Legacy of the Gatekeeper

Morticon hurled Imperious across the throne room. The dark mystic crashed against a pillar before crumpling to the floor. He panted, scrambling for his staff and relying on it to get back on his feet.

"If those mystics hadn't interfered, I would have brought you not only the Gatekeeper but also a powerful knight to mould into your new hound!"

"No excuses," The cyborg general snarled, tromping towards him, only for Bandora to raise a hand and stop him.

"Let's not be haste, husband." She whispered, her eyes glinting. "If we can't get the Gatekeeper, we must make the Gatekeeper come to us."

"And how do you suppose we do that?" He growled, turning on her.

"We go after everything she loves… her friends, family." The queen said simply. "If this Clare is anything like her naïve mother, getting her to open the gates would be a piece of cake!"

Udonna let out a sigh of relief as the rangers appeared in the middle of Rootcore with Clare and Darien. Ryan looked up from where he was studying several scrolls and tomes and hurried towards the rangers.

Nick and Lena helped Darien to lie on a cot while Daggeron laid Clare gently down on the couch, golden energies swirling in his palm as he gently touched her forehead. Clare gasped as she snapped back into consciousness.

The white witch immediately hugged her.

"Oh my child, I am so glad you are alright." Udonna kissed her forehead. "Thank the Saints!"

"It is all because of Darien." Clare said slowly. "He held Imperious back singlehandedly."

The sorceress turned to the elven knight. "You have my gratitude, Darien Li."

Clare left her chair to kneel beside Darien, taking his hands in her own. "Thank you for saving me."

"I couldn't defeat Imperious."

"No, if you hadn't held him off, we would have been too late." Daggeron told him. "We are forever in your debt."

Darien nodded. He turned to Clare. "You are an ally of the Mystic Force. I guess that was why that fiend was after you to use you as a leverage."

"I guess…" Clare wandered off, turning towards Udonna.

"I am afraid it is not that simple." Lena sighed. "Udonna, Calindor knew Clare is the Gatekeeper."

"What is this Gatekeeper stuff?" Xander asked. "And what does any of that have to do with Clare?"

Udonna stiffened on the mention of the Gatekeeper, her eyes darkening.

"The Gatekeeper was a powerful sorceress called Niella." She began, her voice full of sadness. "She was my sister and Clare's mother."

Clare's eyes widened at the mention of her mother. As a child, she used to pester the sorceress about stories about her mother but as she grew up, she eventually stopped knowing how much it saddened Udonna to talk about her departed sister.

"Centuries ago, during the first war with the Darkness, the first generation of the mystics… the Heavenly Saints channelled the power of the cosmos to drive back the darkness in the Underworld and one of them, the princess of the realm, Serenity Casterwill, the saint Lunagel tapped into the dimensional magics to seal the Gates of the Underworld. Since then, her magic has passed down through her family. Each generation, one individual of the Casterwill family is chosen to be the next Gatekeeper, gifted with incredible powers to open gateways and portals across space and realities to alternate dimensions or different realms but also burdened with the responsibility to preserve balance in the universe and protect our reality from extradimensional evil. My sister was chosen to be the Gatekeeper."

Udonna walked past them, standing near the Xenotome as the crystal orb hummed to life and showed them glimpses of the last great war, of the previous mystics fighting against Morticon and his monsters.

"Niella cast a spell to seal the Gates and banished Morticon and his armies to the Underworld. The spell was so strong that it depleted all her life force." Her eyes met Clare's. "When the Gate was lowered to the depths, Niella was gone."

She gave a sad smile. "But she lives on in my heart and through the legacy of her child."

"I am the Gatekeeper?" Clare asked disbelievingly. "I can't even cast a simple spell right, how am I supposed to be a powerful sorceress?"

"No one expects you to defeat the darkness singlehandedly." Neil told her quickly and the others nodded. "We are with you all the way."

"And Niella didn't become a legendary warrior overnight." Udonna smiled at her.

"But I am nothing like her. I am incompetent and bumbling and clumsy…"

"My dear child, you are exactly like her. You remind me of her every single day." Udonna said kindly before letting out a short laughter of fondness. "She blew up our cottage quite a few times trying to get her spells right."

"I thought…"

"Niella was the most powerful mage in the realm but not at first." Lena told her. "She worked hard on studying the mystic arts before her magic blossomed, exactly when we needed her the most."

"She singlehandedly banished the Barbarian Beasts to the depths. Her magic was fierce and powerful." Daggeron remembered.

"Why did you not tell me about all this?" Clare turned towards Udonna. "If being the Gatekeeper is my legacy, why keep that power from me?"

Udonna's eyes softened.

"Because being the Gatekeeper is more a burden than a gift. I promised your mother to keep you from harm and I have tried my best to keep that promise."

"And you have…" Clare said, tearing up. "I couldn't have asked for a better protector or a better aunt."

Udonna took Clare's hands in her own. "Someday you will be ready to take on your mother's legacy but not today. I won't send you to battle unprepared."

"That may be not possible." Daggeron interrupted sadly. "The forces of darkness are determined to seek out Clare."

"Then we take out the darkness before they get to her." Nick said stubbornly.

"That is a bold claim to make." Darien interrupted, getting up to a sitting position, his arms and shoulders covered in bandages.

Clare's eyes glazed over his exposed torso and his toned muscles and she immediately turned away, her face heating up. Maddie and Neil exchanged a smirk on noticing her reaction.

"You will need all the help you can get." Darien told them, locking eyes with Udonna. "When I came to you before, you refused to make me a member of the next team of Mystic Force. I am here again, ready to help however I can."

The white witch faltered. "The reason I turned you down was because the Mystic Mother instructed me to trust the Xenotome and it's prophecies over everything else, not because I thought you were unworthy. We would be happy to have you in Rootcore."

Darien smiled back at her. "Then once I get healed, I have to pen a resignation letter to my pompous king."

"It will be nice to have another knight on the team!" Chip said excitedly.

Lena rolled her eyes good naturedly at her successor's antics.

"It would be nice to have you around." Clare told him shyly.

Darien nodded at her while Udonna narrowed her eyes at them but didn't say anything.

Just then, the morphers chimed and the alarms blared across the monitors. Lena looked at the crystal ball, which showed a squadron of monsters attacking the city led by Bandora before the image shifted to a village being razed to the ground by a new Wolf Knight, who had silver armour and his minions.

"They are trying to bait us, stretch our forces thin." Lena noted.

"We have no choice." Daggeron sighed. "Lena and I will protect the forest. The rest of you protect the city."

The rangers nodded, teleporting away, leaving Udonna, Clare and Darien in Rootcore.

Hope you guys liked this chapter!

Thanks to D.J. Scales, RPM Shadow and MileyPinkys for reviewing.

Yup, this is the start of the Gatekeeper arc.

Clare is having a love interest and I have more planned for her.