They had just gotten out of the limo when Aladdin and Jasmine announced they had to go bac to Agrabah. Aziz, Ally and Jordan decided they wanted to take them to the boat that would take them home. Jay said his good byes and was surprised when Jasmine embraced him and Aladdin clapped him on the shoulder comfortingly and told him he was proud that he was fighting alongside his son.
Elsa too to return to Arendelle and Ellie wanted to walk her mother back. Alex asked her to tell his mother he loved her and embraced his aunt.
"You don't want to go with your aunt?" Amy asked Alex curiously.
He shrugged non chalantly. "Let my cousin and my aunt have some time alone." He said. "They don't get it that often." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder affectionately and Amy didn't make any move to take that arm off of her.
Will wanted to go with his mother Wendy to pick up his little sister Whitney and walk them home. He promised to join them at the command center later. He and Lonnie exchanged soft kisses on the lips before he left.
"I do have one task that I need someone to go do." Fairy Godmother said as she approached and hugged Jane in her arms, glad to have her back and in one piece after the incident that gave them the ultrazord at a near great cost. "There's rumor of another gem in the burnt tower."
"The what?" Miranda asked.
"Ah, the burnt tower." Ben said as he held Mal's hand in one of his own. "It was supposed to be a turning point in Auradon's attempts to get those who they thought she be placed on the Isle of the lost."
"What do you mean?" Evie asked him curiously.
"The idea behind the tower was a place where one could turn themselves in willingly and there were supposed to be considerations extended for that move." Ben told them all. "But someone from the Auradon side instead tried to use it as a means to get those who did show up there and try to kill them."
"You mean burn them to death." Jay said with some disgust. "Who's idea was that?
"No, the fire was just an unintended effect, and no one knows whose idea it originally was." He looked to Lonnie. "It was your father who uncovered the treachery and was able save the people though. I think it was part of the reason they reluctantly agreed to go to the isle."
"Was this before or after my mother set her scheme into motion in Wonderland?" Mal asked. Maleficent had somehow gone to Wonderland and desecrated the very fabric of the already bizarre realm to the point where almost everything was darker and more dangerous than ever.
"Probably during." Ben guessed. "Maleficent was not going there quietly after all."
"And somehow a gem has wound up there?" Evie asked a little skeptically.
"Possibly." Fairy Godmother responded.
"Okay then." Mal said with a shrug. "I'll take Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Lonnie and we'll scope out this burnt tower." She decided. "Jane, Doug, Melody, take Aquiella to get her iPhone and her powers."
"I'll come with you guys too." Amy said.
"Me too." Alex added.
"It's not nearly as much fun but I guess I better see what I missed too." Ben said. "After all being the king of Auradon has its responsibilities."
Mal laughed. "Alright you two go ahead and take the fun route. We'll catch up with you guys at the command center, maybe with another gem in tow." She said to her twin sister and Alex.
"I'm actually going to find out what kind of school work I missed." Miranda said. "I'll meet all of ye in the command center later."
So the team split up and started on their way to their destinations. "Dad never told me about that." Lonnie remarked. "I guess maybe it was because he didn't want to paint anymore of a bad picture that the fact the Isle of the Lost exists in the first place does."
"I never heard about it either." Audrey noted. "Mom and Dad never said anything about it. I wonder if it's because they didn't know or if they felt the same way as your dad did." She glanced at Lonnie.
"You weren't the only ones in the dark." Carlos said. "We've never heard about it either, and given the hatred a lot of people on the isle have for the people of Auradon you'd think we'd have heard about it to fuel all of that propaganda."
"We would have never heard about it." Evie replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Think about it, the plot may have been orchestrated by some rogue person in Auradon but they also were saved by people from Auradon, Lonnie's father among them." She rolled her eyes. "They'd hate to admit they would have died if not for the actions of their enemies."
"Also I personally suspect they probably had a modicum of respect for the fact that they tried to do that." Mal added. "I mean, treacherous and deceitful. Describes most of the islanders to a tee."
They found their way to the burnt tower and Carlos checked his iPhone. "Looks like it's in the top floor somewhere." He said. "My guess would be that maybe someone wanted to sneak that onto the isle so they could find a way to use it themselves and dropped it in all the chaos."
"Well, I hope it's more sturdy than it look then." Evie said as she eyed a section of the floor apprehensively.
"Single file guys." Mal said. "No one stray too far from the group."
"Wow, this is so cool." Aquiella said breathily as she came down the steps, having to hold onto the railing as she was not entirely used to human legs yet. "How does all of this work?" She wondered as she glanced around.
"We can get into that later if you want." Jane said to the mermaid girl. She suspected though that she might not be quite able to understand it all. Still, she had no reason to not to try to explain it to her.
Amy and Alex sat down at the table in the corner of the command center. Usually it was pretty hard to find a spot when the entire group was there but in this case it was easy enough to do. Alex leaned back, putting his arms on the bench tops. Amy stumbled a little and ended up with her hands on his side and his head on his arm. "Sorry." She said sheepishly.
"No problem, glad I could support you." Alex said with a light and easy laugh. Amy giggled shyly, taking her hands off of him but cuddled up close to him.
Fairy Godmother took out the iPhone. They could see on the stand the gem that Snow White had given to Evie so they could make a new power, before things started getting hectic and they hadn't found a way to do so. As Jane started to place the gem into the socket of the iPhone Fairy Godmother looked to Aquiella. "Welcome to the team Aquiella." She said with a small bow. "You will work with Will, Amy, Melody, Ellie and Alex to pilot the Auradon Warzord, but on top of that you will be the only one besides the leader of the team at the time to be able to summon the ultrazord."
"So only Mal can summon it then?" Aquiella asked confused.
"Probably Audrey too." Melody filled in. "There have been fights where for various reasons Mal was not able to do be part of it and that fell on Audrey."
"I think we should allow Doug to summon it from here." Jane voiced. "Just in case for some reason Mal or Aquiella aren't able to do so."
"That's a good idea dear." Fairy Godmother acknowledged. "Will you see to it after the new iPhone is ready?"
Jane nodded. "Sure." She finished placing the gem and then reattached the two pieces together. She handed it to Aquiella. "Unlike everyone else's iPhones yours has a second thin coating of water, which should help you work some of your powers in battle." She shrugged a bit. "Probably nothing like the tidal wave from the last battle but you can at least read minds more clearly."
"Can you differentiate between reading mind and emotion?" Amy asked Aquiella.
"Somewhat." Aquiella answered. "Sometimes it's one in the same but sometimes I can filter through to the thoughts."
"Why don't we try you doing that while I work more from the emotional side, since I can't read minds?" Amy suggested and then shrugged. "Except for occasionally Mal's."
"Sounds good." Aquiella agreed.
"Didn't you read memories just before we came to the isle to get all of you?" Jane asked her curiously. She knew technically they had gone for Mal, Jay, Carlos and Evie. None of them had expected Amy but all the same no one could abandon her.
"I thought about that and I think it was someone' s way of making sure I was caught with what happened after mom," She looked down finding it hard to say despite the fact there was little love lost between the rose haired girl and evil fairy queen.
"Who's way of making sure you were caught up?" Fairy Godmother asked gently, knowing that it was best to push Amy away from those fights.
"The gem, or more accurately whatever part of Zordon and the others that seem to tap into these." Amy explained as she gently tapped her finger on the rose gem that was in her iPhone. "Something wanted me to make sure I wasn't completely clueless."
Sometime Jane wondered if they gave Zordon too much credit. Then again, there seemed to be a lot of reason to make those deductions. She assumed in the long run it didn't really matter. "Well whatever the reason it's probably better that it did." Jane said.
"Alright, now let's talk about your weapon." Fairy Godmother said to Aquiella.
They reached the top of the burnt tower. They were half afraid that the floor would give out on them at any moment. "I don't see anything that looks shiny enough to be a gem." Audrey noted. Carlos thought in a way that sounded like the Audrey of old but he had to admit he wasn't seeing anything either.
"If these walls could talk, they might be able to tell us what had happened up here." Evie remarked.
"I bet no one's even been up here since the fire." Jay noted.
"I think it'd be too much of a risk." Lonnie agreed. "If it weren't for the apparent historical significance I'd bet they'd tear this place down a long time ago."
"You think it'd be better off restored?" Mal asked her.
Lonnie thought a moment. "I don't know." She finally admitted. "I mean it's historical but at the same time, it was a very narrow tragedy. Something that I bet they don't really want our generation to know."
"Maybe it's something Ben could ask about." Carlos said. "I mean if it were restored it might be awesome to see. Or tearing it down could…well, they could place something here that would be just as nice."
It was then that they felt the entire building shake; the many parts of the roof came down around them and fire came with it. "What?" Audrey gasped.
The alarm went off and Aquiella jumped. She had never heard it before and it was startling. The others had and Doug was bringing up the cause of it. There were several rains of fire striking the Auradon area, originating from the volcano on the other side of the mountain where the Auradon Megazord rested.
"I thought that thing was basically dormant." Alex noted.
Doug made a few scans. "That's why." Amy shuddered just a bit as she saw the reason; the Infernal Flame monster had returned. In fact she was forced to wonder if had ever really died.
"Infernal Flame." Jane whispered. "He's back, or never left in the first place."
"And he's not alone." Doug said now. "He brought some friends with him, sort to speak." The view screen showed two other monsters. The first one was like some sort of fiery beast, but nothing like they had ever seen before. The second looked very much like Jane remembered Louie Kaboom did except this was not metal, this was fire.
"Those are new to us." Amy said to the Atlantica girls. "Wonder where these guys came from?" She mused and then added. "They could have come from that volcano…"Then she gasped, "Mal."
"I know." Doug said sympathetically. "We just found her and the others. They're inside the now burning burnt tower." He looked at them all. "And he's heading inside the tower."
"We have to go help them." Alex noted.
"Agreed." Jane said. "Just one slight problem; we're going to have get past the big flaming brute to do it."
"Then I guess it's a good thing you guys have the water girls on your side." Doug noted as he glanced at the Atlantica girls and Amy.
"Great for us." Melody noted softly as she looked at the view of the burnt tower. "Bad for them."
"As my sister would say, it's time to get to work." Amy announced. Aquiella remembered how they had transformed and Fairy Godmother had given her the numbers during the weapon talk. She, Melody, Jane, Alex and Amy input their numbers and transformed before leaving the command center.
"Wow." Evie gasped. "Audrey look out!"
The brunette princess looked up to see a small enflamed piece of wood falling toward her and was about to move but Jay was quicker as he swept her out of the way in his arms. "I always knew from day one I had you swept off your feet." He couldn't help but comment with a smile.
"Save the heat." Audrey said with a small laugh. "Right now, I could really go for a cold blast right about now."
"You'll need more than a cold blast princess." They heard as Infernal Flame came crashing down in the middle of the ruined floor. They felt the thing tremble, barely holding together. "You're basically going down to the underworld now ladies and gentlemen."
"Time to get to work guys." Mal said and then hesitated at their surroundings. "As gently as we can at any rate." The six of them pulled out their iPhones and transformed.
"You think that makes you safe?" Infernal Flame questioned as he shot a fireball at Mal. The purple ranger dodged but the attack hit a pillar, which collapsed. It struck the floor where Mal was and she let out a gasp of shock before falling through the floor with the pillar.
"Oh, no! M!" Evie gasped out. "Mal!" Lonnie and Audrey gasped in shock too.
"You're going to pay for that." Jay stated as he drew his soul scimitar and attacked the flame monster. He blocked it and then slammed his fist hard into Jay's chest. He went flying and hit a crumbled wall hard. He was actually pretty lucky it didn't break on him.
Audrey was the closest one now and she rushed to the edge of the hole. "Guys!" She screamed. "I can't see the bottom. I don't see Mal." She took a deep calming breath though it didn't help much. "I think…I think she fell to the bottom."
"We have to go find her." Carlos said.
"You're not out of the woods yet." Infernal Flame reminded them and as if to prove the point shot a stream of fire that blocked the staircase.
"Oh this is so not good." Lonnie remarked.
It got even worse as the entire place somehow magically managed to go dark despite the fires blazing all around them. They heard Audrey scream and Evie tried to grab at her. When the place lit up Audrey was no longer there and Evie barely avoided taking the same fall that Mal did.
"Audrey." Jay breathed. "How did he…" He started and then caught himself. "Chad."
"You're more than welcome to pursue your friends." Infernal Flame said. "You just have to deal with me first."
Alex and the four girls were just starting to think the monster had gotten bored or side tracked until the saw the lumbering beast. At least it looked lumbering until charged right at them with rapid speed. They barely dodged it.
"Alright, so how do I take on a fire beast?" Alex wondered.
"Right about now we're all kind of wondering that." Jane replied.
Melody glanced around. If they had been closer to the ocean it might have been one thing but there was little to no surplus water around for them to make a proper defense. "We're just going to have to do the best we can." The aqua ranger declared.
"Your best will not be good enough rangers." The monster said to them. "It's time for you to meet your doom…fire!" He unleashed a huge stream of flamethrower energy from both his three clawed hands, separating Amy and Alex from Jane and the Atlantica girls.
"Okay, so we call this guy Doomfire." Alex noted. "Seems pretty accurate for him actually."
"I'd rather call him a water hazard." Melody noted.
"We're going to have to figure out how to get by this thing." Jane noted.
Melody shot a blast of energy out of the trident but Doomfire raised his arms to block the attack and then disperse it. He then charged at the four of them with his long arms and swiped. The three girls on one side barely jumped over the strike while Amy was able to dodge it relatively easily since she was pretty short compared to monster. Alex dodged with her but with a bit more effort.
Not to be outdone it shot a fire wall to stop the rangers from continuing on towards the tower. It erupted in a huge stream of fire and Aquiella had to grab a hold of her cousin's arm to avoid the chance of her getting fried.
"You can't just get by me." Doomfire bragged to them. "You're going to have to defeat me to get to your friends."
"Isn't that just great?" Alex said with a small sigh. "We have to take down this big beast first."
"We'll find a way. Somehow." Jane said with more confidence than she felt at the moment.
Ben suspected the Praeleanthor sword was his first indication that something was going wrong, but any question of that became moot when the explosions followed. He had his parents with him as they were finding out what was going on while they had gone to Atlantica but the others had returned to their homes or where in that process.
"Where are the rest of your friends? Mal? Amy?" Belle asked her son with concern as he came to stand by them.
"Amy should have gone to the command center with Aquiella to receive her powers." Ben answered. "Mal was taking the original team up to search the burnt tower for something Fairy Godmother detected."
"She found something in that old place?" Adam asked a bit surprised. "We scoured the place after the unfortunate attempt at mass murder and found nothing." He hesitated. "Of course looking for ranger stuff wasn't on that list."
"And if some of these find are any indication they may have wound up in there after the incident." Ben himself had only been made aware of that day after his coronation, it was still a bit new to him.
"I have to go and make sure Mal and the others are okay." He said to him.
"Be careful." His father said to him resolutely.
The young king nodded and headed out the door. It wasn't long before a large rocket shaped creature that seemed to be nothing but fire and bones nearly struck Ben. He only barely dodged out of the way.
"Hello young king, or should I call you the Auradon Knight?" The monster said after the smoke cleared.
"Guess it was too much to hope you would've blown yourself up." Ben muttered.
"Not so much luck for you when you fight the Volcano Rocket." The monster chided and then launched itself at him again. Ben formed the sword and shield and then transformed. It finished just as the impact struck the young king and he went flying back hard. The monster was intact. "I don't think you've ever been in a fight by yourself boy."
"I'm not by myself." Ben said as he tightened his grip on the Praeleanthor sword. Not only had this weapon proven to have sentience but on top of it he knew Mal and everyone else was behind him in spirit even if they were separated physically. "And I'm strong enough to take you down anyway. If exploding is the best you can do, I'll take you out in no time."
"Sad to say I can do more than that." Volcano Rocket said and then rushed toward him, but then he flew up and brought its spiny tail down only to unleash small but fast fire balls at the Auradon Knight, which even with his shield blocking, it still wasn't enough to completely protect him from the impact of the attacks.
From the ship Paradias sat on his throne watching the three battles on screen. Beside him stood Maleficent who laughed at the sight even though no one knew where Mal was at that moment and Amy was standing up against a huge fire beast.
"This is going out well." Gregory noted. "Several rangers missing and the rest in combat. With any luck the rest of them will follow too late." He fumbled with his own iPhone, wanting to jump into the fight himself but at the moment knew the very item he held was also something they wanted to get a hold of.
"And then the monsters can pick them off one by one." Maleficent said with a laugh. "No Mal, no Amy, no nothing to stand in our way."
"This isn't over yet." Paradias reminded her grimly. "They have an uncanny ability to pull victory from the jaws of defeat." He looked again to the screen. "Only time will truly tell."
Audrey opened her eyes and hated the fact that she was surrounded by pretty much all sides by fire. She thought maybe she could see the stairs in the corner but she didn't recognize the floor she was on. She wondered if this now reburning tower had some kind of secret passages inside of it.
She stood up and headed toward the stairs but stopped as she heard someone walking up it. She summoned her elemental bow and raised it toward the stairs. When she saw movement she fired but it was deflected by a shield.
"Sorry Audrey darling." Chad said with a vicious tone in his voice. "But I wanted some private time alone with you and this is just the best chance I can get. If it's not your former beau, it's your little friend Lonnie. Or it's that freak Mal. Or the Irish lunatic, or it's some under dressed mermaid. And that's just the people around here, let alone any of those Earth ones."
"Because they realize what you won't realize." Audrey said to him. "I don't like you like that, and the truth is I never have." She raised her elemental bow again. "I may not be able to stop you from doing whatever you want with me at this rate but I will resist you with every ounce of strength I possess."
"I'm counting on it little princess." Chad said and kicked a piece of burning concrete at her which she dodged, only to see him coming closer. "Anything I can do to you now will only make the final game that much more satisfying."