By design the Inqertus conference room was windowless, soundproofed and, aside from the holo communications array, free of any technological means of passing messages into or out of the chamber. Even Aquitan telepathy could not penetrate the specially designed walls, floor and ceiling. Similar precautions had been taken at each of the Military Board members' personal conference rooms.
All of this was considered necessary to keep high-level military conferences from being any outside interruption and, much more importantly, to safeguard the extraordinarily valuable secrets shared in such meetings from the UAE. In a true emergency an underling could simply open the door to address his superior, though for the sake of that junior officer's career it had best be a situation which genuinely merited violating one of the strictest rules of interplanetary military protocol.
For this reason it wasn't until Billy emerged from the room that he learned what had happened while he'd been sequestered away with the Military Board.
Asara, Cestria's friend and fellow healer trainee, was waiting for him in the corridor. After years of living among the race Billy had been able to pick up somewhat on Aquitan body language, and the extreme tilt of the dark-haired female's head to the right indicated severe distress.
"What is it?" he asked at once. "What's wrong?"
"You'll want to wait near the medical bay," she told him, her voice almost breaking on the last word.
Billy's first thought was that his Rangers were back, and at least one of them was injured badly enough that he needed to get there before the end came. Maybe more than one; in fact maybe only one survivor had made it back at all! That would explain why it was Asara waiting for him here instead of one of his team.
"Which one is it?" Billy asked as he hurried down the hall at her side.
She swallowed, and then said two words. Two simple, everyday words for him, yet it took the one hundred and eighty-two IQ man a full five seconds to succeed in comprehending their meaning.
"It's Cestria."
ΩΩΩΩΩ
They hadn't told him immediately. They hadn't told him at all until he was back aboard the Envenomed Blade, ready to move on and ravage the next planet the advancing fleet exposed to the Alliance's wrath.
Even then the news had not been given to them specifically, first thing; it had been part of an informational update given to Tommy by one of the officer Quantrons when they reappeared in the ready room.
The instant he heard that "your other Ranger is recovering in the medical bay", he had blurred down the hallway, scrapping three Quantrons on the way and not caring about that fact in the least.
Subsequent to the desertion of the Piranhatrons many vessels in the UAE fleet no longer contained any organic medical facilities at all. Since the Envenomed Blade was the usual transport of the Psycho Rangers, however, it had been retained a small treatment center, operating, and recovery rooms manned by two medically programmed Quantrons. Given the inhuman toughness of the Psycho Rangers and the strength of their armor, this area of the ship seldom saw any use, but the medical droids were at work today.
These Quantrons Fred was careful not to destroy, but he did dodge around one in order to enter the small, well-lit room whose bed was currently occupied.
Justin looked awful. He was worryingly pale, with dark circles under his closed eyes. His body stank of sweat and smelled as if he hadn't showered in days. An IV in the Blue Psycho Ranger's left arm was giving him blood and the left hand, lying at his side, was bandaged in a way that made it clear four of his fingers were missing.
His frigging FINGERS! Wasn't the Galactic League supposed to be the "good guys"?!
"What happened? How did he get here? Is he okay?" the Gold Psycho Ranger demanded in a rush of the medical Quantron which had come to stand behind him.
"Four point six hours ago the bridge received a transmission from the Blue Psycho Ranger that ordered us to drop our shields, saying he was about to teleport aboard. He appeared in a partially inoperative state on the bridge and he and his severed components were brought here. The patient was sedated upon arrival and is in no immediate danger of entering a state of organic non-function."
So Justin had managed to escape his kidnappers and get to the Envenomed Blade all by himself! He hadn't needed Fred to rescue him-but he also hadn't managed to make it back in one piece.
"Where did the transmission and teleportation come from?" Fred asked urgently. He needed to know who had done this, so he could properly focus his vengeance.
"The verbal transmission and the teleportation beam originated from the planet Aquitar."
Aquitar! So it had been the GLL after all! Knowing that brought a fierce retroactive pleasure and satisfaction to the deaths of the hundreds of soldiers Fred had slaughtered so far, but also filled him with the resolve to make those directly responsible for his friend's plight pay-with everything they had.
Then something the Quantron had said earlier registered with him.
"Severed components? You mean you have his fingers?"
"Affirmative. They have been placed in cryogenic storage, along with their transport unit."
Transport unit?
"Show me," Fred commanded.
The Quantron turned and reentered the main room. Loath though he was to leave his recently returned ally and teammate, the Gold Psycho Ranger reluctantly followed the droid out into the main room.
"I'll be back in a minute, buddy," he turned and whispered reassuringly to the sleeping seventeen year-old.
Crossing to the wall opposite the corridor entrance, which displayed a bewildering number of buttons, read-outs, and mini-doors, the Quantron pressed a yellow button. A glass-covered pod large enough to hold a full-sized human hissed outward from the wall.
Wiping a peephole in the moisture clouding the transparent substance (it wasn't glass at all, Fred could tell that from the touch), he beheld four fingers, looking like they'd been cut from the hand with a laser, and reminding him sickeningly of little hot dogs, an impression reinforced by the gruesome fact that they rested on what was clearly a blood-stained dinner plate of some sort.
Fumbling for the clasps on his helmet Fred wrenched it off, even as he worked to fight down his rising gorge. Somehow, taking deep breaths, he managed to keep himself from vomiting.
What had they DONE?! Cut off Justin's fingers in front of him and then tried to force him to . . . to eat them? If so, even the painful deaths he'd planned to give the remaining Light Rangers and their mentor would not be sufficient punishment for those bastards' sick torture of his best friend!
"Is your functioning impaired?" the other medical Quantron asked as he approached. "How my we assist you?"
"I'm fine!" Fred snapped, rankled by the impersonal, technological terminology. He wasn't merely a mass-produced robot come off some Earth assembly line in China; he was the Gold Psycho Ranger, the single most powerful Ranger in the galaxy! He was unique and uniquely valuable, as was Justin, but too many here didn't seem to recognize that fact, from these machines to Astronema herself. T.J. and Cassie's rebels might have been a collection of detestable fools, but at least that group had perceived the value of each individual warrior.
Things around here were going to have to change, and they would, as soon as Justin got better-and Tommy got killed.
"When are you going to be able to reattach his fingers?" he asked the first droid, tucking his helmet under his left arm instead of donning it again.
"Subject is scheduled for reassembly in forty-three minutes and thirty two seconds; once completed, however, full digital functioning may be impaired for an indeterminate length of time."
A fancy way of saying that fingers which had just been sewn on again wouldn't necessarily be a hundred percent, Fred thought sourly. All of this advanced technology around him, and they couldn't manage to fix Justin up as good as new? After they'd operated on him to give him his neural net . . . Rita had healed him, even growing his hair back! That was the answer!
Putting his helmet back on Fred made his way to the bridge, not blurring, but moving very quickly nonetheless. Heading straight to the comm. console he told the manning droid, "Put me through to Rita Repulsa."
The robot did so and, after tersely talking with a Quantron answering at the other end, a grating, peevish voice came on the line asking him what he wanted.
"This is the Gold Psycho Ranger. I need you to teleport to the Envenomed Blade in forty minutes to heal Jus-the Blue Psycho Ranger," Fred amended.
"What?! Why should I have to come out there? It isn't safe! Don't you know there's a war on?"
"I know. I'm the one of the people fighting it while you and the others stay safe and cower."
"Hey, you can't talk to me like that!"
Technically, she was right; as a Psycho Ranger he had no authority to command one of the luminaries of the United Alliance of Evil. That didn't mean he was going to take "no" for an answer, though.
"You can agree to be here, or I can come and get you. And if I have to come and get you, you'll be the one in need of a medical bed when I'm done," Fred promised in a calm, even tone. "I'm not one of those Zordon-chosen Rangers you spent years fighting, Rita; I'm a Psycho Ranger. Take a moment to think about what that means, and then ask yourself: Do you really want to push me?"
There was a brief silence on the line.
"I'll be there in forty minutes," Rita grumbled petulantly.
Fred nodded to the Quantron, who ended the communication. It was a good thing Rita had decided to come-for her. Fred had had every intention of carrying through on his threat, regardless of what trouble it got him into. They were winning this war for the UAE; it was past time the Alliance's leaders showed them some fucking respect and appreciation!
Back in Justin's temporary room Fred hesitated, then powered down. Reaching out he took Justin's right hand in his own, squeezing it firmly but not too hard.
"I'm so glad you're back, Justin. You're gonna get fixed up, I made sure of it. I bet after Rita heals you you'll be up and around like nothing happened!"
Unexpectedly Justin's hand squeezed back!
Slowly, as though they were weighed down, Justin's eyelids opened. The orbs beneath were cloudy and dull, nothing like they normally were.
"Fred," he wheezed.
Fred knelt down by the side of the bed, keeping hold of Justin's hand.
"I'm right here, Justin," he offered.
"'Course you are; I made sure you would be," Justin managed to get out.
Huh? What did that mean? Probably that by giving him the Gold Psycho Ranger powers and being his friend, he'd made certain Fred would be a loyal friend to him in return. That was sure true enough.
"Just rest now. They're going to reattach your fingers soon," Fred promised.
"Yeah, I kinda went to pieces on Aquitar," Justin admitted with a cough of a laugh, and Fred blinked in surprise. "I was dehanded, but not defeated!"
Apparently whatever drug they were using to sedate him had left Justin a little punch-drunk. He would hate that if he could understand what was going on; even more than his physical prowess, the young genius valued his mind, his intellect.
"They're going to pay for what they did to you," the Gold Psycho Ranger swore to his comrade. "I'll amputate all their limbs and watch them bleed out!"
"They didn't cut off my fingers," Justin whispered. "Did it myself. Like trapped animal'll gnaw its leg off. Had to get free."
"You're free now, and you're safe," Fred told him firmly, his mind awhirl with the unexpected revelation. How would cutting his own fingers off have gotten Justin free? Still, he wasn't exactly in his right mind now, so it would be smart to take anything he said with a grain of salt.
"'kay," Justin replied, and his eyes closed.
Fred stayed there, kneeling, until an electronic voice filled the room.
"Gold Psycho Ranger, report to the ready room for deployment."
He growled at the announcement, but the truth was there was nothing more he could do for Justin at the moment. Remorphing, the Gold Psycho Ranger stalked toward the ready room, already looking forward to taking out some of his burning rage on the GLL's pitiful excuses for soldiers.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
Asara was left behind him in the distance as Billy sprinted to the medical bay. Though his Ranger days were long behind him, he'd made it a special point to maintain his physical fitness. He'd been vividly taught the importance of a sound body as well as a sound mind and, as with most of the lessons Billy Cranston had learned over his life, he'd never forgotten it.
He ran full tilt at the medical bay door, and nearly smashed head-on into it. Only at the last minute was he able to catch himself with his hands, taking the brunt on the impact on them and his chest rather than on his head.
"Open the door!" he shouted, his worry and fear morphing quickly into fury.
"Infirmary is sealed on the authority of Healer Verok."
"Military override!" Billy shouted without thinking. "Command code Gtrez- "
"Billy, don't!" Asara cried from further down the hall. "Verok is operating on her right now! You can't disturb them!"
Every atom of Billy's being longed to see his wife, to touch her, to hold her, to be with her. The overwhelming strength of his desire, his fear and worry, was almost too much for him to resist. Only his innermost nature, the logic and reason at the heart of his being, enabled him to resist finishing his recitation of the command code.
Fists clenched he turned to Asara, who stopped before him, panting.
"What happened to her?" he demanded.
"A couple of hours ago she called for healers from your workshop. Myself, Verok and Tanith answered, but when we reached the Command Chamber we found a brown-haired human at one of the control panels."
Justin! He'd been released from Cestro somehow!
"Before we could do anything he teleported away. We went into your workshop and we found-we found Cestria with the top of her skull caved in, hemorrhaging from the brain. Verok is removing the embedded shards of bone now."
"Will she be all right?" Billy whispered.
Asara's silence was answer enough.
This was his fault. He'd done this. Somehow the forcefield cage he'd constructed had failed, and his wife had paid the price for his mistake. Just like with the Turbo Turbine, his invention had led to agony for the innocent.
Turning away from Asara, from the sealed door behind which others struggled for his wife's life, he went to his workshop.
He saw the bluish blood staining the floor, a mark of his guilt, his hubris. He'd been so sure that his device would not fail, that he could safely contain a Psycho Ranger; he was a fool.
As he was turning away something else caught the genius' eye: a large, brown stain, spread over the base of Cestro. That wasn't Aquitan blood; it was human blood, and a considerable amount of it.
Had Cestria fought back, and scored a serious hit on the mind-controlled Psycho Ranger? Yet there was no weapon lying around, no sign of anything she could have used to spill so much blood. He knew without asking that the healers would have left any weapon where it lay on the floor; their first and only concern had rightly been Cestria.
Unconsciously grateful for something to focus on, Billy noticed another detail which was wrong; the presence of a glass and utensil in the outer rim, but no plate. Why would that be?
Studying the pattern of dried blood, a suspicion began to seep into Billy's thoughts. Crossing over to Cestro's controls, he activated the forcefield and as usual heard the sharp crack of the unseen barrier establishing itself. Pressing his hands all around the field he found it as solid as ever.
The forcefield hadn't failed; if anything it had worked too well. Through some mistake in judgment by Cestria or Justin, it had injured the latter, seriously judging by the amount of blood. Cestria, the Healer-to-be, had called for help and had naturally deactivated the forcefield in order to render immediate first aid treatment to their prisoner, to the organic template for their Justin.
And once the field was down, the spell had reasserted itself.
He'd taken out Cestria first, and then what had he done? The faint smell of burning circuitry and liquefied metal alerted the young man to what must have happened next. Following the odor to its source he discovered to his horror that the memory storage core for the Robot Rangers' psyches had been completely ruined.
Carlos and Ashley, they weren't coming back. Not ever.
He'd just lost two more Rangers.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
They had lost another Ranger. Cocky, courageous Tideus was gone.
The loss of Cestro and Corcus had been absolutely devastating, but they'd pushed it down and soldiered on. They'd sought the Great Power, but none of them had anticipated that their quest would cost them yet another teammate.
So when the ground itself began to shake beneath them it wasn't enough to break through the shock and grief each and every Ranger was feeling. Even the sliding open of the vast rock door could not interrupt their joint mourning. What was behind the door, however, demanded their attention.
Against a backdrop of intense white light was a small, ten foot tall stone pyramid. Embedded in the center of the side facing them was a massive golden seal. Etched upon its surface were representations of a unicorn, an orca, a rhinoceros, a dolphin and a nightingale.
Above the seal, near the apex of the pyramid, a shelf of stone jutted outward, almost like a seat or a throne.
Slowly the pyramid ground forward, emerging fully from its resting place. The Rangers drew together to face it, T.J. clutching his detached, sparking arm in his one remaining hand.
From out of the seal flew beings of light, their Spirit Animals. They soared and twisted around the remaining Rangers, an experience which would have filled the Light Rangers with joy had they not been dealing with another loss to their team, their family.
Each of the animals dove into the golden chest medallion of their respective Ranger and in a flash of light their cloth robes had been transformed into Ranger armor. Even T.J.'s arm was attached and functional once more, as though it had never been severed.
The explosion of power each felt within then was impossible to describe to any who had never known the energy of the Morphin Grid. Suffice it to say that even those previously granted the power of a Ranger would have been stunned by this incredible infusion of energy.
It did not make up for what had been lost, for the brothers who had sacrificed themselves so that the five of them could stand here. It did not diminish the weight of sorrow they bore.
But it gave them back something they and the free peoples of the galaxy had almost lost in these last few days.
It gave them hope.
Aurico's helmet turned to Delphine, the question not needing to be asked. "There's no time to go back on the ship," she asserted. "Teleport back to the Command Chamber."
Miles away, a white owl gazed at the five streaks of color arcing up into the sky and out of the atmosphere. For only the second time in all the centuries she had been here a group had succeeded in obtaining the Great Power.
The Master Warrior of Phaedos could only hope it would be enough.
Billy wasn't in the Command Chamber, the Rangers saw when they arrived. They had all expected to find him there, awaiting their return.
Maybe he was in his workshop. Maybe he had finished Ashley and Carlos' new bodies! Justin darted for the door, calling Billy's name as he entered the room.
There was their mentor, sitting slumped in the chair used when the Robot Rangers were copying their memories into storage. Beside him the storage core had been melted almost entirely in half.
Justin's words died on his lips. With the storage core destroyed, Ashley and Carlos were gone. There was no psyche left to transfer into a new body.
Justin felt rather than saw the other Rangers gather behind him. From their silence he knew they had all seen what he had.
"Billy, what happened?" Justin asked in bewilderment.
"You did!" Billy snapped, rearing up and glaring at the Blue Ranger, who instinctively recoiled.
"The Psycho Rangers, they aren't monsters or aliens; they're humans, former Earth Rangers! Tommy, Kat, Adam, Tanya . . . and Justin."
The shock that went through the room was almost palpable. All of this time, they'd been fighting former Earth Rangers, the four who had passed the mantle of Rangerhood down to the Robot Rangers' human counterparts? They'd been fighting the actual human Justin Stewart?
"How do you know this for certain?" Delphine asked gently.
"The Phantom Ranger captured the Blue Psycho Ranger, captured Justin," Billy spat, causing the Blue Ranger to flinch again. "I put him in that forcefield cage over there, the one I named after Cestro," Billy explained, gesturing toward a large green machine near the other side of the room. "The field blocked the spell he was under, but when it injured him Cestria turned it off to help him. He hit her on the top of her head."
Almost in unison Aurico and Delphine gasped in horror, knowing full well the effect such a blow could have on an Aquitan. Justin actually stumbled back a couple of steps. To know that all of this time he'd been fighting his human self, that all of the atrocities the Blue Psycho Ranger had committed had been done by Justin Stewart, former Blue Turbo Ranger . . . that was a terrible, life-changing revelation. But to know that the other Justin had attacked Cestria, maybe even killed her, that he'd killed Ashley and Carlos and brought so much pain to Billy . . . how could he go on with that knowledge?
"Where is Cestria?" Cassie questioned.
"She's in surgery; Verok is trying to remove all of the . . ." Billy's voice trailed off as he took in their appearance for the first time since they had found him. "Your armor . . . you won the Great Power?"
"We did," Aurico answered, an unconscious emphasis on "we" and a tremor in his voice. Billy was far beyond noticing such things, however.
"Come with me!" he ordered, springing up from his seat and running from the room.
They followed him to the medical bay door and the Aquitan healer who stood beside it. "Open up!" Billy shouted. "Military override, command code Gtrezthan, Ohklmn, Ytero!"
The healer tried to grab Billy, but without even deigning to look at her he shoved her so hard that she sprawled onto the corridor floor. He entered the room as soon as the door slid open far enough to admit him, cutting off the cries of protest inside with one of his own.
"Shut up! They can heal her! With the Great Power all things are possible! It's what we used to bring Zordon back to life!"
Now the Rangers understood what Billy wanted, why he had brought them here. Open war raged between the United Alliance of Evil and the Galactic League of Light. Thousands, soldiers and civilians, were undoubtedly dying by the hour. They needed to be out there, standing against the encroaching darkness, defending the innocent from evil's aggression. It was every Ranger's calling and duty.
First, though, they needed to do this.
The Healers backed away as Billy embraced his unconscious wife on the operating table and the Light Rangers gathered in a circle around them. Instinctively they spread their arms, their fingers just touching.
From each of their golden emblems a beam shot forth, all converging on Cestria. Motes of white light filled the room, dancing on the air.
The blood-soaked crater at the top of Cestria's head began to change, mending itself, the blood disappearing as the wound vanished.
Cestria opened her eyes and gasped. Billy's embrace tightened, their mentor weeping openly as he held the woman he loved.
Delphine, however, knew that Cestria wasn't the only one in need of healing. The burden Billy had been carrying since the start of this war had all but broken him. As a telepath she could sense how near he had come to complete mental collapse, to the shattering of everything he was. Too much had been demanded of him and he had willingly taken far too much guilt upon his own shoulders.
Quietly broadcasting her intentions to here teammates through the helmet comm, they concentrated again, and once more the beams of light emerged from their golden medallions, this time centering on Billy.
The motes of white light swirled more quickly, entering into their mentor's body. He rose to his feet, eyes closed and an expression of peace upon his face. Now Cestria was the one crying, staring lovingly up at her husband.
Without warning there was an intense flash of white light from Billy, bright enough to temporarily blind even the Robot Rangers' photo-receptors. When onlookers' vision eventually cleared they didn't see Billy standing before them anymore.
Instead there was a figure in Blue Ranger armor almost identical to Justin's. Except where the Robot Ranger's golden crest was that of a dolphin, this figure's chest medallion showed a wolf.
ΩΩΩΩΩ