"This is going to take a lot of time to repair." Jane said despondently. She tossed a circuit board aside as she checked on another one. Carlos and Doug were working with her while the rest of the team tried to clean the area up, being back seated otherwise. "Right now I can't even tell you how much time but it won't be short."
"We don't have a lot of time for this." Mal said with a sigh. "Ben's missing, the knight all but went rampagy on us, and I'm sure Paradias will have something else in store."
"I understand what you're saying." Audrey assured the purple haired girl. "But there's nothing we can do about it but let them do their repairs and wait it out."
The sensors were somewhat working again and it now showed a new image on screen. It was Ben, and somehow he had escaped from his bindings. He had soldiers pursuing him. All six of the rangers got up but Mal looked to Carlos. "Stay here and help Jane and Doug, we're just going to get Ben and get back here."
Carlos reluctantly conceded. "Okay, just be careful." He said.
The five rangers pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed. They quickly made their way to Ben, who was heading toward Auradon Prep anyway. Jay, Lonnie, Audrey, and Evie jumped the soldiers while Mal hugged Ben for a moment and then pulled away. "We have to get out of here while we still can…I thought I lost you." She said.
"Don't worry, M. It's okay now, I'm back." Ben said as took her hand. "Now let's get out of here before that knight shows up."
Audrey shot out a few arrows and said, "Time to go guys." The team made a quick retreat back through the gates and away from the encroaching soldiers.
"How'd you get out?" Jay asked Ben.
"They had to take off my chains in order to do whatever they wanted to do with me after they took me before Audrey could get me." Ben explained to them. "I chose that opportunity to get away. Serves them right for underestimating me just because I don't have powers."
"Yeah, that's showing them." Mal agreed, feeling happy that he was alright. The four powered down and they came to the command center.
"Wow." Ben looked shocked. "Dare I ask what happened here?"
"That knight bragged to me about causing all this damage and injuring Fairy Godmother." Mal said with some disgust in her voice. "That was right up there with kidnapping you apparently."
"Glad to see you're okay." Carlos said as he looked up happily from a console. "We were worried about you."
"It's one problem down, and we have a pretty big list on our hands right now." Doug added.
They started to again tidy up the command center even though the huge work needed to be done with the consoles and systems. A short while later though Ben received a text. "Looks like there's going to be an emergency council session." He revealed. "Something about assessing the situation given Paradias's attacks."
"What does that mean?" Evie asked him.
"Don't know, but I guess I'll find out." Ben replied and looked to Mal. "Care to walk me to the meeting room?"
"That'd be great." Mal said. She looked to her team. "I'll be back in a few minutes' guys."
"Be careful." Lonnie said. "If Paradias wanted to try anything really risky this would be the best time." Mal nodded in understanding.
"This knight guy really has you spooked." Ben said to Mal as they ascended the stair.
"How can he not?" Mal asked softly. "He's been a challenge since day one, has come on top more often than not in our fights and he somehow got into the command center without setting off any alarms, injured Fairy Godmother and all but destroyed our command center, crippling us heavily." She sighed a bit. "Sounding a bit melodramatic, huh?"
"I can't say I blame you." Ben assured her. "This guy is proving to be something else."
"I still don't understand how he got in in the first place." Mal added. "Jane says that Paradias or any of his little minions would have set off an alarm in the command center."
"I'd guess it's broken then." Ben said simply. "Or has a bug in the system that needs to be worked out."
They walked in what seemed like companionable silence for a minute and Mal laid her head on Ben's shoulder. "This feels so nice." She admitted softly. "After that nightmare thing that went on."
"Yeah, that was something." Ben agreed nervously.
They approached the meeting hall. Mal cocked her head a bit and it took her a minute to realize what seemed so weird. "I don't hear anyone inside." She noted. "Usually we should be able to hear something from inside."
"We must be early." Ben said soothingly. "That's fine I can take a few minutes to collect my thoughts. Being kidnapped isn't nearly as much fun as some people might think it is." He added as a joke.
"Alright." Mal relented, mainly because she wanted to go back to the team and figure out how to deal with the knight. "Text me when you get out and I'll meet you out here."
"Sounds good." Ben said and kissed her on the cheek.
Mal turned around and started toward the command center again, but she only had taken a few steps before everything went black…
"We have the purple ranger as you wanted." Nerissa said to Paradias. "Where are we sending her?"
"To a place long since forgotten." Paradias answered her. "At one point it was used by fellow sorcerers of evil that went by the name of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, where she will not be able to use her ranger powers and there is no hope of escape." He turned to look at Nerissa. "She may be the key to stopping that knight and I cannot allow this."
"What do you intend to do?" Nerissa asked.
"I intend to destroy the daughter of Maleficent myself." Paradias answered.
Mal had to blink in order to bring her eyesight back into focus. "Where am I?" She wondered aloud. "What happened?" She looked around to realize it seemed like a small room with bars on all sides of what looked like to be black windows, it was full of fog though she couldn't figure out why.
She approached one of the bars and reached out touch it only to receive something very similar to an electric shock. "Ooh, what the heck was that?" She asked. She turned around. "Hello? Is anyone here?"
She heard Paradias laugh as he appeared in front of her. "I can hear you just fine my dear." He replied. "Thanks to a friend of mine you have been brought here to me. Welcome to the Dark Dimension."
"What kind of lame generic name is that?" Mal wondered as she tensed, ready for a fight.
"Perhaps a tad uncreative I concede." Paradias commented simply as he started to walk toward the purple haired girl. She was trying to avoid him and they were soon pacing each other. "But this place has been around for a long time and was once used by two of the more powerful evil sorcerers to ever use this exist in the multiverse."
"Just what you need, more help." Mal remarked dryly.
Paradias laughed. "You won't even have to worry about that, this will end right now." He formed an energy blade. "I intend to end you right now."
"I won't be that easy to deal with." Mal promised as she reached for her iPhone only to realize something; she didn't have it. She didn't want her opponent to know that though. "Just you wait, don't piss me off Paradias."
He laughed again. "You seem to be hesitating for some reason. Are you by any chance missing something?" From his other hand was he showed her the iPhone she was looking for. "If you want this you'll have to take it from me."
"I've been wanting to take you apart anyway." Mal declared. She moved forward to confront him and had to take a step back though as he swung the energy blade at Mal. She lashed out a kick that caught him in the shoulder but to little effect.
"Without your powers you're nothing more than a weak little girl from the a dejected little island." Paradias mocked. "I warned you that I could take you and yours apart without a problem if I so chose to."
"I figured you were all talk." Mal responded though in fact she had easily decided that it was not all talk, she just didn't want to admit she hated her odds right now. "After all your so 'strong'" She had to air quote that one just for kicks, "that the only way you could face this 'weak little girl'" Again with the air quotes. "Was to somehow steal her morpher from her."
Paradias laughed and said simply, "I can live with that." He then lashed out and struck her hard and she fell to the ground. He tried to stab her but she caught his wrist and twisted it enough to push him back.
I have to get my iPhone back, or at least make him lose that energy blade. Mal thought to herself. She tried attacking him again, focusing on his wrist and arm but either he was great at absorbing pain or he was tougher than he looked because she wasn't able to disarm him and she wasn't even sure where he was keeping her iPhone.
Jay and Evie had just finished moving some of the twisted metal aside and as Audrey wiped her hands on a cloth from working on gathering up some burnt out circuits the blue haired girl looked around and suddenly realized something. "Shouldn't Mal be back by now?" She asked.
"If she was just escorting Ben to the meeting hall, she should be." Audrey agreed as she looked up.
"We have enough weirdness going on right now." Lonnie said simply. "I'm going to text Mal and Ben and see where she is."
"Good idea." Jay agreed as he went over and grabbed another piece of scrap metal. "Hey Jane, Carlos, how hard is it going to replace these things?" He wondered.
"Getting the material to replace the outsides is easy enough." Carlos answered dismissively.
"He's right." Jane confirmed as she worked on a motherboard. "It's some of the internal wiring that I'd be more worried about, but I think we can at least jury rig something for the sensors pretty quickly here."
They continued to work for another couple of minutes before Lonnie got a text response back. She read it from her iPhone and then told the others, "Ben says they're in the meeting right now and he urged Mal to stay and help impress upon everyone the 'dire nature of our situation'."
"Might not be a bad idea." Carlos noted as he looked around the command center. "We could use a lot of repair help right now."
Audrey frowned a moment. "Wait a second guys." She stated. "Remember when Ben suggested I take the red rangers powers since he couldn't bond with it for whatever reason."
"Sure." Jane answered somewhat absent mindedly as she was working on another of the consoles. "We still haven't figured out why he was rejected I the first place."
"Then you'll also remember that your mother impressed upon us all that we couldn't reveal this secret." Audrey replied and now she looked at everyone around her. "So how can Mal make such an impact with the council without revealing this secret?"
"Well desperate times can call for desperate measures." Doug reminded the princess.
"They might." Evie had to agree as she now stood up. "But Mal wouldn't go and reveal this. Not without consulting us first."
Everyone hesitated a moment, not wanting to give voice to the thought that was running around unbidden in their heads. It was finally Jay who took that step. "So…are we thinking that Ben lied to us?" He asked.
"Why would he do that?" Carlos added.
"I suppose it could be they just wanted some time alone." Lonnie tried to speculate uncertainly. Despite it being her suggestion she found she couldn't believe that.
Evie basically dashed that thought out. "Mal would never to do that when something serious is going on." The blue haired girl said. "She's too focused, even too stubborn, to get distracted from what she wants done, whatever it may be."
"You two know each other so well." Carlos felt the need to point out, knowing she felt a little unsecure about her friendship with Mal thanks to that Invader of Nightmares monster.
The alarms sounded again and the screen revealed the knight had returned. This time he hadn't issued a direct challenge to the rangers but just his presence was basically a challenge in itself.
"What does he want now?" Carlos wondered.
"There's only one way to find out." Audrey said. "We have to go meet him." None of the others argued and Audrey looked to Doug. "I don't care what kind of impression Ben expects Mal to leave, we need her if we want to have any hope of beating that knight. Go pull her from that meeting and send her our way."
"I'll take care of it." Doug promised.
"Find out about my mom too please." Jane called after him and then looked to Audrey. "I'll continue doing what I can here."
Audrey nodded. "Good idea. Try to keep an eye on your surroundings though, we don't want what happened to your mother to happen to you too." The girl nodded in understanding, a bit misty eyed at the concern in the princesses voice, that kind of comment from her was still a rare thing. "Okay guys, let's get to work." The five of them pulled out their iPhones as they ascended the stairs and after clearing the building they input their numbers and transformed.
They found their opponent easily enough as if he had been waiting for them. "We have to stop meeting like this." Lonnie said deadpan.
"We will soon enough." The knight promised. "Missing someone?"
"She'll be along soon enough." Carlos revealed.
The knight had to laugh at that one. "I highly doubt that." He replied. He then drew his sword and charged the rangers.
Jay moved in fast with his scimitar and clashed with him, the two locking their bladed weapons together instantly. Lonnie and Carlos tried to move in from either side of him only for him to bash his shield against one of them hard, Lonnie this time. Then he angled his sword to slip out of the scimitar and slashed Carlos right before doing the same thing to Jay.
Audrey shot an arrow at him and he intercepted it with his shield. She took that chance to jump in and kick the shield hard, forcing him to lose his balance for just a moment. The red ranger moved in to slash him with her bows ends. One connected, almost to no effect, and then he blocked the other before striking her hard with the edge of his shield.
Evie moved in and kicked the knight. She knew it wouldn't do much to him she just wanted his attention. She got it as he moved to strike her with his sword. The mirror shield took the impact and sent it flying back at him and he raised his own shield to block the attack.
Doug arrived at the meeting hall and pushed the doors open shouting, "Mal, the knight is back and the others…" He was cut short when he realized he was shouting to no one. It was completely empty; no council members, no Ben, no Mal. "Need you." He got out quieter. "What the heck is going on?"
The knight went right back at Evie and she blocked it again, then deflected it back at the knight but this time rather than block it or reflect it used the force of the impact to help him as he gave a headlong charge right into the blue ranger and making her fall back.
"No matter what you do you cannot defeat me." The knight boasted as the five rangers regrouped. "Even if your purple ranger were to make it, and she will not, you would still not defeat me."
"Talk about overconfident." Jay said, also hating to admit that he seemed to be right.
"Why does he keep saying that Mal won't make it?" Lonnie asked, getting frustrated herself.
"If you must know, it is because my master has already taken care of your leader." The knight revealed. "He has her right now and will be ending her life any time now. I will be sure to return her broken morpher and her broken body to you when that time comes."
"No!" Evie shouted out in fright. "You're lying!"
"Am I?" The knight question stoically.
The blue ranger felt overwhelming fear for her best friend, for her sister practically, and reached for her laser and started to unleash burst after burst straight at the knight but this only seemed to amuse him as he kept deflecting it from side to side. She only stopped when Carlos placed her hands on her arm and Jay pulled the blaster away.
"Calm down Evie." Jay said to her. "It doesn't matter where Paradias has Mal. She can take care of herself."
The knight began a charge right toward the ranger's but Audrey had decided she had had enough. "This 'meeting' is over." She stated and shot an arrow straight at the knight's head. He raised his shield to block it effortlessly but when he lowered the object he was alone as the ranger's had fled.
"Doug." A surprised Ben said from behind him. "What are you doing here?" He asked.
Doug turned to the young king. "I came to get Mal, that knight is back and the others went to confront him." He answered. "But what's going on? She was supposed to be here with you guys for the meeting right?"
"Yeah, she was here." Ben said. "The meeting was put on recess a few minutes ago so the council could convene in private." He stepped into the room. "I was just coming back from the men's room. But Mal should have come back to the command center a while ago."
"She hasn't." Doug revealed. "We don't know where she is in that case."
"What could have happened to her in such a short time?" Ben asked concerned as he leaned against the wall, seemingly for support.
"I wish I knew." Doug said. "I have to get back to the command center, join us when the meeting is over and hopefully we'll have an answer for you then."
"Forget that." Ben said. "I'm coming with you."
The two boys left the meeting hall but didn't get very far before they ran into the returning five teens and they all looked panicked, especially Evie. "What happened?" Doug asked as he came to her side and took her arms gently.
"The knight said that Paradias has Mal somewhere." She said, breathing hard to keep herself from going over the edge as she felt she was on the verge of doing.
"What? Where?" Ben asked.
"That's what we need to figure out." Audrey said. "We need to get to the command center, now." The seven of them continued on and were thankful to see that nothing had changed for the worse in the command center and in fact Jane seemed to have made a bit more progress.
"Do the sensors work yet?" Jay asked her even as Carlos vaulted a console to check himself.
Jane nodded. "Not at peak efficiency but they're operating again." She replied. "What's going on?" She looked to Doug. "Where is Mal?"
"That seems to be the question of the day right now." Lonnie told her. "The knight says that Paradias has her."
"He must have grabbed her after the council went into recess." Ben added.
Carlos slammed his fists against the console in a rare show of anger. "I can't find her anywhere."
"Wait a minute." Evie said. She went over with her mirror and set it into an exposed part of the console that was connected to the view screen. "Mirror, mirror on the stand. Show me the whereabouts of my purple haired friend." She recited.
At first all they got was static and Lonnie was about to assure their blue haired friend that her idea had been a good one at any rate when the static mostly cleared and they saw Mal trying in vain to fight Paradias.
"Why isn't she morphed?" Audrey asked immediately. "That's the only way any of us could fight Paradias."
"Wait." Jane said. "Is that…my mother was told of that place by Zordon. It's the Dark Dimension."
"Grand, how do we get there and help Mal beat Paradias?" Jay asked.
"That's just it." Jane said. "Your powers don't work there, which might be why Mal isn't morphed. It's also not located anywhere in Auradon or our world. It's a pocket dimension unto itself. It's virtually a prison."
"Then how do we get to Mal?" Audrey asked her.
"We don't." Jane replied. "Not without magic. And what little magic I have isn't going to get us there. Even Mal's probably couldn't do it."
Each of the ranger's felt helpless as they watched the fight. Doug held Evie's hand as tears glassed in her eyes. Audrey felt herself weaken a moment and without even thinking about it grasped Jay's arm for support, and at that moment failed to note that he did not push her away.
Lonnie looked to a shocked looking Ben and suspected that shock was on her face. "It can't be…we're going to lose her." The young king said softly.
Jane watched the screen for a moment as she felt tears, then angrily wiped them away. "No." She said firmly, showing again the confident young woman she was quickly maturing into since this whole thing started. "We won't lose her. Doug, work some of these repairs. I know what we need to do."
"I…want to stay here." Ben said as he looked to where Mal was seemingly hopelessly fighting Paradias. No one thought it wise to argue with him.
Mal tried again to disarm Paradias but he caught her by her arm and tossed her. Probably only by sheer luck she struck one of the gold bars that were tingling with some sort of electrical current and it shocked her. With a gasp she fell to the ground. As she tried to recover Paradias approached her again. "I think you've suffered enough, child. It's time to put you down, once and for all."
Mal wanted to make a retort at that but the pain spasming through her body at that moment made any argument very hard to make. All she could right there was stare at up at him in defiance.
The five rangers and Jane had only just gotten out of the classroom when Carlos remarked, "Hey, that's unusual." They turned to see who they had been looking for, none other than Jordan; daughter of Eden and Aladdin's Genie. She was walking across campus as opposed to spending time in her lamp.
"Jordan!" Audrey yelled out.
With a slight look of annoyance the genie girl turned around but that annoyance dissipated when she saw the look of fear in all of their eyes. "Hey, what's the fire?" She asked them.
"Look, we need your help." Jay said to her. "We've got a lot to tell you and not a lot of time for this, but we already know if we expect you to help us we're going to have to come clean here."
"It's Mal." Evie started to explain. "She went missing just as she was leaving today's council meeting and…"
Jordan held up her hand. "Whoa there, Evie." She interrupted. "I don't mean to interrupt but I think you're missing something. I just got back on a trip from Agrabah with my parents, and as you know my dad sits on that council." Audrey was about to interrupt her, saying they weren't worried about her personal life right now when her meaning sunk into the princess just as Jordan put it to words. "There was no council meeting today."