Part Twelve

Chapter Two

Jason and I were already in the Command Centre when the other Rangers arrived, teleporting into the room in twos and threes. Everyone immediately noticed that Jason and I had been busy. The whiteboard on the right wall was covered in print-outs, pictures, eyewitness reports and even a few of Teresa's sketches, every solid piece of information that we'd collected on the Shadow King over the last twelve months. The Rangers stepped closer to take a better look.

"Welcome Rangers," Zordon's voice boomed.

"Okay guys," Jason began, his voice commanding everyone's attention. "This is it. This might be the biggest fight we've ever had in front of us. Somewhere out there, an insane old god is breaking free of the prison where he's been trapped for thousands of years. We know he's coming, and we might be the only people in the world who can stop him." He paused to let his words sink in, then raised his eyes to our mentor. "Zordon, tell us what we need to know."

"Last Sunday Rangers," Zordon began, "you fought the Shadow King's daughter, She Who Destroys Heroes. Unfortunately, we were unable to prevent her from accomplishing her goal of summoning the Shadow King's last acolyte to Earth. We have scanned every centimetre of the Earth's surface, these last six days, and we cannot find any trace of this being. Last year, the Shadow King was new to us, but we can now identify his energy signature with pinpoint accuracy. The only conclusion Alpha and I can draw is that the Shadow King's power has returned to the point where he can protect this acolyte from afar."

"So we're fighting blind?" Sarah asked.

"It's not entirely bad news," Zordon said. "This tells us that the Shadow King sees us as a threat. Whatever his plan is, it must be fallible."

"Otherwise he wouldn't bother trying to hide what he's doing," Trini said. "According to the story, the last minion was the most powerful of the Shadow King's forces, but when the battle started going badly, he fled into space. He's obviously not powerful in a combat sense. That's something."

"And he's the last one of these guys, right?" asked Scott.

"Affirmative Scott," Alpha replied. "Everything about the Shadow King seems to be themed on the number four. You defeated the other three minions…"

"Ag'reth in England," said Zac, pointing to the sketches on the whiteboard, "the Toymaker in Sydney, and Luna in her own temple."

"And we defeated all his children," added Teresa, "and took his lost artefacts off the board. We destroyed the knife and the pendant, smashed the crown of shadows, and the torch is locked away in a vault under the mountain. In theory, there should be no more surprises."

"What about this army of shadows?" I asked. "The last two demigods both mentioned that the Shadow King would have an army of shadows by his side."

"We didn't see anyone in the desert besides the Shadow King," Kim replied.

"Meanwhile, what about the last minion?" Ian asked. "If we can't find him, how do we know what he's doing?"

"We've made some bad guesses on this case," Jason began, "but it's a safe bet what he's trying to accomplish. He's here to free the Shadow King," and Jason nodded to Brendan. "A week ago, there was only one chain left. It's probably his only goal."

"I agree," said Zordon. "I doubt the Shadow King's motivation has changed. If anything, he's likely to be more impatient."

"And let's not forget," Kim added. "We killed his queen, most of his minions and all of his children. If nothing else, he's probably pretty mad at us."

"I don't think he is, though," Brendan said. "When he had me cornered in the desert dimension, last week, I mentioned that we'd defeated all his children. I think I was trying to make him mad, but he wasn't angry, right? And it stuck with me because, if he just didn't care about any of them, I mean, you'd expect that from your typical demon overlord. But he was almost happy about it. That's weird, right?"

"There's so much about this guy we haven't figured out yet," Tommy said. "And we don't have a lot of time."

"Plus, he's already starting to have an effect," Scott said. "Billy, tell everyone what you were showing me this morning."

The elder Blue Ranger spoke up. "I know how this sounds," Billy began, "but the laws of physics are starting to bend," and he told the rest of us what he'd discovered earlier in the day. As he explained it, Alpha went to collect a prism and a small torch from the Command Centre's science lab. When he returned, he held them up so we could see for ourselves. Trini gasped while Zac let out a low whistle. While we could see the centre of the rainbow, sure enough, shadow was creeping in at the edges.

"Damn," I murmured.

"It's not just the laws of physics," Alpha said. "We've been getting reports all week of magic going haywire."

"Magic's not just going haywire," Kim began. "It's going bad. The monster that rampaged across half the German countryside on Wednesday that we had to fight? That was the end result of one of the wizards from the College of Magical Knowledge pulling a rabbit out of a hat."

"That was the rabbit?" asked Scott.

"No, that was the hat," Tommy replied. "We did get the rabbit back in one piece. Half the wizards were powerless, while the other half were almost comatose. While we were there, they were trying to keep the dragon hatchery from burning down. You should've seen the baby dragons. It was like animals before an earthquake."

"Still," I said, looking at the prism Alpha had left on a nearby console. "It's kinda worrying that he's shifted his target from Normandy to our backyards."

"Something always bothered me about that," Sarah began. "Why the island castle in France? It's too random for this guy. I get that the island was a great defensible position, but it's not the only one in the world. Why target the cathedral specifically?"

Trini clapped her hands together. "Corruption," she said. "That's the Shadow King's game. Taking pure things and turning them twisted and awful. Think about it. A cathedral is somewhere holy and sacred, but it was turned into a twisted dark fortress. An amusement park turned into a place of death and horror."

"A crown that makes you a servant," Kim added. "A beautiful piece of jewellery that steals your individuality. And the torch that creates darkness, corrupting something as simple as light! Trini's right."

Jason glanced to me, and saw the faraway look in my eyes. "You okay?"

I shook my head. "Is anyone else freaking out here?" I asked. "This isn't like dealing with Rita or Zedd. What you're all saying is that we're up against a dark god who's breaking reality just by existing."

"Sounds like he's already in your head," Zac said.

"He's not," I replied sharply. "But an hour ago, I was stumped by algebra. How are we supposed to fight this?"

"We make sure he stays where he is," Scott began. "Think about it. The last minion has been here for a week. If freeing the Shadow King was easy, they would've done it by now. The fact they haven't gives us time and opportunities to stop them."

"That sounds like good news to me," Zac said. "So what's our next move?"

"Rangers," came Zordon's voice. Everyone turned to look. He sounded distant. "Rangers, I don't…" he stuttered. "There's… I'm not sure… Rangers, something is…!" His voice was growing increasingly faint, and his plasma tube seemed to be dimming.

"Alpha, what's going on?" asked Sarah.

Alpha tapped several keyboards at once. "I have no clue," Alpha replied. Without warning, Zordon's plasma tube went dark, our mentor disappearing from view. Then the computer monitors began switching off along the consoles, one-by-one. Everyone instinctively stepped away as the room grew dark, huddling in the centre of the room. We could only watch as even the viewing screen flickered for a second and then shut down.

"What the hell?" murmured Brendan.

The screens suddenly flashed, and four red circles appeared in four corners of the room. One was in Zordon's tube, one was in the viewing screen, and two were in the console monitors, bathing us in a crimson glow. Nobody said anything, not even Alpha. A second later, I realised what we were looking at.

Not circles.

Eyes.

Four great eyes, burning bright with hatred. I'd never felt so small before. Everybody held their breath. For the longest time, nobody dared to move, almost too scared to speak.

"Four eyes," whispered Kim. "It's the Shadow King."

"It can't be," murmured Ian. "He can't be in here."

Feeling the weight of those terrible eyes, I took a step to the side.

All four eyes followed me across the room.

"He's in the computers!" I shouted. "He's in the room!"

"Alpha, shut it down!" said Jason. "Kill the power!"

Alpha reached for the nearest console. He flipped open the emergency shutdown panel and hit the button inside.

The screens on all sides switched off instantly. The computers fell idle a second later, before the lights on the walls and ceiling flickered out. As Alpha himself shut down, the lights along the floor blinked off, and even the gentle hum of the air conditioning fell silent. I froze in absolute darkness. Nobody said anything. Everybody was waiting for any sign of danger. Not that it mattered. I couldn't hear much over my heartbeat, pounding in my chest.

Instinctively, I reached out with both hands, grasping wildly for my friends. I felt a wrist on the right and knew it was Jason, holding onto my hand with an iron grip. On the left, I felt a slender wrist, someone shorter than me. Teresa? No, Kimberly. I could feel the bracelet she was wearing.

And it occurred to me that if I'd found their hands?

They'd also been reaching out for mine.

Jason squeezed my hand before speaking. "Is everyone okay?" he asked.

"I think so," came Teresa's voice.

"I'm not ashamed to admit I'm holding Tommy's hand right now," Zac said.

"He is," Tommy confirmed.

"Did Alpha shut down as well?" Brendan asked. "What just happened?"

"The emergency shutdown was designed in the event of an electronic or cyber attack on the Command Centre's systems," Billy explained, somewhere in the dark. "It temporarily deactivates every electronic device in the room, including Alpha. We just need to switch him back on."

"Alpha was okay with that?" Sarah asked.

"Alpha built it," Billy replied, and paused for a few seconds. "We're his friends. He trusts us."

"Nobody move," Trini said. "Billy and I just need to get to Alpha, although I've never done this blindfolded before." We heard footsteps, and people shuffling around each other. After a few seconds, there was a 'click', and we had light again as Alpha powered back on. I glanced around, trying to peer through the shadows. We were alone. Shutting down the power had kicked the Shadow King out of the system.

"How did he do that?" I asked. "Gods can't get into this building uninvited."

"I don't think he was completely here," Trini began. "He must've hijacked our incoming data streams."

"He was sending us a message," said Tommy. "He just broke the last chain! Whatever he's doing, he's doing it today."

"While we just locked ourselves in with no eyes or ears, no Zordon, and no way to leave," Scott said, and tapped his communicator for emphasis.

"The torch," Kim said. "If he was here, he might've been after the torch!"

"One thing at a time," Jason began. "Alpha? We need you to re-establish the link to Zordon. As soon as you can."

"You got it!" Alpha replied.

"Billy?" Jason continued. "We're deaf and blind in here."

"I'll reboot the computer system," the Blue Ranger nodded. "And try to strengthen our internal security measures."

"Good idea," Jason said. "Trini?"

"I'll get the teleportation network online," she replied, already typing.

"And I'll check on the torch," Tommy said.

"I'm going too," Jason said. "Anyone who can is coming with us."

"Not to tempt fate," Ian began, "but Rita and Zedd can always tell when the Command Centre goes dark. If we're not keeping an eye on the moon, how long before they notice? And what have we missed in the meantime?"

To be continued.