Part Twelve
Chapter Three
"Zedd?" Rita Repulsa called, listening to her voice echo down the corridors of the lunar palace. "What are you playing at?"
Rita had lost track of time, struggling with a spell. What good was living on the moon when you could never tell when the witching hour was? She didn't even realise the temperature had plummeted until puffs of her own breath started to appear before her eyes. More irritated than usual, she peered into the corridor. It was dark and quiet. The flickering torches along the walls were throwing less light than usual. There was no sign of the patrolling palace guards. Curiously, the only thing Rita could hear was a soft shuffling noise. Like something scraping over the stone tiles.
"Zedd! I'm in no mood for games!" Rita barked. There was no reply, so she followed the corridor towards Finster's workshop and stepped inside, accompanied the entire trip by the same shuffling sound. The lab was deserted. The machinery was sitting idle. There was little light, but Rita spotted two shadowy shapes at the back of the room. Even in the shadows, she recognised the monsters immediately. They were two of her best.
"Eyeguy?" she asked. "Polluticorn? Why has Finster reanimated you?" But her voice trailed off.
Hearing the witch's voice, the two monsters lurched forward. Rita pulled back in horror. Eyeguy's eyes were no longer white but shades of brown and green. The eyes were rolling back and forth, some in a state of decomposition, dripping puddles of sludge onto the tiles. Every step sounded like someone walking barefoot on grapes. Beside him, Polluticorn was a skeletal shell. The creature's bones were held together with sinewy tatters, and his eyes glowed with an unearthly fire. The smell was overpowering.
"Stay back," Rita commanded. "Don't come any closer!"
The monsters ignored her. Rita backed out into the corridor, pulling the door shut and summoning a ball of flame to melt the lock. Even then, she could hear the two monsters scratching at the door as they tried to break through.
"Finster! Zedd!" she called, her voice shaking with uncertainty. "What are you idiots doing?" and she raced towards the throne room.
The shuffling noise was even louder now. Whatever it was, it was close.
Rita charged into the throne room, her eyes wild with panic. The room was as empty as the rest of the palace, except, no, it wasn't. An imposing shape loomed out of the darkness on the far side of the room, a great beast with two horns jutting out from its head. Rita stepped back in shock. It was her mighty Minotaur! But seeing her, the beast lowered its head and snorted a blast of hot air. Rita turned to flee, but the soft shuffling filled the room, and King Sphinx's desiccated form emerged from the corridor. The mummified creature reached out for Rita, its bandaged feet scraping over the tiles.
"Zeddy?" Rita asked quietly.
Backing away from the monsters, Rita tried to summon her magic, but nothing happened. With the monsters closing in, Rita stumbled into Zedd's throne. She reached for the hidden panel and activated the secret tunnel behind the throne. Gathering her voluminous skirts in her hand, Rita climbed into the dark passageway and ran for her life, racing on through endless corridors with her own monsters snapping at her heels.
Even if she'd stopped screaming, she wouldn't have heard the frantic conversation going on around her.
"I'm telling you, Lord Zedd!" Finster said, gesturing to Rita's prone body lying in the centre of the room. "There's nothing I can do!"
With Goldar at his side, Zedd fumed. They were standing in Rita's private chamber, a room even Zedd was forbidden to enter. Rita lay on the bed with her eyes closed. Every few seconds, her hands or feet would twitch, but none of them could wake her.
"Don't give me that!" snapped Zedd. "You can make a monster out of a hedgehog and a vacuum cleaner that sneezes exploding acorns! But you can't wake her up?"
"Medicine is not my field of specialty!" Finster protested.
Zedd marched around the bed. "Finster, she's my wife!" he snapped, then lowered his voice. "She's my wife."
"And Rita is my empress!" Finster shot back. "If I knew a spell to revive her, don't you think I would've used it?"
Goldar lightly poked Rita's inert form with his sword. "We must seek vengeance against the Rangers at once," he growled.
"Don't be a fool," barked Zedd. "The Rangers couldn't do this, and that moralising bore Zordon would never use this kind of magic. There's something going on, Goldar. Something beyond our resident genius."
Finster contrived to look hurt. "This is like nothing I've dealt with before," he said, and gestured to the end of the chamber. Zedd turned to look. Cloaked in shadow were Rita's collection of totems and spell books, resting on shelves carved into the wall. "The only one of us with enough talent to wake Rita up would be Rita herself."
Something caught Zedd's attention. He stepped away towards the back of the room. Finster watched him go and replayed the conversation in his head. Realising the insult he'd levelled at Zedd, he silently cursed.
"That isn't to say your own mastery of dark magic isn't supremely enviable," Finster stuttered. "It's just that Rita is, well, she has, um, slightly more…"
"Stop grovelling," Zedd snapped. "Answer me this. Rita kept her most powerful charms in this room, correct?"
"Yes, Lord Zedd."
"And this top shelf, this is where she kept the talismans she used that day, four years ago, to cut off the original Megazord's power supply by eclipsing the sun, correct?"
"Yes, my lord! During the original Green Ranger saga, I believe."
Zedd spun back to his servants. "Then tell me," he began, and pointed to the empty shelves. "Where the hell are they?"
To be continued.