Silence prevailed among the team as they followed Evie, who was in turn following the directions her mirror was giving her on where to find 'the item that Ice Queen fears. If possible it was even colder now than it had ever been.
Mal thought it was nice though that they had been able to out fight Loren the ice barrier tiger tracker relatively easy enough. It was better than getting beaten down like the ice barrier generals had done to them. The truth was they were still uncertain how they were going to win the inevitable rematch.
"Do you think Miranda and the others are okay?" Ellie voice out of nowhere. It was a bit of a weird question from her considering she had spent so much time recently dwelling on the fate of her mother after Ice Queen's invasion of Arendelle.
"I think they're okay." Amy replied. "If something had gone wrong they would have tried to contact us. Our communication devices might be damaged but I think that April or Professor Rockwell could contact Aquiella or I psychically if something was wrong."
"Man, I hope so." Carlos mused as he thought about Jane.
"I never thought it would feel so empty like this." Audrey voiced.
"Empty?" Jay asked in confusion. He'd never admit but he thought on some level Audrey was referring to the two of them as a couple or whatever they were.
"Look at us Jay." Audrey replied as she gestured around them. "Ellie and Alex are here because this is personal for them; otherwise we would have insisted they stay behind." She gave the two Arendelle heirs apologetic looks but they both knew the brunette princess was right. "We don't have Jordan, Ally or Aziz with us. We don't have Jane or Miranda with us. We don't even have Grant with us." She sighed just a bit. "We're only half of what we should be."
Mal placed her hand on Amy's shoulder and squeezed it softly. "You're right Audrey." Mal agreed. "Our team won't be complete until we have everyone who should be here fully reunited with their powers."
"Out of curiosity I tried my iPhone." Alex said. "During the battle with the Ice Witches and Loren. My powers are still out."
"Same here." Ellie admitted. She too had tried. And they knew that after the battlizers and the neon armor their powers would be the next priority for those back home in Auradon. Two out of the three had come to fruition so far.
"We'll get there, back to that level." Evie said with confidence. Unlike most of those statements of late this one she could say with certainty. Though it had indeed been daunting she could understand what needed to get done on a level no one else here except for Carlos could understand. They had really already made remarkable progress. "And we might even end up better than ever."
"She's right." Carlos confirmed. "Doug and Jane will make it happen, I promise. And they're not alone either. We have the best technical workers of the ranger legacy right there with them."
"Most of which won't matter if we lose here." Mal reminded them all gently but firmly. "So where do we stand on finding what we need E?"
Evie glanced down at the magic mirror. "A few more miles to go M." She answered her first chosen sister.
"Do you two remember when you were younger and we'd come up here for the weekend?" Anna asked Ellie and Alex. "Just the two of you, me and Kristoff?"
Ellie laughed. "Yes, I think that was the 'mom has to catch up on castle business so we're going to get out of her hair' weekends." She replied though it was clear they were fond memories. What wasn't so fond though was when they had made it a week trip once, when her father was in the midst of leaving the two of them. Elsa had met them to tell her daughter not to worry and to enjoy herself. Her father had not shown. She rarely spoke of that incident, and in fact Alex was the only other one who knew that.
"I hope it was warmer." Lonnie joked.
"In fact it was." Alex said. "It was so nice around here. The skies were usually clear, it was pretty mild. The fruits and berries were sweet and it was easy to fish for food." He laughed and smiled just a little. "Dad knows where most of the good stuff is. He's been doing this for a long time."
"But your mom had to have her own traditions with you two right?" Audrey asked them.
"Of course." Ellie replied. "When Alex and I were younger she would take two weeks away from Arendelle and we'd spend that time in the ice castle she made. It's so pretty inside of it, and once she realized that we'd be using it the castle was made with more modern conveniences."
Alex laughed. "Imagine a heated swimming pool in a castle of ice." He told them all. "But there is one." That caused the two mermaid girls and Amy to laugh a little.
Lonnie laughed a little. "We could use one of those around here right now." She joked.
To the slight displeasure of everyone the path they followed led them back to the mountains. It was an unpleasant reminder of the fight with Freezadon that had critically injured Mal and forced Audrey to her limits.
However rather than leading them into the mountains proper they instead started to follow Evie around the side of the mountain. "At least we're still outside." Jay said as he glanced around. "Though some of these areas look kind of steep."
"Let's not get into a fight here if we can avoid it." Will said.
"Yeah, I'm sure our opponents will care about that." Audrey replied with an amused roll of her eyes.
Aquiella saw Amy tense. "What's wrong?" She asked her friend.
"Something is here." Amy said to her. "Some kind of strong, I don't know if magic is the right word but it's all I can think of."
Alex took her hand and squeezed it softly. "I feel it too." He said to the rose haired girl. "It's hot and cold…it has to be the cold fire." He glanced at Ellie. He was certain she too had also felt it. One could only wonder how something like that had been made. "It's somewhere around here."
"And I thank you children for leading me right to it." They heard from one of the rocky hilltops. They turned to see the monk general Gauntula there with several of the Ice Guards around him. "Once we destroy the cold fire nothing will stand in our way."
"Too bad for you we're going to get it first." Mal said to him. She was sure between her sister and Alex, who would also get help from Ellie and Anna since they wouldn't be fighting, she was sure they could find it before the general did. On top of that the rest of them could distract them.
Gauntula laughed. "Do you really think I came alone rangers?" He questioned. Then from a higher crevice a dragon climbed over it. It let out a roar as the wings seemed to go from covering the entire back of the body to rising into the air with a flourish. "Meet Gunrir of the ice barrier." He said with a laugh.
"Oh my pink." Amy whispered in shock. Not that it was the first time she'd seen a dragon but it was never any less of a shock, especially since aside from Mal's dragon zord all of the dragons they ran into seemed to be something they had to figure out how to defeat.
"Alex, Amy, Ellie, Anna, find that cold fire or whatever it is we came here to find." Mal said to her sister and friend. "Ben, Will. Deal with Gauntula. The rest of us will take out that dragon." As Ben formed the Praeleanthor sword and shield and Melody formed the trident, the rest of the team except Amy took out their iPhones and transformed.
Gunrir jumped off the crevice and landed with a thunderous crash in front of the rangers. "Oh, I'm so glad we get the fun part." Audrey drawled as she formed her elemental bow. In response he roared at them and then started to charge them.
Without knowing what else to do the rangers dodged to either side and let Gunrir soar past him. To their slight dismay they saw his claws dig into the ice and make a sharp and agile u turn back toward the power rangers.
Will nudged Ben's shoulder. "Come on, we better go intercept Gauntula before he intercepts Alex and the girls." He said to the Auradon Knight. "We're just going to have to hope that the others can handle this thing."
Ben nodded. "You're right." He agreed. Together the two started toward the ice barrier general who had indeed started toward the four of them, some of the guards with him as the others rushed over to intercept Ben and Will.
"Mal." Lonnie started.
But the purple ranger noted what was happening too. There was only one thing she could think of right now. "Melody, Aquiella." She called to the two mermaid rangers. "Can you two get the guards so that way the guys can stop Gauntula?"
"We're on it Mal." Melody promised as the two mermaid rangers started toward the guys to help out.
"Leaving us with the dragon." Carlos noted. "Great for us."
Gunrir reared back his head and unleashed a stream of blue fire at the six rangers. There was no room to dodge and the six of them were sent flying back in flames and sparks before landing hard. He then started to charge right toward the rangers. They all barely recovered enough to dodge it.
Melody and Aquiella rushed the ice guards, the attack distracting them enough for Ben and Will to slip by them just as Gauntula almost caught up to the Alex and the girls. He was just reaching for Amy when Ben shield bashed him in the face and sent him sprawling in the opposite direction. He and Will faced off against the general.
"I hate the idea of leaving Mal and the others." Amy confessed to her friends and Anna as they followed the path Amy thought would lead them to what they were looking for.
Alex patted her shoulder gently. "Let's hope it doesn't take too long to find what we need so that way we can get back to them that much sooner." He replied softly.
They had reached a small cave where there were two ice guards starting to go into it themselves, how they found it was anyone's guess. Ellie formed a long icicle and moved in, knocking both of them out. "Glad I could finally do something to help." The blonde princess commented.
Inside they started down, and a few feet later the area started to glow a light blue. It was easy to find a small campfire like thing in the area along with what looked to be crackling blue fire. "The cold fire." Ellie murmured.
"So who wants to grab that one?" Anna asked teasingly. Ordinarily she'd be more than willing to do that but suspected it wasn't her place."
"Cold." Alex teased his cousin.
"Fire." Ellie teased her cousin back.
They both laughed softly and then Alex patted Amy's shoulder again reassuringly as he started to step toward the cold fire. Then Amy let out a little scream as a third ice guard slammed his staff into her hard. She fell and hit the cave wall, stunning her.
Ellie moved now to try to stop him but he dodged the icicle she had used to knock out the other guards before bringing his staff up against her chin hard and she too fell back to the ground hard, as stunned as Amy.
"Leave them alone." Anna tried to protest and got the staff slammed into her face hard too.
"No." Alex gasped. "Mom, Amy, Ellie." He started toward them but his hand brushed the cold fire. He felt a very small shiver shoot throughout his body followed by a strong and intense heat. It ended at his iPhone and then it glowed. As he turned to face the ice guard the gem inside the iPhone glowed and he charged his adversary as the Fire Knight. The fire tonfa formed in his hand and broke the staff into half before the second one slammed into the ice guard's chest and knocked him out.
"Alex." Ellie breathed in shock but some relief as she looked up at her transformed cousin.
"Are you okay?" Alex asked his cousin even as he saw Anna getting up and going to check on Amy.
"Yes." Ellie answered. She turned back to see the cold fire still there. "I'll get that." She smiled a little. "Maybe it will help restore my powers." She joked and as she stood she added, "Make sure Amy is okay."
Alex nodded and approached as Anna helped Amy to her feet. "Are you okay?" he asked the rose haired girl.
"Yes." Amy replied and then gave him a soft smile. "I assume you're okay, now that somehow you're back to your former glory."
Alex laughed a bit. "It was the brush with the cold fire. It seemed to jump start my powers." He laughed just a little. "I'd love to see the look on Doug and the others faces when they see that show up on the consoles." Amy laughed a little now too.
Ellie had picked up the cold fire and looked at her iPhone. She was disheartened to see that her powers had not stirred. She felt nothing different besides the cold. When she turned around the other three could see the look of disappointment on her face. "I guess what was good for the goose wasn't good for the gander." Anna asked.
"Huh?" Amy questioned confused.
"What Aunt Anna means is that she's guessing my powers weren't restored like Alex's was." Ellie translated for the rose haired girl somberly. "And she's right." She let out a soft sigh. "We should get you two back to the others so you can help against Gunrir and Gauntula. I'll hold onto the cold fire." She wanted to be useful somehow after all.
The dragon tried to take a huge bite out of Carlos but he yelped and jumped back. "Dang, that is some horrible breath." The yellow ranger noted with annoyance.
"I'm sure that's the monsters worst concerns." Jay reminded him with a laugh.
Lonnie and Audrey moved in to try to attack the dragon. Gunrir's wing lashed out and struck both princesses hard. Evie brought her mirror force shield up and unleashed a storming mirror force attack but the dragon soared above the attack and unleashed a stream of blue fire at her, striking her hard.
Jay and Carlos jumped up and tried to bring their weapons down on the dragon monster, which chose to furl the wings in around itself and blocked both attacks. The bottom wings lifted and the claws came out and slashed the boys down hard.
Mal twirled her dragon's eye staff and then aimed the jeweled part of it at the dragon's chest. Gunrir lashed down and chomped onto the staff hard before tossing her hard. As Mal hit the ground and rolled he unleashed a stream of blue fire at her.
"I think we need a plan b here." Lonnie noted. She was starting to think they needed a lot of plan b's. She saw that the mermaid rangers were still engaged with what seemed to be an endless supply of ice guards. Ben and Will were having a difficult time against the general despite it being a two on one fight, perhaps proving that fists and feet were the best weapons a fighter might have.
"I think it's time that we try to use our battlizers." Audrey said to Mal. It was all she could think of to do against this dragon.
"I think you're right." Mal agreed.
Gunrir again moved pretty fast and the wings stretched out to slash Evie, Lonnie, Carlos and Jay hard and then rammed his hugged head into Audrey hard. As the other rangers took a rough landing the red ranger took a harder landing that resulted in her crashing into a tree and having the wind knocked out of her.
"Guess it's up to me." Mal murmured and started to summon her battlizer but Gunrir's flight path ended as he landed in front of the purple ranger and moved rapidly enough to lash his head at her. She tried to dodge to the side only for the dragon monster to clamp its teeth around her waist and start to lift her up.
"Mal!" Amy gasped out. She was already sure she was going to have nightmares about Mal putting herself in danger against Freezadon to protect her and now the giant dragon was trying to tear her apart.
Alex combined his tonfa's and unleashed a stream of blue fire right at Gunrir. It struck him hard and he hissed as he released Mal. She landed hard and turned to face the fire knight. Mal's eye widened slightly. "Alex." She gasped. "You…you're powered again."
"Yeah, I just wish it worked for Ellie as well." Alex said to her. "But I'll help you take out the dragon."
Amy took out her iPhone. "I'll go help Melody and Aquiella then." She decided. She input her numbers 9976 and transformed into the rose ranger. With her rose lance divided into two she jumped into the fray.
"Did you guys find it?" Melody asked as she looked at Amy.
The rose ranger nodded. "Ellie has it, the cold fire." She replied. "I hope we can use this to get Ice Queen out of Arendelle once and for all."
"I do hope so too." Aquiella agreed. "But we have to worry about surviving this fight first." The two girls couldn't argue with her logic and resumed the fight against the ice guards.
Alex moved in with his tonfa's and tried to attack Gunrir. He flew up and tried to unleash a stream of blue fire at the fire knight but the attack didn't have any real effect on him since his powers were based on that element.
Gauntula aimed both of his fists at Ben but the young king raised his shield to block the strike and then swung the Praeleanthor sword at the ice barrier general but he stepped back to avoid the blow. He looked to Will. "Go help Lonnie and the others." He said. "Between the Auradon Triangle Spark and the battlizers you might be able to put the dragon down."
"I don't feel right leaving you to fight this guy alone." Will replied as he swung his recursive sword in arc at Gauntula, who again had to side step to dodge the attack.
"Have Alex come over and give me a hand." Ben replied. "With the three separate attacks I think he could be spared." Will nodded reluctantly and started back over toward the rangers, taking out a couple of ice guards along the way.
Will jumped off a tree and came down hard on Gunrir's back. He roared and tried to force the green ranger off. He held on as long as he could and then flipped off of his back and landed in front of Alex and the rangers. "Ben thinks the two battlizers and the triangle spark could take out the dragon monster." He told them and then looked to Alex. "But I don't feel comfortable leaving Ben alone to fight Gauntula."
The fire knight nodded. "I'll go back him up." He answered and then ran off.
"The five of us will keep Gunrir occupied then." Evie said to Mal and Audrey. "Get your battlizers set up and then you two can occupy the dragon while we get in position for the spark blast."
Mal nodded. "Alright, sounds like a plan." She agreed. As the Blue, Black, Yellow, Green and Pink rangers drew their blasters and headed in to distract the dragon monster the purple ranger looked to the red ranger. "Ready to do this?"
Audrey nodded. "As you like to say, let's get to work." Mal chuckled a little bit and then the two girls activated their battlizers. Moments later they were ready to go just as Gunrir brought across a huge clawed paw and slashed down the five rangers.
"Let's see how he likes that kind of attack." Mal said as she headed toward the dragon monster, the two being able to fly while they had their battlizers equipped. She used the same extensions that were on her zord when it shifted to its Chinese dragon form to lash out and strike Gunrir hard. He roared at them and fired blue flame at her, but she dodged it.
Audrey removed the jeweled earrings and tossed them opposite arches toward Gunrir. They were just small enough that while the dragon monster could see them coming he was unable to figure out how to deal with them until they struck him across the face hard. He stumbled backwards.
"This is our best chance." Mal said to her team as she floated up next to Audrey, again changing her dragon's eye staff into the arrow form for her. She didn't need the staff to use her attack with the battlizer. "Let's give it all we've got."
"Good call." Audrey said as she accepted the arrow.
"We're on it." Will replied. He stood next to Jay and Carlos. Lonnie and Evie jumped up onto the boy's shoulders and they pulled out their blasters.
As Audrey placed the dragon's eye arrow into the silk like strings of her elemental bow Mal powered up her draco meteor attack. Gunrir was just recovering from the small but seemingly shocking attack and the red ranger called out, "Now."
The five rangers shot out the Auradon Triangle Spark from their combined lasers. Audrey let loose with the dragon's eye arrow, the energy around it collecting to make a powerful burst upon impact as Mal released her strongest draco meteor and hoped this worked as she wouldn't be able to release another attack that strong for a while if this failed.
The three attacks struck Gunrir head on, causing a few massive explosions before the dragon monster fell to the ground with an explosion. The seven rangers hit the snowy ground hard but when they looked up they saw that the dragon monster was gone.
"We did it." Audrey said happily even as her battlizer powered down. "We defeated him."
"We're not done yet." Jay reminded the red ranger though she heard satisfaction in his voice. "We have to help defeat the Ice Guards and Gauntula."
"I'm going to help Ben and Alex." Mal told them. Her battlizer had likewise powered down. She wanted to finally be able to back her boyfriend and she wanted to help protect the guy that her little sister seemed to like. "The rest of you help get rid of the Ice Guard's and then join us so we can get rid of Gauntula." The others nodded in agreement.
Mal divided from her team and jumped out, kicking Gauntula from behind. He turned look at them her in annoyance only to realize that the dragon monster he had brought with him was gone. He saw the rest of the rangers moving in and helping the three girls take out the Ice Guards, whose number seemed far less intimidating now that there were more than three rangers.
"You're monster is history." Mal said, admittedly stating the obvious. "You've lost this fight." She didn't want to tell him that they got what they were looking for.
It was clear though that he must have drawn that conclusion. "And you have what we came looking for." He said with annoyance. "But that's only half the battle. You still have a long way to go, power rangers." With that the general and the remaining ice guards vanished.
As the two teams converged Anna and Ellie came out of the forests to join then. Amy was already rushing up to her twin sister. "Are you okay?" She asked Mal. "I saw that dragon trying to take a bite out of you."
Mal stroked her sister's hair softly. "Just fine Amy, the ranger suit seems to have a great sense of durability." She replied though in truth her sides ached just a little. She figured it would pass soon enough though.
Ellie showed the cold fire to the rest of the rangers. "I don't know how it works, but we have it. We have a way to weaken the Ice Queen and take back Arendelle."
"Looks like the unusual mix of fire and ice helped restore you powers too." Carlos noted to Alex with a smirk. "Don't suppose it helped you out Ellie."
"No, it didn't." She answered with a small hint of annoyance.
"We'll get it restored soon enough." Mal promised her. She knew that Doug and the rest of their friends were working tirelessly to get the rest of the powers up and running again. "We're almost to Arendelle and we're going to send that usurper packing."