[Tuesday, October 5th, 1993 6:08pm]
Rita sat on her throne as a sense of Pride swelled within her. For so long zadar and anyone he recruited have been a thorn in her side but that was finally coming to an end. While she may have to suffer defeat after defeat at the hands of the Power Rangers it had all been an end to justify the means. The Green Ranger was now in possession of the Sword of Darkness the command center was all but destroyed leaving Zordon in a sort of temporal limbo. And with their Mentor out of the way the other rangers would be no match for her.
The Earth would fall and she would enslave all mankind to search for and retrieve the additional power sources left behind on Earth by the Eltarian people. She would amass an army of loyal soldiers with infinite power and one by one take over every planet in the galaxy. It would only be a matter of time before she would have the power she needed to stand up to dark Specter himself.
"REPULSA!" a voice echoed through the entire chamber. The inflection in the voice made it obvious he was angry.
Rita, unrattled by the voice, looked around. "What do you want Lokar?"
"YOU DARE TO INTERFERE IN MY TRIAL?"
"What are you babbling about?" Rita snarled.
"DURING THE TRIAL THERE WAS AN ANOMALY. I DO NOT MEDDLE IN THE AFFAIRS OF YOUR TRIVIAL WAR. DO NOT MEDDLE WITH MINE!"
"When you are in my palace you will address me with respect, you disembodied dufus. Disrespect me again and it will be your last."
"EMPTY THREATS, REPULSA. YOU AND I BOTH KNOW THAT. YOUR RUDIMENTARY SORCERY IS NO MATCH FOR MY DARK MAGIC. IN FACT, YOU LACK THE ABILITY TO INTERFERE IN MY TRIALS, BUT I ALLOWED YOUR WARRIOR TO PROCEED OUT OF SHEER CURIOSITY. THERE ARE FORCES AT WORK BEYOND YOUR LIMITED COMPREHENSION, AND I AM INTRIGUED TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS."
"What are you going on about, Lokar? I am the Empress of Evil. Nothing is beyond me," she paused, awaiting a response, but there was silence. "Lokar?" she waited again. "Lokar? You're giving me a headache," she groaned.
At that moment, Goldar skulked into the room standing in front of her then dropping down to one knee.
"My Empress," he said in his usual deep, raspy voice. Not that Rita heard it that way. From the moment Goldar was assigned to her, he had gone nothing but grovel.
"First Lokar, now this. What do you want you big, gold buffon?" she snapped.
"My Empress. I was told that you summoned Scorpina for the Trials of Lokar. I am pleased that you reconsidered for the green ranger powers," he said.
"You're a bigger idiot than you look, Goldar. I summoned her, but not to claim the Sword of Darkness, but to be fed to Tommy as fodder in the first trial. She was defeated swiftly by my evil green ranger."
"I see," wild goldar was completely enraged by Rita's decision he also knew not to question his empress. Scorpina was a formidable Warrior and in his opinion deserved a better fate than to be used as a pawn. "Where is she now? Together we will interrogate the Red Ranger. I have captured him and he is trapped in my dark dimension," he suggested.
"You really aren't listening are you tinhead? Tommy destroyed her in the trials. Scorpina is no more," she told him.
"WHAT?" Goldar let out a menacing growl like Rita had never heard before. His anger hat far surpassed rage. But in the time it took for him to rise to his feet he collected his composure. "She died a warrior's death," he said, comforting himself with the idea that she met her end on the battlefield.
Still, Goldar was not pleased with Rita's decision or her nonchalant attitude towards Scorpina, who had been a loyal soldier in the battle against Zordon and the Eltarian people. Even when her plans seem nonsensical he supported Rita, but this time he couldn't. He knew the time was coming where he would have to make a decision but right now was it the time.
"Bring me the head of the Red Ranger for my trophy room along with his red power coin. Without their leader to instruct them and with no connection to Zordon the other rangers will fall," Rita declared.
"As you wish, my Empress," Goldar snarled, walking away.
[Tuesday, October 5th, 1993 6:30pm]
Zack and the others teleported back to the Command Center, only to find everything completely shut down.
"What happened here?" Trini asked, looking around.
Billy hurried over to the only control panel that wasn't destroyed, trying to determine the extent of the damage.
"Main power and the secondary subsystems are off line," he told them. "And if I'm reading this correctly there's some sort of temporal build up happening within the tube."
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know. Until I'm able to get the main systems back online, reestablish the link with Zordon and do a full diagnostic on all the command Pathways in the command center I won't know for sure," Billy informed them.
"You can you get Zordon back?" Kimberly asked.
"It's going to take time to repair everything."
"Who could have done this?" Zack asked.
"Oh no, A.L.P.H.A." Trini sighed as she realized he was not functioning.
The Rangers rushed over to him but left Billy enough room to do a quick examination.
"It just appears his power systems are down. A quick reboot of his systems and a charge and he should be just fine," he told them.
"Wait," Trini looked around. "Where is Jason?"
Zack reached for his communicator. "Jason come in."
There was no response.
"Billy your top priority should be to get Alpha functional again. He will be able to tell you more about the command center systems so you aren't just working blind. Kimberly and I we'll begin our search for Jason," Zack said, assuming control.
"Agreed."
"I'll stay here with Billy. Two heads are better than one," Trini added.
"Sounds good. Until we know exactly what happened here and figure out where Jason is no one should be alone. Will stay paired up and check in every hour," he ordered.
Each of them nodded,tacitly agreeing. Zack glanced over at Kimberly, who nodded as they both reached for the communicators, disappearing into streams of light.
[Tuesday, October 5th, 1993 time unknown]
Jason had no way of determining exactly how long he had been… wherever he was. At first glance Jason felt it was reasonable to assume this was one of the rooms in Rita's Moon Palace. It amazed him that there was a breathable atmosphere on the moon. Then again with the lifestyle he led being able to breathe in space was not the most remarkable thing he'd seen in the last 6 months.
There were windows all along the right side of the wall and a quick peek out allowed him to get a good look at the Earth from a great distance away. It was amazing how small and insignificant the planet looked. Alarm each of the walls War swords in an X shape and a shield in front of each. Some were stained with blood others had… Another substance covering them. There was just a thin layer of smoke on the ground that came a little below his knee.
"Welcome to my dark dimension, red ranger," Goldar said as he stepped into the room.
Jason try to determine where gold are came from but there were no discernible entrances or exits from the room. He instinctively reached by behind his back for his power Morpher only to discover…
"Looking for this?" Goldar held up the Morpher, taunting Jason with it. "If you had your Morpher you could teleport out of this place with no problem. All you have to do is defeat me and pry it from my cold dead hands," he told him.
"You won't get away with this Goldar. The others will…" he was cut short.
"The others will do nothing. The Power Rangers have been cut off from their precious mentors or. And the Green Ranger is wreaking havoc period is only a matter of time before Angel Grove bends to the will of Rita repulsa."
"What? Green ranger? What are you talking about?"
"Rita has given the 6th power coin to her own ranger, and he has eliminated Zordon," he said.
"I think your helmet is on a little too tight Goldar. There is no green ranger," Jason insisted.
"You have taken the mantle of Red Ranger and involved yourself in a war that has raged for centuries, yet you know nothing about the source of your power or even why you were selected. Pathetic."
"Then enlighten me."
"You'd like that wouldn't you Jason? You'd like me to connect all the dots and make this simple for you wouldn't you?" he paused. "You know nothing of the coins or their Legendary Power. You are a disgrace to the Legacy of the Sages. You were never Worthy."
Jason stood ready. "How about we see which one of us is worthy?"
"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, red ranger," Goldar snarled, standing ready.
Jason swung with a punch but Goldar caught his hand, using his size and strength advantage, applying pressure and forcing Jason down to one knee. Jason swung with the other hand, but Goldar swatted him away.
"That windbag Zordon made you the leader? What a waste!"
Goldar kicked Jason in the chest, forcing him to slide across the floor, eventually stopping as he hit the wall. Jason stood up, trying to shake some life back into his arm.
He swung again, connecting with Goldars for face, then followed up with a side kick and a flurry of punches. Goldar stumbled back slightly, losing his balance. Jason, sensing victory, rushed at Goldar. He jumped into the air, hoping to connect with one final blow, but Goldar swung his sword, catching Jason across the chest.
Jason fell to the floor again as blood poured out of the open wound on his chest. Jason removed his shirt, pressing it against the wound, but still stood ready.
"Is that all you got Goldar?" he asked.
"Make yourself at home, Jason. You are never leaving this place. But before I destroy you and present your corpse to my Empress, I will break you," Goldar told him, taking a few steps back and disappearing into the smoke.
Once he was sure Goldar was gone, Jason was able to drop the facade of being ready to fight and collapsed to the floor, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
"I gotta find a way out of here," he sighed.