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"This has been so wonderful." Amy said as she took a small forkful of the strawberry cheesecake that she and Mal were splitting though it was reluctant on her older twin's part as she personally thought, and not for the first time either, that Amy needed to put on a little weight. They were all sitting around a very large rectangular table where all of the ranger's and their families, be it parents or siblings or other relatives, were enjoying the return meal.
Amy sat in between Mal and Belle. Ben sat beside his purple haired girlfriend as he enjoyed a slice of chocolate cake and was smiling at them. Adam had been sitting next to his son earlier but had since moved on to socialize a bit.
"Sometimes it's hard to remember what life in Auradon was like before we all became power rangers." Ben noted with a mixture of amusement and regret. He could remember when his biggest problems were how he would do as king and how his first proclamation would go over. While the latter eventually seemed to work out the ultimate jury on his time as ruler wasn't even close to being decided.
"Is that really a bad thing? I mean for the most part at least?" Lonnie asked as she reached for her glass of grape juice. From the corner of her eye she could see Will and his sister Whitney enjoying their ice cream sundaes. Cinderella and her daughter Callie, who was also Whitney's best friend, had been there earlier but had ended up leaving early.
Mal knew that everything associated with them was kind of bitter sweet for both girls as well as Callie's father Charming as it had also lead to Chad's turning on his family, friends and all of Auradon. It might have been his choice to do so of course but as Mal had heard Amber say the last time the earth rangers were in Auradon it wouldn't have mattered if Paradias hadn't opened that door to start with.
"I don't think it is." Audrey voiced now. It might have been an ironic statement considering Chad's betrayal had made the brunette princess one of the most prime targets. Still, she was able to provide reasons on her belief easily. "I mean think about it; I probably never would have bonded with all of you 'isle brats' the way I have." Mal rolled her eyes in amusement as Amy and Evie giggled just a little and Jay rolled his eyes as his girlfriend bumped shoulders with him.
Then she continued on. "We never would have made such great friends." She looked to Miranda, Melody, Aquiella, Ellie and Alex. "And I don't mean just here in Auradon, we have friends outside of Auradon too that are part of that." She then looked to Lonnie. "You might not have a great boyfriend and I certainly don't think it would have been Will." She now pointed out as she also included Will in that glance.
She again looked to Mal. "And you may have never gotten Amy back after that spell Maleficent cast." The purple haired girl had to grant that one. When she and her chosen siblings had chosen to stay in Auradon they had not realized they had left one of their own behind.
She looked to Evie now. "Would you and Doug have gotten so close without this?" She had the son of Dopey sitting with her right now though as seemed to be normal his father and his uncles were unable to be there. Still, Evie granted she might have had a point. Then she gestured to her other side. "You may not have gotten the relationship you have with Snow White." The blue haired girl glanced at her middle step-sister, who her mother had tried to kill with a poison apple so long ago. "And you two most likely wouldn't have found Rose Red or Grant."
"You know I probably would have never gotten the chance to even come to the surface, let alone Auradon Prep, under any other circumstances." Aquiella admitted.
"And I have to agree too." Snow White said. "I spent a long time mourning because I didn't know she wasn't killed but exiled." She smiled softly at her older sister. Rose Red smiled back at her. Things had been so hectic Evie wasn't entirely sure how much her older step-sisters had really been able to reconnect but at least it didn't seem like anything had blown up in their faces.
Aurora looked over at her daughter. She would never say it out loud but she knew that her daughter too had changed so much for the better since becoming a power ranger. She reached for her own glass. "I'd like to propose a toast." She said and everyone looked to her. "To our family, to our friends, and to the knowledge that not just our children, but all of us, can handle anything we have thrown our way."
"I'll drink to that." Ariel said with a laugh.
They all took a sip of their drinks. "We still have to acknowledge that this has come at a price though." Audrey now acquiesced. "People have been hurt, some badly, during all of this. We're lucky no one has gotten killed." She took a breath. "Chad…well we know what happened there. Maleficent is loose again."
"And we have a bigger threat than Maleficent or anyone on the isle." Ben reminded them all grimly as he stood up. He formed the Praeleanthor sword in his hand and turned to face his friends and family. "As awesome as we all know this sword is, it came from a civilization that was in a war with demons."
"And the forces behind those demons are the same forces that Chad got the Maledict's blade from." Miranda recalled.
"It's worse than that." Ben said. "Because that conflict was so bad that according to Tommy and Jason that civilization didn't win that fight. Whoever didn't evacuate their home, which I was told was a planet in their system called Mars, was used to create a weapon that could only seal off their portal to the underworld, not destroy it."
"And that's the power that Chad's wielding." Mal reflected softly. She shook her head. "But it doesn't matter. We'll find a way to stop the demons if we have too. Just like we stopped Paradias, just like somehow we'll stop my mother. And we already know the other rangers will be there to help us with that." She looked to Audrey. "As you just pointed out we have lots more friends than we ever expected."
"We all have to remember, Chad turned on us. It was his choice." Miranda said. She looked now to Will. "Ye had the chance to turn on us too and ye didn't do it." The green ranger had to nod in agreement. "He could have taken the same path ye did Audrey but he didn't. Again, that was his choice. And some of that was going on before all of this happened as well."
"As for everything else, just look around." Ellie said. "I think it proves Audrey's point that this has all been for the better." She smiled softly. "And what isn't for the better. We just have to change."
"As Ariel said, I'll drink to that." Mal said and took a sip of her grape soda. Amy meanwhile took a sip of her strawberry soda. When Ben sat back down she kissed her boyfriend on the cheek. "We'll figure it out, I know we will."
"I know." Ben said with a soft smile.
Then the power went out. That made everyone stand up in mild alarm. It wasn't that power outages were unheard of in Auradon but they were extremely rare. Then an eerie orange light started to flash around them, traveling the entire room before disappearing and then restarting again; this was followed by a noise that almost seemed like the high pitched gasping of a frightened girl.
"What is this?" Ruby asked them.
"Don't know, never heard it before." Jay responded.
"Yes, we have." Audrey corrected him. "At least…"
"Audrey and I have." Aquiella finished. "This was part of Chad's intimidation tactics that he tried to use on Audrey back at the castle the night we stayed with you Aunt Ariel." She said as she looked to her and Melody. Chad had done something to knock out the female rangers so he could attack Audrey, but at that point she had not been a power ranger and had recovered on her own, defending the brunette princess from who she thought of as a depraved lunatic. Marcellus meanwhile had taken the chance to try to attack Aziz, knocking out the other guys.
Ben realized he had not returned to the Praeleanthor sword, and now he could feel it thrumming anxiously in his grip. "It has to be Chad now." He said. "And he's up to something big."
The windows shattered into uncountable fragments. Ben formed his shield and stood in front of his family, but it didn't stop Belle from pulling the girls closer against her. The fact that Amy could have gone intangible to avoid it didn't cross her mind, though to be fair it hadn't occurred to Amy herself either.
The guys did their best to protect their girlfriends though with a slight noise of annoyance Jordan simply brought up a field to protect them all. "Genie in your midst." She said simply.
"Is everyone alright?" Miranda asked as she looked around, stopping to help Ellie up, who had tripped over the chair in an attempt to get up. The blonde ice princess smiled in appreciation.
"It looks like it." Ally noted.
It was only then they noticed the darkness outside seemed unnatural. On instinct the rangers started toward the broken window to look outside. Their families had to resist the urge to stop them, it was after all their jobs but that didn't cancel out their protective instincts.
"What is going on out there?" Grant asked.
A portal flared up and they saw Chad, already armored up, standing there. He seemed to be alone. "Hello 'friend's'." He said mockingly. He looked at Audrey. "Don't you look lovely tonight, I look forward to tearing that lovely dress of yours into shreds."
"I look forward to taking your head off of your body." Jay said menacingly as he took a step in front of Audrey.
"What do you want?" Mal demanded to know. "Aside from the obvious, which you won't get anyway."
"Time will tell Mal." Chad answered derisively as he looked at the purple haired girl. "But I've come today to show you something quite special."
"We don't want to see anything you think is special." Lonnie bit off sharply. She too had taken a step closer as if to protect Audrey and she could feel Will beside her.
"Well that's just too bad." Chad said with a dismissive wave at Lonnie. Truth be told he had never thought too much of her, something that would have angered Will if he knew that opinion. "Because you're going to see it whether you like it or not, so be ready."
For just an instant Amy had several flashes in her mind; more like repressed memories. Memories of small spiders with big mouths, a large female spider with a vaguely humanoid face and telekinetic powers, a large demonic creature with metal legs, several large bipedal creatures that vaguely looked like skinned oxen, large bulbous potato looking monsters with cannons on their arms and floating skulls on fire. She suspected they were some repressed memory from either April or Jennifer, friends of the Ninja Turtles, and that that was only the a small idea of what they'd seen. "I think we better get ready." Amy said to them in a soft voice.
A/N: for the full story check out my story the New Ninja Turtles Adventures
Mal could only wonder right now what her twin sister had seen. "Let's get to work." She declared. As Ben summoned his shield and Jane summoned the magic wand the rest of the team took out their iPhones and input their numbers. Then they all transformed. As ranger's they could do some things that they couldn't do otherwise, such as jumping out of the broken window to land in front of Chad.
"Oh, how sweet." He said mockingly. "You're all together as one again after such a long time." He looked to his former friend Ben the Auradon Knight and the purple ranger Mal with hatred. He looked to his former flame and current obsession the red ranger Audrey and her boyfriend Jay the black ranger. He basically overlooked the blue ranger Evie and the yellow ranger Carlos though he glared with annoyance at the pink ranger Lonnie and the rose ranger Amy. He did spare looks of annoyance for Aziz the silver ranger, Ally the crystal ranger, Aquiella the orange ranger and Jordan the gold ranger while he passed over Will the green ranger, Melody the aqua ranger, Miranda the Highlands ranger all decked out in purple, Grant the gray ranger, Ellie the Ice Dame and Alex the Fire Knight.
"And I see you're all alone as…well, as always." Mal said with a smirk in her voice. "Makes you think, doesn't it Chad?"
"Do I look alone?" Chad questioned her, and it seemed to everyone else besides Audrey and Aquiella who had heard that tone of voice before, again back at the castle in Atlantica when he had attacked Audrey after knocking out the others. "If that's what you think you've never been more wrong daughter of Maleficent."
Carlos seemed just a bit nervous. "Did his voice get deeper and maybe more, I don't know, demonic?" He asked.
"Audrey and I have heard that once before in Aunt Ariel's castle." Aquiella answered softly.
"Chad must be embracing whatever demonic powers he access to thanks to that blade of his." Lonnie speculated. She knew it wasn't a stretch, Ben had tapped into the Praeleanthor sword in the past and truth be told so had at least half of them.
"Tap into whatever power ye want Chad." Miranda called out to him. "The numbers can't lie and they're still on our side."
"On your side for now." Chad corrected her, sounding more like himself. "But numbers do lie, because even one number can change the equation." Thunder rumbled so loudly that if adrenaline and tension hadn't already been so high it might have made most of them react. Then a very large, zord sized creature appeared behind Chad. It was an all four horned feet for the moment with horns gleaming and almost scaly skin. "And now the tide changes. You're not the only ones with zords anymore. This is mine, the Guardian zord."
"Oh my pink." Amy whispered. She realized she had seen this creature before in the visions she had had. Mikey, Casey Jones and Rockwell and fought one in some area with trees, she was sure it was a park of some sort. Except she didn't think that was a zord but Chad said this one was.
The dark knight jumped onto the things head and only then did they realize they could see the cockpit. "Ready to play?" Chad asked.
"We need the Auradon Megazord." Carlos said.
"No argument here." Audrey agreed as she got ready to summon the zord.
Mal pulled out her crystalline dragon and Ben pulled out his crystalline horse and the two of them summoned their zords. She looked to the others. "Let's hold off on the other zords for the moment and see what happens. If we don't have to play every card in our deck, I'd rather not." She said.
"You got it Mal." Aziz answered. Amy however suspected they wouldn't have much of a choice but to ultimately use the Auradon Ultrazord, and even then she hoped it would be enough.
The Steed zord charged the Guardian zord, turning to slam its powerful rear legs into the it but the head moved and caught the hooves in its horns before tossing the Steed zord hard. Ben had to hold onto his console to avoid going end over end.
Mal's dragon zord moved in and moved to bring its tail down on Chad's zord but it took a massive step backwards and unleashed a stream of energy from its horns that struck the dragon zord hard. It floated back and then unleashed what Mal thought of as the dragon pulse but another burst of energy from the horns collided with it and the two attacks dissipated. Then the Guardian zord charged forward and slammed into the dragon zord with devastating force.
The Guardian zord turned around just as the Auradon Megazord approached it. "Let's see how you do against us Chad." Jay said.
"This hardly seems fair." Chad noted with amusement. "Time to grow up then." With the twist of a very organic looking switch the Guardian zord ascended upward, going from four hooved legs to two. The two former hooves became arms with cloven hands. "It's the Guardian Battlezord." Then those newly formed cloven hands began to glow green.
"Is it me or did that thing just get more muscle?" Carlos questioned. No one had a real answer for him but Lonnie had to admit it seemed as if the yellow ranger had made a very good point. As Jay and Lonnie combined their weapons to make the their sword Evie placed her mirror force shield for their own shield.
The Guardian Battlezord moved in and slashed at them. Evie raised the zord's shield but despite it being formed from her weapon it lacked the actual versatility and as a result Chad was able to easily knock it aside before punching the Auradon Megazord in the chest hard.
"We're not done yet." Audrey warned him as they swung the sword at the Guardian Battlezord. It made contact and even drew some sparks but it didn't seem to be enough. The fists of the Guardian Battlezord again struck and sent the Auradon Megazord sprawling.
"Guys, it's time to form the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord." Mal announced. It was their last option before having the others get involved. She was starting to see what Amy had already feared though; they might very well need their best.
The Auradon Megazord combined with the dragon zord and then combined again with the Steed zord to form the Champion Defender. Mal and Ben found themselves in the cockpit between Audrey and Evie. Together they charged up their sword and charged right at the Guardian Battlezord.
"Impressive." Chad sai and the Guardian Battlezord brought out its hands, still coated in green, and caught the sword as they moved in. The battlezord then tossed them up in the air before unleashing that same stream of energy from the horns right at it.
"Time to step in I think." Jane observed.
"Agreed." Aziz said. "We need the Auradon Megawing Battlezord now."
"Mal, they're calling the Auradon Megawing Battlezord now. Hang in there." Amy informed her twin sister. "Say the word and we'll come in with the Auradon Warzord."
"Stand by. Let's see what happens here." Mal replied but Amy could hear the new uncertainty in her older sister's voice that hadn't been there originally.
Even as the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord landed hard on the ground the Auradon Falcon Battlezord stepped up. "That's enough out of you Chad." Jordan said. "We've had it with you and your demonic things."
"Jealous genie?" Chad asked her rudely. "Because the demonic forces are stronger than anything you could have expected. That Maleficent and I are tapping into that enormous power?" The Guardian Battlezord moved in and clashed with the Auradon Megawing Battlezord. They exchanged several quick punches before the demonic looking zord reared back and smashed its horns into the chest.
"We should try and take to the skies." Ally suggested to Aziz.
"Good idea." He agreed. With a push of a button the Auradon Megawing Battlezord soared into the skies and then turned around to unleash a barrage of missiles from the wings straight at the demonic zord.
It struck and took a few steps back before sending a massive beam of energy straight at the battlezord. This didn't come from the horns as they would have anticipated but instead from the glowing green hands of the demonic battlezord. The impact forced it to land beside the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord.
"Before we try the Auradon Warzord, let me see if I can take him." Miranda said to them. She doubted her Battle Bear could do so but the only other cards they held were the Auradon Warzord and the Auradon Ultrazord.
"Go ahead." Will said. He stood beside Amy, Alex, Ellie, Grant, Melody and Aquiella. "We'll be waiting just in case."
Miranda summoned her Battle Bear and immediately went into the Battle zord formation. She moved in with the zord's bear blades and slashed at the Guardian Battlezord. Again in struck but seemed to have little impact. Chad turned and slammed the demonic battlezord's fists into the battlezord hard.
"I think it's time to stop playing around." Melody said to Will.
"Agreed." He replied. "Time for the Auradon Warzord to make the scene."
Chad was not at all surprised to see the zord he had once used after Gregory had stolen it show up. The Auradon Warzord swung the extendable blades attached to its wrists at him. The Guardian Battlezord was able to parry those attacks with the glowing cloven hands and then kicked the Auradon Warzord backwards.
"Let's try a different approach." Grant suggested and then pressed a button to unleash the side missiles at the Guardian Battlezord.
They saw the demonic battlezord lean down and then jump high into the air just as the missiles would have connected and then descended down with its glowing green fists hard on the Auradon Battlezord. It shook them all hard and it even forced Aquiella out of the warzord and onto the ground hard.
Miranda had just gotten the Auradon Battlebear to its feet as Ally and Jane had gotten the Auradon Megawing Battlezord to its feet. Carlos and Lonnie meanwhile had almost gotten the Auradon Champion Defender Megazord standing as well. Then Aziz let out an, "Uh oh." As the Guardian Battlezord turned toward the three already damaged zords.
"That's not good." Carlos noted.
"Try a double barrage." Jay suggested.
From one side the Auradon Megawing Battlezord unleashed a barrage of missiles from the wings. From the other side Grant released another barrage of missiles from the shoulder pockets. It struck the Guardian Battlezord and it went rolling. The downside was when the smoke cleared it didn't seem to have enough damage to make it worthwhile.
"What does it take to scratch this thing?" Jordan wondered.
"I've never heard Amber or any of the other ranger's mention using zords against those demons before." Mal recalled. "Now I guess we might know why."
Amy bit her lip as she combed through the brief flashes of visions she had had about the turtle's encounters. Nothing like this was there either. "I think we're in unknown territory here guys." She commented.
"I think it's time for the ultrazord." Melody stated.
"Agreed." Mal said.
"On it." Aquiella replied as she summoned the giant Clam zord that had been found in a cave not far outside of Atlantica. In fairness that had not been exactly found by the ranger's as they had been busy. Instead a group of their parents, including Belle, had found it and activated it for them.
The three battlezords drew together even as the Guardian Battlezord unleashed another attack from the horns. The three zords fell backwards from the blast. Chad then powered up another energy blast from the glowing green cloven hands and shot it right at them.
The Clam zord appeared in front of them as Aquiella was the first inside. She saw the zord take the impact, though it did far more damage to it than any other attack had done to their well armored zord to date. "It's time to go for the Auradon Ultrazord everyone." Aquiella called out.
"Let's make it so." Mal agreed. The three battlezords flew into the mouth of the Clam zord and took their places within even as the mouth of the clam closed. They all joined Aquiella in the cockpit. The blasters extended from the shell of the Clam zord as the mouth opened up again for the weapons of the other zords to take aim.
"Do you really think you can destroy me with that?" Chad asked them.
"We better hope so." Audrey noted softly. "We don't have anything else at our disposal."
"We can do it Audrey." Evie tried to say encouragingly though at this point they had all started to develop their doubts.
"Auradon Ultrazord, lock on and fire!" The nineteen Auradon warriors called out. All the weapons and blasters were unleashed directly on the Guardian Battlezord and they saw it fall back. But to their horror when the smoke cleared it was still standing. "Did we even scratch that thing?" Jordan wanted to know.
Chad would never admit it but despite what it looked like the last assault had indeed left a mark on the demonic battlezord as its energy readings were critical. "This isn't over. You don't even know the full capabilities of this battlezord." With that Chad and the Guardian battlezord vanished.
As they let their zords return to their hiding places, or roam as was the case sometimes with the Steed zord and dragon zord, they were met at the bottom of the castle by their families. As Will lifted Whitney into his arms she remarked, "That was kind of scary."
"Yeah, it was." Will had to agree as he hugged his mother.
"Our best shot seemed to barely scratch that thing." Jane lamented softly as she hugged her mother.
"I imagine it had to have done more than that or Chad wouldn't have retreated." Fairy Godmother consoled her daughter and all of their friends.
"That may be." Mal allowed as she and Ben hugged each other. She saw Belle embrace Amy gently. "But our best shot certainly didn't destroy it."
"And he seemed to imply that we haven't seen that zords full capabilities yet." Ellie reminded them all grimly.
"Aye, and I for one wish we wouldn't have to see it either." Miranda commented.
Evie swallowed a bit nervously. "Do you really think…that that's a true indicator of these mysterious demon's powers?" She asked them all softly.
"I sure hope not." Audrey answered just as softly. For her it was a bit more personal. If they couldn't overcome it and Chad won, the others would likely die. But for the brunette princess Chad had made it clear he had worse intentions for her than death.
"How much of that do you think mom is able to tap into?" Amy asked her older sister as she looked over at her, still wrapped in one of Belle's arms. It was kind of hard for Amy to drop the name despite the fact Maleficent had made it clear that she didn't consider Amy or Mal her children anymore, if she ever did at all.
"I don't know Amy." Mal answered her honestly. "But whatever mother can get access too, we both know she'll do it."
"Maybe it was the demonic powers that were responsible for that glass warrior thing at the lake?" Ally suggested to them.
Evie shook her head as she stood beside Doug and Snow White. Beside Snow was Rose Red and her son Grant. "I don't think so." The blue haired girl said. "Some part of that power seemed so familiar. If I didn't know better I would swear it was my mother."
"But she's on the isle." Grant noted simply. If he cared to think about it that made the Evil Queen Grimholde his grandmother in law, if such a thing existed.
"Is she?" Jay wondered. "For that matter, we know Undine left the isle as did Maleficent. How do we know your mom isn't free?" He frowned a bit. "Or my dad for that matter?"
"Or my mom." Carlos added.
"I think your mother is a bit small time compared to everything else we've seen there dude." Aziz reminded him simply.
"We need to check in on that." Belle said simply as she rubbed Amy's back gently. "If anyone else has left the isle we need to know about it. If they've allied with Maleficent and have any sort of access to that demonic power, we need to know that too."
They all couldn't help but wonder what else Chad's new battlezord could do, and what they would be able to do to stop it.