Renet sat on one of the cushion backed chairs, her arms around her legs. Beside her was Melody who felt somewhat shocked herself as she tried to process what she had heard. They all were.
"That…that would explain why our powers shorted like that." Evie now tried to explain though her voice was going in and out as she fought her sorrow. "Our powers were adjusting to…to what happened."
"We're the morphing grid now." Doug added softly.
Mal suddenly pulled away from Ben to pace the command center anxiously. "No." She declared. "No way, there is NO way that everyone and everything there is just gone." She thought about her fellow purple rangers Amber and Serena. "I refuse to believe that." She finished, her voice slowly getting harder.
"Mal." Amy interrupted softly but firmly. She had tears rolling down her cheeks as she thought about their friends too. "I can feel it in Renet's mind. She's telling the truth. That would also explain the psychic overload Aquiella and I felt, the total snuffling of life on a planet like that, including April and Jennifer."
Fairy Godmother had shown up at the command center, having been texted by Jane after Renet's horrific announcement. She handed the time mistress a glass of water. "I think it would be a good idea to explain this from the beginning child." She advised softly.
"Yeah, please do." Mal agreed hotly. "Explain to us how Earth was destroyed with all life on it even though it's full of tons of ranger teams, plus the Turtles and Mutanimals and who knows how many others." Ben tried to take her hand to calm her but the purple haired girl was in no mood to be calmed down and took her hand back.
"M, stop." Evie said to her. "Calm down, we have to approach this calmly if we want to even try to find a solution."
Audrey laughed harshly. "A solution Evie? To a planet's destruction? What do you think we're going to do, rebuild a world from scratch?" She questioned.
"All of you, enough." Fairy Godmother ordered as she shot looks at each of them to hold off any further speculation. She looked to Renet. "Go on."
"I'm not entirely sure how this started." Renet started as she set down the glass of water and picked up the time scepter she used to travel to other times and dimensions, the latter of which Auradon was considered by Earth standards. "Someone, and I don't know who, started to rally the remaining forces of evil."
"What does that mean?" Ruby asked. "I thought the ranger's defeated all of them."
"We already know that's not true." Lonnie filled in. "In the past Amber has mentioned people like Scorpina and Bladerunner."
"Defeated doesn't always mean destroyed." Jane added. "Cam told us that his uncle Lothor and his minions weren't killed, they were sealed in the Abyss of Evil originally."
"And someone knew that. They started to rally the remaining forces into one. But not only that, they turned around and started bringing the fallen ones back." Renet said. They all gradually stood aside as Renet made her way to the center of the room. She raised her staff and projected an image on the screen in the command center. "They started to attack the ranger teams one by one."
On screen they saw large bird creatures that Mal remembered where called Tengas attacking the rangers. She recognized the six power rangers that had come to Auradon to help the Auradon kids rescue the Isle kids. To their surprise they saw they had the Green ranger again and there was a purple ranger as well. That knowledge saddened Mal even more.
"Is Tommy the white ranger?" Jane asked curiously.
Renet shook her head. "No, he still has the black dino powers. That is…was, Amber's friend Amy." She looked at the screen sadly.
Then they saw the ones leading the attack. Lonnie had a feeling the Asian looking woman was Scorpina, and beside her was a large golden creature with wings and in the sky was a large headed creature. That monster unleashed a huge beam that struck them all down. "Those are Goldar, Scorpina and Lokar." Renet clarified. "All former minions of Rita and Zedd."
"What about the purple and green rangers?" Miranda asked now. "Who are, er…were they?"
"Both of them are old friends." Renet answered. "The green ranger was Richie, who like Emily worked for Ernie at one point. He used to have a thing for the original yellow ranger Trini." That drew some attention as they thought Aisha had always been the yellow ranger; she had been the one to hold the powers on when they had come to the Isle. "And the purple ranger was also an old friend named Alexis Darling."
A/N: I did not create Alexis Darling, she was created by Rachel West and was borrowed with permission for another story of mine a long time back. A while ago she left the ranger community. For what it's worth this would not impact her series "Streaks of Purple".
The screen flashed again and they saw the six Zeo rangers that had also helped with that rescue being attacked by monsters that Evie remembered were called Cogs. On top of that was another ranger in gold and black. "That's Trey the King of Triforia and the Gold Zeo ranger." Leading that charge was three machine monsters. "That's Gasket, now the king of the Machine Empire and his wife Archerinna." Renet said. The third monster looked robotic and had blades in lieu of hands.
"That must be that Bladerunner monster Kat was talking about." Carlos said.
The three heads of the newly resurrected Empire unleashed a similar attack on the Zeo rangers as well.
"Is this going to be the same scene on everything we see?" Jordan questioned with a sigh. "This is really depressing alright."
"Someone did their homework." Aziz admitted ruefully.
"Something you would have no notion about." Jordan couldn't help but try to tease her longtime companion. This time it fell flat considering the circumstances.
Next came the moment Mal dreaded; the Space Rangers losing battle. The first thing they saw was a seemingly unlimited number of Velocofighters pursuing and shooting down the Astro Megaship. They weren't sure where exactly it landed once it was finally taken down.
She was relieved to see Karone as the white ranger fighting alongside Amber. She had had the dreadful feeling that they would see Astronema instead. Amy gave her older twin an understanding smile. Instead they saw the attack was being led by someone Renet identified as Darkonda. He was backed up by the Psycho Rangers and the minions that Renet called Quantrons.
Lonnie flinched as she saw Cassie struck by Psycho Pink and grabbed by Quantrons. "How much more of this do we have to see?" She asked.
"Each of the teams were overwhelmed by their enemies and stripped of their powers." Ally remarked softly now. "Horrible." None of them had met the Lightspeed Rangers yet or heard of their demonic enemies, in this case Queen Bansheera as they defeated them. Mal did not see a purple ranger among them.
"Why is it that Scorpina, the machine guys, and Darkonda are using their minions but Bansheera isn't?" Carlos asked.
"That's a good point." Renet admitted. "I don't know."
"Evil is not known for working so well together." Fairy Godmother said. "How did this coordinated strike even happen?"
"Dunno, it was like a total surprise to all of us." Renet admitted, almost sounding like herself now. That wasn't belied at all by the sight of seven rangers fighting and losing to some kind of metal monster and another group of minions the Cyclobots. "Those are the Time Force Rangers." Renet supplied. "That monster is the pink ranger's old partner Steelix, not to be confused with the awesome iron snake of the same name." That drew looks of confusion from them. "Never mind."
"Another purple ranger." Miranda said softly to Mal. She nodded and said, "Yeah."
"Her name is…was Kelly, she's the purple Quantum Ranger. Her powers are like Eric's but she joined with the ranger's instead of the Silver Guardians at that time." Renet provided for them softly. "It must be like a repeat to Wes, this is what happened when Ransik made his final invasion."
"This was going on the WHOLE time they were helping us?" Audrey asked, now feeling tremendously guilty.
"No." Renet said. "Most of this was very recent, aside from some of the escapees like Scorpina and Bladerunner."
"How does all of this result in the Earth's destruction?" Ellie asked. "Where were the Turtles or the Mutanimals?"
"She'll get to that." Mal guessed. Her tone of voice had changed and Amy suspected she knew why. She wasn't sure what to think about it but if she was guessed her twin's thought process right she knew it had to happen. "Show us what happened to the rest of the ranger teams."
Renet nodded. She showed the six Wild Force rangers losing to an Org that Evie wasn't familiar with, making the blue haired girl surmise it was a new Org that had not shown up during the initial attack. "Just what they needed." She mused. Again for some reason this one did not have the minions that Master Org had used.
She showed the six Ninja Storm rangers getting defeated by Zurgane, the number one henchman of Lothor. He was accompanied by the Kelzak Furies. They also saw a purple samurai ranger. "Serena?" Miranda questioned.
"No." Renet corrected. "The Ninja Storm team actually consists of three different types. The wind rangers, the thunder rangers and the samurai rangers. Their purple ranger Clara is…was, from the last category. Carly was kidnapped by one of Zurgane's monsters and brainwashed to help him fight."
Next they saw Tommy and his team mates, which also included a purple ranger. "That's Lindsey." Renet filled in. "She briefly dated Connor before he started to date another girl Krista." On the opposite side of that was a black monster. "That's Zeltrax and his Triptoids along with the Tyrannodrones, used by Mesogog originally."
"He doesn't seem to like Tommy or the yellow ranger." Aziz noted.
"He and Tommy have a history from his time before becoming the black dino ranger." Renet supplied. "In the end he and Kira destroyed him, and I'm pretty sure he didn't forget that. In his time he also targeted both Kat and Kim because of their connection to him."
Next they saw the Mystic Rangers in a fight against what seemed to be a mix of monsters. "That never existed before, whoever decided to make this final stand created that by combining a group of monsters called the Ten Terrors. It called itself the Nightmare Terror." That monster was accompanied by Hidiacs. There was no purple ranger there.
Next they saw the Overdrive rangers, in this case eight of them. "The orange ranger is the mercury ranger Tyzonn's fiancé Vella, powers that were specially created for her once the Armada started to surface." The time mistress filled in. "The purple ranger is…was…" She sighed at the continued mix up. "Stacy. She's a budding anthropologist, specializing in extra-terrestrials, a topic that has become popular since everything started a while ago."
On the opposite side were not one but three monsters. One was a male fire monster, the other a female ice monster. "That is Volcaron, Moltor's older brother and that is Glacia, Flurious's daughter. They put their families' history aside to work with Kamdor to overwhelm the Overdrive rangers." As if to prove the point they saw Lava Lizards and Chillers with them.
Next they say the five Jungle Fury rangers and the three Spirit rangers in a losing fight against a Chinese dragon monster. "That's Dai Shi, who became resurrected by whoever set this up. He's already injured his former host Jarrod the lion warrior and his former general Camille for what he saw as their betrayal the first time." Renet said.
"Lots of that going around." Audrey said. "I hope he wasn't half as bad as Chad has been."
Another one they dreaded came up next; the Samurai rangers. Amy noticed one thing immediately, "Where is Serena?" She asked now. "Was she forced to turn against her friends like Clara was?"
Renet shook her head sadly. "No. The first thing the Nighlok's did was to speed up the sickness that was weakening her, to keep her out of the fight. That was done by the new Nighlok leader Umbral Masquerade, a shape shifter who can use any source of water as it were from the Sanzu river." Along with that monster were lots of Moogers.
They saw the Mega Force rangers overwhelmed by Armada minions. At the head was a vaguely female monster. "That's Lisra, the Empress of what remains of the Armada fleet, out on something else at the time of the attack. I think she might have been the one behind the organization but I don't know that for sure."
They then saw the Dino Charge rangers in a losing fight against Snide and a bunch of his minions.
"This has even gone beyond Earth." Renet said. She shifted views to Mironi where six Galaxy rangers and the Magna Defender were in a losing fight against a monster. "That's Deviot, an old friend of Darkonda's. Like the others I don't know how he came back but he usurped what was left of Scorpius's powers for this."
"And the purple ranger?" Miranda asked.
"The yellow ranger Maya's friend Shondra. The purple quasar saber was embedded in a cave on their world but wasn't discovered until after their world was revived." Renet said.
Next she showed them the RPM rangers. "They are actually on a different time stream, but somehow the revived monster Venjix was in on what happened, probably to stop them from going to the others aid in any way, plus he wants revenge for them defeating him."
"Okay, so all of these monsters banded together to strip the rangers of their powers." Audrey said with a small frown of sadness. "But what does that have to do with the Turtles and the Mutanimals?" They had noticed in all instances rather than destroying the former rangers the villains had chosen to leave them to worry about their next moves, not realizing that Earth was set to be destroyed.
"They cleared the way for the Triceratons." Renet answered. She showed them what looked to be bipedal aliens that looked like Triceratops. "They're aliens that are at war with the Kraang after they destroyed their home world."
"The dinosaurs in the sewers that Raph and Jennifer were talking about." Ally said softly.
"Can't blame them for that." Jordan pointed out.
"No." Renet allowed with a nod. "But part of their agenda in stopping the Kraang is to wipe out anything they want. And that included Earth, where the Kraang have invaded twice before."
"So some monsters with vendettas against the Power Rangers remove their powers so that the Triceratons can destroy Earth virtually unopposed." Evie surmised.
"It's a bit more than that." Renet said. "Watch."
They saw the Turtles, April, Casey, Jennifer, Karai and a Latina girl confronting what looked to be Kraang drone. "Who is that?" Grant asked.
"That's a new friend of theirs that you haven't met. Her name is…was…" She sighed. "Angel and she fights with a suit of alien armor that she dubbed Nightwatcher armor. It's powered by a crystal called the Eye of Sarnath." She then switched views to the Kraang. "He was a one of handful of good Kraang who call themselves Utrom and came to help them stop the resurrection of the Technodrome."
"It almost seemed as if it they might fail, but it became moot when the Triceratons invaded. They destroyed the Technodrome before working to destroy Earth." Renet now told them. "The Armada destroyed the Megaship, as well as someone who was coming to help stop them, a scientist trapped in a robot body named Zayton Honeycutt."
"How did they destroy Earth?" Jane asked.
Renet showed them three ships carrying three large circular pieces. "Those are the pieces to the Heart of Darkness, which is a portable Black Hole Generator. As far as anyone knows, those pieces are indestructible." She answered.
"Uh, missing something here." Jay said.
Mal glanced back and saw the look of horror on the faces of Evie, Doug, Jane and Carlos. "They didn't miss anything." She commented.
"A black hole would destroy the planet with ease. And everything on it." Doug said. "If they activated that successfully it would take out everything. The morphing grid, our friends." He shook his head. "Everything."
"The Turtles went to stop it. They were joined by all of the Mutanimals." Renet said. They saw the giant turtle Slash that Raph talked about fondly, along with Rockwell, who had shown up to help them rebuild the command center. They were accompanied by a giant alligator, a pigeon mutant, two lizard mutants, two fox mutants and a garbage looking mutant. "That's the other members of the Mutanimals; Leatherhead, Pigeon Pete, Mondo Gecko, Alliyah's friend Candy, the white fox is Alopex and the brown fox is Ninjara, and that is Muckman." She filled in since they had not met all of the Mutanimals.
"In the process, well see for yourself." The screen showed Karai in snake form, Jennifer, Casey and the Mutanimals captured in force field bubbles along with all of the Mutanimals. "The leader of the Triceratons Admiral Mozar abducted Mikey." She looked down sadly at that, Amy could see her choking back tears. "Aaliyah and his brothers went after him. Splinter decided to seek help from a very unlikely source with April and Angel."
Mal felt her stomach tighten. She could only think of one thing. "No way." She commented.
"What?" Ben asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Splinter went to ask the Foot Clan for help." Amy realized.
Renet nodded. "Yes." She confirmed. "It seemed as if Shredder agreed to it." She showed the two girls and Splinter returning to the site of the Black Hole generator. They now had the masked bladed leader of the Foot Clan, along with his minions. The tiger mutant Tiger Claw. The fish mutant Xever aka Fishface. The large thin looking wolf monster Chris Bradford aka Rahzar. The mutant warthog Bebop aka Anton Zeck. The mutant rhinoceros Rocksteady aka Ivan Steranko. And some other bizarre mutant.
"Mikey named them all himself, except for Tiger Claw." The time mistress lamented sadly. Despite the best attempts and they saw the return of the five turtles the attack against the Triceratons still failed. Angel and April managed to free Jennifer and Casey. But the Triceratons activated the black hole generator and teleported away.
Even worse though, even though it looked like they may or may not have made a difference in the long run, when it seemed as if they were going to lose Shredder turned around and stabbed Splinter in the back as they were going for the generator. Amy gasped in shock, it was her vision come true. "No." She whispered.
"The rangers weren't there to help repel them. Fugitoid was destroyed by the Armada and wasn't able to come rescue the turtles, April, Casey and Jennifer like he had planned as back up." Renet said softly. The Auradon rangers watched as the five turtles and their friends gathered around Splinter's body. Mikey hugged his father, Jennifer cried as she kissed his cheek. Moments later the black hole that was created started to swallow both friend and foe alike, followed by the city of New York and then the whole planet Earth.
"No question that caused the psychic overload." Aquiella said softly. "And the shortage of the morphing grid."
Mal looked at her friend's tear streaked faces, blurry through the tears in her own eyes. That was mirrored again by Renet. "Mother would be so proud of them." Mal said bitterly. She shook her head. "I am not."
"All of those people. All of our friends." Audrey said softly as she laid her head against Jay's chest as she cried. "Gone."
Jane looked to Renet. "Can't you go back and fix this?" She asked now.
"I could go back." Renet said. "It would be breaking like a million time codes and junk, but I would do it. If it mattered." She looked to them all now. "I can't change anything on my own."
"It's time to go back." Mal said with determination in her voice that Amy recognized all too well. "And we're going with you." She looked to her team mates but saw no arguments in any of their faces, not even from Fairy Godmother who knew they were taking a substantial risk even with the temporary powers that their parents and friends had access too.
"How do we go about this M?" Evie asked her chosen sister.
Mal looked to Ruby. "You just started here. We can't ask you to.." She started.
"No you can't." Ruby agreed. "I'm volunteering. I'm a power ranger just like all of them, like all of you. I won't shrink away from that responsibility."
She looked to her friends. "We go back and stop the Earth from being destroyed by those Triceraton things, and we stop Shredder from being killed by that creep Shredder." Mal told them. "Then we work to help restore the ranger's powers, find out who orchestrated the alliance with the Triceratons and bring that down too."
"We're all with you Mal." Ben said as he placed his hands on her shoulders. "We owe them all so much. This is our chance to pay them back for all they've done for us." He smiled softly. "Besides they're all honorary citizens of Auradon and we don't turn our back on our people."
"Did you see the size of those dinosaur things, those Triceratons?" Audrey now asked Mal and Ben. "Don't get me wrong, I agree we have to help them but please tell me we have some kind of plan."
"Your ranger powers and the neon armor, which should still be functional despite the fluctuations in the morphing grid." Doug replied. "That should give you the strength to match up with those Triceraton things."
"I hope so." Jay commented. "Those things were bigger and stronger than those two giant mutants Slash and Leatherhead."
"I'll contact all of your parents and tell them what's going on." Fairy Godmother said to them. "I'm sure they will want to say goodbye and they will need to come claim the pastel powers again."
"I should go with them." Doug said to her. "They might need some technical assistance during combat and right now I'm the only one who can give that to them."
"Agreed." Fairy Godmother replied as she went over and placed an arm around her daughter's shoulders. "We'll find someone to take up the pastel gray powers if we need them."
It wasn't long before Belle, Adam, Aurora, Phillip, Snow, Rose and Mulan showed up. "Everyone else will be on their way here soon in case we're needed." Adam said as he went over and placed an arm around his son. "But judging by what Fairy Godmother has said you don't have much time to wait."
"You're right dad." Ben replied simply. "I don't know how much time we have."
"Well technically I suppose we have all the time in the world." Renet said with a shrug. "I mean, time mistress and all." She frowned a bit. "Still I suppose the sooner we get going the better off it will be…hopefully."
"I can't say I like the idea of all of you leaving Auradon and jumping into such danger." Aurora admitted as she took Audrey's hands into her own. "But I know it would be wrong to not help your friends out after everything that they've done for us."
Belle placed one arm around Mal's shoulder and the other around Amy's shoulders. She looked to them and then to her son. "Promise that all of you will come back in one piece." She said to them. Amy wrapped her arms around Belle.
"We promise mom." Ben said with a smile. He hoped none of them would end up breaking that promise.
Evie gave Rose and especially Snow an apologetic smile. "Seems like I keep running out on you guys, right?" She questioned only half-jokingly.
"We know you're doing what needs to be done sis." Rose Red promised with a smile and stroked her hair softly. "We're not going anywhere."
"Rose is right." Snow White said with a reassuring smile. She kissed Evie on the cheek gently. "We're family and we'll be here for each other forever, or at least as long as time allows." She then took her hands gently. "But Rose and I do have a going away present for you, you might need it." The blue haired girl felt her oldest sister behind her now as Snow announced, "As of this moment, with the blessings of Ben's parents, you're royal status has been restored to you. You are a true royal of Auradon."
Mal smiled at her chosen sister. "Awesome E." She said happily. The purple haired girl knew that she was all but a royal herself since she was with Ben and being her sister Amy could easily be considered that way herself.
"Normally this kind of thing should have gone through you Ben." Belle said with a small almost apologetic smile at her son. "But we wanted it to be a surprise, plus your father and I both knew where you would stand on that proposal."
"It's fine." Ben said sincerely. "I understand."
"Congratulations Evie." Audrey said to her with a small but genuine smile. She remembered the day that the four had first shown up to the school and she had rudely remarked that neither her mother nor Evie had royal status there. That had been long before she had gotten to know and like the blue haired girl. But the circumstances themselves just didn't warrant that much in terms of celebration.
Mal looked to all of them now. "I just wish we didn't have to leave you guys with such a problem." Mal said with a frown. "If mom were to do some of the things to you that she's done to us, and with your powers being temporary and all, well…I just don't like it."
"We'll be fine Mal, don't worry about that." Adam said to her as he went over to Belle, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Worry about your friends. About our people." They were all honorary citizens of Auradon after all.
Mulan hugged Lonnie even as she reached out to take Will's hand. "Wendy and Cinderella are going to get Whitney and Callie right now. Your mother wanted me to tell you to be careful and that she believes in you. She wants you to come home as soon as you can." She kissed Lonnie on the top of her head. "And that goes double for me."
"We'll be fine mom. Once we repel an invasion and start restoring powers we'll have help setting things right." Lonnie said softly.
"You know that sounds far easier than it really will be." Carlos pointed out nonchalantly. Audrey gave him a sharp look to try to keep him quite even as Jay punched his friend in the shoulder hard.
"Your friends aside, you are all going into an unknown land and unknown territory." Adam now said seriously as he looked to his son, the girl he had chosen despite all of his parent's initial doubts, and all of their friends. "Look after each other and be careful."
Mal hated to admit it but she knew both Lonnie and the former king had a point as she looked at the holo screen Renet had projected from her time scepter. Stopping the Triceratons from destroying Earth with the black hole generator was a small but vastly necessary step. Then they had to chop their way through who knew how many enemies, not to mention find the unknown mastermind behind the thing. They were all quite tall orders. She took a deep breath and kissed Belle on the cheek before walking up to Ben.
She took her boyfriend's hands in her own and the two squeezed reassuringly. She then looked to all of her friends and Renet. "It's time to get to work." She announced firmly. Her team mates and the apprentice time mistress nodded in agreement.