One thought managed to make its way out of the midst of Billy's bewildered shock and confusion: he had to buy time now. He couldn't begin things this way; an interrogator had to seem in total control of himself and the situation at all times, and right now his lack thereof was all too obvious.

"Take the prisoner to my lab," Billy ordered the Phantom Ranger loudly, proud of how steady his voice managed to sound. The Eltarian hero nodded and went back around to the control panel, pushing the device out into the hall and leaving Billy to try to collect himself.

Billy had hypothesized many times over the years about what exactly lay beneath the Psycho Ranger's helmets, and while the idea of human beings was one of the top possibilities he had considered, he had never once imagined that one of them might actually be a human he knew!

No, not a human he knew! He knew the Robot Ranger Justin Stewart. This Justin was someone he'd never met before, and moreover was guilty of multiple crimes against galactic civilization.

Yet the Robot Ranger's personality and memories had been drawn directly from this Justin's psyche at the age of thirteen. The two of them had essentially been the same person when his Justin was created, and Billy could not imagine any possible chain of events which would lead the Justin he knew to betray the Rangers and go over to the side of darkness.

Granted, his judgment might be clouded by his feelings for the Robot Ranger version of Justin, but then it wasn't just his own judgment he was relying on in this case: it was Zordon's!

Zordon himself had deemed Justin worthy of becoming a Power Ranger at the tender age of twelve. In fact, out of all the hundreds of Rangers the multi-dimensional being had personally selected over the millennia, Justin Stewart had been the very last. Justin was Zordon's final Ranger, and had there been the slightest doubt about his character he never would have received that honor.

And if Justin hadn't betrayed the Rangers willingly, then he must have done so against his will! A spell, like the one Rita had used on Tommy to make him her Green Ranger!

That would explain everything!

With Justin indeed operating under a spell, the other Psycho Rangers likely were as well! If the Light Rangers could break it, free the Psycho Ranger's from evil's control, as he and his friends had done for Tommy and each other in the past, then this war would be as good as won!

Billy fought back the rising tide of euphoria which threatened to engulf him. He was going much too far on mere speculation, on a completely unverified hypothesis. He needed to establish the actual facts, thoroughly, methodically, like the scientist he was. And that was exactly what he would do.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

As his high-tech mobile prison was conveyed down the corridor Justin was deep in his own thoughts. He too had been surprised, not expecting that Billy (and it must have been Billy) would recognize him from his android duplicate's thirteen year-old facial features.

It was a lucky break, one which would facilitate the cover story he had chosen to tell, the only one he could tell under these circumstances.

Only about a hundred feet down the hall an automatic door opened to the left, which led into a room pleasingly reminiscent of the Power Chamber; another lucky break!

He was subsequently taken through another door in the right wall, into a much larger space filled with all manner of devices and machines strewn across half a dozen circular tables. As Justin's cage was carefully maneuvered toward the center of the vast chamber he caught sight of Mertori crystals attached to power capacitors, what appeared to be a lightwave diffusion apparatus of some sort, a sonic screwdriver, spheres of presumably pure beryllium and iridium, a miniature plasma torch, and a large chair with an overhead attached headband and an accompanying storage core on the floor to its right. It looked almost identical to the device which had been used to copy his memories and thought patterns for his Robot Ranger.

Once in the rough center of the room, the forcefield generator control side was spun so it faced the only door, thus blocking Justin's view of that half of the room, and the anti-grav generator shut off. He heard the door swoosh open again right after this and when no other sound followed he guessed that the Phantom Ranger had left the room.

At first he was surprised that they would simply leave him alone, but then why wouldn't they? What could he possibly do while imprisoned within this forcefield?

He had already surreptitiously examined the interior of his prison, of course. Now he did so in earnest, studying every square inch and finding exactly what he expected to find: nothing.

There were no visible design flaws to exploit, no seeming weak points to try to take advantage of. The floor and ceiling were solid metal, and the gap in each through which the forcefield was projected and received was razor-thin. Even if the forcefield was shut off, he had nothing which could reach the generator or receiver through that miniscule gap in the metal.

The complete integrity of the forcefield itself was proven by the absence of his Ranger powers. Usually it was no problem for the signal to reach the Morpher through forcefields; it took a specially-designed energy field to block the transmission.

Justin had to take his hat off to Billy, figuratively speaking. Like most of his fellow genius' creations, this was one was a work of art, technological perfection in actual practice rather than mere theory.

Oh, how he longed to smash his hands through those stupid glasses and gouge the fair-haired young man's eyes out of their sockets, right before pulping them in his fists!

If he was ever to have that wonderful pleasure, though, he had to escape from here. And the first and most important step in doing that was to do everything in his power to verbally persuade Billy not to drop this forcefield for even a second.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

"Billy, are you all right?" the Phantom Ranger asked as he encountered his mentor in the hall.

"I'm fine now," he assured the other. "It's just—I never expected that one of the Psycho Rangers would be Justin!"

"Are you sure it's him? Maybe it just looks like our Justin would if he could age."

Billy paused, thinking hard.

"I'm sure that he's either Justin or something modeled on Justin. He could a clone, a magical duplicate, or even another android! I won't know for sure until I can examine him."

"How are you going to do that, though? If you shut down the forcefield his powers will come back."

"The field still permits the passage of air. I've requested a knock-out gas which should be safe to use on humans. If it doesn't affect him, that'll tell us something in itself," Billy explained as they passed back into the Command Chamber.

"Should be safe to use on humans? Don't you know?"

"No," Billy admitted. "It's never been tested on a human before."

"What if isn't safe?" the Eltarian inquired.

Billy turned to look directly into the Phantom Ranger's visor, a bleak yet almost maniacally determined look on his face.

"Then we'll learn what we can from the autopsy," he answered, turning and going back into his workshop.

Circling around "Cestro" he found the Justin lookalike still sitting cross-legged in the center of the circle. Slowly he looked up and locked eyes with Billy.

"Please, I know I don't have a right to ask for anything, but PLEASE kill me without dropping this forcefield!" the teen pleaded.

That wasn't what Billy had expected.

"Why do you think we're going to kill you?"

"Why wouldn't you?!" the teen demanded heatedly. "Do you think I can't remember what's happened? I know exactly what I've done and I deserve to die!"

"What have you done?"

"Don't," the captive implored tiredly, dropping his head again. "Don't make me say it all. I've killed beings beyond counting. I've helped devastate entire worlds! I aided in the conquest of Earth and then I went back there a couple months ago so I could find and kill my friends in order to smash the last real human resistance. I've done enough evil in these past two years to outweigh all the good I've done in my life a million times over! "

That was where the Blue Psycho Ranger had been while he was off their radar? On Earth? But which friends was he talking about?

"What friends did you kill back on Earth?"

"T.J. and Cassie," he answered, confirming Billy's fears. "Then I took Fred with me from the resistance so he could become the Gold Psycho Ranger."

So the Blue Psycho Ranger was at least in part responsible for the Gold Psycho Ranger! He should have guessed that.

"How is that possible?" he demanded. "The Gold powers don't mesh well with humans."

"Dark Specter changed them," he whispered, head still down. "I thought Divatox was bad back when we were fighting her, but Dark Specter . . . he's so much worse!"

He drew up his knees to his chest, embracing them as he shuddered.

Billy simply watched him for a moment, nonplussed by how the interrogation had proceeded thus far. Whatever he had trapped here was certainly giving the verbal cues that it was Justin, but whether that was true was another question entirely.

At the moment the crushed, cooperative demeanor being displayed was the mystery uppermost in Billy's mind. His prisoner was not acting like a Psycho Ranger anymore! As Phantom had observed, he should have been pounding on that forcefield and screaming his head off. The Psycho Rangers were aptly named; several times their near-beserker rage and bloodlust had been taken advantage of by the Light Rangers. This Justin should have been almost literally frothing at the mouth by now, but apparently he'd been calm and quiet the whole way here. He was acting like he'd just come to his senses, like he'd been under a spell for all this time.

Billy had gotten much more experience than he'd ever wanted with mind-altering spells during his time as a Ranger, and he could testify personally as to their effectiveness, but not to their duration; two years was an unbelievably long time for such an enchantment to remain in place.

There was one easy way to test "Justin's" sincerity, and it was time to employ it.

"Justin, I want you to take off your Morpher and give it to me."

An expression of stark terror came over the teen's face. "No, don't deactivate the forcefield, please! If you do the spell will reach me again and I'll go back to thinking like a Psycho Ranger!"

Could the forcefield be cutting Justin off from whatever spell had been controlling him? It seemed possible, but then he was an expert in technology, not magic; he couldn't really judge the veracity of that claim.

What he could do, however, was show his prisoner a way for Billy to get the Morpher without taking down the forcefield for more than a fraction of a second.

Walking back to the control panel he pressed the appropriate button and the bottom inch of the platform spiraled outward, creating an extra space of about a foot beyond the initial edge of the circle of metal. Another button pressed and field generator shifted from sending the field to the edge of the extended circle rather than the interior circle.

Walking back around to face Justin he found the boy looking around wide-eyed at the unexpected innovation.

"Put your Morpher in the outer ring," Billy instructed. "Then I'll shift the forcefield back to the inner ring."

Again Justin hesitated. "You're not going to wear it, are you? The spell operates without it, but I think using it might amplify the spell's effects. I don't know what it'll do to you"

"I won't wear it," Billy assured him, and waited for the moment of truth.

Justin unstrapped the Morpher and placed it in the outer ring, jerking back the moment he let it go. Returning to the controls, Billy warned, "Make sure your hands are inside!"

After giving his prisoner a few seconds to react he switched the forcefield back to the inner ring, walked over, and picked up the Blue Psycho Morpher.

It was a glossy black and was sleeker, longer, and more slender than the Morphers he was used to. He had never expected to be holding one of these, not unless the Light Rangers had taken it off a Psycho corpse. He'd assumed any one of them would willingly die before handing over the source of their power.

Justin still sat huddled, hugging his legs and looking miserable. Was he telling the truth? Had he really been under a spell which was now being blocked by the forcefield? If so, who or what was generating the magic? With Tommy it had been the Sword of Darkness; was this-

The scream of a siren cut off Billy's thoughts. Justin looked up and around, asking frantically, fearfully, "Is it the other Psycho Rangers? Have they come after me?!"

"Wait here," Billy told him, realizing a second too late the utter idiocy of that particular command under these circumstances.

The Phantom Ranger, who'd been waiting silently and invisibly by the door this entire time as a precaution, became visible and stepped aside as Billy ran into the Command Chamber, the precious Psycho Morpher still clenched in his right hand.

The Viewing Globe was flashing red, and Billy hit the switch to open the communication channel with whoever was trying to contact him. The siren fell silent and the visage of Major Tsruk, one of Admiral Telan's chief aides, filled the globe.

"Sir, the UAE has just attacked the border in force! We're rushing reinforcement ships there now, but even so the Admiral doesn't think we can hold the line for long! I was ordered to inform you of what was happening, and to get an estimate of how long it will be before the remaining Light Rangers return."

Billy's mind raced back to his own time on Phaedos, to the length of the trip on foot to the monolith.

"At least another day and a half," he informed the Major. "As soon as they're finished I'll have them teleport back and they'll go straight into battle."

"Yes, sir," Tsurek replied, his expression saying as clearly as words could that this was too long.

About to disconnect, Billy stopped as an idea struck him. "Major, I don't want to take you from your duties, but keep this line open. I may have usable tactical information for you within the hour."

Major Tsurek's face brightened as Billy whirled around and reentered his workship at a run. Snatching up his recorder from one of the tables he switched it on and skidded to a stop in front of Cestro.

"You want to make up for what you've done?" he demanded from a clearly jolted Justin. "Then you're going to tell me everything you can about the flaws and weaknesses of UAE ships, and you're going to do it right now!"

ΩΩΩΩΩ

Dulcea's verbal bombshell had plunged the Rangers back into silent gloom, even as the light of day retreated over the horizon. If three of their number couldn't receive the Great Power, then they would stand little chance against the six Psycho Rangers.

Now they stood around a fire Dulcea had lit in the center of the ruins. Billy had said this ritual would involve the calling of their spirit animals. Dulcea had informed them that if the remaining Robot Rangers were unable to manifest a Spirit Animal, there was no point in them going and indeed they would be barred from even seeking the Great Power.

Slowly Dulcea approached the fire.

"Deep within is a Spirit Animal, waiting to be awakened. Close your eyes and look within yourself."

All of the Rangers followed her instructions. Unseen by any eyes, Dulcea tossed in a handful of crystalline blue powder, and the flames shot up to quadruple their previous height, creating for one instant a great pillar of fire!

From the apex of the pillar emerged a cloud of shimmering blue shards, which descended to engulf the six Rangers.

"Open your eyes," Dulcea commanded, and when they obeyed they found their clothing had changed. Each was now clad in a lightweight fabric of their Ranger color, which encased them from their toes to the hoods on their head. All had gained gauntlets of what felt like light plastic, shoulder guards, belts and boots. In the center of each of their chests was affixed a golden insignia of an animal.

"Tideus," Dulcea said smiling, "fast and fearless, you are the Tiger Shark."

"Cassie, light of touch and sweet of song, you are the Nightingale."

"Justin, intelligent and playful, you are the Dolphin."

"T.J., strong and enduring, you are the Rhinoceros."

"Aurico, battle-tested and deadly, you are the Orca."

"And Delphine, wise and pure, you are the Unicorn."

"Why aren't we animals from our own world?" Tideus asked, a little put out.

"I don not know, but speak not ill of your spirits! You will need them if you hope to reach your goal."

"Well, let's get going," Tideus urged, only to have Dulcea shake her head.

"You seek the Light, and should not begin your quest in darkness. Rest now, and wait for the dawn before you leave to find the Great Power."

The Ranger's glanced at each other, though the hoods hid much of their expressions. Could they afford to wait? Could they afford not to?

"Thank you, Dulcea," Delphine said gravely. "We will do as you counsel."

"May the Power protect you!" Dulcea invoked. Then, with a shimmer, she transformed into a small white owl and took wing, flying up and out of sight.

"Are you sure we shouldn't go now?" T.J. asked cautiously.

"I am sure we should heed Dulcea's words," Delphine replied. "Did not Billy tell us that? She would not lead us astray."

When even Tideus nodded his assent, Delphine continued.

"We must go and try to take sustenance from the waters here," Delphine said, gesturing toward the ocean. "Rest and conserve your energy," she told her non-Aquitan comrades. "We depart at dawn's first light."

ΩΩΩΩΩ

With a growl Fred discharged a golden bolt from the tip of his staff, vaporizing a large hole through the chest of the soldier aiming at him from the twenty-foot tree branch. Then he went into blur mode and flashed behind the makeshift barrier of felled trees to his left, knocking asunder five Eltarians just as they were moving a tripod-mounted laser cannon position. Laying about him with his staff he dispatched all five before any one of them could even fire a weapon.

All around the forest the sound of screaming, weapon discharges, and explosions resounded, covering up the quiet crackle of the growing flames.

Well, have a laser fight in a forest and what did you expect?

They could teleport away from the fire if need be, but Barok's inhabitants wouldn't be so lucky. They'd fled into the surrounding forest in the first place because they hadn't been able to be evacuated before the GLL ships were driven back.

So far the UAE offensive had not been the overwhelming success Astronema had led them to expect. Sure, they were winning the space battles, but more slowly and with higher losses than expected. After the initial border engagement the League ships had somehow found a way to target the most vulnerable points of Alliance ship shields.

Fred was sure that if Justin were here, he could have done something about that, but there was still no sign of his friend. Where was he? And who had him, the GLL or the UAE?

Divatox might have held a grudge against Justin from his days resisting her, but Divatox was in GLL custody herself now. The only other likely suspect in the UAE was Dark Specter himself!

Could the Overlord of Evil have somehow divined what he and Justin had planned and acted first? The very idea sent a shiver down Fred's spine, the first real sensation of fear he had felt since becoming a Psycho Ranger.

If Dark Specter had taken Justin, then he would be next. If that was the case . . . then he and Justin were both doomed, so he might as well dismiss the possibility from consideration altogether.

That left the Galactic League of Light. More specifically, that left Billy! Who else could have masterminded Justin's abduction?

The problem was that Aquitar, where Justin had said Billy was based, was one of the two most secure worlds in the entire League. There was no way for him to reach the planet, not until the fleet itself was able to penetrate that far into GLL space. And he could not affect the space battle; he could only do his part here on the ground.

A couple of laser shots struck his armor, and Fred realized that he'd actually allowed himself to become distracted during a combat operation! He'd never made that mistake before, but then he'd never before felt nearly as powerful and safe from harm as he did while in his morphed form.

Extending his staff toward a nearby burning tree and concentrating, Fred leeched the fire from the tree and sent it in a long stream to engulf the two opposing soldiers, adding their terrified screams to the din and clamor of the battle.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

To the outward eye Justin was quietly eating the fried eel Billy had given him for lunch. Inside, however, the Blue Psycho Ranger was seething with murderous rage.

He had known it was coming, had braced himself for the inevitable, but handing over his Psycho Morpher had still felt like he was cutting his own right arm off.

It had taken all of his control, all of his willpower, to surrender his Morpher without betraying how badly he wanted to hold onto the priceless device. Only his recognition that there was no other choice had enabled him to go through with it. If he didn't give his Morpher to Billy voluntarily, the other genius would find a way to take it from him. And then there would be no real barrier to bringing the forcefield down and subjecting him to a thorough analysis.

That was what he had to avoid at all costs! Even something as simple as an X-ray would betray the existence of his neural net, and once Billy knew about that he was finished. So he had spun the story of a continual, mind-altering spell which the forcefield was shielding him from. It was a plausible tale, difficult to disprove, and gave him an excellent reason for insisting that Billy maintain the forcefield, which also kept Billy from being able to closely examine him.

It was his need to win older man's trust which had led Justin to give truthful information about how neutrino scanning could be used to detect fluctuations and weak points in the shields of UAE ships.

Again, what choice had he had?! The only path to survival and escape, not to mention achievement of the secondary goal he'd devised, lay in convincing Billy that he was the victim of an evil spell. He had done what he had to do!

The only comfort he could take was the certainty that the Envenomed Blade would be near the center of the fleet as always, thus alleviating any worry that the information he'd disclosed might harm Fred.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

"It seems to me that, had you not extracted the Phantom Ranger from his place on the Dark Fortress, we could have had earlier warning that this attack was coming," Admiral Garthok sniffed.

"Yes, Admiral, we might have," Billy conceded patiently and pleasantly, "but earlier warning would have done little good. By having the Phantom Ranger take the Blue Psycho Ranger prisoner I was able to provide you with the neutrino scanning technique which has been of actual combat use, not to mention depriving the enemy of one of his most important assets."

"The loss of one Psycho Ranger will harm them little, especially given that all of our remaining Rangers are off the battlefield!" Garthok snapped, the Aquitan's head tilting to one side.

"As I explained to this Board days ago the Light Rangers are engaged on a vital mission, the outcome of which could be key to vanquishing the Psycho Rangers," Billy concluded, again.

Holo-conferences with the League's Military Board tended to be draining, but this one was worse than usual. With Admiral Telan too busy attempting to forestall the UAE fleet to attend, Billy was without his primary ally and defender, leaving him to face Garthok largely alone. Then, too, the steady, inexorable advance of the UAE ships wasn't putting anyone in the GLL's upper ranks in a calm and rational frame of mind.

"Given that the Phantom Ranger has now accomplished his mission, however, should he not be dispatched back to the Dark Fortress?" Admiral Xeka asked.

"With so many of the UAE leaders on the front lines now, I don't think he would be able to gather much intelligence at the Dark Fortress now."

"So you are doing what? Keeping him there with you? Our best spy!" Admiral Garthok fumed.

"My best spy, Admiral. It was agreed that I would have authority over the Rangers," Billy bit out. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Cestria shake her head urgently.

"But I will send him out immediately to resume his intelligence gathering activities," he offered.

"See that you do," Garthok commanded.

"If there is nothing else, gentlemen, I must get back to interrogating our prisoner. I need to see what other information he can give us to help beat back the UAE. I will conference with you again tomorrow at the same time." Billy promised, and shut off the holo-imaging machinery. Leaning back in his chair Billy closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.

A pair of soft hands touched his shoulders and began vigorously rubbing the tension from them. "You must be careful, my love. Given the losses among the Light Rangers and their absence now, your position is more tenuous than ever before, and Garthok knows this. He might petition the Council to have the Rangers put under his authority."

"That's the last thing we need," Billy groaned, opening his eyes, rising from his chair, and embracing his wife. "You know, you don't have to be here with me. I know how important your Healer training is to you."

She shook her head. "We have reached the tipping point, my love. You need me now more than any other."

Billy couldn't argue with that.

Shifting his hug to just an arm around her neck he left the conference room, strolling back toward the Rangers' section of Inqertus.

When they entered his workshop he gestured for her to stay by the door and then walked into Justin's view.

There was a treasure trove of information still to be gained from this boy, but right now he was going to concentrate on what was potentially the most vital piece of knowledge.

"Tell me about this spell on you and the other Psycho Rangers. Who cast it? How does it work?"

"Dark Specter cast it, with the help of Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa. It-it changes how we think, it makes us want to kill and destroy, to serve the cause of darkness! It's why we've done what we did."

"And you don't feel the spell now?"

Justin shook his head. "Being behind this forcefield must be shielding me from it."

"So it goes to you from some kind of central source?"

"Yes. Dark Specter has seen the magic of the mind crumble time and again, so this time he took no chances. He interwove this spell with a life force, ensuring that one could not die without the other perishing as well."

A spell centered on a living being, rather than an object like the Sword of Darkness; that was a new innovation on Billy.

"Whose lifeforce? His own?"

Again Justin shook his head. "No, he wanted to seat the spell in the soul of the one who has done the most to thwart evil. He tied it into the life force of Tommy Oliver, the Red Psycho Ranger. As long as he's alive, the Psycho Rangers will remain as they are."

ΩΩΩΩ