Spike stumbled through the streets, helping his step-mother as they struggled to escape. They had believed that the war was over, that with Mavro's destruction the Earth was now safe, but they had all been proven horribly wrong. When he had shown up, descending from on high on his new wings, Vrak had revealed that all of this had been part of his grand scheme. He had used the two most powerful obstacles to his total victory to wipe each other out. When Gosei had sacrificed himself to destroy Mavro, removing the only member of the Royal Family now above him on the line of succession, he had also ended the Eltarian bloodline, and thus destroyed the last anchor maintaining the Morphing Grid.
While Jordan had Eltarian blood, he was only half-Eltarian. His connection to the bloodline of Eltar was not strong enough to hold the Morphing Grid together. With Gosei's death came the end of the Morphing grid, and so the main obstacle to Vrak's total victory. While he no longer had a fleet, without any powers, even a few of the remaining robots were a significant threat...and Vrak it seemed had stockpiled thousands for the occasion!
The Rangers, all 119, including their allies that hadn't been involved in the assault on Mavro's ship had fought bravely against Vrak and the reserves he had stockpiled for his takeover, but without any powers, without any Ranger weapons between them, the fight didn't take long to turn into a rout. While none of them lacked courage, and would have fought to the last, quickly they realised the futility of the situation and had to call an all-out retreat, intending to re-group and hopefully figure out what they could possibly do to stop the seemingly invincible forces Vrak now had at his disposal.
It was impossible to know the fate of the others. They had all scattered, hoping that if they split up then at least SOME of them would escape. More than half of the Rangers had already fallen by the time Zack had ordered the retreat, still more fell before they could get clear of the main battle ground. Kimberly had injured her ankle on some loose debris, going over her own ankle as she ran, forcing Spike to carry her much of the way.
He managed to find a pharmacy that had been deserted, and brought her inside, setting her down on the floor. Kimberly grimaced as he tried to straighten out her leg, getting a look at what he was working with.
"I'm sorry mom; I need to check it out." He told her.
"Just go on without me Spike." She told him. "I'm just going to slow you down."
"I'm not doing that mom, there's no way I'm leaving you." He answered as he checked her ankle. He moved her foot, feeling around the ankle for anything that wasn't where it should be. He hated seeing his mom hurt, but if there was something broken, he needed to know about it. "It doesn't look like it's broken. It's just a sprain by the looks of things. Maybe some muscle or ligament tears..."
"I was a gymnast for fifteen years Spike; I know what a blown ankle feels like." She assured him. "I'm not going anywhere in a hurry."
"Mom, we're in a pharmacy, I can fix up a support bandage." He told her.
"Spike, even if I do strap it up and take painkillers, I'm not going to be going anywhere fast." She stated as she held him close. "Just...get yourself out of here."
"Mom, I..."
"The most important thing is to survive Spike!" She interrupted him. "If you do that, you can always come back and try again!"
"How can I mom?" He asked her. "I was a Ranger for one whole day and I managed to screw it up!"
"You didn't screw up anything!" Kimberly assured him. "You were amazing out there! You're easily as good as any of the guys I worked with. I was so proud of you."
"But the powers are gone mom!" He reminded her. "We've got no weapons...we have nothing!"
"Hey, I've told you how many times we faced situations like that. I was a hell of a lot younger than you when I watched my first fleet of Zords being destroyed." She told him. "By the time I was your age, I had seen two sets of Zords and a third captured. I've seen things look hopeless. It only stays that way if you give up."
"I just...I wish I could have done more." He answered. "Gosei...if I could have..."
"Hey, we all felt that one." Kimberly told him. "I wasn't even a Ranger when it happened, but when Zordon died...I cried for a week straight. We can't be there for everyone. Gosei made his own decisions."
"Decisions that got him killed." Spike muttered. "He gave me that morpher...I feel like I let him down."
"It always feels like that when we get knocked on our asses." Kimberly assured him. "Sometimes it's hard, but what makes the difference...what's kept us going this long is that even when we've been down, even when we weren't that popular, no matter how many obstacles were thrown in our path, the Rangers have always come back!"
Just then, the window of the shop flew in. Spike threw himself at a Kingsman as he came through the window, followed by some bruisers, but it was too late. Quickly, both of them were overwhelmed. Spike felt himself being held fast by one of the bruisers as the Kingsman looked to them both.
"Take them both to the quarry." He ordered them. "Put them with the others, Lord Vrak wants to address them all personally."
On the shore, Jordan finally arrived, his hands painfully blistered from rowing all the way from Gosei's island to Harwood. He rolled out of the boat, and waded to the shore, not really caring if the boat drifted away. He didn't need it for the next stage of his mission.
His father had kept all of the details of his plan secret, even from him. He had never understood why, and everyone had found it frustrating, but in his final gift to Jordan, Gosei had gifted him with his own memory crystal. Jordan now knew the whole plan, he knew his purpose, and he finally understood why. If anyone had known what Gosei did, if anyone had realised what he needed to do, none of them would have gone along with it.
He managed to get up onto the freeway, finding a couple of cars that had been involved in a crash on the way out of town, simply abandoned. He went to the least damaged, and saw that the keys were still in it. In their desperation to get out of town, whoever had owned those cars had simply abandoned them and left them in search of another way to flee the carnage.
He got in, and turned the key, finding that the engine still started. He needed a way back into town, and figuring that the cops would have a lot more to worry about, figured no one would really care about a guy driving around in a smashed up car, one he doubted anyone would report stolen. He reversed out of the wreckage and turned the car around, crossing over the lanes and into the road back into Harwood.
At the Rock Quarry, most of the Rangers had already been rounded up. Over half of them had been taken before they could even flee the original battle ground, but as time went by, more and more of the Rangers were dragged to the holding ground at the quarry, some in better condition than others.
The droid army had set up a number of poles in the ground, which emitted a lightning field, keeping the Rangers captive inside. Anyone that attempted to leave had been knocked back by a painful, but non-lethal charge, keeping them in one place. They didn't know why exactly Vrak wanted them alive, but given their experiences, they had a feeling that he wanted to ensure that their end was a lot more memorable than simply being blasted by a faceless goon in the heat of battle. The latest arrival seemed to be an unconscious TJ, who was tossed carelessly inside where he was tended to by Cassie and Carlos.
"How many of us does that make?" Mack asked as Gia looked around. She was holding Cat closely, huddling under a blanket for comfort. They had been left medical supplies, food, the means to make a fire and blankets. While it wasn't exactly comfortable, it seemed like Vrak didn't want them to die of exposure before he got the pleasure of seeing to their end.
"I don't know exactly, but it looks like most of us." She sighed. "I stopped counting at 89."
"Frackkashlakah!" Orion screamed as he paced back and forward before the lightning field like a caged tiger, waiting to strike. He occasionally lashed out, hitting the field with inevitable results. Watching him, they were reminded of a caged animal trying out its enclosure, looking for some weak point to attack.
"What did he say?" Mack asked Gia. "I don't speak Andresian." Emma just shook her head.
"It's probably best you don't know, but I think you can take a guess by context." She answered. "How's Tyzonn?"
Tyzonn, as a Mercurian was able to pass through force fields...albeit at a cost. He had tried to escape, but it seemed that Vrak had anticipated this move, which is why he chose a lightning field.
"Well...he's not a puddle anymore; he managed to pull himself back together." Ronny answered. "But he's a little spaced."
Cat just sighed.
"What are you thinking about?" Gia whispered to Cat, who was very quiet. Cat had never intended to be a Ranger. She was never interested in Martial Arts...or fighting at all. She had spent most of her life avoiding fights. It was only because she knew Gia would be involved in the final battle that she had taken Gosei's offer of the morpher. Gia doubted she had any intention of a return as a Ranger. For Cat it was likely only ever meant to be a one-time deal. She had done it for Gia.
"Rudolph." She sighed. Gia just looked to her curiously.
"Rudolph?" Gia asked her.
"In the song, all the other reindeer make fun of him and don't let him play their games because of his nose...they're basically racists." Cat stated. "And Santa only asked him to guide the sleigh on the foggy Christmas Eve...so that says he hadn't asked him to do it before, which kind of sounds like he hadn't done anything about the other reindeer discriminating against Rudolph."
"Uh...what?" Anton Mercer asked as he overheard this. He had taken up Tommy's Dino Thunder morpher as a substitute. Others were looking at her too.
"Then everyone suddenly likes Rudolph because he helped them, but none of them ever apologised or made it up to Rudolph...and he never said anything about the discrimination...doesn't that seem kind of wrong?"
"Is she SERIOUSLY saying this?" Conner asked from where he was sitting.
"How hard was she hit?" Ethan asked.
"Trust me; she's like this most of the time." Emma replied as Gia held her. Cat was...different. She had known and loved her long enough to know that Cat wasn't oblivious to the situation she was in. She knew exactly where she was, and the danger they were all in. This was just her way of dealing with the interminable wait while Vrak decided their fate.
"Are you sure about that?" Trent asked.
"Trust us." The Corsair Rangers said together as Gia held Cat.
In another part of Harwood, Jordan returned to the house that he had shared with General Edwards before his death. It had been a long time since he had been back there; indeed...it had been a long time since ANYONE had been there. While Jordan had since been cleared of killing General Edwards, the man he believed to be his father up until that night as a result of the world finding out who he really was and knowing he couldn't have done it, the house was still technically his. It had been left to him in the General's will.
He stopped by to clean up and attend to some wounds, before getting some fresh clothing for the mission ahead. He had just finished getting dressed, when he saw his father's old dog tags on the dresser. Picking them up, something came back to him from Gosei's memory crystal.
In a rough part of some unknown city, a man was bundled roughly out of the door of some back-alley drinking hole by the security staff and tossed out into the street. He stumbled about to get his bearings, returning to his feet.
"You fucking ingrate, don't you know what I've done for this country?" General Edwards...then only a Sergeant roared as he staggered into the light. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was long and unkempt, and his stubble looked like he had given up on shaving weeks before. It was a million miles from the dapper appearance and regimented lifestyle Jordan had grown up with.
"Beat it G.I. Boozehound!" The bouncer called back.
"I was fighting for this country..."
"You puked all over the bar!" The bouncer shouted back. "You're lucky we don't call the cops!"
"You wouldn't last five minutes..."
"Go home and sleep it off you useless drunk!" The bouncer stated, before slamming the door shut. Edwards just swore loudly, making rude gestures at the door, before staggering away.
"So, this is how you plan on spending your life?" He heard someone say from the shadows. He just looked to the figure in the shadows, before snorting and turning away.
"I'm not into religion." He snapped. "Sod off and try to save someone else."
"She never cheated on you." The figure replied. Edwards just stopped dead. That was his breaking point. He had come to terms with the fact he couldn't give his wife what she so desperately wanted. He had the tests, he knew the reason they'd never managed to conceive a child despite their years of trying was because of him. He felt like a failure, like he wasn't a real man, but he had after a time come to accept that he would never have a family.
When the doctor announced that they were expecting Jordan, what should have been a moment of joy had been clouded. It was a miracle, but it was a miracle he couldn't bring himself to believe in. No matter how many times his wife assured him that he was the only man she had been with, he still couldn't believe that the child was his. He understood how desperate his wife was to have a family. He would have been angry, but he'd have understood, and in time, he was certain he would have forgiven her if she could just tell him that she had gone to someone else for what he couldn't give her. His fists clenched in anger.
"Your wife has always been faithful." The stranger told him. "But given the way you've been acting these last few months...I wouldn't blame her for looking elsewhere."
Three months, that was how long it had been since he had found out his wife was pregnant. It should have been a cause for celebration, but his behaviour had become more and more erratic over time. It had gotten to the point that some of his superiors had sent him home on 'psychiatric grounds', on the understanding he see a counsellor with the intention of returning to duty. He had been to only two sessions, before seeking his comfort in the bottom of a bottle instead.
Edwards ran at the stranger, grabbing his long, hooded coat and ramming him into a wall in the alley.
"I don't know who you are, but..."
"But I know who YOU are!" The stranger replied, effortlessly picking up Edwards, running him to the other side of the alley, slamming him into the wall. "You are a self-pitying lowlife who has no idea what he has been entrusted with!"
He pulled down his hood, revealing the Phantom Ranger's helmet. It was Gosei! He thrust a memory crystal into his hand, which glowed brightly, indicating that it was imparting its memory. Edwards just looked to him.
"He will be your son in a way that he cannot be mine." Gosei told him. "He is more important than you can possibly imagine, and I chose you of all the people I could have chosen to raise him, to train him for what is to come."
"I...I don't..."
"You WILL do what I can't." Gosei told him. "You have spent your life doing your duty to your country. Now...you have a duty to the Earth."
With that, he disappeared.
Back in the house, Jordan breathed a sigh. He had always felt a rift between him and General Edwards, a distance that didn't feel like the relationship a father should have with a son. In time, he had learned that General Edwards wasn't really his father, and had come to believe that he had known, or at least suspected that was the case and resented Jordan because of it.
However, knowing about that night, when Gosei had straightened him out when Edwards was on a path of self-destruction, he had figured out that the General had always known he wasn't his son by blood. However, thinking back over his life, he could remember all he had done for him. He had sent him to Martial Artists to learn to fight. He had always pushed him in his studies; he had put him into Military Cadets. Jordan had thought he did all of that so that he would end up in the military, but he now understood, he was preparing him. In his own way, General Edwards had loved him, and he raised him for this time.
Jordan put on his father's dog tags, and prepared to leave the house, when something caught his eye. He smiled as he picked up a bag, and headed back into the house.