.

I could feel Grace and Sofyetta in the air, just barely. Like a plume of dense and metal smoke that was almost invisible.

Almost.

"I know you're there."

It didn't take long for them to rematerialize, their cloaking technology wearing off.

"What are you doing? We had to tear through four different command posts to get here!" they said jointly.

It was hard for me to separate who was saying what, and it took me a second to remember that they really were one being now.

"Sof," I said, opening my visor, "I need to talk to Grace. Alone, please."

There was a moment where I wasn't sure if they'd listen. I was afraid they'd know exactly what I was doing—what I was thinking.

But then, a shimmering darkness overtook them and Grace materialized from the robotic form of Sofeyace. Sofyetta reverted to her jetchopper mode and remained silent for a few moments before she mentally nudged me and took to the skies.

I tried to ignore her psychic presence until she was nothing more than a quiet whisper, like the rest of my conscience.

"What's going on?" Grace finally asked. "Why are we talking in front of an SPD Command Post?"

My Ranger suit dematerialized with nothing more than a thought as I placed my hands on her arms gently. "They're not here to hurt us."

Her eyebrows pulled together in disbelief and her mouth opened to protest.

"I promise," I cut her off. "Just…just hear me out."

She sighed, agitated, but didn't say anything.

"You know that I would do anything—anything—to protect you; to make sure that no one ever hurt you like that sonovabitch of a step-dad did. I would do anything to make sure you had the life you wanted. And…this? This isn't it. Defending a planet we know nothing about? When we were in high school, you were so absolutely sure that Earth was home to humans—not aliens. You believed we needed to focus on bettering humanity before we could open our arms to other beings. And you were right." I let her go now, starting to pace back and forth as I tried to get everything out right. "Help me talk to the others. Help me convince them to just give up—to take ourselves out of this war. We can go back to Earth. We can see our families. We can eat human food. We can get our four seasons back, and have our old lives back. We can do exactly what Zordon wants and just turn our morphers in. We've done our part. Let the Eltarians fend for themselves."

I was expecting a lot of things from Grace—a lot of different things that may not have made sense. But I never expected her to slap the shit out of me.

"What is wrong with you?!" she screeched. "You can claim that you're doing this for me—sacrificing our rangerhood for a safe and normal life—but you're doing it for yourself! You're selfish! I don't have a family to go home to on Earth. I don't have a suburban house wife life to just snap back into—I'm not that kind of girl. How could you think I would be? After all these years, did you really think I was just going to hang up my morpher and give up? And go back to being the perfect trophy girl who did everything and nothing at the same time? Did you expect me to just morph back into the girl you really fell in love with?"

I didn't notice she was crying until the sting of her smack had worn off and my vision had straightened.

"Well fuck you, Matt! I'm not that person. I'm not weak like I was then. And even though things suck right now, at least I have myself. At least I have my friends and people who would really do anything for me! You…you claim that you're there for me no matter what, but when the going gets tough, you just look for the easiest way out on the path of least resistance. You never go against the grain."

The entire time that she was going off on me, the entire time she was screaming at me and belittling me, I could feel a storm of anger brewing up in me. I could feel all the love I'd built up for her breaking down block by block, piece by piece. And all that love turned to hate.

I couldn't bear it anymore.

I couldn't stand there and let her tear me down anymore.

So I snapped.

I went against the grain.

Faster than I could even predict, I pushed my hand out at her and a spiral of air threw her through the air unexpectedly.

Midflight, she recovered, her eyes bewildered and furious.

"You…you attacked me…" she whispered half to herself. "You asshole!"

She lashed out with two strings of shadow energy that whizzed toward me and blew up the ground beneath my feet.

Luckily, I was faster than her in terms of agility, and I was able to easily dodge and lift myself into the air. I just wasn't expecting ropes of shadow to reach up and wrap around my feet, eagerly bringing me back down to Earth. Hard.

"You're making a mistake, Grace!" I shouted to her as I pulled myself up with a rush of wind. "SPD is not our enemy! This is the same organization you signed up to help protect and defend—and now you turn your back on them and your home planet for a bunch of aliens we don't even know?!"

"How can you say that?" she roared over the sound of her energy swirling around her. "How can you turn your back on Aaron? On Hunter and Dustin? On an entire world that has only ever tried to help?!"

"WE DON'T NEED THEIR HELP!"

Even as I shouted, waves of sonic energy slammed into her from above, threatening to crush her under their might. And then she disappeared, shifting through the ground like a ghost. I searched wildly for her, but she knew my weaknesses. She knew that if she was underground, I couldn't detect her using the particles of air all around us.

And then everything went black.

She had absorbed me in a cloud of darkness that seemed to seep into everything—into the crevices of my suit and every part of my body. It was draining me of my power and my consciousness—she was trying to knock me out.

Before I fell under, I spun wildly in the air, a sphere of air dissolving her attack like stray wisps of smoke.

"That the best you can do?" I spat angrily.

"What is wrong with you?" she almost pleaded, repeating her same question over and over. "What did Messiah do to you?"

"That's what you don't get. He didn't do anything to me. All he did was open my eyes. All he did was show me what we've been blind to for so long."

"If this is really the path you've chosen, if you really have betrayed us all…then you leave me no choice."

And then she was gone.

In a spark of black light, she disappeared.

It took me a few seconds, but then I realized what she'd done.

She'd BURST Executed.

"Cheater," I mumbled half to myself.

Twilight Thronos Sofeyace stared down at me, her amethyst eyes clear but conflicted. "I don't want to fight you, Matt."

"Then don't."

She frowned, as much as a Zordian could, at least. I felt the strain of battle heavy in the air, both of us nervous and confused. And then she pushed off the ground and flew off in the direction she'd come.

I started to turn around, to head back into the outpost, when I felt her go stiff in the air. I could feel the currents still and heard her engines die down. Slowly, I turned back.

Sure enough, they were landing.

But there was something different about them. Something…not right.

"Grace?" I called out to them.

Sofeyace's body turned toward me, her eyes gone black and lifeless, but her body moving nonetheless.

"Sof? Guys, what's wrong?"

Grace hopped out unenthusiastically, her Ranger suit dissipating. "You were right."

"What do you mean I was right?"

"About everything."

I looked at her skeptically, trying to read her emotions through her eyes, but I couldn't see past the wall she'd put up. Maybe she was just hurt to admit that we had to betray our friends? Maybe she was just confused.

And then she hugged me tightly, her body shaking with tears.

"I'm sorry," she cried, "I'm so, so sorry."