A few days had passed without incident now that Ben had been freed from Paradias's influence. The Auradon Megazord was fully up and ready to go again as was Mal's dragon zord. The command center was fully active as well. The lull was great as Lonnie, Mal, Evie and Jane had gotten the time to get the pink ranger's project off the ground and Jordan was working with Jane to get it implemented before the next battle.
"So are you glad to finally be a power ranger like the rest of us?" Mal asked her boyfriend half-jokingly as they walked around campus holding hands.
"Well technically I'm not sure I'm one of you in that sense." Ben replied to her. "I mean I have powers like yours and that's good enough, it means I can help you all out. Though it'd be nice to have a zord."
"You probably do." Mal reminded him simply. "I had to get my zord separately from the rest of the team. It's only a matter of time."
Mal and Ben were taking a walk together and stopped at the statue in front of the school, the one of his father that changed from beast to man. "I guess I have a better idea of what that's like." Ben said to Mal. "After being made to be Paradias's champion. That influence Sermaya had over me showed that too kind of."
Mal kissed him on the cheek. "None of which was your fault." She promised. "And I had some issues during that time too. Being in love with Chad, how revolting." The purple haired girl made a face of disgust. "What is up with him?"
Ben shook his head. "I don't know. He hasn't spoken to me since the game before all of the knight stuff came to a head. He seems…I don't know, angrier and lighter somehow." He remarked.
"Isn't that a contradiction in terms?" Mal questioned.
"Maybe." Ben said. "It's like he's obviously still not happy with how things have gone around here but at the same time he…I don't know exactly, found a way to release some of that."
Audrey had been walking up to them at that point and heard their conversation. Her hand went to her cheek and she knew she should talk to Ben.
"You know, I told about my nightmare, losing you. Evie hasn't said specifically but I think hers had something do with me." Mal started.
"Why do you think that?" Ben asked.
"The way she's been acting lately, like she needs reminding that she's important to me." Mal answered. "You know we weren't always each other's chosen sister. There was a time when we couldn't stand each other."
"Really?" Ben was kind of surprised to hear that.
Mal nodded. "At one point I was too much of a bully to be her friend and I thought that she was too weak to my friend." She revealed a little sheepishly. "Eventually that did change but for the first like five years we had known each other we hated each other."
"Any idea what Audrey's was about?" Ben asked now. She hadn't spoken to him about it.
"That's my point." Mal answered. "As far as I know she hasn't spoken to anyone about it. I've kind of gotten the idea from watching her that we might have had something to do about it but I have no idea if it's true."
"I noticed that too." Ben said. "When Jay was giving me the 'welcome to the gray side of the tracks' speech he seemed to make sure Audrey realized that didn't men she was excluded just because she wasn't an evil kid or a controlled minion."
"Losing you guys was a large part of my dream." They heard Audrey say from behind them. "That you would take away my powers and tell me that you didn't want me around anymore." She felt kind of embarrassed to be revealing this.
Mal laughed. "I don't entirely think we could take away your powers even if we wanted to." She said consolingly. Audrey moved over to join them and three of them sat at the base of the statue. "And in case no one's told you this; you're a part of us now and you won't be getting rid of us that easily."
"Jay actually did say that, when he rescued me from that nightmare." Audrey said. She felt a similar rush of gratitude to hear that Mal as well but she didn't feel the same…emotion, that she had felt when Jay said it. It made her cheeks turn a bit red.
Mal noticed that one and she couldn't help but ask teasingly, "Anything else he's said to you recently?" That only increased the blush in her cheeks and the purple haired girl laughed at that one.
Ben looked between the girls. "Did I miss something here? What else would Jay say to her?" he looked between the two girls who decided not to respond to that one right now.
"What was the other part?" Mal asked Audrey now.
Audrey took a deep breath. "That was the other part of my dream. It involved Chad." She said.
"What do you mean?" Ben asked her.
"I…when we were looking to bring you back to our side I approached Chad about helping us." Audrey started.
"Does he know about us?" Mal asked her.
"I didn't tell him about our powers." Audrey promised her. "I didn't know how to go about doing it without telling him everything of course but he wouldn't even listen to me." She looked to Ben. "He's so resentful of everything that has happened that he didn't want to help you." She said mournfully.
Ben sighed, feeling a bit upset that Chad had let himself become so overcome by his dark feelings over it all. "I think we're losing him Audrey." He said.
Audrey touched her cheek where he had hit her, about to let the two of them know how badly they had in fact lost him when the ground started to shake, like a huge earthquake was occurring. "What's going on?" The brunette princess asked.
"This isn't normal." Ben said. "We have to get to the command center and see what's going on." Together the two rangers and Ben made their way to the command center.
Audrey got a couple steps ahead of the couple and almost took a very lopsided topple when another tremor followed but before she hit the floor Jay caught her in his arms. "I thought princesses were supposed to be graceful." He teased her.
She fought to hide the blush coming unbidden to her cheeks. "Yeah, I was out on the day they taught the chapter 'grace under earthquake'." She tried to deflect with humor. Then she added, "Thanks."
Mal and Ben were with her now and they saw they were the last to arrive. It looked like Carlos had been there already helping Doug while Jordan and Lonnie had been working to help Jane with Lonnie's idea.
"What is Paradias up to now?" Mal questioned.
"We can't be sure that it is him." Doug answered her. "All we know is we just located a disturbance just outside the canyon area."
"This could be good." Evie said. "I mean the last time we had this happen it released your zord Mal."
"It could be." Mal said dubiously. "There's only one way to find out guys."
"Go ahead." Jane said. "Jordan and I will finish this up as quickly as possible in case you need it. We even have this idea implemented for you too Ben."
"Can't wait to see it." Ben said as the seven teens headed out of the command center and toward the canyon area. They ran as quickly as possible to the area.
They found Sermaya surrounded by several rock formations. He turned to face them. "Look what I found, six rangers and my old friend." He said. "Have you come to join me?"
"In your dreams." Audrey said.
"I know what you meant now by that comment." Ben said. "But you're wrong. The fact that some part of me might have some beast inside of me doesn't make me like you."
"We'll just see about that." Sermaya replied. "You shall change your mind soon enough. Because of your friends I have returned and I intend to rebuild what I have lost." He walked toward one of the stone slabs. "You have no idea what your world holds." He told them.
"Well it held you." Lonnie noted. "It does stand to reason there are other things out there, though some of them might not be so wondrous." Jay and Carlos had a good laugh at that comment.
For his part Sermaya ignored the laughter. "One of those just happen to be right here. If you had shown up before the earthquake you might have been able to stop me." He stopped up to one of those stone slabs. "Too little, too late rangers. Now you can meet the one who will help me to bring you to the fold, my brother," He looked to Ben. "Before we return this world to what it once was."
"Why don't you just use that weird breath thing on him like you did the first time?" Carlos wondered.
"Shush." Mal said. "Don't give him any ideas."
"It's because you can't, can you?" Evie asked. "The first time you did it Ben wasn't aware of his powers. But now he is and that offers him protection from your influence."
"Interesting observation." Sermaya said with a shrug, neither confirming nor denying it. "Of course your powers didn't stop your purple ranger from being affected by that love spell." Sadly he didn't truly know the half of it but they weren't about to explain about the nightmare invasion. He then shattered the stone.
What emerged from it seemed to be centaur, a being that was a human above the waist and a horse below the waist. He twirled a staff with large staff in his hand. Sermaya grinned happily. "Rangers, welcome my mage Chiron to the new world."
"More magic." Audrey sighed. True some of it had benefited them all before but it seemed to her that more often than not it worked against them.
"Then let's make sure he doesn't get the chance to use it." Mal declared. She looked to her boyfriend and her friends. She was glad she could finally include Ben in this. "Let's get to work." The six rangers pulled out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.
Ben brought up his left arm to summon the shield, his right hand extended to summon his sword and then clanged sword against shield as he called out, "Armor up." From his hands the shiny silver armor started to form and then traveled from his arms and then once it reached his shoulders it encompassed his entire body.
Sermaya charged the Ben and he raised his arms to try to intercept the beast warrior. He felt the impact jar his very core but at least he withstood the charge which was sadly something the rangers had not been able to endure.
"I don't suppose we can talk any sense into you." Lonnie said as the six rangers started to move toward Chiron.
"Sense?" He asked, his voice not quite as loud as Sermaya's but the edge was still there. "You beings are responsible for the fact that my kind was very nearly put to an end." He laughed and twirled his staff. "There is no sense in that."
"We didn't even do anything to your race." Jay said.
"I know right." Carlos said. "None of you are anywhere in our history books."
Chiron merely twirled the staff and charged toward the rangers. Since he had the four hooves of a horse it was a pretty quick charge. He powered up a blast that he intended to deliver right against Carlos.
Evie got in the way with her mirror shield raised and it deflected the attack, sending him sprawling backwards.
"Nice trick." Chiron acknowledged.
"You haven't seen anything yet." Mal said as the rest of the ranger's summoned their weapons. Jay and Carlos struck his upper body first, followed by Audrey and Lonnie, and the last was Mal. All five strikes sent him back a few paces but despite the upper torso it barely seemed to do anything to him.
"That armor gives you a strength that is very hard to meet." Sermaya said. "At least for most people." He then head butted Ben in the head and it caused a ringing in his ears. Then he brought both his fists into Ben's chest and sent him sprawling backwards. He then jumped up and tried to land hard on the Auradon Knight but he rolled out of the way and tried to slam his shield into the monkey/lion beast warrior but he caught it and twisted it hard, making Ben sprawl to the ground hard.
The half horse mage sent a blast of magical energy at the six rangers and sent them flying in all directions. Mal had to use her staff to hook into an exposed root in order to avoid plummeting to the ground far below. She pulled herself up barely.
Ben rose and slashed Sermaya back, but again he barely seemed to feel it. He jumped back and landed by Chiron. "It's time." He told his mage. "Let's play our trump card."
Chiron laughed and formed a large circle of energy and sent it hurling into the seven teenage warriors. Ben landed hard and then started to get up. He noticed though that he couldn't find Mal and that the other rangers had gotten up only for the five of them to start toward the two beast warriors casually. "Guys, what's going on?" Ben asked confused. "What are you doing?"
"These people are under my control." The mage said gleefully. "And we will make them all walk off the bluff and into the ocean in two hours unless you agree to join us."
Ben hesitated as he drew his sword and got ready to charge them. Then the mage swallowed up the five rangers and Sermaya with the beast king echoing, "Two hours Ben, you join us or your friends die."
Ben felt his legs about to go out on him before his mind caught up with the situation. Only five rangers taken…where was Mal. "Mal?" He called out anxiously.
"Oh, that so hurt." The purple ranger moaned as she got up, holding her shoulder. "I hope Jordan's grape drink works on dislocated shoulders." She stopped as she realized they were alone. "Hey, where are the others?"
"You didn't hear?" Ben asked, shocked. Mal shook her head. "That mage took control of them, I have two hours to join up with Sermaya and Chiron or they're going to force them all to walk off the bluff near the beach." He cocked his head a bit. "Mal, how did you not get affected by that a spell?"
Mal thought a moment unsure until she realized something. "I have my crystallized dragon zord in my pocket. Since it's not something I would have wanted to be affected by its presence must have protected me from the spell."
Mal tried to reach for her spell book and flinched in pain. Ben took a hold of her and pulled her close. "Let's get to the command center. Jordan can heal you and the two of you can decide on what our magical options are. Otherwise I won't have any choice but to join Sermaya as he wants."
The last two warriors came into the command center, powered down. Ben sat Mal down on one of the consoles. Jordan already had prepared one of the grape flavored healing drinks that had healed them all after the last incident as Ben looked to her. "What are we supposed to do now?" He asked the genie girl. "How can we free the others from that spell?
"I don't know." Jordan answered simply. "The problem is that the kind of magic that horse mage used is older than anything I've ever heard of."
"What about the power up we were working on?" Mal asked, flinching just a bit. Her shoulder was healing but was still sore. "Can we use that somehow?"
Jane shook her head. "I don't see how." She answered softly. "It's an enhancement that has to be activated by the users, obviously you guys in this case." While she spoke Doug brought up an image, knowing they would find Sermaya and Chiron at the bluff already, with the controlled rangers there and ready for the order. "They aren't in any condition to activate it."
Jordan frowned in thought. "Maybe we actually can kill two birds with one stone here." She mused.
"What do you mean?" Mal asked the genie.
"We were still working on a way to let you implement the enhancement." Jordan revealed as she walked over to the console. "Originally we were going to tap it into your iPhones as an app of some sort." She continued and then looked to Ben. "But then you kind of dashed that idea when you got control of your powers, and you don't use a iPhone."
"Uh, sorry." Ben tried weakly, knowing it wasn't really his fault and that she wasn't really accusing him of anything.
Jordan just waved it off. "Technically we could still pursue that route but it'd be nice to find an option that was open to all of you."
"Sorry to interrupt, but we are on a time crunch here." The purple haired girl said, knowing they had lost at least a half hour so far. "What does this have to do with helping the others?" Mal asked her.
"You were immune because of your dragon zord, right?" Jordan queried and Mal nodded. "So I think we should make the trigger off of your zord's dragon scales." She finished and looked to Jane.
Mal nodded. "It might cancel out Chiron's spell." She agreed.
Jane thought a moment. "It might be possible to do that. The tricky part right now would be how to get it on the others." Jane mused.
"What about something like a paint ball gun?" Ben suggested. "The back of the dragon scale could be coated with some kind of adhesive that sticks to the suit." He crossed his arms over his chest. "That way it cancels out the spell and allows them access to the power up."
"Well the adhesive coating would only be a temporary solution." Jane mused as she none the less started to work on it. "But we can worry about a more permanent solution to the activator after we have everyone here safe and sound."
"The big question is how long will it take to carry out this idea?" Mal asked as she took out her crystallized dragon.
Jane thought a moment while Jordan answered, "On the magic side the spell canceller thing shouldn't take that long, we just have to hope I choose a powerful enough one." She shrugged as if it were no big deal but in fact her face showed she knew it was a really big deal. "We still don't know the extent of Chiron's magic and we have no time to find out, if I choose one that isn't strong enough then it won't work, and I don't if there could be any bad effects if I choose one that is too high, especially to Evie." As daughter of the evil queen, she was the only one of the five spelled rangers to have magical potential.
Mal found six loose scales off of her dragon zord that could be used. The dragon meanwhile seemed perfectly content to have gotten groomed up a little. She was going to give them to Jane but Ben stopped her, took the scales and took them to her himself. "What about on your side of things?" He asked.
"Linking them to the part of the grid that contains the enhancement is easy enough, the adhesive should be easy enough to apply, but the complication comes from laying the fiber optics patterns into the scales." Jane said and at their confused looks she clarified, "The patterns being in the scales is what allows the enhancement to flow from the grid into your actual suits."
"We'll also have to make the delivery system, but modifying your blaster for that is easy too." Doug said as he called up Mal's blaster from the system to do just that. "The big part is laying the groundwork in the scales."
"Well let's give it a try." Mal decided as she placed her hand over Ben's. "The alternatives are ones I'd rather not have to deal with." She wasn't sure what scared her more; Ben turning himself over or her friend's/chosen siblings being forced to fall off the bluff, probably to their deaths. She hoped she didn't have to find out first hand.
Time seemed to go by quickly, and Mal was becoming more and more anxious. The blaster was modified, simple enough. Jordan put the de spell component on the scales easily enough while reminding them that she could only guess what strength it had to be to be effective. The real nail biter was watching as Jane meticulously modified the dragon scales for their other purpose.
They were quickly reaching their time limit when Jane handed five scaled to Doug to load into the modified part of the blaster. She then walked over and handed one to Mal and one to Ben. "Put these on your upper shoulders, when you want to activate the enhancement press on the dragon scale." She instructed.
"Do I have to get the other scales on their shoulders?" Mal asked as she glanced at Doug loading up the scaled into the blaster.
Jane shook her head. "Only if you really want to challenge yourself." She said with a small joking quality to her voice. "Just get it on them, we'll worry about placement later. What matters right now is disrupting Chiron's spell."
Ben and Mal nodded and then headed out of the command center, transforming as they got outside and headed toward the bluff.
They made it close with minutes to spare when Ben stopped Mal. "I have to face them alone." He declared.
"Are you crazy?" Mal asked.
"Think about it." Ben insisted. "If I go alone they should focus on me. That will give you time to give those scales to our friends without you getting caught in the process."
The purple ranger grimaced under her helmet. She didn't like it one bit, but it didn't change the fact her boyfriend was right. "Be careful, and know that I'm going to tag them as soon as possible so we can take them both out."
"I'd expect no less." Ben promised his girlfriend. "I'll see you soon."
Ben made the rest of the way directly while he suspected Mal would cut through the rocky terrain that surrounded the bluff. He found Sermaya and Chiron waiting for him. "I see you have chosen to join us brother." Sermaya said.
"I won't just join you willingly." Ben told him. "But here's a counteroffer. Defeat me in a fight and I join you willingly. If I defeat you then you release my friends and leave me alone." He drew his sword and shield. "How about it?"
Sermaya eyed Ben curiously. He wasn't a fool, he was sure that the boy had some plan up his sleeve, including the obvious missing link he saw. "Where did your little girlfriend go off to?" he demanded to know.
"She didn't come." Ben bluffed, being glad that the helmet protected his eyes from being seen or else he was sure Sermaya would have called his bluff. Lying was not a skill they promoted in Auradon after all. "She didn't want to see me put my freedom on the line like this."
"You would think a being from the infamous Isle of the Lost would have more iron than that." Sermaya stated and he, along with Chiron, had a good laugh at that. Ben was glad they couldn't see the look of anger on his face. He wondered what Mal thought about that little comment, assuming she heard it all.
"Alright, boy. I agree to your terms." Sermaya stated and then jumped out, intending to crash down on Ben but he was able maneuver out of the way. The shockwave was still enough to catch him off guard. The beast warrior smashed both fists hard into the knight and sent him sprawling backwards. He moved to bring his fists down onto Ben's chest but he raised his shield to block the attack. "You can't hold out forever boy. Steel can bend and crumble."
"In time." Ben agreed as he lashed out and kicked Sermaya in the chest hard. The attack sent him back long enough for him to rise, the silver armor gleaming a bit in the light. "But not right now."
"Why do you fight me boy?" Sermaya asked. "As a fellow beast I can give you the world."
"You do know I'm already king of this land, right?" Ben questioned.
Sermaya laughed. "How little youth understand. Being King is nothing compared to being a monarch, being an emperor. That's real power and I can give it all to you." He said. "Just join me. Join us and help us rebuild the world as it once was."
Ben shook his head. "No one should ever have that much power." He said. "And if your world fell, it was probably meant to. You had your chance and it's gone. This is the world you live in now."
"For now." Sermaya corrected him. "That will change, sooner than you like. I can do this without you as well, the choice is yours to make. With me or against me, my brother."
"Against you. And I'm not your brother." Ben replied simply.
"So be it." Sermaya said. "Chiron, make his friends take their last plunge."
Luckily for the rangers Chiron had watched the fight between his master and the knight and had not kept a close eye on them, just as Ben had predicted. That allowed Mal the luxury of being able to tag each of them in the shoulder.
"Time to dive kiddies." Chiron ordered as he raised his staff again.
For a moment the five rangers took a couple of step forwards and Mal was afraid something had gone wrong, and knew it would cost her chosen siblings their lives. Then they stopped. First it was Jay and Lonnie, followed a moment later by Carlos. It was seemed hardest for Audrey and Evie, and the red ranger almost slipped off anyway before the black ranger got a hold of her arm and pulled her to safety.
"Are you guys okay?" Mal asked as she rushed over to them.
"We're okay." Audrey said as she gently pulled away from Jay, patting his arm slightly. "Where's Ben?"
"Fighting Sermaya." Mal answered. "Let's get through his mage so that we can help Ben keep his freedom." The other five rangers nodded and together they turned to face Chiron.
"If you're trying to help your friend you're going to have to get through me." Chiron warned them and powered up energy in the staff and unleashed a blast of energy at the ranger team.
Evie raised her shield and deflected the energy right back at him. It sent him flying backwards and landing hard. "How do you like my nice trick now?" Evie taunted the mage.
"What do we do with these?" Carlos asked Mal as he was about to take the dragon scale off of his arm.
"No, don't." Mal stopped him. "We're going to need that in a minute."
"Ben!" Audrey yelled out as she saw him barely going fist to blade with Sermaya. She looked to Mal. "We have to jump in and help him."
"Ben!" Mal yelled out. "It's time to see how well this idea works."
Ben moved past Sermaya and joined the rangers. Then they all moved their hands to their shoulders and pressed down on the scales. The scales then activated the enhancements. All seven of them began to glow, their suits taking on a distinct neon glow just as Lonnie had during her hip hop performance when Mal and Evie had given her the neon glow, but this wasn't just for show. Combined with their powers it enhanced their strength and speed.
"Glowing like that won't stop me." Sermaya told them and again began his typical charge toward the team. Ben and Jay moved into intercept the beast king and he shot his fist out. Both boys caught it, the strain to do so was still in their posture but they had done it and in the case of the black ranger that had never happened before.
Moving quicker than they had before the five rangers leapt up. Carlos and Evie struck Sermaya with their weapons, it didn't seem to do much but he seemed to feel it, unlike last time. Then it was Lonnie and Audrey's turn. Finally Mal made her strike. It did little more than faze him but at least he felt it.
"See if you can finish him off." Ben said to the six rangers as he kicked Sermaya in the midsection hard and then brought his sword down against his chest. "I'll keep distracted for a moment."
The six rangers nodded. "Time for the Auradon Blaster." Mal decided. First it was her staff, with Audrey's bow underneath and Evie's shield behind. Then it was Jay's scimitar in the middle and then flanked on either side by Carlos's claw daggers and Lonnie's tessens. They could already feel the increased power of their blaster as they took their positions.
Seeing they were ready Ben slashed Sermaya away from him again and then rolled to the opposite side. The six rangers unleashed their blaster on him and it sent him flying. It didn't destroy him, much to their dismay, but he rose with his chest smoking.
"We must retreat." Chiron said to him. "They're still too strong."
"This isn't over Power Rangers, Auradon Knight." Sermaya promised, giving Ben a glare that let him know that he would no longer be asking for a partnership as he tried to reclaim the planet. With that they were gone.
"Everyone okay?" Ben asked as he looked toward the rangers.
"Thanks to you guys." Lonnie said. "And I assume Jordan, Jane and Doug had a hand with the logistics behind it."
They powered down and went to the command center. Jane wanted to try to make sure there were no ill effects from the control while Jordan worked to make the permanent integration for their powers and the power boost.
"Great idea Lonnie." Evie said with a smile.
Lonnie smiled back. "Couldn't have done it if it weren't for you and Mal doing that the first time." Sher reminded her.
Ben looked to Audrey. "It looked like you wanted to say something just before Sermaya struck." He noted. "Want to talk about it now?"
Audrey hesitated. She didn't want to discuss it in front of everyone just yet. She thought Ben should be the first to know, that together the two who had been Chad's friend the longest could find a way to make things right again. "It can wait." She said simply.