I don't own Power Rangers. Rick, Rebecca, Louis, Zara, Alex, Joe and Jin were created by Jetman21, Thewhatzupwriter26, RushQuake, GoseiShinkenPink, decode9, TimmayIsAwesome and Gadget the Critic, respectively. Ted, Cronos and the Professor were created by me.

...

Prothiak sat on his throne in the centre of the bridge of his Command ship. He was watching back the battle between his Lieutenant and the Power Rangers. He had to admit, he respected their tenacity in the face of certain defeat. They were good soldiers, if nothing else.

Unfortunately, being a good soldier wouldn't be enough to prevent them from the defeat that he already knew was coming for them. However, he had a bigger objective.

"Show me my son's killer." He barked the order at the foot soldier running the display, who zoomed in on the Red Ranger "Tell me of him. Strengths, weaknesses, vulnerabilities."

"He calls himself 'Ted,' and is the leader of the Power Rangers, as well as the most powerful." Chamella said, stepping out of the shadows "However, he also possesses the greatest ego of all of them."

"Makes sense." Prothiak said, narrowing his eyes "Success sews the seeds of failure…"

"Indeed." Chamella said, continuing "He possesses the Paladin's Spear, a weapon your son tried to gain possession of, and indeed, was used to kill him. Readings show he is biometrically linked with it in a way we cannot calculate yet."

"Interesting…" Prothiak nodded "Continue!"

"Since gaining the spear, that and the accompanying form, the 'Red Paladin Ranger,' have been his primary tools in combat. So much so you could call it a reliance on it, my liege." Chamella said.

"And what of his personal alliances?" Prothiak questioned "He killed my son, our laws dictate that-"

"I am well aware of the edict, my Emperor." Chamella said "As far as friendships go, his closest friend within the group is the Green Ranger. However, given the tendencies of Human teenagers, I would not rule out their friendship being based upon hormones more than an actual camaraderie. He also has close friendships with both the Blue and White Rangers, though he has been known to come to blows with both."

"So we attack the Green one." Prothiak said "Simple!"

""We could, but she isn't the ideal target." Chamella said, pressing a control, causing the image to pan around to the Silver Ranger "This is his Father. Cronus. Initially an enemy, now an ally. He would be the most fitting."

Prothiak stood, moving towards the viewer. His features slowly twisted into what could only be described as a smirk of sorts.

"Him." Prothiak said "He shall be the tool of my vengeance."

Ted and Cronus sat in the food court at the mall, both of them having burgers and fries in front of them, along with a coke for Ted and a Water for Cronus.

"This still feels weird." Ted complained, taking a bite of his burger "Like we shouldn't be doing this?"

"Ted, I'm your Dad." Cronus quipped "Why shouldn't we bond?"

"Oh, not that." Ted said "And since I let Mom know you're floating around, she even suggested this. No, it's just… Prothiak's in the system now. Shouldn't we be training?"

"Some things are more important than training." Cronus responded "You know, I met your mother at the Prom?"

Ted rolled his eyes. He hadn't wanted to even go to Prom in a couple of days, but as soon as Cronus had got wind of it occurring, he'd insisted on taking Ted shopping for a new suit. He'd also managed to get on the list of chaperones.

Ted was going to kill Jin for helping set that up.

"Yes, I do know." Ted replied "But I'll leave the worrying about romantic stuff to Rick and Rebecca. I want to worry about beating the Kaltax."

"Even super heroes need a day off, son." Cronus said with a laugh "Now, eat your food. We've got to take you to one more store."

"But I've got my suit…" Ted gestured to the bag.

"You need to get the corsage." Cronus quipped "Unless you're not planning on bringing one?"

"Don't have a date." Ted replied.

"Oh?" Cronus replied "What about you and Alex? Aren't you two kind of… You know, a thing?"

"No way." Ted replied "She's a friend, she's a colleague, and she's on my team. That'd be a dumb move."

"Okay then." Cronus said "Zara?"

"Is like my kid sister." Ted said "There's this one girl at school, Kendra. She's funny, she's sweet, and she can sure as hell shake-"

"Do we need a talk about objectifying women?" Cronus asked.

"I was going to say pom poms, Dad." Ted replied "She's a cheer leader."

Cronus paused. He'd never pegged his son as the type to be chasing cheer leaders. He figured he'd probably drool over them as any High School senior would, and couldn't fault him, despite his previous ribbing comment; he'd been 18 once too. However, he'd never once chased the cheer leaders.

Okay, once.

"So you've got a crush on a cheer leader?" Cronus asked "I only ever went after one cheer leader."

"And you married her." Ted quipped before grimacing "I remember finding Mom's old uniform in a box of High School mementos. That was disturbing…"

"Hey, we were young once too you know!" Cronus laughed before standing up "Anyway, if you're not going with a date, I guess we're about done here. You want me to drive you home?"

"Sure." Ted said with a smile as he rose from his own seat, picking up a couple of bags "You mind grabbing the suit?"

"Sure." Cronus said, picking up the bag beside him "So, tell me about this girl."

"No way, that'd be embarrassing." Ted said, pausing before continuing "Okay, she's got the biggest brown eyes you ever saw, long black hair with these cute little blonde highlights and this tanned complexion that looks-"

"Kind of like that?" Cronus said, pointing to a girl, Ted freezing as he looked over.

It was her. Ted quickly grabbed his Dad, yanking him behind a column and peering out slightly.

"So that's the girl, huh?" Cronus asked, peering out as well "She's not got anything on your Mom, but-"

"Please never finish that sentence." Ted cut in "Oh god, do you think she saw me? Should I go and talk to her? What do I say?"

"Nice weather we've got here?" Cronus pitched in "If you want to go talk to the girl, go talk to her. What's the worst that'll happen?"

"Last time I spoke to a girl, she turned out to be one of the Kaltax Lieutenants who wanted me, Louis and Rick to kill each other." Ted said "I miss the old days…"

"Old days?" A girl's voice said "I thought you were the class geek, you shouldn't have 'old days' to talk about."

Ted and Cronus both jumped out of their skins as they turned around, Kendra being stood there, hands folded across her chest with a small smirk on her face.

"You know, I never figured you'd bring your Grandpa out to perv with you." She said before laughing slightly and holding out a hand to Cronus "Hi sir, I'm Kendra. I'm in Tim's Math class."

"You mean Ted." Cronus corrected "I'm Henry, his Dad."

"Nice to meet you." Kendra said "So, Ted, was it? Were you actually going to come talk to me? Or were you planning to hide here all day?"

"Yes. I mean, no. I mean…" Ted bumbled, before handing his bags over to Cronus "Dad, I'll catch you up."

"Okay, son." Cronus said, hugging Ted and standing back "Sorry, that's not cool, is it?"

"Just go." Ted sighed, turning to Kendra "So, uh, yeah, hi."

"Hi." She said with a smile "You out shopping for prom?"

"Yeah. Always." Ted said "Except when I'm not…"

"You don't talk to girls much do you?" She asked with a laugh.

"Well, I hang out with three of them all the time." Ted said, freezing in his tracks "I mean, as friends. They're just girlfriends. Not girlfriends, girls that are friends. One of them has a boyfriend, he's great, you know Rick?"

"Oh my god." She said, a look of horror forming on her face.

"What?" Ted asked, Kendra's mouth flapping open and closed in horror "I've made an ass of myself, haven't I? I'm sorry, I'll just leave and-"

Before he could finish talking, a large hand came down on his left shoulder, turning him around. In front of Ted stood a crimson coloured version of Rektax, surrounded by Buzzers. Ted looked to Kendra then back at the Rektax look alike.

"I'm Portax." The figure said, a small smile forming on his face "I'm guessing you already knew that."

Portax threw Ted across the food court as people began running screaming. He began to advance on Ted as a pair of Buzzers grabbed Kendra as she tried to run, holding her in place. Portax picked Ted up by the throat.

"You killed my baby brother." Portax said "I owe you one for that. That's why I'm not going to kill you and your little friend there."

"Leave her alone…" Ted choked out, slowly moving his right hand to his left wrist where the Paladin morpher had materialised "Red Paladin-"

Before he could hit the control on it and engage the Battilizer morph sequence, Portax snatched the morpher from his wrist, crushing it in his hand.

"Whoops, I broke your toy." He said "I guess you're a Powerless Ranger now, huh?"

"And you're a bully." Ted said "Nothing new there…"

"You have no idea, boy." Portax said, before hitting Ted in the head, knocking him out.

Cronus, Alex and the Professor stood in the Command Centre working at various consoles. Rick, Rebecca, Louis and Zara walked in, Rick moving over to the terminal the Professor was it.

"Your call sounded urgent." Rick said "What's going on?"

"It's Ted." Alex said quietly "A few hours ago… He was taken."

"By who?" Louis asked.

"Portax. Prothiak's elder son." The Professor said "He makes the Kaltax Lieutenants you've faced so far look like kittens."

"So, what, he's Rektax's brother?" Rebecca asked.

"Yes, though there was never any love lost between them." The Professor said "In my timeline, Portax actually assassinated Rektax himself. Theodore killing Rektax just moved up Portax's plans I suppose."

"Okay, well, we've got to find him." Zara said "Where's his morpher signal coming from?"

The Professor pressed a few commands, bringing up a map of the world. Two distinct red dots were present.

"The Paladin morpher signal is coming from the mall. I would discount it, but it fits Portax's MO to have a base of operations set up near where he took Ted." Cronus said "However, Ted's main morpher's signal is coming from about fifteen miles out of town. One of them is a red herring."

"And we've got no way to know which one." Rick grimaced "Okay, here's the game plan. Me, Louis, Rebecca and Zara will check out the location out of town. Alex, you and Cronus check the mall. Professor, try to get a hold of Joe and Jin, have them meet Alex and Cronus at the mall."

"Already working on it." The Professor said, turning to face them all "I don't need to tell you to be careful out there, Rangers."

"No you don't. But thanks." Rick said as he and the other Rangers pulled their morphers "It's morphin' time! Rev Max, Power Up!"

Ted slowly came to. He was in a damp, dark room. As his eyes slowly adjusted, he realised it wasn't a room. It was a cavern.

He tried to stand up, to move away from the post behind him, but found himself unable to do so, his hands bound to the post by thick ropes. There was the sound of someone coming to behind him.

"Hello?" Ted asked "Who's there?"

"Tom?" The voice of Kendra came from behind him "Is that you?"

"Ted." He corrected "Where are we?"

"I don't know…" She said "Oh god, there was a monster, and it-"

"Try to stay calm." Ted cut in "Trust me, panicking doesn't help anyone."

"You're talking like this isn't the first time you've been up close and personal with one of those things." She said "And why were you so… I don't know, cocky, to that thing?"

"His brother and I have history. He was a bully too." Ted said "Listen, Kendra, I need you to do something for me."

"Don't start hitting on me now." She said "I'm just as tied up as you."

"And I'm trying to get us out of here." Ted said "In my back pocket, there's a box with a wheel. I need you to find it, take it out and put it in my hand."

"Oh, is that all." She said, her tone sarcastic "Nothing too major then?"

"Kendra, focus!" He snapped, his tone serious "If you give me the box, I can get us out of here."

"How the hell can you do that?" She asked facetiously.

"Because I'm a Power Ranger!" He snapped "The Red Power Ranger, to be specific!"

Kendra went silent for a moment. Then, she started laughing hysterically.

"Oh yeah, I can really believe that." She said "If you're the Red Ranger, then I'm the Pink Ranger!"

"What? There isn't a Pink Ranger!" Ted said "Just give me the box, and I'll morph and we'll get out of here."

Kendra sighed. A second later, she reached back and Ted half jumped out of his skin.

"That isn't my pocket!" He yelled.

"Sorry." She said, reaching again "I can feel a wheel, but I can't grab the box."

"Okay…" Ted said, thinking for a moment "Spin the wheel."

Kendra sighed before complying, slowly turning the wheel. As she did, she felt it begin to warm up, causing her to pull her hand away before she heard the sounds of rope snapping. A moment later, gloved hands grabbed the ropes binding her, pulling them apart. She turned around, just in time to see the Red Ranger de-morph into Ted.

"Told you so." He said with a smirk "Now, let's go."

.

So, this is part one of the finale. Next chapter will bring the previously promised confrontation with the Emperor (when I had it in here, this chapter was far too long) and, yeah, that's it from me. R&R, please, no flames. B.