Power Rangers: Public Enemies
Chapter 30: Who will cry for the Devil, he who needs it most?
Billy and Jason stared each other down, their hands gripping their weapons. As the hot wind blew around them, the giant hole were Baal had escaped from Hell was absorbing what little was left of Angel Grove. Ambers from the Hell flames flew across the sky, illuminating what man will forever more remember as the 'Darkest Day'.
"I'm sorry it's come to this, Jason." Billy rushes towards Jason, his Power Lance split in two. He jumps, spins around the air, and strikes Jason with both blades. Jason gets knocked back a bit, but quickly gets up. Power Sword at the ready, Jason picks up his Power Blaster and aims directly at Billy's chest. Once he was knocked back a bit, Jason lunged at Billy and slashed him with the Power Sword across the chest.
Meanwhile...
Several thousand angels had flown from Heaven, sealing up the hole that led into Hell. They noticed a few denizens trying to escape.
"Almost there. Come on, once we get out, we can have some..." Kamdor noticed the angels. "Get out of my way!"
"None may leave Hell." One of the angels blasts Kamdor with a beam of white light, which sends him hurtling back into Hell. He is then followed by a few others who had dared to follow him.
Kamdor lands right back where he started, in a valley overlooking a great lake of fire from which a colossal ten headed demon dog was devouring the souls of pedophiles. He gets up and looks around him.
"So leaving a no go?" Loki scoffs. "I should have known. The forces of Heaven are screwing us over."
"Well, not like it matters." Nayzor gleefully stabs Cole in the heart with a rusted knife. This is the third time he's done this in the hour. "The Power Rangers are down here with us. We have all the time in the world to have some fun."
"Hahahaha! Blessings upon Baal!" Grizzaka punches Lilly in the nose, pulls her hair, then bites off her breast. Once it grows back, he repeats the process. The screams of the damned did not drown out the Ranger's screams of agony. In fact, Andrew Hartford could easily tell which Ranger was screaming the loudest. And it broke his heart.
"Rose..." Andrew silently sheds tears. "I'm sorry..."
"You bet you're sorry." Goldar knocks on the cage where Hartford was being held. "But just wait until it's my turn with her. I'll show her a 'good time', if you know what I mean! And of course you'll know, since you'll get to watch!"
Back on the surface...
The hole to hell was slowly closing, a sight to behold yet not meant to be seen by mortal eyes. A brilliant white light shone from the wings of hundreds of angels as they closed the portal to Hell. They knew fully well of the fight that was occurring just a few miles away from them, in the mountains that once held the headquarters to the champions of good...
Sparks flew around as Jason and Billy continued their battle. Battered and torn, Billy kept fighting, not caring for how tired he had gotten. Jason, blinded by both a righteous fury and a thirst for vengeance, paid no mind to how tired his body had gotten. His red suit singed and torn from the battle, his Power Sword chipped and dulled beyond repair, his brow drenched in sweat, his throat dry from his fury, nothing will stop Jason from finishing off the monster in front of him.
Slash! The Power Sword managed to knock off Billy's lance. Swing! A clear slash across his belt buckle de-morph's Billy. Swish!
"You...got me..." Billy smiles, his mouth filled with blood. Jason's fury dies out and is replaced with horror. Jason, ever so slowly, looks down at his Power Sword, which he had used to stab his one time friend straight through the stomach. Jason watches in horror as Billy's blood oozes out from his stomach, his intestines slowly dripping out like rotten sausages.
"No." Jason's eyes begin to form tears. He de-morphs. "Billy...I'll get you to a hospital!"
"Don't bother. This is how I planned it." Billy chuckles. "The Mystic Water is keeping me alive...for another three minutes, tops."
"Billy...that's enough time..."
"Jason...I'm a bad man now. I'm the worst human being in history since Ludwig von Schroeder. I am responsible for more deaths than any human being in history." Tears form in Billy's eyes. "I am like a fallen angel, I am now death, destroyer of worlds and bringer of sorrows. There is no hope for me, no mercy. And I want none."
"Billy..."
"I did all this to help bring a new world, Jason. A new world, where children will be free from becoming child soldiers, where people can sleep soundly no matter where they live...I had a dream, Jason. I've had this dream since I first became a Power Ranger. But...we couldn't do it. No matter how hard we tried, there were always evils we could never defeat. Poverty, hate, greed...I did what I did, so that children could grow up in a world free of these evils. And I did it all knowing I would lose my humanity in the process." Billy coughs up a lot of blood. "Jason, look at me. I'm worse than Zedd, Rita and the Machine Empire combined. It's more than fitting for one of the best, if not THE best, Power Ranger to kill me. Thank you...for saving the world Jason..."
"Billy...I..."
"Live, Jason. This new world, a world protected by professional Power Rangers, a world with no frontiers and no national borders, this is my gift to you. I regret that our...YOUR fellow Rangers could not enjoy this world. I'd give everything to change the past...but...believe me, Jason. I hate myself for what happened. I'm no Power Ranger...I'm a fallen hero. A demon like any other." Billy's tears fall unto the Power Sword, washing away a few drops of blood. "Do me a favor, Jason. Tell my tale, both the good and the bad, and let History judge me accordingly. I stained my hands...for the children born...for the children yet to be born...for peace...These hands are stained with the bloods of billions...and no...amount of...tears..can...ever...wash..."
Billy's limp hand fell unto the ground. As if in mourning, the wind howled across the empty desert mountains, blowing sand away. Jason stood there, tears silently falling down his face.
"Billy...you fucked up...You didn't have to do any of this...But..." Jason fought back his tears. "Why you, Billy? Why anyone? Why didn't you stay in Aquitar? Why didn't you just stay away from Earth, if you thought it so beyond salvation, you needed to murder millions to save billions? Why dirty your hands to save those that don't deserve to be saved? Why the hell did you think YOU needed to do all this?"
Jason takes out his Power Sword from Billy's abdomen. He walks towards a flat spot of earth and begins using his sword as a shovel.
"Billy...this world...I remember everything we went through. It wasn't easy, Billy. It wasn't easy hearing from Zordon that we couldn't interfere in that ugly business in Rwanda. It wasn't easy knowing he was barring us from helping out in Kosovo. For a long time, I wondered why. But...last year, I finally realized. Zordon was protecting us. He knew there were limits to what we could and couldn't do. I see now...can you imagine what we could have done if we had interfered in Rwanda? We could have made shit worse..." Jason's tears wash away the sweat building in his face.
"We couldn't...We weren't heroes last year...I remember the day I nearly lost my temper...shit Billy I could have killed somebody! And some of us did! We weren't heroes...We lost our status as heroes...We were never fit to save the world...You're right, the world needs professional Power Rangers, not volunteers." Jason walks towards Billy's body. He picks it up, and slowly places it in the small grave he had dug. He then begins to bury Billy.
"Billy...I don't know what to do anymore. I'm no hero..." Jason picks up a large stone and places it as a tombstone for Billy. Using the broken Power Lance, he carves out an epitaph for the fallen Ranger:
'Here lies a good friend, who lost sight of his path trying to keep the rest of us from getting lost.'
"How touching." Jason turns around to see whose voice that was. He sees an angel, who can best be described as an eyeball surrounded by a thousand hands with a thousand fingers on each, and whose fingers each also served as arms that held a a hand which also contained a thousand fingers each, and so forth. "Do not be afraid. I am the Seraph, Fa'Diel."
"Why are you here?" Jason notices that Fa'Diel held the Crystals of Gaia. "Please! We can use those crystals to save my friends!"
"No."
"What..." Jason wipes away his tears, his fury having returned. "Why not?"
"Are you willing to revive the one billion, seven hundred and thirty seven million, eight hundred and ninety two thousand, four hundred and thirteen people killed by Baal?"
"In a heartbeat!"
Fa'Diel's eye began to glow red. "Fool. That is the wrong answer. Forget it. All who are killed by Baal automatically go to Hell, regardless of circumstance."
"So...What, I just stand here and do nothing? I can't do that! That is wrong!"
"Oh? You know right from wrong?" Fa'Diel looks amused. "Where were you when God made the stars in the sky? Where were you when everything was a giant void of nothingness? Where you the one God planted in the Garden of Eden? You think that, just because you've been fighting the forces of evil for less than twenty years, you are an expert on right and wrong? You dare question me, a Seraph? I have walked across the surface of millions of suns. I have seen events unfold on Earth that have long ago disappeared from man's memory. I have seen your kind kill your own kind far too many times to count. You are not unlike a snowflake lecturing the Sun on what it means to be good or evil."
"So..." Jason sighs. He looks at Billy's grave. "At least...take care of him... I know what he did...to me it seems horrendous...but please...ask God to have mercy on him."
"Why cry for him? He is a murderer." Fa'Diel turns to face Jason. "Why cry for someone who does not deserve it?"
"Because I know what he's going to be put through. And I know that, deep down, he deserves it, but...how can I not cry for him?"
"And what of those who will also suffer? How many of them deserve it?"
Jason wipes his tears. "I don't know...only God can know...and He...He's just going to let them all just..."
"Jason..." Fa'Diel wipes a tear from Jason's eye. "Weep not for your fellow man."
"I can't...stop..." Jason's eyes bulge out. "What are you doing? Why are you giving me the Crystals?"
"Go ahead, Jason. Use them, and resurrect those who have fallen." Fa'Diel looms over the Crystals of Gaia.
"But you tried to keep me from..." An idea suddenly comes to his mind. "What will happen if I use these?"
"Good question. You already know the answer."
"Billy used them to summon Baal...or...how do they even work?"
Fa'Diel chuckles. "Good question."
Jason trembles, debating what he should do. "These Crystals can open up the...I..."
"Baal is only the second weakest of the Seven Satans." Fa'Diel chuckles. "Only Mammon is weaker. Ikchthulu, the third weakest of the Satans, is seven times stronger than Baal. And Lucifer, the strongest of the Seven Satans, is over a million times stronger than Baal."
"I...can't." Jason returns the Crystals. "I can't risk it... I don't know how to use these...and I feel it is wrong for me to do so."
"A wise choice." Fa'Diel takes back the Crystals. "Eons ago, God made Reality. And when he created Reality, he made several artifacts which could be utilized for the benefit of all living beings across the Universe. The Crystals of Gaia are an example. Another example is the Time Gate of the planet Ventis. When the people of Ventis used the Gate for their own selfish reasons, God split Reality in two, and destroyed the people of Ventis. These artifacts were made by God so that we could all benefit from them, but mortals abused them. Just like the people of Ventis abused the Time Gate, so has Billy abused the Crystals. I must take them away to another reality, maybe one where you humans have destroyed yourselves already."
"What about everyone else? The people killed by Baal? Is there nothing that can be done?"
"I think I can make a deal with you, Jason." Fa'Diel thinks for a moment. "Live out your life, and become an exemplary human being. While doing so, produce a child, and lead that child down the path of righteousness. If that child stays on that path, and produces a child who will also walk the same path for the rest of his or her life, then Heaven will save the victims of Baal in ten thousand years. It might seem like an unfair deal, but those ARE the terms. Take the deal or leave it."
"I'll take it." Jason sighs in defeat. "I'll take it."
"Good." And with that Fa'Diel disappears.
Jason walks towards Billy's grave. He collapses. "It's better than nothing, Billy. It's better than nothing..."