"That's right." Kat said with a small frown. "Ben is the son of Belle and the Beast, Adam." Jason helped her to her feet. "Is that kind of thing supposed to be genetic?"
"Not normally." Fairy Godmother responded. "But that's the way that Nerissa wanted it. In order to control him to fight the others when they first showed up. We thought it was made dormant when he became the Auradon Knight."
"It might have been." Rose replied as she helped Doug up from Ben's surprise attack. "But the problem is the king isn't himself right now. He isn't the Knight and I'm not entirely sure he can be called Ben right now."
"We have to go after him." April said.
"I'll go after him." Tommy replied. He looked to Billy, one of his oldest friends alongside Amber, Jason and Kimberly, though the latter was not there of course. "Contact the space rangers and let them know to join me as soon as Brain Crusher is destroyed."
"By that time Mal and the others should be able to come help too." Kendall added.
"Doesn't that mean that Ben would be back to normal then?" Kat asked now.
Fairy Godmother frowned. "It's hard to say." She answered the pink zeo ranger. "Ben's memories would be restored too but then he has to fight the part of him that holds the essence of the beast."
"Let's hope he can then, or that we can help him somehow." Tommy said before the black dino ranger took the stairs to leave the command center.
In some ways the gash caused by the Praeleanthor sword was like a beacon, a weakness that the space rangers, Melody and Aquiella were hoping to exploit. But in other ways it was also like asking for trouble as Brain Crusher was mightily pissed.
Amber balanced the ancient blade in her hands as they stood ready to face off against the insect monster that had stolen the memories of Mal and the rest of the team. "Let's see what we can do to finish this thing off." She said.
"I'm open to ideas." Zhane told her.
Then their morphers went off and Andros answered it. "We read you." He said.
"Andros," It was Billy of course. "We've run into a slight problem here. Ben is gone."
"What do you mean?" Melody wanted to know.
"With Ben's memories stolen by Brain Crusher, the beast part of him that originates from his father has taken control of him. He's left the command center. Tommy went after him but we don't know anything more than that." Billy explained to them all. "Defeating Brain Crusher would help Ben to fight that primal influence."
"We're working on that now." TJ promised him. "I just wish we were having better luck."
"Can Tommy get Ben on his own?" Karone now asked.
"I don't know." Billy answered her. "Finish Brain Crusher off as soon as possible and then help Tommy find Ben."
"Great, no pressure." Carlos noted.
Melody moved in with her trident and jabbed at Brain Crusher. He used his own mantis claws to block the attack. Aquiella moved in and kicked him in the chest hard, right where the wound had been inflicted. He stumbled backwards and glared angrily at them.
Zhane and Karone moved in now with their weapons, the silverizer in blade mode and Karone's sword, knocking the mantis arms aside and then dual slashing him hard.
Ashley and Cassie worked together to blast at the flying insect soldiers that had been summoned from Brain Crusher's acid. Many of them were still dodging the attacks but it was really the set up that they were hoping for. With them herded so close together Melody was able to use the power of the trident to take them out.
"The minions are down." Cassie said happily.
"We should try the spiral saber booster mode and the quadra blaster." TJ said to them.
Andros nodded. "Good idea. Let's do it." He replied.
Tommy was only half sure that he was following the path Ben took, he didn't even know for sure where that was. Part of him was trying to recall the story of Beauty and the Beast, in truth when it came to fairy tales that was more Kim or Kat's forte.
As I recall despite his outward mannerisms the Beast, Adam I suppose really, was still a kind hearted man. It's what Belle ultimately saw in him. The black dino ranger thought to himself. Ben has both of their qualities in him, so how bad could this really be?
Still Tommy was always a good person too, except of course for his stint as the green ranger under Rita's command. And he was also aware of one other problem; the fact that this was not the first time that Ben had had his beast side spark up.
Tommy found himself being drawn into the forest. In truth this kind of reminded him of the dream he'd had just before becoming the black dino ranger, where he had to face down himself as the red zeo ranger, the white ranger and the green ranger. "I guess something's are just universal." He remarked to himself.
Then he saw Ben leaning against a tree and looking at him. But his eyes did not have the same gentle intelligent look he associated with the young king. That was the look of a predator, albeit perhaps a cocky and arrogant one. "So you followed me into the woods dino ranger?" He questioned with a chuckle. "Seems to me like that was a foolish mistake on your part."
"Whoever you are, I've come to take Ben back to the command center. He'll be needed when my friends destroy Brain Crusher and set their memories free." Tommy stated firmly. He didn't want to fight him, but he suspected he might not have a choice.
"Ben is gone." He said dismissively. "He's held me back long enough. That monster was the best thing to happen to me, and now I can do what I was meant to do."
Tommy hesitated a moment. As far as he knew there was not supposed to be an independent form. It was all about Nerissa's spell that should have been rendered basically moot. "What is it you were meant to do?" He asked.
Then the trees around the young king's body exploded outward as Sermaya charged out and slammed both of his huge fists hard into the chest of the black dino ranger. He rolled and stood only to see Yellow Baboon and Green Baboon on either side of Ben, with Chiron behind him. "He's meant to help me destroy Auradon and return this world to its glory." Sermaya stated darkly.
"Oh no." Tommy groused. "Have we got a problem." He got ready to fight as the three beast creatures began to advance on him.
Carlos, TJ, Cassie and Ashley formed the quadra blaster as Andros combined his spiral saber with his astro blaster. The five rangers took aim as they waited for Zhane, Karone, Melody and Aquiella to set up Brain Crusher. If the monster was still standing, Amber would try to finish him off.
Aquiella charged up her boomerangs with water energy and tossed them both at Brain Crusher. He moved again with his uncanny speed and dodged under the thrown weapons. "Nice try orange ranger." Brain Crusher said mockingly. "But you missed."
Melody knew her cousin pretty well and she laughed. "She didn't miss." She replied. "You fell right into her trap." The boomerangs came around and went right through Brain Crusher's wings. He let out a sound that might have been a small scream even as the orange ranger caught her weapons.
"That should stop him from flying." Zhane said. "That means no more stingers."
"Alright, sounds like as good a time as any." Karone said to the two girls and her boyfriend. The four of them rolled out of the way of the insect monster.
Andros took aim with his spiral saber booster mode as the others took aim with the quadra blaster. They fired and the energies from their weapons converged as it struck the damaged spot on the monster's chest from the earlier wound. He fell back with a huge explosion but they could still see him still rising to his feet again.
"No way." TJ said.
"What do we have to do to stop this thing?" Ashley wondered.
Amber had never tried to channel her electrical energy into an object before, though in truth it had never been necessary. Now though she felt the time may have come to try it, and for better or worse the object she was going to use was no ordinary object. She only regretted the fact that the Praeleanthor sword itself hadn't been charged up from the destruction of the flying insects since she had not been the one to destroy them.
She charged up the Praeleanthor sword with the same electrical energy she had been using to help her fight ever since her first time as the original purple ranger and Zordon had chosen her to help Jason and the other rangers. She then tossed the electrically charged sword right at Brain Crusher.
The sword flew through the air and took off not only the mantis like arms of the insect monster, it gashed through the already open wound that had been made on its chest earlier. It stumbled back again but still refused to go down.
"Got to give Maleficent credit, she made this thing to take a beating." Karone grudgingly acknowledged. She had made plenty of monsters when she had been the Princess of Darkness Astronema, none of them nearly that durable. In fact one of her monsters had attacked her when she accidently attacked it. It hadn't been all bad as that had been how she had first started to develop feelings for Zhane.
"Hey, I think it's paralyzed." Melody gasped. She looked to the five space rangers. "Try it one more time guys."
Andros and the four rangers again unleashed their blasts at the Brain Crusher and it finally blew up in a huge blaze, knocking over the eight space rangers and two Auradon rangers for a moment. Then Aquiella sat up. "The others." She started.
"Will have to find us." Amber reminded her simply. "We need to go help Tommy find Ben."
Together the eight rangers headed off, following Cassie's tracking ability with her satellite stunner.
It all came back rushing to Mal's mind. Her protective love for her own twin sister, who sat behind her at the moment. Her friendship with Evie, Jay and Carlos. Her mother Maleficent sending them to Auradon to retrieve Fairy Godmother's wand where she ended up falling in love with Ben. Becoming Auradon rangers, which prompted a friendship between her and former rival Audrey the daughter of sleeping beauty Aurora. The development of her team, resulting in an attempt to stop them from ever being rangers but ended up with Amy joining them, both in Auradon and as a ranger herself. Paradias's defeat, and their power's needing to be restructured. And of course through it all, Ben.
Still her first thought was always of her younger twin. She sat up and gasped, "Amy." Then her rose haired sister wrapped her arms around Mal's waist and hugged her tightly. She embraced her sister back. Then Evie was there and she let one of her arms wrap around Evie.
"Audrey." Jay gasped as he sat up and went to the brunette princess. He placed his arms gently on her shoulders as he recalled what Kat had said; Chad had tried to use this as an attempt to take advantage of her again. "Are you okay?"
She nodded a little. "Yes, thanks to Kat and the guys." She said and then moved forward to hug him softly.
Will and Lonnie hugged each other. Alex came over and took Amy's hand, and she squeezed it back gently. Then Mal looked around. "Where is Ben?" She asked them all.
"You don't remember?" Rose asked softly. When Mal shook her head the pink overdrive ranger sighed softly. "Ben's memory loss allowed the beast part of him to take over. The others are out there looking right now and could probably use your help."
"Where is Melody and Aquiella?" Amy wondered.
"That's the one bit of good news." April said to her. "We got their powers back online. They should be with the space rangers looking for Tommy, who went after Ben first."
"Then we better join them." Mal said anxiously as she kissed her sister on the cheek and then looked to Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Evie and Lonnie. "The sooner we have Ben back the better off we'll be, and the better off I'll feel."
Tommy drew his Brachiostaff and tried to keep his eyes on Sermaya, Green Baboon and Yellow Baboon as they stalked him the way predators stalk their prey. It reminded him a little bit of how raptors would seem to act like in Jurassic Park.
"Perhaps once I've returned this world to its real state I'll turn around and attack your world as well." Sermaya mused. "What forms of life have been destroyed on your world in favor of 'human evolution'?"
"Now you sound like an old villain we defeated before." Tommy replied as he tried to keep his eye on the three beast warriors. It was true however as he sounded very much like Mesogog, the villainous dinosaur creature that had shown up. That had resulted in Kira, Connor, and Ethan being recruited as dino thunder rangers and it had also forced him to come out of retirement; at that point he hadn't been active since the red rangers had gotten together to stop the remnants of Machine Empire from restoring Serpenterra, Lord Zedd's personal zord. At that time the Wild Force rangers had been the ones with the active mantle.
In fact it occurred to Tommy that no ranger teams had been active at the same time until now, with the Dino Charge rangers and the Auradon Rangers. Prior to that they had all been the only active team, with preceding teams either reactivating their powers or figuring out how to reacquire them, something he had made easier in recent times.
Sermaya leapt at the black dino ranger and he rolled under the huge fists. He came up and used the Brachiostaff to block the large attack from the defender of the forest. He was barely able to hold onto his weapon after the impact. "Kind of ironic that forest defender would use an axe as their weapon." Tommy said. He growled and tried to bring it down on him and he rolled away. "After all, that's what one uses to chop down trees." He tried again and again Tommy back flipped out of the way.
Then he was kicked in the chest hard and sent falling backwards. Amber landed beside Tommy. "Hey, look at the bright side." She commented with a small laugh. "The only thing that would be safe would be the trees."
"You got that right." Tommy agreed with a chuckle.
Sermaya turned to see Melody, Aquiella, and the seven space rangers approaching them now. The primal creature let out a growl as he saw the two Auradon rangers approaching.
"I was waiting for this. Descend Simorgh!" Chiron now spoke up. He raised his staff and there was a horrible screeching from the skies. Feathers rained down harshly on the seven space rangers and the two Auradon rangers, knocking them back hard. They looked up to see a large green bird like hovering just above them all.
"When this turn from a fight against Maleficent to a fight against Sermaya?" Amber couldn't help but wonder. In truth she had almost forgotten that Mal and her team had had more than Paradias and Maleficent's former alliance to worry about here.
"Talk about taking advantage of a bad situation." Tommy mused and then looked to the purple space ranger. "But if you're here then that means that you destroyed Brain Crusher. Mal and the others should have their memories back now right?" He asked.
"They should." Amber answered. "I just hope it doesn't take too long." Then the two rangers rolled out of the way as Sermaya tried to drive his fists into them yet again. "Talk about one track mind."
"Looks like I get a nice meal out of this." Simorgh commented as he looked down at the two Auradon girls. "I can smell the salty tang of the ocean on you two. You must be mermaids." He tongue darted out around his beak. "Quite a treat."
"And that might just get me off of seafood for a long time." TJ said. It was already one of those facts that they all ignored; that Melody and Aquiella could have casual conversations with the likes of salmon, shrimp and clams when they were often considered food even in Auradon. But the idea of something trying to eat their two friends for lunch was almost sickening.
Simorgh dove toward the two mermaid rangers. Karone raised her crossbow and unleashed a few bolts at the bird monster. He was quick enough to dodge but that required him to move away from them. The nine rangers rose to their feet.
Amber and Tommy did likewise. Then Sermaya tried to grab a hold of Amber and the purple space ranger was only able to dodge because she was much smaller compared to the large beast. Tommy again had to block an axe attack from Green Baboon, defender of the forest.
Simorgh circled around the remaining space rangers, Aquiella and Melody. They got ready to strike at the bird monster if he struck at them again but made the mistake of taking their eyes off of the others. Yellow Baboon, archer of the forest raised his own bow, far less elegant looking and modern than Audrey's elemental bow, and unleashed his own stream of arrows on the rangers, striking them all.
That was the scene that Mal, Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Evie and Lonnie found waiting for them. "When did Sermaya get involved in this?" Evie questioned.
"It makes sense I suppose." Carlos mused. "He's always had some of fascination with Ben, at least the beast part of him. He tried to bring that out when he did whatever he did to turn his feelings for Mal into a possessive form."
"Speaking of Ben, where is he?" Mal wondered. Then she saw him by the tree. From that vantage she thought Sermaya had gotten a hold of him and bound him to the tree so that he couldn't escape. "There he is. Audrey, take everyone and help with that bird thing. I'll unbound Ben and then get the Praeleanthor sword from Amber so that Ben and I can help deal with Sermaya and the green baboon." She said and they all nodded. "Let's get to work." The six of them took out their iPhones, input their numbers and then transformed.
Audrey aimed her elemental bow at the yellow baboon as Jay and Carlos got on one knee each so that they could launch Lonnie at the flying bird monster. As soon as the pink ranger placed her feet on the boy's hands so they could help her gain height the red ranger let loose with a few arrows that struck him in the hands and face, causing him to fall back.
Lonnie brought her tessens down on the bird monster, which let out a horrible squawking as he fell with the pink ranger. Unlike Simorgh who landed hard and alone, Lonnie landed only slightly awkwardly and had her four friends to check up on her.
"It worked." Cassie said happily. "You guys are okay." She and Lonnie hugged as they joined the Auradon Rangers.
"Nice save guys." Jay said as he high fived Carlos, the black space ranger. "Thanks for the assist."
"Anytime man." Carlos reminded him.
"We're not out of the woods yet." Andros reminded them. "We have to stop Simorgh and the beast warriors and bring Ben back to his senses." He raised his spiral saber.
"Right." Audrey agreed as she brought her elemental bow in closer to her body to use as a close range weapon. "Let's do…" She started to add and then the red space ranger's words started to sink it and she glanced at him. "Wait, what did you say about Ben?"
Mal was all but ignored by the beast warriors until she got closer to Ben. Chiron raised his staff though as the purple ranger approached. He moved forward and swung at her. Mal dodged and summoned her own dragon's eye staff. She turned to face him as he tried to follow up on his failed attack. She blocked it and then struck him in the chest hard. "No one gets in the way of me and what I want." She said to him.
She then turned to Ben only to realize now that he was not bound against the tree but leaning against it almost too casually. She let her staff phase out as she started toward her boyfriend. "You got out." She said happily. She thought maybe it had been a magical binding that had dissipated when she struck Chiron. She reached for his hand and added, "Come on, let's get your sword and help Tommy and Amber fight Sermaya."
Mal was surprised when Ben pulled his hand back. "Nah, that's okay." He said to her. "I think I'd rather watch and see what happens."
She looked at him shocked. "Ben?" She questioned. With that glance though she noticed something in his eyes. "Wait, what…"
Ben gave her what almost seemed like a gentle smile before he moved quickly and struck her in the chest hard, gritting his teeth a little to push back the massively loud NO! that shot through his mind, a remnant of the real Ben that was trying to break out. Mal fell back, gasping to catch her breath.
Back at the command center, Amy felt a little like she had had the breath knocked out of her too despite she was breathing just fine.
Sermaya had seen that and laughed. "Great shot my brother." He said and then replicated the effect by slamming his fist into her leg hard enough that she fell to the ground. It almost sounded like it had broken.
Green Baboon brought his axe down again and this time it chopped right through the Brachiostaff as it descended hard down Tommy's chest until he fell back, hitting a tree and then the ground hard.
Simorgh again took to the skies and this time came down in descending arc that struck the rangers down hard. He dove down and bit into Aquiella's leg hard, hard enough to draw blood despite her ranger suit's protection. Just as he was ready to pull her into the skies Zhane lashed out with his silverizer and slashed him across the face hard enough to get him to release the orange ranger.
"Let them be for now Simorgh." Sermaya said as he, Chiron and the two forest baboon generals came to Ben's side. "Our plans have changed for the moment."
"Ben, what are you doing?" Mal asked, still feeling uncertain as she tried to rise to her feet. "You can't be serious about this."
"I thought you figured this out already." Ben said with a dismissive gesture at the purple ranger. "When Ben lost his ability to keep me contained, he lost this body." He laughed now, sounding almost cruel. "Your boyfriend is dead, Mal. He's not coming back. But don't worry, soon you'll all be joining him." With that they all vanished even as Mal stood up and started again toward him.
"No." Mal whispered as she fell to her knees. She felt tears building in her eyes. "Ben." She whispered to herself. She could hear everyone else coming up to her, Tommy stopping to help Amber up and supporting her. Melody likewise was supporting Aquiella. "No." She whispered again. She let Audrey and Evie help her up and supported her as they returned to the under construction command center.
When they entered both girls moved aside as Amy through her arms around Mal and hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry Mal." She said to her older twin. Never before had Amy seen Mal so broken.
Mal and Amy sat down together, Andros placing the Praeleanthor sword on the purple haired girl's lap. Cassie started to look at Amber's leg as Jordan, now in possession of her memories, began to work up healing potions for Amber and Aquiella's wounds.
"It's not broken." Cassie reported. "The bone is dislocated but it's easier to fix that, even if we weren't using a magic potion for it."
"That's one bit of good news." Audrey noted softly as she sat by Jay, her legs under her. She had her head on Jay's shoulder and her hands in his as she tried to process what Ben, no the beast that had taken over Ben's body, had said.
"There's more good news." Kendall announced now. "He's lying. Ben is not dead."
"He's not?" Evie asked.
The purple dino charge ranger shook her head. "No. I've been going over the brain waves of the last few minutes of that fight." She looked to Mal, technically a fellow purple ranger. "When he struck at you, there was a spike in his brain waves. A huge one."
"Which means what?" Grant asked her.
"Which means Ben was inside and he didn't approve of the beast using his body to attack Mal." Miranda answered. "He's in there and he has to gain control again."
"That still might be easier said than done." Doug warned them. "When Brain Crusher took your memories he left blank slates behind. Except for obviously with Ben, allowing the beast to take full control."
Jane caught on now. "When our memories came back they overrode those blank slates." She mused softly. "But the beast isn't a blank slate but another personality in itself. It's just never had the chance to be dominant until now."
Kat hated to admit that this seemed very similar to Angel/Angelus. It was not a good sign.
Mal wrapped her hand around the Praeleanthor sword. "My boyfriend is not dead." She decided coldly. "And I will get him back."
"No, Mal." Audrey said and Mal looked at her sharply. Before the purple haired girl could respond she added, "We'll get him back." That drew a small grateful smile to Mal's lips for her second in command, good friend, and former rival.
"We'll get him back." Mal amended as she saw the same look of determination from Jay, Evie, Carlos, Lonnie, Melody and Aquiella. She even saw the same looks from Miranda, Grant, Ellie, Alex, Will, Amy, Jordan, Ally and Aziz even though right now they couldn't do much to help out.
"We're all going to get him back." Amber said as she finished off the healing potion the genie girl had given her and flexed her leg experimentally.
"Guys, we can't ask you…" Mal started.
"You're not." Karone said to her. "We're volunteering." She looked to Mal and the other Auradon rangers. "We came here to help restore your memories, and we're not leaving until we've finished that."
Mal smiled again, reminding herself that this was the girl who was supposed to be the Princess of Evil at one point in her life. She just wished she they had a plan to go with their shared determination.