"They're here." Aquiella repeated. That drew the adult's attention as several scaled creatures on two legs came out of the water. Many of them were clearly guards with the spears. One held a blade of his own and Aquiella remembered that was one of their inquisitors. In front one of them held a staff, the one she assumed was the magistrate.
A chill passed through her for two reasons at that moment. The first was that their minds were so cold, so closed off. She could pick off some thoughts and impressions but it was like picking up solid items in a thick fog. The second was the way many of them were looking at her, making her wish that mermaids wore more clothing.
Adam stepped forward and draped his coat over the young mermaid, for which she was rather thankful for. "Thank you for meeting us here." He said formally. She could feel none of them liked the Neptune delegates all that much, though she could tell the feelings were more than mutual. "I'm King Adam from Auradon," Technically a lie but Ben couldn't be here. "This is Queen Jasmine of Agrabah, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, King Triton of Atlantica, and King Eric of…"
"We know where you are from." The magistrate spoke. Aquiella was chilled to know it was true. Granted, she could see why they knew where Triton and Eric came from but she didn't think they should know where the others came from. Especially those that came from a city in the desert like Agrabah.
"I'm sorry my husband the Sultan of Agrabah couldn't make it." Jasmine now said diplomatically. "He had an emergency arise that had to be attended too."
He waved off the apology. "It is of no consequence, besides I am sure you are authorized to speak for him." The magistrate replied. Aquiella had the distinct impression he did not approve of that, nor did he approve of Elsa for that matter. He had no thoughts regarding her, which was a relief compared to some of the impressions she was getting of what the guard around him thought of her.
Then she caught a fleeting thought about the small retinue that had been sent to the caves to bring the zord under their control. Aunt Ariel! She practically yelled, at least mentally.
The Forbidden Demon lashed out with the chains and slapped it hard into the warzord. Amy had to get a hold of the console edge to keep from losing her balance. She saw the look of concern in Alex's body posture from the back of the zord.
"Come out to play Audrey." Chad taunted as he slammed the Maledict blade into the megazord's chest. "I promise to come down to your level before the fun really begins."
Jay saw her shudder and he called out, "No chance of that you jerk."
Chad laughed. "We'll see how wrong I really am." He gloated. The shield was barely able to block a second strike from the knight's weapon but was unable to stop the kick in the chest that followed.
"Man I wish I could use the Praeleanthor sword right now." Ben commented.
"Me too." Lonnie agreed.
Jabberwock unleashed a stream of fire at the Auradon Falconbattlezord and sent it flying backwards, nearly crashing into the sea. Then it was on top of the battlezord, trying to pry the wings off of it.
"Get off of us you robo cockroach." Aziz growled. He tried to use the zord's fists to dislodge the monstrous general.
Ally couldn't help but wonder if this thing still wanted to destroy her because of its interactions with her mother Alice. If so that would explain why it chose to deal with them.
Gregory clashed with the dragonbear battlezord. The sad fact here was that flesh and blood fighters still tended to be quicker than the zords and he was slowly gaining the edge in the fight.
"He sure trained for these moments, I have to give him that." Miranda said to Mal. She knew from experience since she had trained a long time to be ready to fight as the Highlands ranger. But at least she was fighting for the side of good.
"We have to hang in there." Mal said. "We can find a way to beat these clowns…all four of them, somehow." She was sure her red headed Scots friend heard the doubt in her voice, she sure heard it in her own voice.
They found their way into the caves and easily found the waterways. It took up half of the cave area and it was hard not to be walking in water in some spots, though none of them seemed to really mind it. Wendy was just glad there didn't seem to be anything living in the waters, she kept bracing herself for the feeling of something slimy brushing against her legs.
"Do we have any idea how much further we need to go?" Mulan wondered.
"The water is flowing in the same direction we're going." Aladdin answered her. "If we follow it to its source we I bet we'll find what we're looking for."
"Too bad we can't see how the battle is going." Belle said as she glanced at the stone walls. It was dark enough down there that the stone walls almost seemed smooth, but she knew better. In fact if she squinted her eyes she swore she could see some of the large points jabbing out of the rock.
Ariel stumbled a bit as she felt her niece's loud insistent call. Belle reached out to take her arm gently. "Are you okay?" Belle asked.
"It's Aquiella." She answered. She could only assume by the tone she heard that something was wrong. I hear her sweetie. What's wrong? Is everything okay? She asked her softly.
The Neptune's are here Aunt Ariel, but they're doing the same thing you are. They want that zord. She heard her niece reply to her telepathically. Please be on guard and be careful.
We will Aquiella, I promise. Ariel assured her. Then she looked to the others. "We might have company. Aquiella saw from one of their minds that they're here for the zord too." She revealed.
"Was this agreement to a meeting just a ruse on their part to acquire the zord?" Elsa wondered.
"They've had this zord here all of this time." Aurora pointed out. "Why choose now to take it?"
"They were the ones who decided the meeting place." Ariel also pointed out. "If they wanted the zord, why bring us here?"
"Because we didn't come alone." Belle answered. "We came here with my children, with all of the power rangers. If they weren't being attacked right now they would be looking for the zord right now."
"Of course." Aladdin agreed. "Calling the meeting here with the stipulation of not wanting any of the accusers here prevents them from taking the zord even if they found it."
Aurora nodded. "They would never take the chance of risking a major problem for the zord." She agreed. She knew even Audrey, who as her mother she had to admit sometimes couldn't see beyond what she wanted, wouldn't want to take that chance.
Belle nodded in agreement. Ben would never allow it and while she was also relatively sure that Mal wouldn't take that risk either she definitely knew that Amy would not take that chance. "Alright so that's why they called the meeting here, but why are they seeking it out now then?" She wondered.
Mulan could only think of one reason. "Orders from Paradias or Maleficent." She concluded. "One zord is good, two is better. And if it's more powerful than the warzord is…"
Belle nodded in understanding. "Let's get a move on then." She said. "I don't want to fight the Neptune's if we don't have too and I don't want them getting the zord. Our best option is to get the zord ourselves."
The group continued on further only to find the cave systems growing wider, the water still going in the same direction and they could hear that roaring and rushing of water that Ariel was sure to bet was a waterfall. It allowed them to spread out a bit as they waited for any sign of movement or indication where the zord would be.
They continued to get to a wider area that lead to a descending waterfall and they could just make out a rounded metal top when they also ran into something else. Several Neptune soldiers. "Oh, just perfect." Belle sighed.
They didn't seem that surprised to see them there. They started toward the group, but their stances didn't seem all that friendly. Mulan made sure she was approached first, and when he tried to jab her with the spear he held she reacted lightning quick, bringing the sword around to chop the spear in half before slamming her elbow into his face, making him fall into the water and down the waterfall.
"Everyone be careful. "Snow White advised, also seeing the maneuver. That also meant that they could do the same thing to any of them. She wasn't sure any of them would survive the fall either.
Another lashed out, this time at Aladdin, but he dodged under the short sword his opponent was using and then came up with his scimitar to disarm him. He then gave him a back kick in the chest and sent him hitting the cave walls, knocking him out.
Belle moved to recover the short sword the warrior had dropped to keep one of them off of her and Aurora but he didn't have the skills that Aladdin and Mulan possessed and wasn't able to disarm him. He moved in again and Wendy slammed her hands into his chest as hard as she could, sending him sprawling down the waterfall.
"Nice one." Aurora said to Wendy, who smiled back.
Ariel actually seemed to be fighting a couple of them with Jasmine's borrowed scimitar and doing a good job at it. Belle wondered if Melody knew her mother could do that. She disarmed one of them of their spear and kicked him hard enough to knock him out against the other wall. She started to clash with the next one and Snow White picked up the spear and hit him in the back of the head with it as if it were a baseball bat. He let out a weird sound that might have been a scream and turned on her. But that was a mistake as Ariel grabbed him by the arm and flipped him over her body, knocking the breath out of him long enough to be carried up by the rushing waters and down the waterfall.
The Neptune guards were almost done. Most of them actually started to panic when Elsa released a burst of icicles to keep them off of Aurora and Snow White and the Arendelle Queen figured out ice was not their friend. But one of them lashed out a bola and it wrapped around Belle's ankles. She lost her footing and fell toward the waterfall.
"No, Belle!" Aurora called out and tried to lash out to get her but missed, also scratching her chin in the process.
Elsa quickly lashed out her powers at a point to the waterfall and freezing it. Belle grabbed onto the icicle shard but couldn't pull herself up.
"We have to get to her before it's too late." Ariel said even as the Neptune soldiers started to regroup at their distraction.
Aquiella very quickly realized two things. The first was that the magistrate and the inquisitor truly did not know anything about their executioner having come to Undine to attack Auradon. That simply proved to her the ruler of the Neptune Kingdom had sent the right people to talk to them, not that the attack wasn't sponsored on some level. The second was this was all distraction and posturing. It wasn't her place to do anything but if she were asked she would tell them to remind them that if they were to ever discover anything otherwise there might be repercussions to consider and be done with it. She wanted it over with, though part of that was the attention she kept receiving from most of them despite Adam's coat covering her upper body.
She placed her hand gently in the waters and took a deep breath, hoping to sense out what was going on with her aunt and the rest of the party in trying to find the zord. She could already see the horrible battle going on at the kingdom and she feared for her cousin's safety though in truth they had not known each other most of their lives and talked only a handful of times. Aquiella had been born only a month after Melody had been, when the walls had been built separating Atlantica from the kingdom. She had only met Melody after Morgana had been stopped.
She tensed as she felt the waters and realized that something had started to go south. She felt Belle struggling to stop from tumbling down the waterfall and that they were having a hard time reaching her as the soldiers tried to regroup.
Aunt Ariel and the others need me. Aquiella said simply to her grandfather. For a moment she wasn't sure he heard her but a slight nod of his head let her know he had. She threw Adam's coat aside, ignoring the even more obvious leers now, and dove into the water. She swam quickly under the waves and into the grotto that would lead to the cave. She could see the metal roundness of the zord, with only some breaks in the middle. She could feel where the waterfall left things off and was slightly disturbed not to see any guards lying there despite what feel of the waves.
She drew the water around her body; being able to control the elements of water was something she had learned from a young age and was the only one of the four elements she could control though with living around it she did it with such ease even Amy would have been impressed at the skill. But she knew she had to do it quickly because once that water was gone she was just a mermaid stranded on the rocks without her aunt and the others.
The water shot her up and she extended her arms to grab Belle around the waist and then landed against the ground hard. Ariel rushed to her niece's side and was glad at least her tail touched the water so this wouldn't kill her.
"Thank you." Belle said to Aquiella. "You saved my life."
Aquiella nodded though her left side hurt from the landing. "You're welcome your majesty." She started to try to get up and noticed they were again trying to attack. She closed her eyes and started to focus, though at this point she was exerting her abilities. Her nose started to bleed even as several starfish levitated out from the waters far below and then were thrown as if they were shurikens and it sent most of them running.
One of them chose not to run and threw his spear right into Aquiella's stomach. She let out a shriek and fell to the ground. Ariel was horrified to see the blood quickly pooling. "No." She gasped.
Aladdin and Mulan double teamed the last one and he fell to the ground in a heap.
"We have to get her help." Ariel said softly.
"There's only one way I know of to get her help." Belle said softly even as Elsa removed her shawl and started to gently wrap Aquiella's stomach to staunch the bleeding. She redialed the phone. When Doug picked up she said, "Time to get this thing moving and fast. We have more to worry about now that a zord."
"I've got it figured out." Doug told her. "Here's what we have to do…"
"I don't know how much more of this we can take Mal." Audrey said to her purple haired friend as Chad slammed his shield hard into the Auradon Defender Megazord, causing them to lose their own shield. She felt tears of frustration and worry brimming in her eyes. She hated losing, but she feared what Chad would do to her even more.
"I know what you mean." Mal assured her as the Gregory disarmed the dragonbear battlezord and then rammed his axe straight into the chest of the zord.
"We're losing power." Mal heard her little sister say in a very scared voice. It was times like this that Mal forgot that they were twins who were the same age who were not the same height and weight. At this point all she thought of was her little sister, trying hard to be brave but feeling scared. "We can't take much more of this."
"Hang on Amy." Melody tried to reassure her friend. Will recognized the tone he used with his sister when she was upset. He thought Melody would have made a great big sister. "We'll get through this, we'll figure something out."
"Any ideas would sure be appreciated about now." Jane said as the chains of the Forbidden Demon slammed into the Auradon Falconbattlezord once again. It sounded really bad when arguably the smartest person of the team was saying that one. "We're down to auxiliary power."
"We're down to less than half of that." Carlos told her.
"We've got to pull it together." Miranda said. "We're the Auradon Power Rangers and we cannae lose here. Auradon and our entire planet our depending on us."
Mal grit her teeth as she remembered TJ telling her and Audrey about the time he and the Turbo Rangers had lost all of their zords and weapon to take out the monster Goldgoyle. She was starting to wonder if she was now facing that situation herself.
Lonnie was remembering something slightly different. Amber telling her that when Rito Revolto had shown up he had, with a lot of help, destroyed the Ninja Megazord and the Tigerzord and how devastated that made them all, especially Kimberly. She could only imagine how Mal would feel if her dragon zord were lost.
Will unleashed a barrage of missiles from the Auradon Warzord but the chains of the Forbidden Demon lashed out and destroyed them prematurely.
Mal felt the tears threaten in her eyes now. "We…we have to move in close. To the demon thing. And…and prepare to initiate power overloads." She choked out.
"What? Mal, we can't." Amy's voice came back shakily.
"She's right, we need another way Mal." Ben agreed as he patted his own console and felt his horse zord within.
"I don't see one Ben." She said. "We have to stop this thing for the sake of our world and the people in it."
"We have to find one." Aziz replied now as he thought of the falcon zord, sentient in the same way as Mal's dragon zord or Ben's horse zord.
"Your dragon…" Audrey started.
Mal swallowed back a lump in her throat. "Will understand." She ended softly.
Forbidden Demon gathered its hands together and unleashed a brutal assault that struck all four zords hard. They hit the earth with a loud shudder. That however brought an end to the debate as Carlos declared, "We have no more power you guys." Audrey and Evie sighed in resignation and Jay slammed his right hand into his left palm.
"We have powers but no control response." Ally said as she too sounded near tears. "We can't fight back now."
"Mal, what do we do?" Amy asked from the downed warzord. As always she had faith in her sister and the purple ranger felt such sadness that she had nothing to offer this time. "Our controls are frozen too."
Mal sighed and looked at Miranda softly. "It's over." She said to the Highlands ranger, possibly the only one she could feel sure she could confide in besides Ben, Evie and Amber. "We've lost."
"We did whatever we could." Miranda replied softly, consolingly. "We have to take whatever type of comfort we can in that."
The three generals started to gather up energy in their weapons as the Forbidden Demon gathered energy up. There was no doubt that the next attack would destroy the zords and injure or even kill the rangers themselves. Mal wished to be by Ben even as she was sure some of the couples who could, like Audrey and Jay or Ally and Aziz, were saying their goodbyes. She was glad at least Amy had her three friends with her in the warzord.
Even as the attack was about to commence there were a massive stream of laser blasts that struck all four monsters. The three generals fell back hard even as the Forbidden Demon looked up to the skies with the rangers to see the last thing they expected.
"Did I hit my head or something?" Carlos wondered.
"If you did I did too bro." Jay said.
"Is that..?" Aziz started.
"A giant clam?" Jordan asked in shock.
It was in fact just that. It was a giant hard shelled clam that had just enclosed the lasers in its outer shell. The Forbidden Demon moved again to attack the four zords but it was in front of them and took the blow with almost no damage done to it.
"No way." Ally said.
Only one thing made sense to them. "Mom." Ben called.
From inside one of the areas Belle replied tiredly, "Hello honey. We found something for you." They did not know about Aquiella yet, she was currently laying with her head on Ariel's lap, the shawl wrapped tightly around her stomach. What they hadn't realized is that Amy could already feel the mermaid girl's pain.
"Oh my…" Jane whispered. "The Auradon Ultrazord. I thought that was a myth, but it figures Zordon would have that somewhere here."
They heard the familiar and in this case very comforting voice of Doug now from there helmet intercoms. "And there is more than enough slots in there for your zords. Take it for a test drive and take out this Forbidden Demon."
"We have no power." Lonnie said softly. "Or no responsive controls."
"We take that chance right now." Mal decided. She didn't want to lose the dragon zord if she had another option, she didn't want to lose any of the zords if she had an option. "Auradon Ultrazord online!"
The clam opened up its mouth again and the four battlezords were surprisingly drawn right into the massive zord; Jane was certain it had to be a tractor beam of some kind. She was impressed and was looking forward to seeing the schematics on it.
Chad and Gregory moved in to attack while the zords seemed vulnerable but like that the clam angled down and their weapons collided harmlessly off the shell of the zord. That was a surprise to them, especially with Chad wielding Maledict's blade.
"It looks like this works independently." Jane announced. "We have more than enough power despite the conditions of our zords."
"We still have four targets to worry about." Ally noted.
"Not a problem." That was from Carlos. "There are more than enough cannons to target them all and still have excess firepower." He laughed a bit impressed. "This baby was built to deal damage."
"Then let's put that firepower to good use." Mal said. "Auradon Ultrazord, lock on and fire!" They could hear that cannons moving and locking onto their targets. They could see the massive firepower that was now being unleashed on the four of them. The three generals automatically shrunk down to avoid the brunt of the attack as they joined Paradias and Maleficent.
There was nothing the Forbidden Demon could do but take the barrage and it was so overwhelming that it destroyed one of the most destructive demons outside of the underworld that had spawned Chad's weapon. And with nothing standing between the high powered zord and the enemy, the five of them vanished.
"Yes!" Jay exclaimed in victory and profound feeling of relief. He felt Audrey wrap her arms around him and he hugged her back, lifting her briefly in his arms. "We did it babe."
"We did it." Audrey echoed happily. "I thought we were going to die there."
Amy hugged Melody and then hugged Alex. She was too shy to admit it but she loved how his arms felt around her.
They left their zords to find the ones who made this possible but stopped as they found the group of adults gathered around a mermaid. "No, Aquiella!" Melody exclaimed as she ran ahead of the others and to her cousin.
"Hi." She said to Melody softly and coughed just a bit. She had blood on her outer hand now. "I…caught a spear with my stomach."
Belle looked up to Mal as Melody felt tears in her eyes. "She saved me, from taking a trip down a large waterfall where the zord was being held." She said to the purple haired girl. "Is there anything we can do for her?"
"We have to do something for her." Melody said to Mal as she took her cousin's hand and the panic increased as she realized her breathing was getting more shallow. "Please."
"A spell." Audrey started.
"A potion." Ally started as well.
"I won't be able to make a potion quick enough." Jordan said to them all gently. "All that blood, something got punctured, probably a lung. I don't have the time to make a mixture."
Amy looked at her scared and upset friend and the girl who had saved Belle's life, a woman who had shown her more care and concern for her than her own mother. "Mal, please."
"I don't have that kind of magic Amy." Mal said to her simply. Her sister looked like she was ready to cry with her friend and Mal glanced around at her friends. They owed this girl and they all knew it. "But maybe we can make it happen."
"How?" Audrey wanted to know. It wasn't a challenge, she was just as desperate to know as Amy and Melody were.
"Melody, I need you to focus." Mal said to the aqua ranger. She looked up and nodded. "Stand up." She did as she asked. "Take out your gems, or in your cases your weapons." She added as she looked to Melody, Jane, and her own prince Ben. They followed her instructions. They followed Mal as they placed their exposed gems around Aquiella and Ariel. "You two keep your hands on your items." She instructed Melody and Jane. They did so.
Mal sat down and gestured for Amy on her right and Evie on her left. Jordan sat down by Evie. "The rest of you just keep your thoughts on me, or on Aquiella." She said to her team mates that were still standing. The four girls took hands and waited for Mal.
"Please here my plea." Mal whispered, not sure if this was really a spell or not. What mattered was that it worked. "This girl helped us well, she doesn't deserve this fate, please restore her post haste." She didn't feel any magic in her body as she normally would and she felt the tears in her eyes, though she thought some of that must be Amy's as her twin was undoubtfully looking at Melody.
Nothing had happened and Ben could no longer see slow rising and falling of the mergirl's chest. "Mal." Ben said softly, meaning to console her as he placed his hands on her shoulders.
Audrey laid her head on Jay's arm and wiped tears from her eyes. Then she gasped, "Look."
They all looked up to see the gems glowing very brightly. "The magic, it channeled to our gems." Jordan voiced. They glowed and energy shot out, enveloping Aquiella. They couldn't all help but gasp, it was so pretty. They could see all their colors; two purples one lighter than the other, red, blue, black, yellow, both a light and a dark pink, gold, silver, white, a very light white like crystal, green, a light blue like ice and a brighter red like fire, even some gray as if to remind them all that just because Gregory was evil, the powers he wielded were not and would one day come back to them just as the warzord had. Amy blinked as she swore she saw orange and wondered where that had come from.
Aquiella let out a gasp. Ariel gasped in delight as she stroked her niece's hair. "Aquiella." She whispered. Melody did too and together the two hugged the girl. "Oh my pink." Melody whispered, not realizing she had borrowed her friend's favorite phrase, not that Amy cared. "You had us so scared."
"I'm so sorry." Aquiella said to them softly. "I'm so sorry Aunt Ariel, Melody."
"You did so well, I'm so proud of you." Ariel said to her niece softly.
They exited their Clam Ultrazord. Melody laid her cousin in the water and Aquiella ran her hand through it. "They left." She said to them all softly. "The Neptune assemblage. They saw the clam zord and left."
"So dad and everyone else are on their way back here?" Ben asked.
"Yes." Aquiella said softly as she felt Ariel gently pour some sea water on her forehead. Not a good thing for normal humans but a nice feeling for a mermaid. "And I bet they're very concerned about all of you."
They waited by the water and about a half hour later they showed up. Adam rushed to Ben and Belle, and after a moment they both came over to Mal and Amy. The two adults embraced Amy even as Ben reached over and kissed Mal on the lips passionately. "You are so incredible." He said to her.
Mal felt herself blush. "Just luck my love, just luck." She said to him.
Jasmine and Aladdin hugged each other tightly and then embraced Aziz and Ally. Jasmine reached over and squeezed Jay's shoulder lightly.
Elsa embraced her daughter and nephew tightly.
By that time Doug and come out and Evie smiled as she stood with him and her older step-sister.
King Triton swam over. "What happened to you Aquiella?" He asked her.
"She took a spear for Belle." Ariel told her father softly as she stroked her niece's hair. "But the powers of Melody and her friends saved her." She wrapped her free arm gently around her daughter. "I am so proud of all of you." She said.
"I'm proud of you mom." Melody said. "You did a huge favor for us and none of you had the powers we do to keep us safe." She squeezed Aquiella's hand softly. "I'm so proud of you Aquiella. You would make such an awesome power ranger." She laughed. "Too bad I can't see you in gray."
Aquiella laughed. "That would clash with my eyes." She said jokingly. She looked to her grandfather. "I'd like to spend some time with Melody and the others." She requested softly.
"We're not leaving until tomorrow afternoon." Melody said to him. "Please let her spend the night with us. We were going to have a girl's night in today anyway, the others wouldn't mind."
King Triton thought only a moment and nodded. "Of course." He said after he looked to Ariel for her approval. "Use the triton to give her legs, as I once did for your mother so long ago." Again Adam's coat was handed over as Melody used the trident to give Aquiella legs, for they knew when that happened she would be nude. "I'll let your mother know where you are." He promised Aquiella and then returned to the ocean.
"Let's get you all inside." Eric said as he came over and stroked Ariel's back lightly. "All of you need to get cleaned up and then we need to get food for all of you." Together they started toward the castle together.
"You don't mind that Aquiella will be here, right?" Melody asked Audrey and Mal.
"No." Mal said simply.
"The more the merrier." Audrey agreed. They both exchanged looks. They felt a lot of gratitude for what she had done today, what she had done made sure they didn't have to make the hard sacrifices that day. "I wish we had a power for her. She'd be a great ranger." The brunette princess said now.
"You're right." Mal agreed simply. "She's already proven she's a great friend." She gently rubbed Audrey's shoulder. "I think we've all proven that to each other, given that chance." She smiled at her.
Audrey smiled back at her only to feel a hand squeeze hers reassuringly. She saw it was Amy. From nearby she saw Evie give her a gentle but pointed look. Audrey took a small breath and made another decision. "Mal, Amy. There's something I need to tell you when we get cleaned up." She told the two sisters.