The appearance of the remaining Light Rangers sent the infirmary into instant chaos, with Justin holding out the badly bleeding Cestro beseechingly as everyone spoke at once.
"Quiet!" Healer Verok insisted, both verbally and psychically. "Put Cestro on the nearest table. Any other Aquitan who is seriously injured, lie down on another table. Everyone else, out!"
Even as Justin gently set Cestro down, Cestria and the other apprentices were doing as they'd been trained, mentally projecting soothing calm to the consciousness of the badly wounded hero.
Delphine and the ambulatory Rangers exited the infirmary just in time to meet the figure racing down the hall toward them.
Billy skidded to a stop, his eyes taking in the Rangers, all of those who were there.
"What happened to the others?" he asked urgently.
No one answered him. No one wanted to be the one to say it.
"What happened, damn it?" Billy shouted, in an agony of dread and frustration.
"Corcus, Ashley, and Carlos were slain," Delphine confessed, her head bowed. "Cestro was gravely wounded."
"How?" Billy gasped. "What did they have waiting for you, what did they do?"
"They had a Gold Psycho Ranger," T.J. told their mentor, his voice rough and harsh. "We couldn't-we couldn't fight him and the other Psycho Rangers."
A Gold Psycho Ranger? Someone with Trey's powers, augmented to the Psycho level? It was worse than even he had feared.
How had this slipped past them? How had they been taken by surprise? If there was suddenly a Gold Psycho Ranger on the Dark Fortress that was sure as hell something their source should have reported!
He'd look into that later. Right now he had to concentrate on finding out if there was anything he could possibly do to somehow mitigate this disaster.
"What happened? Tell me," Billy ordered. The Rangers before him were clearly devastated and he didn't want to force them to relive the nightmare they'd just been through, but he had to have the information, and he had to have it now.
In turns they related briefly what had transpired, Billy listening intently in silence until Tideus mentioned how Delphine had blasted the lower level lift controls as they were going up.
"She hit them? You're sure?" Billy questioned.
"Yes, I saw them spark when the laser bolt impacted," Tideus confirmed.
"But they can probably jury-rig it the same way they did the upper level control," Justin put in.
Without bothering to reply Billy whirled and ran for the Command Chamber. As soon as he reached the viewing globe he used it to contact Admiral Telan. As the Eltarian's face appeared within the globe, Billy told him, "Admiral, we have a Supernova level situation on Morrigan."
To the Admiral's credit, he was able to speak after only a few seconds. In GLL military parlance, a "Supernova" level situation meant one which could potentially determine the outcome of the war.
"What is happening there?"
"The Light Rangers fought a new Psycho Ranger along with the others, a Gold Pyscho Ranger," Billy emphasized. "Three of the Light Rangers were killed and a fourth wounded, but they managed to temporarily trap the Psychos in the mines. Admiral, you have to send enough ships to Morrigan to retake the space around the planet and then you need to orbitally bombard that mountain until it's nothing but a field of magma."
"The Psychos can't communicate or teleport from where they are now," Billy explained, speaking faster now, pushing his case. "This is our chance to finish them once and for all, to catch them in their own trap! They've just crippled our only real defense against them. If we don't seize this opportunity . . ."
"I agree, but I'll need to get emergency authorization from the Council before I can send any ships from our major worlds," Admire Telan reminded Billy gravely.
"When you speak to them tell the Council that three of the Light Rangers are already dead, and if they want to ensure the rest won't soon follow, they need to let you act now!" Billy ground out furiously.
Admiral Telan's image winked out and Billy turned to see six Light Rangers standing in the doorway, their helmets off, silently watching and listening.
"I-I'm sorry," he apologized. "I had to speak with Admiral Telan. He needs to act now, before the chance slips away."
"Billy, there might still be miners alive down there," Delphine pointed out.
"For how much longer?" Billy burst out. "If the Quantrons don't get them, the Psycho Rangers will. If I was in their place I'd want a quick death instead!"
Billy longed to pull what he'd said back as soon as he'd said it. Reminding the Rangers of the innocents whose lives were forfeit because of their failure was the last thing he should be doing right now. It was like pouring salt into an open wound, especially when the Light Rangers had lost three of their own trying to save the miners. He could see the flinch from his harsh words among Aquitan and android alike. Aurico put a hand to Delphine's shoulder as the White Ranger bowed her head and turned to go. The others followed, save Justin who walked toward Billy.
"You're really going to let all those miners die?" he asked bluntly.
"Justin, we can't save them," Billy insisted in a softer voice. "If we strike now, though, we can make sure the Psycho Rangers will never hurt anyone else again. We can make Corcus' sacrifice mean something!"
He didn't mention Ashley and Carlos, since they could essentially be brought back as soon as their replacement forms were finished. For the Aquitan, however, no such resurrection was possible. His loss was permanent.
"He died trying to save other people. That already means something," Justin concluded before turning and also leaving the room.
Billy almost went after his young friend, but he didn't. Instead he set the viewing globe to the space around Morrigan and waited. Each second seemed to drag by as he stared at the nine functioning UAE vessels still orbiting the mining world. He waited, hoped and prayed for the GLL forces to arrive, to slag first the enemy ships and then the whole planet itself if necessary.
Five minutes passed . . . ten . . . fifteen . . . there! On the viewing globe the images of dozens of GLL vessels appeared, led by the Spirit of Zordon, Admiral Telan's Dreadnaught flagship.
Immediately eight of the UAE ships shifted into a defensive configuration while the ninth rapidly retreated from the plane, heading toward deep space. The ninth ship was The Envenomed Blade, the usual transport of the Psycho Rangers.
Against the vastly superior numbers and firepower facing them the remaining UAE ships had no real chance. One after another they were destroyed, while several of the GLL vessels ignored the space battle in order to train their weapons on the planet below. The first salvo had just slammed into the mountain when six teleport beams leapt up from the planet's surface, merging with The Envenomed Blade. An instant later the ship was gone.
"No! NO!" Billy screamed, slamming his clenched fists down on frame which held the viewing globe. They were too late.
The two remaining United Alliance of Evil ships came about in an attempt to flee, but neither even completed its turn before being torn apart by the fire from the vengeful GLL fleet.
The UAE had lost eleven ships in the assault on Morrigan, an especially grievous blow to their already weakened naval forces. Yet the Galactic League of Light had lost far more in this battle. In addition to the three defending ships the UAE had blown up, they'd lost all of the Marines who'd volunteered to go down to the planet's surface, probably all of the miners on duty, and worst of all, they'd lost three Light Rangers, three champions of the GLL, with one more critically wounded. The overall tide of the war had shifted, and the sole saving graces were the survival of most of the Light Rangers and the Galactic League of Light's considerable naval superiority. The latter would protect many worlds, but on those planets which the Psycho Rangers would be able to attack there was no longer enough of the former left to counter them.
Especially not with the addition of a Gold Psycho Ranger to the other side.
The door to the chamber slid open and Billy looked up, expecting to see his wife, or Justin. Instead Healer Verok entered the room, her expression grave.
"We did everything we could, but there was too much damage," she explained.
For a moment he simply stared at her, before the meaning of her words struck home.
Cestro was gone too.
"I should tell the others," Billy announced, starting forward, but Verok held up a hand.
"Apprentice Cestria has already gone to inform the White Ranger. As you know she served as an Aquitan Ranger once, and she wanted to be the one to break the news to her former team leader herself."
That was his wife. He hadn't even thought about how she must be taking this, first losing Corcus and then being unable to save Cestro. Yet she had still chosen to go herself to tell Delphine, to offer what support and comfort she could to her best friend even while her own heart was breaking.
At her side was where he belonged now. At the moment there was nothing left for him to do here.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
With the exceptions of the Gold and Green Psycho Rangers, the entire team was in an exceptionally foul mood when they rematerialized aboard The Envenomed Blade. Yes, they'd won the battle, but that had never been in doubt. Their goal had been to annihilate their enemies, and there they had fallen far short.
"If you had taken out that Yellow droid in time we could have had them!" the Red Psycho Ranger snarled at his own Yellow comrade, punctuating his statement by seizing her shoulders and flinging her into the nearest bulkhead. Given weight of the rocks from the ceiling which had struck her she was in no condition to continue fighting, so she chose to strike back verbally rather than physically.
"If our Green and Gold Rangers hadn't taken so long to deal with their two opponents I could have taken her out!" Tanya spat back, her Psycho Sling appearing in the right hand, almost concealed at her side.
"You two couldn't have killed either of your targets faster?" Tommy demanded aggressively of Adam and Fred. "Especially you!" he accused their newest member. "I guess you overestimated your own power," he goaded, leading Fred to step forward, but from behind Justin put a hand to his shoulder.
Had he still possessed his original neural net, the teenage genius reflected bitterly, he would probably already be locked in combat with Tommy himself instead of working to hold his friend back. What was supposed to be their final battle with the Light Rangers had instead turned into an infuriating succession of missed opportunities.
First the Ashley droid's unexpected action had nearly buried them all alive and had given the remaining Light Rangers a chance to escape. Then his own robotic clone had knocked him away before he could finish the Blue Aquitan Ranger. Even after the Light Rangers had fled, however, he and Fred could have killed Tommy at the elevator stop if Adam hadn't arrived at that moment. Why couldn't part of the ceiling have fallen on him, as it did on Kat and Tanya?
Finally he'd had to be the voice of reason, strongly suggesting that they vacate the complex rather than finding and slaying whatever miners the Quantrons hadn't overcome yet.
That Tommy had yielded on that point was a mixed blessing. With the Light Rangers not yet dispatched Justin couldn't afford to lose any more than one of his teammates, but the image of Tommy buried and incinerated by the orbital barrage he'd been sure was coming had been sweet indeed.
As it was they had barely managed to repair the elevator controls and make it out in time. If they'd stayed just a few minutes longer . . .
"Princess Astronema is requesting your report, Red Psycho Ranger," a Quantron voice crackled over the ship's internal comm. Tommy whirled and headed for the bridge, and the other Psycho Rangers began to drift away from the wardroom.
Justin withdrew to his own personal chamber, Fred following in his wake. "I'm trying not to challenge him, like you said, but he's making it pretty hard," the Gold Psycho Ranger confided. "I killed two of those Rangers, helped kill another, and he's going after me?!" Fred demanded indignantly.
"I told you he'd be jealous of your power," Justin put in. "We could have butchered him down there at the elevator if Adam hadn't been so quick to follow."
"Well, let's hope another chance comes along soon, because if he really does attack me I'm not taking a dive."
Of course not. Fred was passionate, committed, going all in at whatever he did. Deliberately losing was contrary not only to his Psycho pride, but to his very nature!
Justin couldn't realistically ask that of him; he'd been lucky enough that Fred hadn't torn his arm off yesterday, when he'd prevented a fight between him and Tommy.
After The Envenomed Blade docked at the Dark Fortress the Psycho Rangers split up. Once he'd made sure the proper fabric had been produced for Fred's cabin on the ship Justin headed to his own room. He'd had the foresight to bring his concubines with him on the Quantron troop transport and a little attention from them would surely help his mood.
For that matter Tommy was undoubtedly spending time with his sole concubine right now. That was usually what he did after a disappointment, and as far as Justin knew she hadn't tried again to kill him for months now. A pity, really, but given the punishment he'd meted out in response to her past attempts he could hardly blame her for giving up.
"Blue Psycho Ranger, report to the strategy room," Astronema's voice ordered over his helmet comm.
What? What now? Had Tommy tried to blame this on him somehow? With a grinding of his teeth Justin reversed course, entering the main room only to find it empty. Oddly, the door remained open behind him for at least two seconds after it should have closed; a fault in the circuitry, most likely, and something for a Quantron to fix, but if he had time later Justin might attend to it himself. Fixing the elevator controls had actually been fun and correcting the door mechanism would be a similarly simple and enjoyable electronic task.
As he looked around, waiting for Astronema to arrive, he spotted through the large viewing window the head of the UAE, the Grand Monarch of Evil, Dark Specter himself!
Since his draining of Zordon's energy you could almost feel the sheer power radiating from the ruler's rocky, thirty foot tall humanoid form, like the emissions of a white dwarf star. As always his appearance strongly reminded Justin of Maligore, but he had never dared ask if the two had been related; there was absolutely no sense in stirring up that possible hornet's nest, given what he and the other Psycho Rangers had done to Divatox's intended fiancée while they'd still been fighting on the wrong side.
The tall, muscular seventeen year-old immediately fell to one knee and bowed his head before his supreme sovereign.
"Rise," Dark Specter instructed and doing so the Blue Psycho Ranger stood at attention.
"More than half of the Light Rangers survive," Dark Specter noted. "I am disappointed."
A chill ran down Justin's spine. "We slew three of them, and next time we will get them all!" he promised.
"Perhaps, but for now you have a different task to complete," Dark Specter informed him, sparking his servant's curiosity.
"The United Alliance's fleet is insufficient to press the assault, but this problem can be remedied sooner than the fools who oppose me dream. Behold!"
A pulse of red energy came from Dark Specter's right claw, separating into several pieces and forming an image in the space before the window of what appeared to be a six planet solar system. He indicated the fourth planet in the system.
"This is Horath, capital of the empire of Prince Gasket. Since fleeing Earth five years ago Gasket has concentrated on building up his fleet of Gear Ships and Quadra Fighters, to protect himself from any strike by his father. His navy added to our own would give us a quarter more ships than our enemies possess!"
Justin was familiar with Prince Gasket only by reputation. His efforts to minimize and internalize the Psycho Ranger neural net had led him to work closely for a time with the robotic scientists of the Machine Empire. There he had learned that King Mondo's first-constructed son had not been Prince Sprocket, but a Prince Gasket.
Then-Crown Prince Gasket had been disowned hundreds of years ago, when in a Romeo and Juliet-style twist, he had fallen in love with Archerina, the robot daughter of King Mondo's mortal enemy King Aradon. The two had fled from their parents and established their own small, but substantial empire. Aside from an attempted return when King Mondo had been believed destroyed during the time of the Zeo Rangers, the duo had remained apart from the UAE, a neutral party in the current war.
"And King Mondo has agreed to this?" Justin asked hopefully.
"No. You must arrange a reconciliation between father and son, and persuade Gasket to commit his forces to the UAE."
W-what?! How the hell was he supposed to accomplish that?! The two had been estranged for nearly half a millenia! Even after the Machine Empire had ground King Aradon to scrap metal, King Mondo had refused to accept his traitorous son's marriage.
Couldn't Dark Specter simply order King Mondo to welcome his son back? Yet with the loss of Divatox the United Alliance of Evil had also lost a large portion of its ships and soldiers. In fact the Machine Empire comprised the bulk of their remaining forces. Dark Specter, probably the single most powerful being in the galaxy, could indeed command, but if the stubborn mechanical monarch defied him and Dark Specter was forced to destroy him then the consequences for the United Alliance of Evil would be catastrophic.
By the same token, the UAE could not threaten Prince Gasket into compliance, not with the number of ships he currently possessed.
So he was being given the impossible task of playing peacemaker and recruiter both!
"My lord, how?" he asked in genuine bewilderment.
"You will find a way," Dark Specter assured him. "Are you not among the most intelligent of humans? You were able to infiltrate and destroy the Ranger-led Earth resistance and at the same time identify a suitable candidate for the Gold Psycho Ranger powers. I have faith in you, my Blue Psycho Ranger. Why else would I let you continue to keep your altered neural net?"
The threat in the final question was unmistakable and beneath his helmet Justin's eyes widened in fear. He had to find a way to do this, or Dark Specter would force him to return to his old neural net. He would once more be a raging psychopath, little better than a wild animal.
"Yes, my lord," Justin bowed again, grateful that his helmet concealed his hate-filled expression. He heard the door behind him open and Dark Specter resumed speaking.
"Darkonda has spent the last month and a half scouting Prince Gasket's empire. He will accompany and assist you in your mission."
Wonderful, Justin thought sourly, turning to glare through his visor at the smirking, monstrous mercenary. There no love lost between a Psycho Ranger and any other being; the Psycho Rangers' neural nets ensured they were no longer capable of love. There was not even any liking lost between the Justin and Darkonda, though.
Yes, Darkonda had been responsible for bringing him here in the first place, but he had done so by contemptuously subduing Justin in battle, sneering at the fourteen year-old as he battered the latter into unconsciousness.
They had worked well together as a team to capture the other future Psycho Rangers, but it had been an alliance of necessity, not one of choice. Over the past two years Justin's dislike of the scheming, sinister creature had only increased, and now he had to work with Darkonda on this insane assignment?
"But my lord, am I not needed here to face the Light Rangers?" he asked in a final desperate attempt to evade this duty.
"Three of the Light Rangers are gone. The other Psychos will deal with them if they show their faces. I doubt that will occur before you return. Work quickly, my Ranger; we must strike soon."
"My ship awaits," Darkonda offered in a snide voice.
Bowing one final time, Justin followed Darkonda out into the hall and towards the hangar bay. As when he had entered, the door held itself open for a couple of seconds too long, but there was certainly no time to correct that malfunction now. He had an impossible mission to complete, on pain of literally losing his mind.
He had thought it would be enough to replace Tommy and seize leadership of the Psycho Rangers. Now he knew he'd been wrong. He could not let anyone continue to hold power over him; he would not allow his fate to rest in the hands of another. He didn't just need to get rid of Tommy; he needed to dispose of Princess Astronema too, and even-even Dark Specter himself!
Justin Stewart, Grand Monarch of Evil! That was his true goal now, and he would not stop until he had achieved it.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Dark Specter did indeed have confidence in his Blue Psycho Ranger, especially with the incentive he'd given his servant to succeed. Once Prince Gasket's forces were aligned with him they would be able to crush the Galactic League of Light in a matter of months!
Then he could turn his attention to the true threat.
His suspicions had first been kindled shortly after the capture of Divatox and the mass desertion which had followed it. His additional requests for ships and troops had been met with an explanation of the need to fight a simmering rebellion, to crush it before it gained widespread support.
Given the iron fist with which this associate member of the UAE ruled, however, such an excuse rang hollow indeed.
It could be that he simply wanted to avoid incurring any losses in this conflict. Such would be in keeping with his thoughtful, intelligent nature, but Dark Specter suspected a far more dangerous motive. This suspicion had only grown in the wake of two requests for his daughter to visit him, both of which Dark Specter had denied. No, he would not be surrendering that little point of leverage! If Master Vile wanted this galaxy, he would have to sacrifice his daughter's life to take it.
The problem was that the ancient, extremely powerful sorcerer might well be willing to make that sacrifice. He had already ruled the M-51 galaxy for four thousand years and counting; he had been denied further expansion of his rule for a very long time, and his military was undeniably greater than that of the entire UAE.
True, Dark Specter was more personally powerful thanks to his siphoning of Zordon's essence, but the gap between them was still worryingly small, smaller than it was between Dark Specter and any other known entity in existence.
Perhaps the best course of action would be to secretly send the Psycho Rangers to assassinate Master Vile. With the addition of the Gold Psycho Ranger they might actually be able to slay the galactic ruler, though he doubted any of them would survive the effort. With Master Vile dead rule of the M-51 galaxy would fall to Rito, and that fool was no threat. He might even be able to displace Rito with his sister, and Rita Repulsa would know better than to disobey him in anything.
Yes, the Grand Monarch of Evil mused as the forcefield around the Dark Fortress dropped and Darkonda's small ship sped out of the hangar bay. He would have to seriously consider this.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Billy had never attended an Aquitan funeral before. Though the words and form differed, the emotions were the same as at a human funeral, and there was a cathartic release when Corcus and Cestro's services finally concluded.
Given his choice he would have left his Rangers alone in their grief, but there was no choice. The remaining six Rangers could never hope to stand against the six Psycho Rangers. So there was really only one option left, one he'd hoped he would never have to consider.
After the funerals he called them all to the Power Chamber.
"I know that even now, you're not going to give up," he told them, looking from face to face. "Even after everything you've lost, you'll fight to your last to protect the people of the Galactic League of Light."
He was rewarded with nods, solemn looks of agreement. No one contradicted him.
"As you are, however, you can't stop the Psycho Rangers. They're too powerful, especially with the new addition to their ranks."
He went on, trying to ignore the looks of anger, of shame.
"Before this war even began I came up with a number of possibilities. Hail Mary plays, longshots to use if the time came when they were the only chances we had left."
He stopped, took a deep breath, and continued.
"There is only one of them which could realistically help us now. I call it the Omega option. Beyond the Hyperion constellation is a planet where you could gain the power to stand up to the Psycho Rangers."
Now the anger and shame was fading, replaced by dawning looks of hope.
"If you're willing to go, there's already a ship prepared to take you there."
"Why would we take a ship? Why wouldn't we just teleport?" Justin asked.
"Because teleportation beams can be detected and tracked. If you decide to go for this, the UAE must NOT know about it until it's too late for them to stop you."
"Hold on, if this power is so great, then why haven't you sent us after it before?" Tideus wanted to know.
"Because, with one exception, every group of Rangers who has ever tried to obtain this power has died in the attempt. I couldn't put you at that kind of risk, not unless there was no other hope left."
"And you think we can make it?" T.J. questioned.
"I don't know," Billy confessed brokenly, "but I don't see any other option."
Delphine looked around at the remainder of her team. "Who wishes to undertake a quest for this power?" she asked. One by one the Rangers gave their assent and once all had spoken their leader turned back to Billy.
"It is decided. Where must we go?"
"To a little planet called Phaedos."
ΩΩΩΩΩ