Taking Back the Crown

by JCMorrigan

Mozenrath. Archibald Snatcher. Roman Torchwick. Mad Madam Mim. Yzma. The Huntsman. Wuya. Ayam Aghoul. Their mission: take over the multiverse, or look fabulous trying. Rated M for swearing, steamy implications and VERY bloody battles. Contains slash and het shipping.

102. Deus ex Machina

Another death this chapter, but again, of someone barely relevant, and not a very nice or charming person anyway. I know I won't miss that person.

...

As Xander Bly wandered the forest of the magical dimension alongside Briarwood, he had a lot on his mind.

The previous year, he had been called upon to assist the Operation Overdrive team in San Angeles. The Mystic Rangers and Operation Overdrive had crossed paths indirectly before then; one of the dragon Fireheart's scales had been provided from the former to the latter to bolster their arsenal. As the Mystic Rangers had never been cut off from the "Morphing Grid" (which Xander still entirely wasn't sure how to define), Xander was one of the few who had been called upon by the Sentinel Knight and needed no bolstering other than a ride to Stonehenge to make it in time to assist. There were four others he'd met then – three of whom were reconnected to the grid, and one of whom was transported back from the future. After the incident had been cleared up, all had returned to their respective times and places, and the Mystic Rangers and Operation Overdrive worked symbiotically if not interactively, one focusing more on crises in the magical realm and the other patrolling the nonmagical world.

Here was what Xander had learned: the Sentinel Knight had been killed by something great, powerful, and unknown. The Corona Aurora had been passed on from him to the Snow Prince, who had in turn entrusted Root Core to protect the crown. Udonna and Clare had ensured its security by dismantling it, hiding the circlet and each of the gems in different nooks of the tree – if a would-be burglar wanted to raid Root Core, they would have to be ready for a scavenger hunt.

Then it was Nick's turn to announce that the Mystic Rangers were coming home, for a long time if not for good. Lea, Kairi, Ruby, and Ren had all come along to see them off. Needless to say, the coincidence of the two events was jarring. It was as if the Mystic Rangers had been driven by fate to return home at exactly the right moment.

The others had wanted to hang out with their friends from Radiant Garden, but Xander, having been closest to the Sentinel Knight and everything surrounding the Corona Aurora, had wanted some time alone to process everything. Thus did he begin his stroll through the wood, feeling comforted by the surrounding plants that resonated with his essence. He had no destination in mind, simply wandering to give his body something to do as he recounted recent events.

Not too far from him, however, Zevon blundered through the wood with a definite destination in mind and yet what he considered needless overcomplications barring him from getting there.

He'd been able to find and break into the magical side of Briarwood easily. It wasn't his first time using a tree portal. However, from there, he had only the compass' needle to go on, and you would think that would be straightforward, but he'd made a point of not crossing any villages in order to keep a low profile, and he had already detoured to skirt three. Then, once, while looking intently down upon the compass, he had stumbled directly into a tree trunk and thanked his lucky stars that no one had been around to see that.

He hated the forest. His coat hem kept catching on stray branches, his boots were covered in mud and soil, and he had accumulated countless bug bites. "Whose idea was it to innovent trees?" he grumbled, looking again to the compass. Really, he thought, when Vexen had created this thing, it would've been handy to include some sort of feature that told him how close he was getting to what he'd set it to find.

Of course, once his eyes hit the needle and focused in, he forgot to pay attention to the obstacles in his path, and this time, when he tripped over the raised tree root and went down with a scream of half-anger, half-surprise, there was someone around to hear it, leading to that someone rushing to him to see him fallen.

"Oy, you okay?"

"NO!" Zevon growled without even looking up. "I am exhaustired, I am sore, I am covered in filth, and I am IRAGED at the loss of my dignificence!"

Xander vaguely remembered meeting someone who'd had a vocabulary that sounded like that, but the connection wasn't yet clicking. "Here," he offered, crouching down and extending a hand. "Let me help you."

"I don't need your – "

Zevon began to push himself up off the ground, and in doing so, he locked eyes with Xander.

Instantly, they recognized each other, but one far more so than the other. Xander had never met Zevon on the battlefield. However, Zevon had seen Xander's face in Snatcher and Garfield's reports during the Pike reconnaissance run. When they made the connection, Xander was pleasantly surprised, but Zevon was even more pleasantly surprised, for he had just found a way to quite easily slip his foot in the door of wherever the Corona Aurora was being held. After all, if it wasn't with the Mystic Rangers, where could it be? It wasn't like there were multiple teams of overpowered and colorful warriors on this world, after all!

"Actually, I will take your assistantion," Zevon said as he placed his hand in Xander's and let Xander act as leverage to help him stand.

"I remember you," Xander said with a shy smile. "You were in the sauna in the Empire of the Sun, remember?"

"That was you?" Zevon played dumb. "Ah, yes, of course that makes sense! I knew I couldn't have met two people that handsome!"

"You're trying to flatter me," Xander accused, still grinning.

"Is it working?" Zevon asked – not teasing. He legitimately wasn't sure if Xander had appreciated that hamfisted flirt.

"Maybe a little," Xander replied. "I'll give you another chance to win me over if you want. Though now, I'm more curious than anything. You must be an inter-world traveler."

"You got me!" Zevon blurted. "I cannot hide my true naturalistics any longer! I am a potionewer who usilizes the routations between the worlds to gather my more obscuroteric ingrediences!"

"If I understand, that's a pretty rare talent," Xander stated.

"Potionewers are a nuevo sol a dozen!" Zevon insisted, giving a sneer that showed exactly how he viewed lesser potioneers. "I, however, am a slice above the rest!"

Xander gave a laugh. "I meant traveling between the worlds. Most people don't even know."

"That is why I keep it secretivate!" Zevon replied. "I didn't expect to run into any one person on two different worlds! But now that I know you are of the same ilkling as me…I know I can trust you!"

"Your secret's safe with me," Xander guaranteed.

"And what about you?" Zevon asked. "What grand and heroical quest takes you from world to world?"

"It's kind of a long story," Xander replied coyly. "If you want, we could go find somewhere to sit down, grab a bite, and talk about it."

He was playing exactly into Zevon's hands. And Zevon should have prioritized that, but at the moment, upon the implication that he should visualize someplace nice, comfortable, and very much indoors, his instinct became to grab Xander by the forearms, look at him with a crazed desperation, and cry out, "PLEASE, TAKE ME OUT OF THIS PACHAMAMAFORSAKEN FOREST!"

"Your wish is my command," Xander laughed.

...

The door to the Rockporium creaked open, its bell jingling. Toby and Necrolai looked up from where they were chatting across the counter to see Leelee and Phineas enter.

"My favorite employee and future daughter-in-law!" Toby greeted.

"Nice to see you too," Leelee teased. "We brought a surprise."

"I'll give you a hint!" Phineas declared. "It's pink…and, uh…windy."

"That was two hints," Leelee laughed as she nudged him.

"Now, I wonder what on Earth that could be?" Necrolai asked. "Certainly not the Pink Ranger, Vida Rocca."

Vida took that as her cue to enter. "You got me!" she cried.

As Kairi followed her in, Toby asked, "Who's your friend? Is she looking for a job? Seriously, this place has gone to the pits since you left – "

"That's a fine hello," Necrolai needled. "Welcome back, Vida."

"It's good to BE back," Vida sighed. "This is our new pal, Kairi. She helps run the place we crashed at for the past few months."

"Toby and Necrolai, right?" Kairi greeted. "It's nice to meet you. Vida wanted to show me around Briarwood, and she was really excited to come back here."

"So just so we're clear," Toby reiterated, "you're NOT looking for a job."

"Nope." Kairi shook her head. "I'm busy enough already."

"But me and the others are gonna be back in business real soon," Vida guaranteed.

"There goes my Employee of the Month streak," Leelee joked.

"It'll be good to have you on the turntables again," Toby admitted. "Your replacement was…less than satisfactory."

"Hey!" Leelee chided. "You have some kind of PROBLEM with my man's taste in music?"

"Nobody wants to dance to Alpine yodeling!" Toby groaned.

"I do," Phineas stated confidently.

Vida had already approached the familiar turntables, running her hand over the equipment. "It's been way too long," she told the tables.

"Why don't you play something now, to celebrate?" Kairi asked.

"I'll do you one better," Vida replied. "Didn't you tell me once you wanted to learn how to do this?"

"I mean, if it's no trouble – "

"Get up here!" Vida waved.

Kairi took her place beside Vida, and soon Vida was showing her how to operate the sound system. "First, you check the preamp," she explained. "Then you have to take off the dust cover – "

Kairi watched raptly, and within a few minutes, she was in control, filling the Rockporium with the bouncy sound of 70s bubblegum pop.

...

Ruby Rose dashed hither and thither in Root Core, eyes sparkling as she took in the sights. "COOL!" she cried, looking to the enormous round divining crystal.

"COOL!" she cried at a shelf of magical tomes.

"COOOOOL!" she yelled at a potion cabinet.

Chip watched her dash down the hall that led to Fireheart's domain before he could warn her; she came speeding back out with a trail of flames following her from the playful dragon's breath, and though she looked panicked at first, she stated, "Okay, your pet dragon almost set me on fire but he is still SO COOL! …But literally very hot."

"Root Core is awesome," Chip said with a smile. "You're kinda reminding me of all the reasons I missed it."

"So what do you do to hang out here?" Ruby asked. "Cast intricate magical spells? Get into death-defying duels?"

"Well, actually, if I'm bored, I usually try to find someone who wants to play chess with me," Chip admitted with a shrug.

Ruby made a gagging noise. "No offense, but chess is just so…boring and slow."

"I get that," Chip replied. "It's not everyone's thing."

Clare entered the room then, clutching the box she'd found earlier. "Hey, sorry for overhearing," she said, "but have you ever tried Enchantachess? It's like regular chess, but it's a lot more fun and exciting. It's my favorite game EVER."

"I don't even know what that is," Ruby admitted.

"Neither do I!" Chip chirped. "Now you gotta tell us!"

"Okay," Clare urged. "Follow me!"

Chip and Ruby joined her near a small table, where she lay down a chessboard of purple-and-pink squares. "Okay," Clare began. "So in regular chess, your job is to defend the king. In Enchantachess, you have to defend the sorceress. And protecting her are the wizard, the unicorn, the dragon, the griffon, the sea serpent, and the elves."

As Clare placed each intricately-carved piece, it moved in a lifelike manner. The unicorn pieces pawed the board, and the dragons breathed a fine mist.

"This is where it gets interesting," Clare began. "None of the pieces have the same rules as regular chess pieces. The wizard is the trickiest piece to strategize with, because when you play the wizard, you don't pick where it goes. You just tap it on the head and – "

She lightly bopped the carved wizard. The piece teleported across the board.

"It ends up on a space at random," Clare stated. "Sometimes it will land on another piece and capture it, and sometimes it won't. You can actually win the game if you get really lucky and the wizard just lands on the sorceress on your first turn, but that only happens point-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero one percent of the time."

"Okay, this game is actually starting to sound kinda interesting," Ruby admitted.

"That's not even getting into the fact that whenever a piece captures another piece, they send up little fireworks," Clare said excitedly. "Watch!"

She made a mockup of a dragon piece capturing an elf, and tiny sparks of red, blue, and green erupted above them.

"This is my kind of game!" Chip declared.

"Now, there are eight elves, like there are eight pawns," Clare went on, "but they all have different weapons that let them do different things. This one has a scythe, this one has a lance, this one has twin daggers, and this one has reinforced gauntlets – "

"That's like my team!" Ruby shrieked. "Okay, we are SO playing this!"

...

Leanbow removed a canvas cover from a motorcycle parked out back of Root Core. "We kept it in good condition for you," he told Nick.

"Thanks, Dad," Nick said gratefully.

"Whoa, now that's a ride," Lea remarked. "Pretty slick. Not as cool as a Keyblade skimmer, but it's still got a wow factor."

Udonna smiled at Leanbow. "I don't think our new friend has realized what he's just said."

"He'll learn," Leanbow replied.

"Whoa," Nick argued. "Not as cool as a Keyblade skimmer? My bike is better than your skimmer any old day."

"Listen," Lea replied. "Flying a skimmer takes finesse. Riding that thing? Well, any chump could do it."

"Have you ever even ridden a motorcycle before?"

"Don't have to," Lea stated. "It's obvious how basic it is."

"If you think so," Nick challenged, "then ride mine for a mile without falling off."

"This is gonna be a breeze," Lea said casually as he approached the vehicle.

"Here." Nick offered up his helmet. "You're gonna want this."

"And get helmet-hair? No thank you."

A quick spell from Udonna, who could see exactly where this was going, transplanted the helmet around Lea's head anyway.

"Okay, so I'm a fashion disaster," Lea resolved. "Still gonna show you how basic this thing is."

He positioned himself on the seat, kicked up the stand, instinctively lifted both feet up to their rests –

Before the bike was even in motion, it had toppled, spilling Lea onto the ground.

"Still think it's so easy?" Nick taunted.

"Okay, okay." Lea dusted the fallen leaves from his shirt front as he rose. "MAYBE I could use a few pointers."

...

"Three…two…one…we're rolling!"

On Briarwood's main street, Madison turned her video camera on Daggeron, Jenji, and Ren. "This is a documentation of me coming home to Briarwood and saying goodbye for now to my new friends," she narrated.

"The camera LOVES me!" Jenji cried, striking several dramatic poses in a row.

"Uh…" Ren stared blankly, not sure how he should react for the best film results.

"What would you like us to do?" Daggeron asked.

"Nothing special," Madison replied. "We're just gonna walk through town and visit wherever we want. I just wanna film it. It's been so long since I've had a chance to use my camera."

Ren relaxed a bit, just giving Madison a smile.

"Well, then, let's just take a stroll down Main Street," Daggeron suggested.

And they did exactly that, the three natives of the town introducing Ren to all of the sights. While Ren didn't say much about what he was shown, he hoped they knew he appreciated every minute of it.

At one point, the quartet ended up in front of the library. "You'd love this place, Ren," Madison stated. "It actually is a quiet library. Just like where we used to read books together in the tallest tower. …I'm gonna miss that a lot."

"Me too," Ren said wistfully. "I'm glad you're going home, but…I'll think about you a lot."

After that, they were silent just long enough that Daggeron broke in, "I actually remembered I've left my Solar Cell Morpher back at Root Core."

"You didn't take your Solar Cell Morpher with you?" Jenji gasped. "How could you forget? You're ALWAYS ready in case of trouble! I didn't think you were THAT irresponsible – "

"Well, everyone has those days," Daggeron said with a wink, concealing the Solar Cell Morpher with his hand just enough to only Jenji could see that he did, in fact, have it. "You'll have to come back with me to get it, and Madison and Ren will have to go on with just each other."

"Ohhhhhh," Jenji realized. "Yeah, all right. Let's go get the thing you forgot."

As they set off together at a brisk pace, Ren asked, "Did you also get the feeling they just wanted to give us time alone?"

"Well, I'm glad they did," Madison said once the pair had gone. She shut off her camera, lowering it. "There's…something I wanted to say. It's not easy, though."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Ren asked.

"Just…listen?" Madison asked. "And don't judge?"

"I can do that," Ren assured her. "I will always do that."

"Why don't we sit down?"

They lowered themselves onto a bench outside the library, Madison's camera parked beside her to the left while Ren sat to her right. "I want to thank you for coming along to say goodbye," she told Ren. "I knew I wanted to come back here with the others. It's just…there were some things that were hard to leave behind."

Ren nodded.

"…You're one of them," Madison said softly.

"Oh," Ren said just as softly.

"I want to see you again," Madison insisted. "I know it'll be harder now, but…I wanna find a way."

"So do I," Ren admitted. "I…really liked the time we spent together. I was actually almost worried I was too boring for you."

"No," Madison replied. "Actually, you're one of the people who gets it. I've gotten more social recently, but I still just need time to be quiet. Just like you do."

"I appreciate it," Ren told her, "and I'm glad I could help you out with that." After a moment, he said, "I'm really gonna miss you, too. If I'm being honest…when I first heard you wanted to go back home, I was disappointed. I didn't want you to leave. But I didn't wanna say anything because I knew this was so important to you. And I still think that. I don't want you to leave, but I still think you should. It's where your heart is. And I of all people know how important it is to have a home you can go back to, with people who love you."

"Thank you," Madison replied, daring to turn and look him in the eye, and now he was doing the same to her. They gazed at each other for a while before Madison said, "I still want to go back to Radiant Garden to see you. And if you go back to Remnant, I want to visit you there."

"I'd love that. But I'll come here, too, and save you a trip."

"I just…I don't even know if I should say this," Madison went on. "I've loved making friends with you, and I've loved hanging out with you, and I…I think…I think I actually LIKE you."

Ren looked at her in awe, and Madison first interpreted his expression as disbelief, as though he hadn't wanted her to say that. It was disbelief, but of a different flavor. The words he uttered in awe were "It wasn't just me."

"You…"

"I like you, Madison. A lot. …Do you want me to call you 'Maddie' instead?"

"Call me whatever feels natural," Madison said with a shrug. "Do…you want me to call you 'Lie'?"

"Whatever feels natural."

Madison sighed. "So…yeah. This isn't as easy as I would've hoped."

"We'll find each other again," Ren promised. "When the time is right. Isn't that what Sora would say? Our hearts are connected now."

"Yeah," Madison agreed. "They are." Another moment of silence. "Ren – Lie – can I kiss you?"

Ren's face took on a rush of color. His "Yes" was almost inaudible, but still clear enough to be heard, as he knew they couldn't proceed unless they were both in complete agreement.

It took them stuttering leans and a few moments of hesitation to come together. After an eternity, their lips matched, and upon that contact, the anxieties melted away, their mouths blending together in a perfect fit. A second eternity passed.

Then they were apart, looking in each other's eyes again, breathless. "We have to do that again," Madison insisted. "When we meet up."

"I agree," Ren said.

A long silence. "Sorry," Madison said sheepishly. "I don't know what to say now."

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to," Ren assured her. "We can just…sit and watch things for a bit."

Madison nodded. Yes. This was why she knew he was the right one. "Okay. Sounds good."

"Do you mind if…I hold your hand?"

"I'd like that a lot, actually."

Their fingers intertwined, and for an hour, they simply sat on the bench outside the library, watching the world go by.

...

The burger joint Xander had picked out was not technically fast food, but was not that upscale, either. For a moderate price, one could get an utterly extravagant burger with all of the toppings, which was exactly what both Xander and Zevon ordered. Drinks were dispensed from a complex fountain machine that allowed for intricate flavor selection – you would choose a soda or juice, then add more flavors to add on top.

This was a sacred shrine to Zevon, who spent more time than was certainly necessary choosing elaborate flavor combinations, filling his glass partway, then selecting a new drink to add on top. It was just like potion brewing, but only for consideration of flavor.

"You sure spent a long time on that," Xander stated as Zevon returned to the table with his concoction. "Not that I'm complaining, but your burger's getting cold."

Zevon took a long swig of his mixture. Perfect. A symphony of fruit flavors, cola sweet, and frothy creaminess with an undercut of ginger tang. "I'm a potionewer, rememberoriam? This is my field of expertision. See for yourself."

He slid the glass across the table, and Xander took the tiniest sip, aware of the implications that they were swapping saliva. "It's good," he remarked, visibly stunned.

"I could make you one," Zevon tempted. "Would you want an exact doublicate or something more…personalitized?"

"Tell you what," Xander replied. "I prefer lemon-lime and orange. Start there and see if you can impress me."

Zevon stood, crowing, "I shall brew you a citrusine extravagasbord!"

Fifteen minutes later, Xander was sipping on the best soda he'd ever had in his life. "So potions aren't just a casual hobby for you," he identified.

"I live and breathe potions!" Zevon clarified. "Well. I don't literaturally breathe them. If I did that, I would drown."

Xander chuckled at that, thinking it to be Zevon's sense of humor. "So you wanted to know what makes me so special."

"Wow me!" Zevon challenged.

"Believe me, I'm thinking of a few ways to do that," Xander said coyly. "But for now, let's stick to the story, shall we? So. You know the Power Rangers?"

"Of course I know the Power Rangers!" Zevon proclaimed. "Who doesn't know the Power Rangers?"

"Well, I'm part of the Mystic Ranger squad," Xander said proudly. "I'm the green ranger."

Zevon gave an overdramatic gasp. "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!"

"Oh, I'm telling the truth, all right," Xander went on. He retrieved his morpher from his pocket, brandishing it. "I'll prove it after lunch, if you still have doubts."

"But that means you must be a hero!" Zevon gushed, pretending to be shocked. "You've saved the world on multipliable occasions! Like from…that one villain!"

"Who, Morticon? Imperious? The Master?"

"…Yes!"

"Couldn't have done it without my friends…" Xander pondered a moment. Zevon was very handsome, and charming in an awkward sort of way. Could it really hurt so much to embellish a little? "…but I'd say I'm sort of the brains of the operation. The heart of the team."

"Of COURSE!" Zevon agreed. "I mean, you are the GREEN RANGER! That means you…" He tried to mentally bring up the profile he had seen from Garfield's scroll files. "…wear the symboligil of the minotaur while you use your axe to cast earth-related spells on your foes!"

"Indeed I do," Xander affirmed.

"I simply must see the trophies of your victoriousies!" Zevon stated. Foot in the door. Now he needed that door open.

"I'm afraid I don't have many trophies in that sense," Xander told him. "All of our enemies were kind of…blown up without anything left." Briefly wondering how the others would take the new no-murder philosophy.

"You must at least have tools of the trade you want to show off!" Zevon attempted.

Xander shook his head. "Just the morpher. It's got all I need. That's what got me in so much trouble with Maleficent."

That was right. Strip a Ranger of his morpher and you made him powerless. Zevon made a note of that. "Then…you must have…" Now he was struggling to think of something he could ask to be shown. Xander was an earth mage. Taking a shot in the dark based on that fact alone, Zevon blurted, "PLANTS!"

Xander laughed at that. "Oh, believe me, I've been up close and personal with plants. Almost turned myself into one once."

"How did you do THAT?" Zevon asked, momentarily distracted from his quest. He'd very nearly added the word "moron" to that outburst, but he somehow got the feeling that wasn't the best way to proceed with a date when you wanted someone to like you.

Overall, he wasn't even sure he liked how this dating thing was working out. He knew he wasn't aromantic – there had been more than one benefit to taking Xander out. But Xander was smooth and witty, and he was holding up the end of a conversation that Zevon couldn't quite match, though Zevon considered himself to be quite smart. Then there were all of the motions he was going through. He hadn't really been in the mood to brew a whole separate soda for Xander, but as established, he was intelligent, and he knew that when you were trying to seduce someone, you did things like that. You also let them sip out of your own soda and get their disgusting spit in it, ruining fifteen minutes of hard work. If Zevon had stopped to delve into it, he might have been dismayed by staring into the void of wanting to carry out a romance without all of these awkward trappings that required him to bend around being his brash self.

It was this mental monologue that delayed him for a moment from understanding when Xander said, "Well, I tried to use a Perfection Potion to get rid of a zit, but it sort of backfired. Turned out it was sort of a plants-only kind of thing."

"Mmhmm." Zevon nodded, finishing his thought about how dismal this date was. Really, he needed to figure out a way to worm his way into Xander's hideout and be done with the man. That meant he had to figure out just what small talk he could use to steer the subject around to –

Wait. Had Xander just said "Perfection Potion"?

"I CAN HELP YOU!" Zevon cried suddenly, slamming both palms onto the table and rising suddenly.

"Help me?" Xander replied. "With what?"

"With a potion that will remove your acnesions PROPERLY without side effections!" Zevon cried.

"Oh, no," Xander laughed nervously. "I learned my lesson. What's a few zits, after all?"

"But I can providencide you with a potion that will rerase them without risk!" Zevon argued. "And I will do so for free! Why not take advantageon? Unless…you don't TRUST me…"

"I think the soda is a testament that you know what you're doing," Xander laughed. "You barely touched yours, by the way. Everything all right – "

"IT'S FINE. I'M NOT THIRSTY."

"Well…" Xander shrugged. "If you're offering, I might as well take you up. So…your place or mine?"

"I want to see your base of heroical operationalisms," Zevon stated.

Without even thinking, Xander agreed; "Sure. I'll show you around Root Core."

"Perfectional!"

Xander took a long draught of his soda, reminding Zevon that he actually was thirsty. "Let's finish our burgers first and then go."

"A capitalized idea." Zevon took out his frustrations by sinking his teeth into his burger animalistically.

...

At the town line of Briarwood, Flurious led Benglo, Mig, Moltor, and Kamdor into a side street. "This is the place," he stated. "From here, we'll have to go about this strategically."

"Why can't we just burn down their hideout and take the Corona Aurora from the ashes?" Moltor whined.

"Because, DEAR BROTHER," Flurious said through gritted teeth, "we attempted that several times on Operation Overdrive. The Mystic Rangers are accompanied by the Solaris Knight, the Wolf Warrior, and the White Ranger. No…we must play to their weakness instead of engaging in direct battle. Though doing so will, admittedly, involve engaging in direct battle."

"You just said that was what we WEREN'T going to do!" Kamdor growled.

"Not a battle we intend to win," Flurious clarified. "What is the greatest weakness of every Power Ranger?"

"They're too nice for their own good!" Benglo hissed.

"To everyone except us, anyway," Mig grunted.

"Exactly," Flurious stated. "When someone's in trouble, any Power Ranger worth their morpher will come to the rescue. That is why four of us will make our way to the heart of the city and begin a riot. We will divide in order to conquer. If we each target a different sector, the Rangers will be forced to spread their forces thin, meaning they cannot afford to leave anyone behind. That means their base of operations will be empty. And one of us will use that opportunity to sneak inside and bring back the Corona Aurora."

"I would be honored to retrieve the crown!" Mig stated, believing himself to be Flurious' nominee.

"No, Mig," Flurious corrected. "You and Benglo can't go anywhere without making a scene. After all, you are cats. You can't help but knock the glass off the shelf."

"I think he's being racist!" Benglo hissed.

"None of you is IDEAL for the job," Flurious went on. "All of you are far too loud and clumsy for your own good. However, there is one person here who has always specialized in retrieval of the gems, tracking them first and resorting to combat where it is necessary. That is why Kamdor will be the one to bring back the Corona Aurora from Root Core."

"YES!" Kamdor roared. "WE WILL HAVE THE CORONA AURORA IN NO TIME! BE READY, MIRATRIX! WE – "

A sudden halt as he remembered that Miratrix wasn't there, and for good reason, too. He'd never even liked her, after all. "I WILL BE THE ONE TO CARRY OUT THE OPERATION!" he concluded.

"Now, Kamdor," Flurious warned, "don't go getting greedy. I know this job comes with the temptation of running off with the Corona Aurora to keep it for yourself. I wouldn't blame you. But remember this. The Snow Prince thought he could run and hide. The Sentinel Knight thought he could fight." He raised Thunder Edge, turning it over to watch the voltage crackle up its metal. "The Sentinel Knight was destroyed by this blade. Do you think you will fare any better against it?"

"How DARE you insinuate that I would betray you?" Kamdor yelled, acting offended even though Flurious had called exactly what he had been thinking. "Not that I want to help you! I just want the Archmage's reward!"

"Then earn it," Flurious commanded. "And before you go, if you could leave us a monster or two to further divide the Rangers…"

"I'll leave you with an ARMY!" Kamdor replied eagerly.

"We only want a diversion," Flurious reminded him. "Not a massacre."

"So we can't kill the Rangers?" Moltor complained.

"Now, I never said that," Flurious corrected. "I only mean to suggest the key is to let them think this is a fight worth attempting, not one they can only run from."

"Then we'll finally get to sink our claws into them!" Mig cackled.

"But they're not OUR Rangers!" Benglo complained.

"Does it matter?" Mig groaned. "Power Rangers are practically interchangeable, and striking one of them down hurts all of them!"

"I like the way you think!" Benglo complimented.

"This is why you need to keep me around," Mig asserted. "You need to listen to me more often!"

"Get a room, you two!" Moltor growled.

"No more distractions," Flurious ordered. "It is time to put on a performance. The Corona Aurora is as good as in our hands."

...

"Ven, I'm sorry…I might not make it back as soon as I thought. But I promise I'll be there, one day, to wake you up."

Those words echoed in the dreams of two people, sleeping soundly in rooms a good distance from each other across the Radiant Garden castle. At the exact same moment, those two people, each only having half of an instinct but each possessing the half the other needed, sat bolt upright in bed.

Sora caught his breath, trying to sort out what had occurred to him in that moment suspended between dream and waking. It made no sense. He didn't even know where he was supposed to go. But he knew just enough, and in the end, he decided to trust that.

He turned to the still form in the bed before him, placing his hands on the other's shoulders and shaking him lightly. "Riku," he hissed. Then, at full speaking volume, "Riku?"

"Mmmhhhhwhat?" Riku muttered groggily, face down in the pillow.

"Riku, you gotta wake up!" Sora insisted. "I know what we have to do!"

"Noooooooo…"

"Please, Riku! This is important!"

Riku forced himself to roll over, sit up, and pry his eyes open, which at that moment seemed to take more strength than battling any Xehanort ever had. "Did Kazuichi cut off his other leg?" he mumbled in frustration.

"No!" Sora insisted, by now fully energized and clenching his fists excitedly. "It's Aqua! We can save her!"

"How?"

"I don't know," Sora admitted.

"Soraaaaaaa…" Riku flopped back down into a lying position. "Wake me up when you have a plan."

"I just KNOW, okay?" Sora urged. "Something in my heart…it just told me I have to find the way! And if I get up and go out, I'll know what I have to do! But it HAS to be tonight, or something bad is gonna happen!"

Riku gave a heavy sigh. It never did well to ignore one's heart when it spoke that loudly, for that usually meant there were greater forces at work. He propped himself back up. "You're not gonna let me go back to sleep until we figure this out, are you?"
"Nope."

Riku slid out of the bed so that he could begin to get dressed and let Sora pass. "Okay. Let's go."

Within minutes, a fully-dressed Sora was bolting down the hallway of the castle's residential area, Riku in hot pursuit. Well, Riku technically still was faster than Sora, but given that Sora was the only person here with any idea of what he was doing, he knew he had to let the brunette take the lead.

"Any ideas yet?" Riku asked.

"No!" Sora replied. "But we're getting close!"

"Sora, she's not here in the castle – "

That was when Sora full-on collided with the other who had awoken at the same moment, both people falling to the floor with a "WHOA!".

Sora shook his head to get his bearings, then looked to the girl who had crashed into him. "Moana?"

"Sora!" Moana replied in a frenzied tone as she scrambled to her feet. "You're looking for someone!"

"Yeah!" Sora stood to meet her gaze. "How'd you know?"

"I don't know," Moana admitted. "I just woke up with this feeling. I think…the ocean was trying to tell me something important. Somewhere we need to go. But you're the only one who knows where."

"The Realm of Darkness," Sora answered. "That's where we're going. There's someone important there we have to save – "

"Before it's too late," Moana said breathlessly. "I think…if you know who we're looking for…then if we set sail…the ocean and I can take you there."

"REALLY?" Sora cried.

Riku was now in full acceptance that this was more than coincidence. "We have to hurry," he insisted. "I don't really know what's going on, but it looks like we can't waste another minute."

"We gotta get to the beach!" Sora cried.

"There's no time!" Moana insisted. "The train won't get there before…whatever it is happens!"

"But then how are we supposed to – "

The door they'd met in front of creaked open. A high-pitched, feminine voice sighed, "Can you please keep it down? Some of us are trying to sleep."

Sora, Moana, and Riku looked to the one they'd disturbed: a refugee taking asylum in the castle while her home district was repaired. She was quite small, perhaps waist-height of your average human adult. A Lalafell, Sora remembered, having seen her around before. He couldn't recall her name, but she tended to stand out due to the tall purple top hat she always wore over her dark hair. Now she regarded the teen trio with a disgruntled frown.

"Uhhh…sorry," Sora whispered.

"We'll keep it down," Moana said equally quietly, and Riku nodded in agreement.

"Thank you," the Lalafell said dryly before giving her door an emphatic close and returning to her attempt at slumber.

"How are we supposed to get to the ocean without taking the train?" Sora whispered.

"I don't know," Moana said, "but it won't be fast enough."

"Well, it's better than standing around here talking about how it won't be fast enough," Riku asserted. "We'll waste even more time this way."

He broke into a run, and the others followed him. They got all the way to the end of the hall before Riku came to a sudden halt just in front of the lift station door.

"Rosalina," he whispered. "The Comet Observatory can bring us to the ocean quickly."

"You think she's awake?" Moana asked.

"She won't mind being woken up if she knows how important this is!" Sora insisted.

No one wanted to argue the point, knowing the urgency of the situation, if not so much why it was urgent.

Rosalina was, as a matter of fact, awake at the moment. She sat on the terrace lawn of the Observatory, skirt spread around her as she took apricot tea with Katara and Papyrus.

"But Sozin's Comet makes firebenders stronger," Rosalina said to Katara. "Why not wait until it had passed?"

"We couldn't afford to," Katara answered. "Zuko told us that Ozai was going to use that energy to launch an attack on the Earth Kingdom. We knew if we didn't act, there would have been nothing left."

"I see," Rosalina said somberly. "Then you made the right choice."

"Everyone wanted Aang to kill Ozai to end it all," Katara went on, "but when we set up a simulation, he couldn't even decapitate a melon. He knew Ozai's life was as sacred as any of ours, even if he used that life to bring destruction."

"I QUITE AGREE WITH THAT," Papyrus stated. "I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT EVERYONE HAD THE POTENTIAL DO TO BETTER, EVEN TERRIBLE VILLAINS. IT'S A VERY PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY TO ME."

"The multiverse is made up of good and bad," Rosalina said with a nod. "Evil must be stopped from doing harm, but eradicating it upsets the balance. There are times when it is necessary…but I prefer to avoid it as much as I can. Even the man who destroys countless galaxies and rebirths the universe may be a father with a broken heart, attempting to fill the void with a bid for power."

"THAT SEEMS INCREDIBLY SPECIFIC," Papyrus pointed out.

"It may be related to someone I have met," Rosalina stated with a smile, "and ensured the safety of."

The sounds of three racing pairs of feet alerted the trio. Papyrus raised his bony hand to wave. "SORA! RIKU! MOANA! PLEASE JOIN US FOR TEA AND VERY SPECIFIC STORIES ABOUT OUR ENEMIES' LIFE WORTH!"

"No time!" Sora insisted as he and his companions skidded to an abrupt stop that kicked up some of the lawn soil. "We gotta hurry!"

"Hurry and do what?" Katara asked.

"I can't believe you three are still awake," Riku said in disbelief.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'STILL AWAKE'?" Papyrus asked. "IT'S ONLY BEEN A FEW HOURS SINCE WE CAME BACK HERE TO EXPLORE SOME MORE…"

"I think we just lost track of time!" Katara asked. "Everyone else is probably worried about us! But – " She turned to look again at Sora, Riku, and Moana. "WHAT do we have to hurry and do?"

"Aqua!" Sora insisted. "We have to save Aqua!"

"WHO IS AQUA?" Papyrus asked.

"She's a Keyblade master from a long time ago," Sora explained quickly, "and she got trapped in the Realm of Darkness by Xehanort! Nobody had any idea how to get her out, but Moana and I both knew that we had to go now!"

"The ocean can guide the way," Moana stated, "so long as both me and Sora are there. We need to get to the water and fast."

"Rosalina," Riku asked. "Can you link the Observatory to a coastline where we can take off?"

Rosalina stood, straightening the skirt of her gown. "I will do so at once," she stated. "I, too, am beginning to feel a sense of dread regarding your lost friend."

"A LOST FRIEND?" Papyrus leapt to his feet. "I WILL ASSIST HOWEVER I CAN!"

"Me too," Katara agreed. "Let's go."

"We will need to travel with Lumas," Rosalina decided. "Meet me in the Terrace dome."

Rosalina floated off to ask around as to who was willing to join their travels, and Sora, Riku, Moana, Katara, and Papyrus spilled into the Terrace dome, looking to the blinking pull star overhead.

Within moments, Rosalina had returned with two Lumas in tow: blue and pink. "Meet Cassie and Lyrae," she introduced. "Cassie, Lyrae, these are my friends Sora, Riku, Moana, Katara, and Papyrus."

"You're the ones who helped track down Tauri when he got lost!" Lyrae, the pink Luma, realized. "That silly airhead! It's a good thing there are sensible people like you around!"

"Are we going on an adventure?" Cassie, the blue Luma, asked excitedly. "I wanna go on an adventure!"

"Cassie, I want you to accompany Katara, Papyrus, and myself," Rosalina assigned. "Lyrae, please stay with Sora, Riku, and Moana. If all goes well, we will soon have another person to bring back at the end of our journey. However, there may be danger. If I tell you to stay back, please follow my order. I would not see either of you hurt."

"You got it!" Lyrae agreed.

"Okay," Cassie said softly.

"Is there a particular ocean you will need to depart from?" Rosalina asked.

"I don't think so," Moana answered. "Any will do."

"Then let's go to the Destiny Islands," Sora decided. "It just…feels right."

The dome was soon awash in Rosalina's magic. "You will find the Islands connected to this star," Rosalina explained. "Sora, Riku, Moana, you three may go first, should something happen to hinder us."

"How does this work?" Moana asked in concern.

"It's easy!" Sora put up his hand, gravitating to the pull star. "You just do this!"

He floated once again in the cosmic view, granted a vantage point across the starry expanse to the distant Destiny Islands. Riku and Moana joined him shortly.

"Okay," Sora admitted, "so this part, I've never done before. I guess if you just focus, and you reach out with all your heart, then – "

As he spoke the words, he did exactly that. The pull star converted to a launch star, catapulting him suddenly across the cosmos.

After a brief yet amazing flight, Sora's shoes touched down on the soft sands of the island cove where he, Riku, and Kairi used to play, building their raft that had been intended to carry them to other worlds. Riku landed to his right and Moana to his left; Lyrae floated to Moana's other side. After a brief period of worried anticipation, Rosalina, Papyrus, and Katara planted in the sand behind them, Cassie hovering nearby.

In stark contrast to the midnight Radiant Garden they had left, it was dawn over the Islands. "I'll never get used to this whole time working differently on different worlds thing," Sora sighed.

"I don't mean to insult your plan," Riku realized, "but did anyone think of how we were even going to sail there? As in…do we have a boat?"

Sora and Moana's stomachs dropped into a hollow pit. "I didn't think of that," Sora admitted. "I mean, we could take the rowboats…but there isn't one that would carry all of us."

"And if nobody came out here to the Islands," Riku reminded him, "then we'd have to either wait or swim to the mainland to get one."

"Could we make a raft?" Moana suggested. "Just a simple one?"

"That takes a week to put together at least," Riku stated. "Trust me."

"IF YOU AREN'T USING MAGIC, IT DOES," Papyrus stated cockily, striding to the front of the group. "HOWEVER, BEING A MONSTER HAS CERTAIN ADVANTAGES. BEHOLD AS I, PAPYRUS, SOLVE ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS!"

He threw out both hands. A platform of interlocking bones, each massive in circumference, created itself on the water's surface, looking for all the world like a raft made of white logs. A column of vertical bones created a mast.

"VOILA!" Papyrus cried.

"YEAH!" Sora cried. "Great going, Papyrus!"

"WHAT CAN I SAY EXCEPT 'YOU'RE WELCOME'?" Papyrus replied, earning a chuckle from Moana. "HOWEVER…THE SAIL IS ONE THING I CANNOT MAKE."

"We won't need a sail," Katara stated. "You have me."

"Then let us hurry," Rosalina urged.

They piled onto the raft, and Katara pushed the water beneath them, churning it to propel the bones forward at a brisk clip.

"SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW?" Papyrus asked.

"Now," Cassie chirped, "we're on an ADVENTURE!"

"YES, THAT," Papyrus agreed, "BUT HOW DO WE GET FROM THIS OCEAN TO THE REALM OF DARKNESS?"

"We just have to trust," Moana stated. "We're going the right direction. I can feel it. I – " She gave a start, looking out at the waters before her. "STOP!" she cried suddenly.

Katara calmed the waters; by now, the Destiny Islands were far behind, leaving an expanse of sunrise-touched blue all around. "What is it?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

Moana kept her eyes on the sea surface. "What do you want to tell me?" she asked.

In response, an object bobbed to the surface: one that otherwise would have sank due to its metal composition. Moana knelt on the raft, reaching out to take it up into her hand.

"It's a Keyblade," she said in surprise, looking over the weapon. Its hilt was square, solid metal with maroon accents. Its deep-gray shaft was stark and ascetic, with no embellishments before it ended in a trident of teeth that formed a crude rectangle.

"It's AQUA'S Keyblade!" Sora cried.

"How do you know?" Riku asked.

"I just…I know!" Sora insisted. "Something in my heart is telling me I've seen it before!"

"But you've never seen Aqua," Riku said in confusion.

"I can't explain it, okay?" Sora replied in a panic. "But this means she doesn't have her Keyblade, and she's all alone in the Realm of Darkness! We've gotta bring it back to her before whatever happens…you know!"

"FULL SPEED AHEAD, KATARA!" Papyrus cried, and Katara bade the waters bring the raft forward as fast as possible.

"I don't like this," Lyrae moaned.

"I think this is just getting fun!" Cassie chirped.

Sora stood at the front of the raft, eyes fixated on the horizon. His heart clenched, and he rested his hand over it.

"I'm coming, Aqua," he said in a voice that he wasn't entirely sure belonged to him.

And then the portal opened up. It appeared as a shimmering light, big and bright enough to swallow up the whole raft.

"The way to the Realm of Darkness," Rosalina identified. "The ocean guided us here, and Sora's heart bridged the connection."

"Almost there, Aqua!" Katara cried out. "Hang on, everyone!"

The bone raft picked up even more speed, frothing droplets of seawater kicked up, and it was propelled straight through the portal, where the bright blues of the ocean beyond the Islands were suddenly transformed to hues of jarring shadow.

...

The waves lapped up onto the black sands of the Realm of Darkness. Two of the lost had staked their claim here, waiting for the status quo to change. After so long, it hardly seemed worth hoping, yet hope was all they had – hope, and each other.

The man in the black coat and hood sat on a jagged black rock, turning his gaze from the horizon to the woman who sat on the sand beside the stone. "Tell me," he asked, getting her attention. "Will you stay here?"

The blue-haired woman, whose intricate blue attire offered no extra protection from the Darkness yet seemed to be unnecessary entirely for her, replied, "I can't shake the feeling that these waters touch another shore I've visited."

Upon that answer, both Ansem the Wise and Master Aqua turned back to look at the line where the sky met the sea. It seemed an endless void to the naked eye. But to the desperate, there must be something more, a light beyond the abyss.

It took Ansem a moment to put the pieces together. "The Destiny Islands," he announced.

Aqua flinched, turning back to Ansem in surprise. "You've heard of them?" she asked eagerly.

"Yes," Ansem said somberly. Aqua noted how he still kept his hood up. He said it was to protect him further from the Darkness, but she had a feeling she knew the truth. It was said that the eyes never lied, and so long as the hood was raised, Ansem could shield his eyes – hide his face to obscure the wrongs he had done. "They are quite lovely – a far cry from this wasteland." He emphasized the point by gesturing out to the sea with his hand, then turned once more to look to it.

They never maintained eye contact for long. As if facing each other meant facing defeat. Now Aqua looked back out at the ocean, a satisfied smile on her face as she recalled the tropical paradise she once had visited. "I'm staying," she resolved. "Someone will come for me."

The overcast skies obscured what seemed to be a muted sun. Ansem looked to it as he recalled, "These waters are the in-between of Dark and Light, its shores the margins of day and night. They brought you and I together, so why not also you and another?"

Another glance at each other stolen. "Yes," Aqua agreed.

Perhaps ten minutes passed. Perhaps an hour. Perhaps, in the realm of Light, it had been another decade. Aqua and Ansem simply watched and waited, as if expecting an arrival.

An arrival did come, but not from the direction they had expected.

The sound of boots in the sand behind them heralded the appearance of the visitor. Aqua gave a start, turning; "Who's there?" This got Ansem's attention as well, and both looked back to see their new companion.

Horror poured through both of them as they recognized Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, striding tall and solid in his own dark leather coat, determination written on his face. He did so hate carrying out Master Xehanort's dirty work, but he supposed if he played along and bided his time, then he could finally follow his hollow heart.

"You," the Wise growled, his tone dripping venom. Aqua rose, ready to defend at a moment's notice.

"Master," the Seeker of Darkness said coldly. "I must have a word with you."

The Wise took down his hood; Aqua gasped at this sudden change. It seemed the master wanted to face down his former student with all of himself, no barrier in between to shield him or his deeds.

"'Master,'" the Wise said equally coldly. "So now you mock me."

"Do you recall those experiments of the heart you bade me cease?" the Seeker of Darkness said as he began to advance. "Among the test subjects was a girl. She had lost her memory, just as I had. But…you can reconstruct memories. You did with Sora. I believe you have seen the girl's memories." A pause. "And though she matters little to me, the others have a vested interest in this shell you cast aside. There are other ways your mind can be of use to me."

"What is your question?" the Wise said sternly, refusing to so much as tremble.

"Where did you put the girl?" the Seeker of Darkness asked.

"What girl?" the Wise replied.

The Seeker of Darkness smiled. "Very well. I was hoping you would give me the excuse."

He reached out toward the Wise one, his hand ready to grasp when Aqua batted it aside forcefully. She inserted herselves between the two Ansems, using her tensed body to shield the one who had been her loyal companion through the long and solemn night. "I think you should go," she hissed at the Seeker.

The manifestation of Xehanort regarded her with little concern, "A lost guardian of Light?" he mocked. "You think to wait here, for the King or his fools. But every heart, no matter how strong, is destined to return to Darkness. I can see you believe yourself an exception. Your most important lesson will be your last."

The Guardian Heartless erupted from behind, and before Aqua could fully take in the scope of what she faced, it had arced over its master's head, dealing her a ramming blow from its oversized fist. She was flung across the beach, forced to pivot and regain her balance as she planted in the sand.

As she rose, the Seeker of Darkness noted what was missing from the picture, and it amused him to no end. "You have lost your Keyblade," he mocked.

"Don't need it," Aqua growled as she readied herself for another charge. Sizing up the Seeker and his Guardian, she strategized as quickly as she could. Without a blade, it seemed a risky gamble, but it was better to gamble than to surrender or run. If she acted quickly enough, she could feint, overtake the Xehanort manifestation by surprise, perhaps bludgeon him or get him in a hold –

First, the Guardian needed to be dealt with. Moving on instinct and adrenaline, Aqua vaulted into the air, kicking off the Guardian's chest to send it reeling. That would leave her a window of precious seconds in which to attack its master. She turned, made another leap, planned her descent and assault –

The Guardian was faster.

The fist seized around her ankle in midair. Aqua dangled upside-down like a toy handled by a careless child. She was raised to look at the Guardian's fanged face and piercing yellow eyes, struck by its malice –

By recognition?

By things she had no time to process before the Wise one hurried forward and declared, "No more! I'll go!"

The Seeker chuckled. "You are wise. You always were. But she was never meant to be a bargaining chip. Only a flame to extinguish."

Aqua was hurled head over heels.

She spun, making a landing at the edge of the coast, the tide licking her heels. She stared the Seeker down again, mind whirling. Her primary objective had to be to bring down the Guardian. Only after that –

"Every Light must fade," the Seeker reiterated. "Every heart return to Darkness. No ego can change that fate."

Unlike certain counterparts of his, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness did not monologue without a purpose. While Aqua watched his face as he spoke, the Guardian balled up an enormous mass of pure Darkness, and by the time Aqua realized what was to happen, it was too far along to prevent.

The Dark sphere cannonballed into her, and she was thrown, her perception lagging behind where her body even was as said body careened over the ocean. A desperate scream escaped her lips as she plummeted beneath the waves, too far from shore.

The Wise one stumbled to the beach's edge, hand outstretched for someone he knew he could not save. His only companion in the great void had been removed from his grasp. Now it was only him and his bane. Defeated, he sank to his knees.

And that bane, the Seeker of Darkness, hovered behind him, now floating a foot off the ground. "There is nothing left," he stated. "No light remains for you. You may choose to expire. Or you may prolong your existence further by giving me the knowledge I have yet to uncover about the Light and the Dark."

"Knowledge," the Wise one repeated forlornly. "Does knowledge replace the sentiments of a heart, to you?"

"The only hearts ever broken by learning new truths," the Seeker of Darkness stated, "were too fragile to survive to begin with."

As Aqua sank, she briefly thought of struggling, of returning to the surface to save her friend, but she then became chillingly aware of a new sensation. The Darkness that the Seeker had used to propel her away hadn't just been an attack for the sake of gaining distance. It had imbued itself into Aqua's skin, absorbing into her being, and it was spreading, her heart contracting and her limbs growing heavy. She had only just enough time to wonder the nature of that feeling before her mind clouded, leaving her with only the vaguest of details. And deep within her heart, a rage without a cause was flickering to life.

In all of this chaos, what any of the participants had failed to notice was the great portal of light that opened on the horizon, admitting passage for one small raft forged of enchanted bone, propelled by bent water and carrying eight passengers.

By the time the three were in the thick of their confrontation, Sora and Riku had looked out to the beach ahead, recognizing the two men involved. "Ansem!" Riku gasped.

"And…Ansem?" Sora added.

"I AM GUESSING 'ANSEM' IS A VERY COMMON NAME WHERE YOU COME FROM," Papyrus mused. "SORT OF LIKE 'JERRY' BACK HOME."

"We've gotta stop Ansem!" Sora declared.

"And save Ansem," Riku agreed.

"ALL RIGHT, YOU TWO ARE GOING TO HAVE TO FIGURE OUT A WAY TO BE MORE CLEAR ABOUT WHICH ANSEM YOU MEAN," Papyrus groaned.

The raft was still far out to sea when Aqua was thrown, and she landed not too far from the raft, plunging to the depths.

"AQUA!" Sora cried. "THAT HAD TO BE AQUA! WE GOTTA SAVE HER!"

Rosalina had made up her mind. "Sora, Riku," she said, "go hold off your foe. Lyrae, Cassie, stay far out to sea and do not get involved. I will see to Aqua. Everyone else, follow your heart."

With that, she swan-dove right off the raft and into the dark waters.

Without a second thought, Sora and Riku leapt, Flowing clear over the water's surface until they hit the beach in unison.

The Ansems were snapped out of their discussion, now aware of the two familiar faces that had approached.

"Don't worry, Ansem!" Sora cried. "We're here to help – "

The Guardian seized the Wise one by the shoulder, throwing him back. Where he landed, narrowly missing breaking his back against one of the rough rocks, a rounded cage of blazing electric magic sprang into being over him, keeping him confined.

The Seeker of Darkness hovered before his old foes, smiling smugly. "Again and again you are felled," he remarked, "and again and again, you return. Had you taken the lesson, you could have spared yourself a grim fate."

"We're not scared of you!" Sora replied, Keyblade shimmering to hand.

"Trust me," Riku insisted, calling his own weapon to arms. "You're just a bad case of déjà vu."

"Now let Ansem go, or we'll have to MAKE you!" Sora threatened.

Ansem's smile grew. "Then make me."

He'd bowled over Sora in a blink, surrounded by blue energy that made him more meteor than man. Rocketing around, he went in for another blow only to collide into Riku, who had launched into a Dark Splicer – the very attack he had learned from fusing with the Seeker of Darkness in the first place.

The two became a duel of speed, a pair of glowing bullets shooting across the beach in an effort to outrun and break each other. Sora, from the sidelines, waited for his opportunity, then turned to an old-fashioned but tried-and-true trick. He threw the Keyblade toward the Seeker of Darkness, and though it missed at first, it returned to his hand, and he carried out a Strike Raid to attempt multiple more times to knock the Seeker off balance long enough for Riku to land a blow. None of which ended up being successful.

Back out at the raft, Moana had cried, "I have to help Aqua!" before diving into the ocean after Rosalina, the Master's Defender in hand. That left Katara and Papyrus alone with the two Lumas.

"I CANNOT STAND BY AND WATCH OUR FRIENDS GET HURT!" Papyrus insisted.

"I'll get us to them," Katara promised.

"DO YOU NEED THE RAFT TO DO THAT?" Papyrus asked. "I'LL BE ABLE TO FOCUS MORE ON THAT AWFUL, VIOLENT PERSON IF I'M NOT HOLDING THE RAFT TOGETHER."

"No raft necessary!" Katara proclaimed.

The bones dissolved, dropping both into the water. Then, at Katara's behest, a great wave rose up with Katara and Papyrus' feet resting atop its crest, bearing them the rest of the way to the beach.

Sora's Keyblade had finally caught Ansem, and Riku had followed this up with a rough tackle charged with Darkness. Ansem regained his balance, backing away as the Guardian balled up two charges of energy and planted them in the ground. Sora and Riku stood side-by-side before him, and only too late did they realize the charges were lighting up as trails of harmful magic, making a beeline for them both.

They were struck, knocked off their feet and flat on their backs.

Ansem warped over to float directly above them, the Guardian raising its fists high. "Now, to banish these hearts to OBLIVION!" he declared. "SUBMIT!"

The Guardian brought one fist down over each boy.

And slammed them onto a wall of glowing electric-blue bones.

Ansem looked up to see Papyrus and Katara approaching him. "YOU WILL NOT HARM OUR FRIENDS," Papyrus seethed.

If he was angry, Katara looked downright dangerous. "Let…them…go," she insisted.

Ansem chuckled. "You walk between the Light and the Dark," he said with a meaningful look to Katara. "Watch your step, girl."

A chill ran through Katara's blood – fitting, since she knew blood was exactly what had inspired Ansem to say what he had. "I don't need to use bloodbending to defeat you," she insisted, raising both hands.

A veritable wall of water shot toward the sky behind her, and then she directed it forward, slamming a thick, snakelike column of the sea itself into Ansem hard enough to push him back clear off the beach and knock him to the ground.

"ANSEM!" Sora now ran full tilt toward the magical cage that bound the Wise one.

The Seeker was not through. He warped in between Sora and the prisoner once again, growling, "The more hearts you bring to your side, the more will collapse when you fail!"

He surrounded himself in a glowing aura, and the already dark realm seemed to grow even darker, drawing all attention to the Seeker, the only thing clearly visible. The Guardian disappeared belowground, and Sora knew what this meant. In a panic, he cried, "LOOK OUT!"

The Guardian began to erupt from the ground at random, spurting a ripple of malicious magic wherever it appeared. Riku was blasted, taking stock of several bruises as he hit the ground. Papyrus fled, nearly missing another blast that would have ripped him to fragments in one go. Katara zigzagged her pattern, drawing more water from the ocean and curling it into a swirling ball that was prepared to pummel the Seeker as soon as she could safely hold still. Sora leapt into a glide, keeping his feet off the sand as long as he could but sweating as his body naturally descended lower and lower to the deadly barrage.

The Seeker finished it off when the Guardian returned to him, and four points of energy flickered, each aimed at one of his opponents. The lines of magic flared out; Sora, Riku, Katara, and Papyrus each dodged by only a hair, divided into quadrants.

Once the onslaught had faded, they retaliated. The sphere of water pummeled into Ansem, throwing him aside. He was caught by the force of a sheer wall of bones that threw him to the ground. Sora and Riku surged forth, beginning the alternating steps of an Eternal Session Limit.

Ansem took the blows, then followed them up with rains of meteor-like magic, throwing electrical charges this way and that. He knew at this point, he was well matched, but he refused to give up just yet. "The stronger your Light becomes," he grunted, "THE STRONGER THE SHADOW IT CASTS!"

As the battle raged, Moana attempted to dive deep enough to reach Aqua. However, even with the ocean on her side, she found the pressure of the water too great. Her body was pushed back, barred entrance as Aqua kept falling, the Dark consuming her and transforming her very being. The girl let out a "NO!" as she was slung back up to the surface.

The ocean, however, knew what she was doing. She always did. Had Moana reached Aqua first, there was nothing she could have done in the face of the damage dealt by Ansem. Rosalina, who rocketed through the ocean's depths like a comet with a glowing golden-white aura marking her trail, was a different story.

Anger. Hopelessness. Misery. The need to strike out with violence. All of these things filled Aqua from the inside out, and she was only vaguely aware of the fact that there was no reason why. Her eyes were open, but her vision faded, clouded over with the Dark. The rescue she had waited so long for would never come. This was the end…or was it a beginning? A beginning of a new Aqua. One who would no longer be chained by hope. One who would embrace the Darkness (But why? she managed to ask herself – Why?) and accept it as her final fate. Ten years she had waited. No one had come. In the end, they had all abandoned her –

(Terra, Ven, Mickey, they would never do that, they hadn't done that, they simply couldn't come, why was she - )

And she was better off –

(Ansem had tried - )

Without any of them.

(He had said Sora would save them all - )

All that was left to do was give in.

(No. I would never do that. That isn't me.)

She couldn't resist.

When out of the dark, there burst a single hand, pale and sleeved in blue, bordered in a bright light. It was all Aqua could see or make sense of: not the person it was attached to, nor her very surroundings. It interrupted her descent, and she considered the hand, aware there might have been another possibility besides surrender.

"Take my hand," a soft voice urged, using up all the air it had left to speak with.

Every part of Aqua's body was crying out for her to finish giving in, to allow the Darkness its final conquest. But she knew that wasn't right. What was right was accepting this new Light. And so, with all of her strength, she moved her hand, grasping the hand offered her tightly.

Once Rosalina had made physical contact with Aqua, she could proceed to feed her the same curative magic she had used to revert Aladdin's chaos. Aqua had been very nearly consumed, morphing into the form of a Darkling of old. Once Rosalina's light washed over her, however, the change was immediate. Her color returned; her shape stabilized.

Now Aqua could recognize how utterly wrong the thoughts implanted in her by the Darkness had been. To give up hope was to give up everything. The one whose hand she had taken had saved her heart from a place of difficult return, if any return at all. Aqua looked to her savior, who was now guiding her into an upright position to return her to the surface of the sea, and she was greeted by the sight of the most beautiful face she'd ever seen – more beautiful than that of any Princess of Heart – sparkling sea-blue eyes, a halo of golden hair framing an angelic visage that smiled softly, comfortingly, at Aqua.

They broke the surface, gasping deeply, and Aqua could see now that Rosalina's cloud of blonde hair was plastered down over her shoulders, even obscuring one eye. Now the smile was gone as Rosalina asked worriedly, "Are you all right?"

"YES!" Aqua gasped. "Yes – I'm fine – thank you – you SAVED me – "

She then caught sight of Moana bobbing nearby, and when their eyes met, Moana put up her free hand and waved. "Hi." She then held up the Master's Defender in the other hand. "I think you might need this."

Aqua gave a start. "ANSEM!"

She surged forward, grabbing the blade from Moana, curious to death about how Moana had gotten ahold of it but knowing now was not the time. She broke into a freestyle front-crawl toward the shore, practically breakneck, and Rosalina and Moana followed, the former copying Aqua's style and the latter diving beneath to breaststroke.

Sora and Riku were wrapping up the Eternal Session, Sora using his blade of Light and Riku his blade of Darkness to fire beams at the Seeker from opposite sides. Katara kept him in place with a deluge of water that Papyrus reinforced with stakes of bone that slammed into the ground around the Seeker; the Guardian raised its hands to repel the water with a domelike shield, but that left it unable to protect Ansem from the Limit.

Then, seized by a sudden impulse, Sora and Riku met each other's gaze, blades in hand. They rushed to each other, and after clasping their free left hands in order for Sora to use Riku as leverage to spin to his side, Sora transferred his blade to his left hand. Both Keyblades were raised, and they transformed into the combination blade they'd gotten to know as the Nightmare's End in the Realm of Sleep.

It struck once, twice at the Seeker, then a dramatic flourish, and he was brought to his knees. The Guardian pulled him up sharply by the shoulders, trained not to let its master falter, and the Seeker was still ready to try and prolong the fight when a rough cry came accompanied by a burst of magic that collided with his solar plexus and sent him reeling. When the Seeker regained his bearings, he now looked to the shore, where he was faced down by Aqua, now equipped with her blade once more; Rosalina, who had drawn her wand and was glowing it with a fierce light; and Moana, who had neither weapon nore magic, but was running on enough sheer willpower to make up for it.

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness knew he couldn't beat these odds.

"Maybe I did not get what I wanted," he grunted, "but at the very least, I will come away with what THEY wanted."

A Corridor of Darkness opened up and swallowed him whole.

Sora could now finally rush to Ansem the Wise, whose magical cage was still intact. "Ansem!" he cried. "Don't worry! I'll get you out of – "

"No TIME!" Ansem the Wise knew what was to come. "Sora, listen to me! Your heart holds the key! Within it – "

The sand beneath him swirled into the form of a Corridor of Darkness, and he went plunging in, lost below to the Seeker's grasp. The magic that had held him captive finally fizzled out.

"NO!" Sora dropped to the beach, frantically scooping the sand up in his hands as though he could bring Ansem the Wise back by digging deep enough. "No…" The sand trickled through his fingers, and he leaned back. "Ansem…"

He felt Riku's hand on his shoulder; he didn't even have to look up to know it was Riku. "What am I gonna tell Kairi and Ienzo?" Sora asked, his voice cracking. "What am I gonna tell Mickey? He…he was right there…"

Riku squeezed Sora's shoulder. "It's not over," he said softly, firmly.

"AND IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED," Papyrus brought up from further back, "WE DID MANAGE TO SAVE THE PERSON WE CAME FOR."

Sora turned to look back, then jumped to his feet and strode briskly toward Aqua. "It's you," he said in awe upon looking her over.

"Sora," Aqua said, somewhat surprised herself. "You've grown a lot." She looked to the boy following him. "And is that Riku? It really has been ten years, hasn't it?"

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Papyrus cried. "YOU KNEW HER ALL ALONG?"

"I thought you didn't," Katara said, confused.

"I thought we didn't, either," Sora admitted. "But she's the nice lady!"

"Huh?" Aqua cocked her head.

"A long time ago," Riku explained, "a woman we'd never seen before came to our island. We thought she was just someone we'd never met on the mainland before. After we grew up a bit and got to know everyone in town, we figured she must have been visiting from another archipelago."

"She was really nice," Sora went on. "And she had me make a weird promise. She said if Riku ever got lost or went astray, I should try to help him. I think…I might've been thinking about that, when everything happened back at the beginning. I didn't wanna break my promise. Only by then, it was less of a promise to her…" He looked to Riku. "And more of a promise to you."

"I'm glad the two of you have stayed such good friends," Aqua said with a smile. "And you even both have Keyblades. I was worried, at first. I knew Riku had been given the power of the Keyblade, but I thought Keyblades just brought sorrow and heartache to friendships. I didn't want you to have to live what I lived through."

"Well, we're changing that story," Sora insisted. "Master Yen Sid was afraid of the same thing, but we're not gonna let it end that way, and we're gonna give your story a happy ending, too. That's why we came to save you!"

"Thank you," Aqua said sincerely. Then, looking around at the group, "Thank ALL of you. I know I've never met any of you before. What are your names?"

"ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF!" Papyrus said proudly, placing a hand on his breastplate. "I AM THE UNIQUE, THE IRREPLACEABLE, THE ONE AND ONLY PAPYRUS!" The wind just so happened to catch his cape and billow it out for effect.

"I am Moana of Motonui," Moana introduced. "Master wayfinder…in training."

"Wayfinder?" Aqua repeated.

"You know…a sailor?" Moana defined.

"Oh!" Aqua retrieved a glass charm of blue, wrought in the shape of a star, from a pocket. "This is a popular charm where I come from. We call this a 'Wayfinder.' It's something I kind of started calling myself after I spent enough time down here. I wonder if the tradition came from your world's language. It would definitely make you more of a Wayfinder than I am." This with a smile.

"SHE DID SAIL US HERE!" Papyrus recalled. "SHE AND THE OCEAN TEAMED UP TO BRING US TO YOU!"

"The ocean?" Aqua asked.

"Long story," Moana replied.

"AND KATARA STEERED OUR HUMBLE RAFT," Papyrus went on.

"That's me," Katara clarified. "I'm Katara. It's REALLY great to meet you, Aqua. Hey! Aqua…Moana, chosen by the ocean…and I'm a waterbender!"

"I'm starting to think there was more than a little destiny at work here," Aqua said, amused. She then turned to her savior, trying not to let it show that she still felt somewhat flustered after that intimate rescue. "And what about you? What's your name?"

"My name is Rosalina," the blonde replied.

"Rosalina," Aqua repeated. It was a fittingly beautiful name. "Thank you so much for coming after me. If you hadn't saved me…I don't know what would have happened. Even thinking about it scares me. I owe you my life."

"You owe me nothing," Rosalina assured her, and was it Aqua's imagination, or did she take on a bit of a blush? "You were in danger, and I knew I had to act to keep from losing you. It seems as though the cosmos would be lacking without you."

"That's…maybe the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," Aqua said shyly.

"It is simply true," Rosalina stated. "After all, think of the lives you have touched, including Sora and Riku's. While I appreciate your thanks, I could not have rescued you without their help, nor the help of anyone else present here at this moment."

"Thank you all," Aqua said, worrying for a moment that she was about to simply break down crying. "I…I kept holding out hope that someone would come, but…I guess I was starting to not believe anymore that…"

Now, if she didn't stop talking and do something else, she really would cry. So she leaned toward the three closest to her – Rosalina, Sora, and Riku – and swept them all into an embrace, which they wholeheartedly returned. Papyrus, never one to resist a hug, plastered himself to the outside of this, and Katara and Moana joined right in to round it off.

"Awwww!" Cassie cooed as she and Lyrae floated overhead. "That's so cute!"

"Yeah," Lyrae agreed. "It actually is."

That was when the second portal of light surrounded them all, spiriting them far away from the Realm of Darkness.

When they were deposited, in a landscape with a similarly bleak and dark sky, they all flinched, breaking apart the embrace. "Whoa!" Sora cried. "Where are we now?"

"I thought we'd be somewhere in the realm of Light," Riku mused, "but it's still…"

"NOT LIGHT AT ALL," Papyrus suggested. "THE OPPOSITE OF LIGHT. …DARK. IT'S DARK."

By then, Aqua had noticed Cassie and Lyrae. "Hello!" she greeted. "What are your names?"

"I'm Cassie," the blue Luma chirped, "and this is my best friend, Lyrae! We're Lumas!"

"You're getting along real well with our Mama, huh?" Lyrae added.

Aqua could only identify one person present who was old enough to deserve the title "Mama." "Are they your children?" she asked Rosalina.

"Yes," Rosalina replied with a nod. "Two of a great many."

"We have a real big family back on the Comet Observatory!" Lyrae asserted. "You should come meet us all!"

Aqua tried to envision as many Lumas as she could, and the thought made her smile. "I'd like that," she said happily.

"We actually came along to bring you home," Cassie explained. "Should we do that now?"

"Are you ready?" Rosalina asked.

"I don't see why not," Aqua replied.

"Yeah," Riku added, having gotten a good look around, especially at the landmark Aqua's back was turned to. "I don't like that we ended up back here at Castle Oblivion. If I never see this place again, it'll be too soon."

"WHAT?" Aqua spun around.

"Ohhh, so THAT'S what Castle Oblivion looks like!" Sora said, clearly impressed by the tall, crooked structure with its many angular towers.

"We CANNOT go home!" Aqua whirled around on the group. "We HAVE to stay here?"

"Um…why?" Sora asked, clearly confused.

"Because I know why we're here," Aqua explained. "My heart led the way. That's where Ven is waiting for me."

...

Root Core turned out to be a treasure trove for a potioneer, and getting to make a brew as a cover story for entering turned out to be fun in its own right. Zevon had half considered making a false elixir that would have a nasty effect on the user, but the idea of an acne-ridding potion was admittedly complex enough to catch his interest, and he wanted to do it right.

Xander was downright impressed by Zevon's mastery. He acted as an errand boy, fetching the requested ingredients. Root Core happened to have most of the mainstays, but every now and again, Zevon would make a request such as "Now bring me twelve stalks of elfroot!"

And Xander would have to reply, "Sorry. Don't know what that is."

Potion brewing was a lot like cooking. You could make substitutes in many cases if you had researched effects. Giving it a good long think, Zevon asked, "Do you have Mandragora?"

"That's Mandrake, isn't it? No. None of that. Udonna thinks that's just cruel, since they're…y'know…like that."

Zevon pondered it some more. "Then how about Fern Flower?"

"Now that, we've got more than enough of."

Zevon's jaw dropped. "HOW? The Fern Flower only blooms once in a – "

Xander had already carried over no fewer than five airtight jars containing the precious blooms.

"…I'll take it," Zevon decided.

As he measured a single unicorn hair thrice before snipping it, stirred the great cauldron Xander had dragged out to the central room clockwise three times and counterclockwise four, and actually licked a mushroom to make sure it was fresh, Zevon gave off an air of confidence in his knowhow that Xander saw rarely. "You're a genius," he said in awe.

"I know I am," Zevon replied without looking up from his work. Oh, right. Flirting required you to pay compliments back. "You're intellectualigent too." Not that he'd seen any sign of it, but Xander was shallow enough to eat anything up from what Zevon had seen, and in this whole "dating" ritual, did it really matter what you picked to compliment, so long as it was nice?

Already his heart ached thinking about how he would have to learn to do it sincerely if he didn't want to end up single for life.

"Thank you," Xander said, not sure exactly where Zevon had gotten the idea he was smart but not really in a mood to question it.

This did nothing to convince Zevon that Xander wasn't an absolute fool.

The door creaked open, and Nick, Vida, Madison, Chip, Clare, Udonna, Leanbow, Daggeron, and Jenji all re-entered Root Core. "Xander!" Vida greeted. "There you are!"

"Everybody already said goodbye," Chip explained. "We were worried you – "

"Who's THAT?" Nick broke in, glaring at Zevon.

Zevon froze. From Nick's tone, it sounded as though the red Ranger were already onto him, but how could that be?

"This is the reason I didn't show up to the goodbye," Xander explained. "Everyone, meet Zevon. He's…what would you call us right now, Zevon?"

Zevon hated that this was put on him now. Did he really have to stick a label to this vapid man who he couldn't wait to never see again? "Paramouromantics," he decided, which would probably have been far too serious of a label to commit to if it were actually a concept that existed. "Xander and I have crossed paths on multiplicitious occasions, and currecently, when our eyes met, sparks flew. That is why I am brewing him an ACTUALLY CORRECTICAL potion for ridding him of facadical deformationities."

Clare flinched, feeling a little bit like someone had just dunked her in a cold puddle of muddy water. She couldn't help but think that Zevon had phrased it that way because Xander had told him about her Perfection Potion and its backfire.

"So you live here in Briarwood, then," Nick said frigidly.

"I have for my whole life!" Zevon stated. "Ever since my humble origenesis, and I can tell you a very detailified backstory about it if you like!"

"Uh-huh," Nick replied, glaring daggers.

"Nick, seriously, chill," Vida groaned. "Are you trying to murder Xander's boyfriend with your eyes or something?"

"Oh, I can tell the look of jealenvy anywhere," Zevon taunted.

"I'm not JEALENVI – not JEALOUS," Nick growled. "I just don't want another WHAM ARMY spy to end up in Root Core."

"How DARE you insinuply that I am affilissociated with those ruffiends!" Zevon gasped dramatically. "I am just a humble potionewer – "

"Can you at least not talk like that?" Nick snapped.

"NICK!" Madison cried.

"Bowen, that was over the line," Leanbow scolded.

"His malapropisms are worse than that weasel gangster!" Nick argued.

"I DO NOT USE MALAPROPERISMS!" Zevon insisted.

"Bowen," Udonna scolded. "It doesn't do well to suspect everyone whose path you cross. Especially not those who are close to your friends."

"So we're just supposed to let whoever come into Root Core and mess around?" Nick said exasperatedly.

"I feel like we just went over a whole big thing about why that was the only answer in Radiant Garden," Chip reminded him.

"We really can't do worse than the time we let Calindor in here," Jenji remarked.

"You mean Imperious?" Vida scoffed.

"I still can't believe he turned on us that way," Daggeron muttered.

Zevon had to bite his lip to keep from giving a sarcastic "BOO HOO." The only heartbreak story he was interested in hearing was Irmaplotz's rant about her so-good-he-was-bad boyfriend, thank you very much.

"Yeah, well, now he knows our secret!" Nick insisted.

"EVERYONE knows that," Madison reminded him. "It wasn't much of a secret anymore after the Master broke loose."

"If Xander trusts him," Udonna stated, "then I trust Xander."

"Thanks," Xander replied. "And I do trust Zevon. I've only known him for a short while…but anyone who offers to brew up an anti-acne potion this complicated for someone he's just met must either be incredibly selfless or just like making potions THAT much."

It was definitely one of those two things, Zevon thought smugly.

"Maybe you can join the team as our potions expert!" Clare chirped. Then her tone flattened: "I mean…since you're obviously so much better at it than me…"

"You're not bad at it," Madison assured. "You just need practice."

"Zevon?" Xander asked. "You all right? You like like you're going to throw up."

He was, and simply because of thinking about the prospect of being the Mystic Rangers' permanent potioneer. He swallowed back the bile. "It was just a momentary ad nausea. Of c – of ckkkkhh – of COURSE I would love to join your team."

"The more, the merrier, right?" Chip said gladly.

Thankfully, the conversation was interrupted when the crystal ball glowed brightly, indicating it was depicting a scene that demanded attention. "Hey, everybody!" Vida yelled, and they all grouped up around the sphere.

It was at this point that Zevon was wondering how he was possibly going to be able to swipe the Corona Aurora with so many people wandering around Root Core. What he needed was some sort of…that Latin term for "god from the machine" that really meant a saving grace that appeared from nowhere.

The crystal first showed an enormous monster, silver and cylindrical, throwing rot and debris about its path, and that path happened to be the town of Briarwood. "Is that a GARBAGE CAN?" Chip wondered out loud.

"What's a garbage can doing wrecking Briarwood?" Vida contributed.

That was hardly anything, however, compared to the next image that the crystal flipped to. An even larger monster, its limbs yellow and metal-jointed, swept its scooplike hands over the tops of the taller buildings, exploding the roofs into splinter and plaster.

"Is that a bulldozer?" Nick said in disbelief.

"Actually, I think it's an excavator," Chip corrected.

"Something's wrong," Madison said worriedly. "Two of those things show up at the same time and – "

"Wait." Xander was now focused on the crystal, which had changed again to show a pair of armored figures running into a convenience store. Within moments, the shop windows were all broken, and flames began to smolder over it as the cashier on duty made a run for it. "I know those fellas. They're the Fearcats."

"The what-cats?" Nick replied.

"Enemies of Operation Overdrive," Xander explained. "I remember when I was dispatched to make up for the loss of their morphing ability. I'll bet you anything they're here because they followed the Corona Aurora this far."

The next scene was of Moltor setting fire to the library. "NO!" Madison cried, heart wrenching to see the sanctuary of the quiet going up in flames. She'd only just shared her first kiss with Lie Ren there, and now…

"Any idea who that guy is?" Vida asked.

"Moltor," Xander stated. "He was after the Corona Aurora too. I'll bet you anything he's in an alliance with the Fearcats and those two others. I wonder how many more – "

Finally, the leader of the pack was shown striding down Main Street, the asphalt freezing over with a layer of slick ice behind him as he proceeded, an army of white-clad Chillers doing their best to follow him without slipping and bruising themselves.

"Flurious," Xander nearly growled. "So that's it. Should've known he was their leader."

The images faded, having shown all of the blatant destruction there was to show. "We gotta stop those guys!" Chip insisted.

"I agree," Udonna stated. "Come. We must be off at once."

The Mystic Rangers – Udonna, Daggeron, Jenji, Leanbow, and Clare included – made to run out of Root Core as one. Before leaving, however, Xander turned about to gently yet firmly seize Zevon's upper arms.

"Stay here, Zevon," he demanded. "It's going to get rough out there, and I'm not gonna let you get hurt. You just let me be your knight in shining armor today, all right?"

Zevon was about to argue that he was more than capable of facing these evildoers in battle, but then realized this was exactly that slippery Latin phrase he'd been looking for. With Root Core empty, he would have ample time to search out the crown. "I will remainder here," Zevon agreed. "Now go forth and protect me!"

It did feel good, at least, to have someone rush off to take on enormous threats because Zevon had demanded protection. Then he was alone, and he was moved to let out a thunderous laugh of victory. "Now, the Corona Aurora is suretainly MINE!" Zevon crowed before beginning the search.

The squad of heroes spilled out of the tree that bridged the portal between Briarwood's two dimensions. "Wait," Clare said as soon as all had crossed. "I…I don't know if I can do this."

"Why not?" Vida asked in concern.

"I just…" Being reminded of the Perfection Potion and how it had almost killed Xander hadn't been the best for Clare's self-esteem, even after everything. "I'd only hold you back."

"Clare, that isn't true," Madison argued.

Clare shook her head, her wild blond locks shaking as she backed away through the tree portal. "You can handle this on your own! I just can't!"

"You think she'll be okay?" Chip asked once she had left.

"We have no time to worry about that now," Udonna stated. "We must figure out our plan of attack without her power to assist us. And we must hurry, or all of Briarwood will go up in flames!"

Morphers were brought out, and a cry of "MAGICAL SOURCE! LEGENDARY FORCE!" chorused up to the sky.

...

"RRRAAAAAHHHH!" The silver trash-can monster raged through the streets, spewing discarded soup cans, used napkins, and all flavors of slime and sludge in every direction. "Your town is all GARBAAAAAGE! I won't rest until every square inch of it is dirty, dirty, DIRTY!"

The people who had run and screamed from the deluge of waste felt a strong sense of relief when the familiar blue and gold armor of the Solaris Knight rush to the rescue. "Looks like it's time to take out the trash," Daggeron remarked.

From within the lamp he bore, Jenji poked his head out to comment, "Hasn't this guy ever heard of recycling?"

"Let's hit him with everything," Daggeron decided. He spun the dial on the side of Jenji's lamp, amping up the power of the genie within. "JENJI SHINING ATTACK!"

Jenji was blasted out as enormous ammunition, streaking orange through the air to collide with the garbage can. The can reeled; more rubbish spilled out of his upper edges. However, he soon righted himself. "That was a GARBAGE attempt to defeat me!" he bragged.

Jenji returned to the safety of the laser lamp, remarking, "I've never seen refuse REFUSE to get picked up that much!"

"Then it's time we enforced Briarwood's no-littering law," Daggeron announced as he held up his solar cell morpher in one hand and a shimmer-edged punch card between two fingers of the other. The morpher punched the card, and Daggeron called out, "SOLAR STREAK MEGAZORD!"

Six train cars came rocketing down the roads of Briarwood, converging upon Daggeron's location. They surrounded him and interlocked, forming an enormous blue-and-gold Megazord with a locomotive engine as its breastplate, Daggeron seated inside with Jenji's lamp nearby.

"You think you can defeat me with that GARBAGE?" the trash can roared.

"Somebody oughta stuff his catchphrase in the disposal," Jenji remarked.

"Let's finish this!" Daggeron cried.

The trash can unloaded a tidal wave of junk upon the Megazord, and Daggeron retaliated by activating its steam blaster, bowing down so the Megazord's head could shoot a blistering-hot rush of steam at the incoming trash. The waste was broken up to form a path for the Megazord to stomp through.

"Remote train cars, go!" Daggeron commanded, pulling down a lever.

From within the Megazord's legs, two tiny locomotive engines burst forth, leaving track marks of light in their path. They surrounded the trash can, wrapping him up in the burning light energy. When the locomotives dissipated, the tracks solidified into metal bands that kept the trash can bound.

"Obligatory yell about how that was garbage incoming!" Jenji teased.

"THAT WAS GARBAAAAAGE!" the trash can roared.

"Called it!" Jenji laughed.

"And now to clean up!" Daggeron proclaimed. "Furnace blast! FIRE!"

The breastplate of the Megazord opened up, releasing a beam of pure heat energy at the trash can.

"You know, uh, the Rangers aren't gonna want you to incinerate this guy, since they're on this new no-kill diet and all," Jenji remarked.

"I've already thought of that," Daggeron replied. "That's why all I'm doing is turning up the heat a little!"

The trash can was knocked to the ground, the final spill of waste pouring from him. He struggled against the train-track bondage –

And then disappeared.

"Hey," Jenji wondered. "Where'd he go?"

"I don't know," Daggeron mused. "There's no way the energy from a furnace blast that weak should've eliminated him. Let's have a closer look."

The Megazord let off the necessary steam from its work, then dissipated. Daggeron rushed to where the train tracks lay crumpled on the asphalt to find a curious object at their center: an ordinary trash can, the size you'd expect to see sitting out on someone's driveway.

"I guess he pulled the old switcheroo on us," Jenji remarked, peering out of the lamp.

"No," Daggeron corrected as he turned the can around to reveal where it had been singed from the Megazord's attack. "This was him."

"I remember him being a lot bigger. Like about a hundred times bigger."

Daggeron lightly kicked the can. "It's some sort of enchantment," he realized. "Either our villain turned himself into this rubbish bin to hide from us…or our villain was never a true villain at all."

...

"Yesssss," the excavator hissed, "I'll turn this entire town upside-down!"

His scoop-ended arms hitched beneath the foundation of a large house, uprooting it and flipping it over before dropping it unceremoniously. He choked out a "Ss-ss-ss-sssssss" of a laugh as it shattered into splinters – thankfully, its owners had all been out, parents at work and children in school.

On the subject of school, however, the Briarwood elementary school was the next building the excavator happened upon, and he could see quite clearly through the windows that class was in session.

"Yessssss," he resolved, "I'll invert the education syssssstem!"

A chorus of hundreds of screaming children went up from the school building as they watched the excavator claw his way toward them –

And then he was blasted down three blocks by a massive jet of blue fire, causing a cheer to go up from the kids.

"What isssss thissssss?" the excavator hissed as he glared at the source of his interruption.

Nothing less than an immense dragon roared at him in response, beating his massive red wings to stay aloft while he stared the excavator down. Atop the back of this dragon rode Nick.

"Great going, Fire Heart!" Nick cried. He then held up a new morpher, this one bright red: "RED DRAGON FIRE RANGER!"

He and Fireheart orbited each other in the air before merging, Fire Heart enveloping Nick like armor. Nick landed on the asphalt below with his twin pikes, red and blue, in hand, his suit now taking on a different appearance with a lot more blue, black, and gold to speak of. A pair of red wings sprouted from his back.

"Ss-ss-ss-ssssss," the excavator chuckled as he regarded Nick, who was now human-sized and very lacking in dragon. "You fussssed with that enormoussssss creature to become sssssomething sssssso puny?"

"Don't judge me by size!" Nick retorted. "Time for some DECONSTRUCTION!"

He launched into the air, propelled by his wings, and rocketed right into the excavator's chest, planting a hard kick into the yellow breastplate. The excavator stumbled back, falling on his seat. Nick then flew circles around the behemoth, twirling his dragon-headed pikes to cast showers of golden sparks and bolts of silver lightning at him.

"HAD ENOUGH?" Nick cried.

The second of Kamdor's warriors responded by turning into a literal excavator.

"What?" Nick said in confusion.

He landed on the ground and circled the construction vehicle tentatively. It seemed every inch an ordinary piece of equipment. Yellow, cockpit with a leather seat leaking stuffing, a jointed cranelike neck, a scoop at the end.

"I dunno, Fire Heart," Nick muttered. "I don't like this."

...

"There!" Moltor proclaimed as flames poured out of every window of the library. "That oughta get those Rangers' attention! And who needs a bunch of stupid books anyway? That stuff's for eggheads like my brother!"

"HEY!"

The sound of Madison's voice caused Moltor to whip about and see the blue Legendary Ranger standing beside Udonna in her White Mystic Ranger garb.

"I think you need to CHILL OUT!" Madison yelled.

"And what are you going to do about it, RANGERS?" Moltor growled, pointing at Madison and Udonna in turn.

"Put an end to your fiery reign," Udonna stated.

"I'm gonna have fun watching you BURN!" Moltor yelled.

From his forehead came an immense blast of white-hot lightning. Udonna's Snow Staff hit the ground, forging a wall of ice before her and Madison that blocked the lightning from reaching them, in fact redirecting it back around to Moltor. The fiery warrior was thrown airborne by the blast from his own attack, coming down to land behind Madison and Udonna.

"That's the last time YOU get the better of ME!" he roared, conjuring up a fireball in both hands and aiming it with precision.

"Ready, Blue Ranger!" Udonna called.

"You got it!" Madison replied. Her finger rested on the staff's dial, ready to input the spell code.

As Moltor's heat blast launched, it was countered by a deluge of water.

"I'm not gonna be taken down by a couple of silly girls!" Moltor grunted.

"Silly girls?" Madison repeated. "Udonna, this just got personal."

"Let us end this," Udonna agreed.

Before Moltor could make another move, Madison had dialed up another water spell, catching him up in a regular tsunami. However, this time, Udonna cast an icy charm throughout the waves, freezing Moltor in an immense ice block.

"We did it!" Madison cried. "That's what happens when you mess with the library where I get my first kiss with the guy I like!"

Udonna put out a hand toward her. "Do not celebrate yet," she warned. "Look."

Moltor was melting through the ice block, his very body radiating heat that reduced it to an overlarge puddle. Once he was free, Udonna and Madison braced to defend, but Moltor had had enough being kicked around.

"Fine!" he growled. "You win this round! But good luck saving your precious library!"

With that, he warped away.

"Udonna!" Madison cried. "It's gonna burn down!"

"We cannot save the books already lost," Udonna said, "but we can prevent the damage from spreading through town. Follow my lead!"

With a cry of "GALWIT MYSTO PRIFIOR!", Udonna enlarged vastly in size, becoming twice the height of the burning building.

Madison raised her staff, crying out, "MYSTIC MERMAID!". A circular sigil of magic appeared above her, and as she plunged through it, she too became much larger (though not near Udonna's stature at all), armored up in blue, legs formed into a tail that hovered above the ground. Her staff had morphed into a great trident.

From here, Madison unleashed what was practically a lake's worth of water onto the library. Udonna froze it over, encasing the library in ice. Then, once they were both certain the flames had been engulfed in the frigid deluge, they slammed their weapons into the ice, shattering it into diamond dust and revealing what was left of the library.

Once the pair had returned to normal size, Madison looked forlornly to the husk of a building. "No," she said softly.

Udonna placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "I know it is a loss, Madison. But we must secure the safety of Briarwood."

Madison nodded. "It was only a memory anyway. We can make new memories."

They turned and sprinted into town together.

...

Benglo and Mig trotted laughing out of the larger grocery store in town.

"Who'd've thought they'd have all that raw fish just waiting in a display case for us?" Benglo quipped.

Mig fanned his thumb through a fat stack of hundred-dollar bills. "And to think they thought if they gave us all these useless scraps of paper, we'd leave them alone!"

Above them, Chip and Vida crouched on the rooftop's edge. Chip had thought to try and outsmart the Fearcats via element of surprise, and was currently in the process of aiming his crossbow at Mig. "This oughta slow them down," he said softly.

A bolt of electricity cracked forth from the crossbow.

Without even looking behind himself, Mig stepped aside, raised a hand, and caught the lightning in a fist, squeezing it to fizzle it out.

"…I may have underestimated what we're up against," Chip admitted.

"Someone's trying to get the jump on us," Mig remarked as he and Benglo turned to look up at Chip and Vida. "Let's show them how WE jump!"

As one, they sprang, rocketing high into the air; Chip and Vida backpedaled, giving them a wide berth to land on the roof. "Time to face your fears, RANGERS!" Benglo cackled.

He rushed Chip. Mig rushed Vida. The two rangers not only held their ground, but ran to meet their opponents.

"I'm gonna blow you away!" Vida roared.

"Nice pun, Vida!" Chip complimented.

"I think I'm finally getting used to the fact that the puns come with the Ranger package," Vida laughed just before the pairs collided.

They became blurs of punching fists and kicking legs, grunting as they collided with each other. Chip and Vida were hardly slouches at physical combat anymore, but they could tell the Fearcats were durable due to more factors than just their armor. Nothing they did seemed to really make a mark.

Vida figured, then, it was better to try and get some distance so she and Chip could fall back upon their magic, which was their stronger suit anyhow. She feinted, then ducked back –

Benglo's fist passed right through where her helmet had been and struck Mig directly in the visor.

As Vida pulled Chip back and away from the Fearcats, they momentarily prioritized a spat above their opponents. "Watch where you're punching!" Mig hissed. "You just hit ME, you idiot!"

"Then don't get in my way!" Benglo growled in response. "I only missed because YOU messed up!"

"You, accusing me of messing up? You're the one who ruins everything!"

"You just blame me so you don't have to admit YOU ruin everything!"

The argument was diversion enough. Chip and Vida brought their staffs into play, dialing spell codes.

Benglo noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye, and leapt back, evading the blast of wind from Vida. Mig, however, had not been so observant. Chip's lightning struck him full force in the chest, and he toppled back off the roof.

"MIG!" Benglo cried, and it immediately occurred to Chip and Vida that it was not the cry of a man who was actually frustrated with the partner who'd been thrown overboard. The tiger turned to face the pink-and-yellow pair; "You'll pay for that, RANGER!"

He withdrew his bladed weapon, and before Chip could so much as blink, he'd fired off a blast that threw up the very rooftop of the grocery store, sending Chip flying on the shockwave of a cloud of orange.

"CHIP!" Vida screamed. She rushed toward him, Benglo forgotten.

Chip lay prone on his back, face up to the sky. "No," Vida said hoarsely when she saw him unmoving. "No, no, nononononono – "

She then whipped around, screaming with rage, a wordless "AAAAAAAGH!"

But before she could unleash her fury on Benglo, the Fearcat had leapt off the roof backward, planting on the ground below.

He rushed to his own partner, who was lying on the pavement below, only just beginning to stir. "Mig!" Benglo cried again, rushing over him.

"Ranger…" Mig muttered, half conscious.

"Forget about those stupid Rangers!" Benglo stooped, then hoisted Mig up, propping his arm over a shoulder to support him. "I'm getting you out of here!"

"You…maybe not as…idiot as I…"

Benglo hurried Mig away as quickly as he could, given the circumstances. However, he needn't have worried, for Vida had no interest in chasing him.

She knelt over Chip, lightly shaking his shoulders. "Chip?" she repeated worriedly. "Chip! Please, come on! Don't be dead! You're my best friend, Chip! You can't be dead! I love y – "

"V…V?"

As soon as she heard the hoarse croak, Vida broke out into a smile of relief behind her butterfly-shaped visor. "CHIP! You're okay!"

"Yeah," Chip managed. "I think I just got knocked out for a second. No broken bones or anything. Hey, V?"

"Yeah, Chip?"

"Did…you just say you love me?"

Vida froze. "Yeah," she admitted. "I guess I did."

"Cool!" Chip said with a little more vigor. "I was actually just starting to think that maybe I love you!"

The visors blocked out their eyes, but still, they knew they were looking into each other's, and beaming nonetheless.

"But we should probably save Briarwood first," Chip suggested, "then talk about it."

Which was exactly what Vida had expected him to say, and exactly one of the things that she loved about him. "If you're feeling up to it, then let's rock!"

...

"Any minute now," Flurious informed his Chiller army. "Any minute, those Rangers should be splitting up to bring down our little group. Any minute, we should be seeing one, maybe even two, come to challenge us."

As he saw the jet-black horse come barreling down the street in the opposite direction, one armored figure and one in bright green on his back, he remarked, "Just on time…if by a rather unconventional mode of transportation."

The horse Catastros pulled to a stop before Flurious, and Leanbow and Xander disembarked to either side of the stallion. "All right, Flurious," Xander said. "I'm going to give you one last chance to talk this through instead of resorting to violence."

"Ah, yes," Flurious replied. "I remember you, Green Mystic Ranger. You did lean so heavily on that charm of yours."

"Yes, well, that's because it works," Xander stated confidently. "The point is, you still have a chance to turn around and walk away. It'll be easier for all of us. Save us a headache. You don't want to fight me just as much as I don't want to fight you. You know what happened to Morticon, to Imperious, to the Master…really, Briarwood has a very low villain success rate. So what do you say we call the whole thing off?"

"Hmm…" Flurious pretended to ponder it. "No. Absolutely not." He drew Thunder Edge, pointing it threateningly forward. "In fact, I DO want to fight you, honestly speaking."

"I told you Plan Xander wouldn't work," Leanbow grunted.

"Hey, thanks at least for agreeing to let me try," Xander replied with a shrug.

The Chillers surged forth first, crude weapons held high. "Man, these fellas make Hidiacs look good," Xander remarked, summoning up his Mystic Force Fighters; he slammed the heavy boxing gloves together before charging into the fray, dealing out uppercuts and slams to each and every Chiller.

That left Leanbow and Flurious to face each other; they sprang, swords swinging, and the blades clashed in midair. Leanbow shuddered; he could feel the massive surges of energy pulsating through Thunder Edge and threatening to shatter his weapon. He only let Flurious get in two more blows – both parried – before deciding to bring out a tougher tactic.

"Catastros!" he called to the horse. "To me!"

When the horse arrived, the transformation began. They fused together, Catastros forming Leanbow's armor as Fire Heart had formed Nick's elsewhere on the battlefield – and yet in this case, Leanbow was encased in an immense Megazord rather than a mere upgrade in armor. In his hand rested a spear with a double-edged point at each end.

"By the power of all good magic!" he declared, spinning the spear to forge a circle of orange in midair. "MYSTIC SPELL SEAL!"

The circle blasted Flurious, propelling him down several blocks.

"The bigger they come, the harder they fall," he grunted as he struggled to his feet. "Chillers!"

Yet all of his Chillers had turned tail and fled, either having fallen victim to Xander's pummeling or wishing to avoid that fate.

Assessing the situation anew, Flurious shrugged it off. "Kamdor has had more than enough time," he decided. "And we all know what they say about he who fights and runs away, don't we?"

He ran expertly across the top of the blanket of ice, his feet not faltering for a second.

"You know," Xander remarked as Leanbow and Catastros returned to their usual sizes, "sometimes I think I should get a horse of my own."

"A steed like Catastros is no mere puppet," Leanbow warned him. "Our bond is built on trust and partnership."

"What more trustworthy partner than me is out there?" Xander asked with a smile.

"Then perhaps it is worth looking into," Leanbow remarked. "In the meantime, with any luck, our foes have been scared off for good."

"I don't know," Xander admitted. "That Flurious doesn't give up easy. Either he has wicked trust that the rest of his team is making up for it, or there's more going on here than meets the eye."

...

Zevon had the whole of Root Core to himself, and the moment the dragon's maw had closed on the Rangers leaving, he had brought out the compass, demanding it to "Directionate me to the Corona Aurora!"

The needle pointed him toward an ornate trunk in the corner. "Bingoilà!" Zevon cried, rushing to it eagerly.

The trunk was locked with a sturdy padlock. "A lock?" Zevon chuckled. "Not an obstactruction for me! I will make short work of this!"

He removed a particularly volatile potion from his belt, spilling the green chemical over the trunk's rounded lid. To his dismay, instead of eating through the wood like it should have, the potion glanced off, and a shimmering deflection shield engraved with runes shone beneath its spill. "Curses!" Zevon spat. "They were expectorating me! Well, I'll play their game!"

Now he bade the compass, "Show me the key to that trunk!"

It showed him, all right – to a magicproof glass cabinet with a myriad of keys hanging inside of it. This cabinet was, itself, locked.

"Show me THAT key!" Zevon growled.

As an extra security measure, the key to the keys was placed inside of a smaller box sealed with a lock that seemed to require a gemstone to open. "A key inside of a box locked with a key inside of another box that is locked?" Zevon cried in disbelief. "Who has THAT logic?"

Thankfully, no one was around to tell him.

When the gem that unlocked the trunk key cabinet key box was found inside of a glass jar with its lid screwed on so tightly that Zevon couldn't even open it with his bare hands, he growled, "OH, COME ON!"

He hurled the jar at the cabinet. As it turned out, both types of enchanted glass were of a sort that negated each other when they came into contact. The jar and the cabinet both shattered open.

"YES!" Zevon cried, rushing toward the cabinet that held the key to the Corona Aurora –

And ignoring it completely to bend and pick up the stone. "Now," he cackled, "I may open the box that allows me to access – "

It hit him.

He reached into the cabinet eagerly only to realize that there must have been thirty keys inside, and the compass was only pointing in the cabinet's general direction. "I will have to figure this out through tryingal and misterror!" he resolved.

The first key he picked didn't work. Then the second didn't work. Then he realized there really was a much easier way to go about this.

All of the keys were gathered in a cluster, then scattered around Zevon in a circle. "And they think I'm an imbecidiot," Zevon chuckled as the compass singled out the key he needed.

It clicked into the trunk's lock. The lid was pried back with a creak. And there, lying on a silken pillow, was the very golden circlet Zevon had been looking for.

"YES!" he cried, holding it aloft, back to the door. "VICTORIOUSY! THE CORONA AURORA IS MINE TO BEWIELD! ABSOLUTIAL GODLIKE POWER IS MIIIIINE! ALL MINE! …Wait a minute…the Corona Aurora is supposed to have five gemstones of immensitude power! Where are the gemstones?"

"You…you were tricking us all along."

Zevon whirled in horror to see Clare standing behind him, having just re-entered Root Core. "This isn't what it looks like!" he said desperately.

"I heard you say the Corona Aurora was yours to wield, along with absolute godlike power," Clare informed him, stunned.

"…All right, it is what it looks like." Zevon shrugged. "I can keep up the face-ade no longer. I, Zevon, PRETENDINATED to be interested in your friend Xander so I could use him to gain accessoriality to the Corona Aurora!"

"You made me feel bad about myself on purpose!" Clare realized. "You tricked everyone! You BROKE XANDER'S HEART!"

"Technicalitally, I WILL break Xander's heart, in the future tense," Zevon reminded Clare. "But not before the rest of the Corona Aurora's jewels are mine!" He extended his free hand, palm up. "Now HAND THEM OVER!"

"NO!" Clare barked. "I'm not letting you have them!"

"Give me the jewels," Zevon threatened, "and I'll burn Root Core to the ground!"

Clare needed a moment to process that. "Did you mean to say 'or'?"

"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT!"

Clare stepped back to stand before the entryway, arms spread wide. "Not if I stop you from leaving," she growled. "You can't burn down Root Core with you inside."

"Curses AGAIN!" Zevon yelled. "Then again…why am I worrified? You're hardly a sorceress worth her pepper."

Clare cast her eyes about for anything she could use to bolster her power. Her eyes alit upon a golden staff: the former implement of her mother, the Gatekeeper Niella. It was an incredibly powerful weapon, one that Clare had tried and failed to use in the past, and it had only been recently recovered in the aftermath of the Master's onslaught. Niella's tiara no longer granted Clare the powers of the Gatekeeper, she reflected, but her instincts prevented her from taking that into account. She outstretched a hand, and the staff flew into it.

"I'm a sorceress, all right," she insisted. "And I'm not letting you leave with that crown."

"Oh, you will!" Zevon insisted right back. "And you will rueview the day you thought you could stop me! For I, ZEVON, will be the one to harness all the power of the Corona Aurora and begin my reign of all worlds!"

A sonorous explosion sent Clare flying across Root Core, screaming all the way. Zevon gaped at where she had stood, watching a shadowy silhouette storm his way through the smoke.

"NO!" Kamdor bellowed as he made his entrance, pointing directly at Zevon. "I, KAMDOR, AM THE ONLY ONE WORTHY OF THE CORONA AURORA! AND IT WILL BE MINE!"

Zevon, at first, could only stare in disbelief. Then he threw his head back into a raucous laugh. "YOU?" he cried. "I know your type from simple observision! You're all brawn and no brain! Not to mention your armor is entirely unfashionate! The Corona Aurora's power belongs with someone intellectualligent and well-dressed like ME!"

"You're a weakling with a big ego!" Kamdor called out. "You're only human, and I can tell from looking at YOU that you wouldn't last a minute in a fight against me!"

"Whatever I can't defeatiblate with brute force," Zevon stated, "I can outwit! Before you have even processorized what is happening, I will be long gone with the Corona Aurora!"

"GIVE IT TO ME NOW BEFORE I BREAK ALL OF YOUR BONES!" Kamdor roared.

"BREAK ALL OF MY BONES AND I'LL MELT YOUR FACE DOWN TO THE SKULL WITH ACID!" Zevon retorted. "AND THAT TIME I DID! MEAN! 'AND'!"

"I DIDN'T COME THIS FAR TO BE INSULTED BY A WHINY HUMAN BRAT!"

"The power of the Corona Aurora would be useless to you anyway!" Zevon argued. "You don't have the stones!"

"That has NEVER made me less of a man!" Kamdor insisted. "The speed-augmenting mechanisms I had installed in their place only increased my power! I don't need such useless parts as symbolic proof of my power!"

It took Zevon a minute to work out how the conversation had turned. "No," he clarified, pointing to the golden circlet in his hand. "I mean the LITERATURAL stones. There are five gemstones that give the Corona Aurora its power, and – "

"THE GEMS ARE GONE!" Kamdor roared.

"That's what I JUST TOLD YOU, YOU HALFNITWIT!" Zevon barked. "Or were you too busy listening to the sound of your own ugly voice to pay attentivion?"

"WHERE DID YOU HIDE THE GEMS?" Kamdor roared.

Zevon knew his reply would be crucial. After all, he was certain the gems were all stored somewhere around Root Core. If he let on to that, however, Kamdor would begin tearing the place apart to find them before Zevon had a chance to do so. He had to say something to stall Kamdor, to get him on a different topic –

"Where did YOU hide the gems?"

That probably wasn't it.

Kamdor stared at Zevon in disbelief (or, at least, Zevon thought it was disbelief; it was difficult to tell through the solid blue helmet) before saying, "That didn't make any sense! Then again, neither do you, so why was I surprised?"

"From what I can tell," Zevon stated, the actual obvious answer now revealing itself to him, "the gemstones are nowhere near. They could be anywhere from the Briarwood town hall to a distantance world."

"You're just saying that to throw me off the trail!" Kamdor accused.

"Am I?" Zevon folded his arms cockily, still clutching the circlet. "How do you KNOW I'm lying?"

"Because you're a LIAR!"

"I know you are, but what am I?"
"STOP SAYING NONSENSE!"

"YOU STOP SAYING NONSENSE FIRST!"

"YOU!"

"YOU!"

Across the chamber, Clare picked herself up, trying to drown out the sound of the circular argument. Her grip tightened around the Gatekeeper staff. No longer was she wallowing in her lack of self-confidence. Now she was simply angry. She wanted both of these men as far away from her as possible, and, to boot, she wanted the Corona Aurora's jewels scattered so far and wide that they could never be found.

Her eyes flashed a bright, neon blue.

With a roar, she thrust out her arms, a shockwave of white magic radiating from her. That got Zevon and Kamdor's attention, finally.

"I've had ENOUGH," Clare said stonily.

In a glimmer of light, she was outfitted in an armored dress, its skirt white with a blue panel, its bodice purple, its sleeves lavender and fringed in voluminous chiffon, and a silver helmet whose metal cascaded down Clare's back topping off the ensemble, a veil obscuring the lower half of Clare's face.

"The Corona Aurora doesn't belong to you!" Clare said in a booming, echoing voice. "It doesn't belong to ANYONE!"

She raised her staff in both hands, and the five gems revealed themselves from their hidey-holes around Root Core, orbiting her like moons around a planet, faster and faster. Then, as Clare slammed her staff into the ground, they fired off like comets, each leaving a tiny tail as it disappeared into a circular sigil-studded portal that took it to a different location in the vast multitude of worlds.

"NO!" Zevon and Kamdor yelled in unison.

"And now," Clare boomed, "LEAVE THIS PLACE, AND NEVER COME BACK!"

The staff was pointed at both men, and sigil-portals opened up beneath them, dropping them both down and through, far, far away from the world where Briarwood was located.

The armor shimmered off Clare. She panted a moment, exhausted from such an expense of magic. Then she broke out into a laugh of glee, regarding the staff in her hands incredulously.

...

At the Giant's Causeway, Flurious, Moltor, Benglo, and Mig had reunited. After so many hours had passed, it was obvious to them what had happened.

"It seems Kamdor thought he could break away and keep all of that power for himself," Flurious stated. "That, or he failed in his mission, and cannot stand to show his helm."

"The Archmage is gonna kill us!" Benglo remarked.

"Perhaps…" Flurious muttered.

"You're planning something weird, aren't you?" Moltor accused.

"Hm?" Flurious replied. "Oh…only that perhaps, the Archmage threatens louder than he acts. Yes, he may have been able to fell us but for a moment…yet that was before he handed me the power of a god. And given more than a moment, one wonders how we might be able to turn the tables."

"You think we can overpower the Archmage?" Mig asked.

"What I think," Flurious confirmed, "is that we do not have to confine ourselves to taking his punishment if we do not wish to."

"That's a good way to think about it!" Benglo chirped.

"After all," Mig added, "how could one man possibly beat both of us?"

They looked to each other, then back to Flurious, and in perfect synchrony, they said, "Which is why we're RUNNING!"

"Come again?" Flurious asked.

"We're not going to stand around and take our chances!" Mig insisted.

"You said we didn't have to take his punishment if we didn't want to!" Benglo reiterated.

"And if he wants to make us pay for failing," Mig asserted, "he'll have to CATCH us first!"

Before either of the elemental brothers could say a word, the Fearcats had made an about-face and sprinted away.

"COWARDS!" Moltor yelled after them.

Flurious sighed. "Then I suppose it is down to you and me, brother."

"I NEVER wanted to work with you!" Moltor spat.

"And yet it seems we must," Flurious observed. "Don't worry, now. It will only be a temporary alliance. Once we have destroyed the Archmage, then we may return to hating each other's very existence. But just this once, what say you we bury the hatchet?"

"Last time you offered me peace," Moltor recalled, "you froze me and destroyed me!"

"You and I both know we need each other to overcome the looming threat," Flurious stated. "Unless you would rather take your chances, as Benglo and Mig are doing. How long before he eliminates them both, I wonder? An hour after learning of their fate, or two?"

"Rrrrgh…FINE!" Moltor relented. "I'll work with you JUST THIS ONCE! But then, I never wanna see your frozen face again!"

"That arrangement suits me perfectly, brother."

They waited a few hours more, then the day turned. It was exactly the time now that it had been on the previous day when they had convened. And not a moment after it became such, the Archmage appeared in a glimmer of blue.

Flurious and Moltor exchanged a glance, a silent agreement: remember what we planned.

"I seem to recall having dispatched five of you," the Archmage said smugly.

"So you did," Flurious replied, equally smug. "Who could have predicted that only two of us would be able to follow directions?"

"And the Corona Aurora?" the Archmage asked. He already knew the answer.

"It seems not to be here," Flurious said in mock surprise. At his hip, his grip tightened on Thunder Edge's hilt. He would give the signal, and then he and Moltor would attack. It had to be when the Archmage wasn't expecting it at all.

"I don't suppose either of you would know where it is?" the Archmage asked.

"We don't know, so shut up!" Moltor snapped.

"Oh, dear." The Archmage's smirk tilted ever more crooked. "You will recall that I said failure would bring grave consequences."

"That sounds familiar," Flurious said with a nod.

"What are you gonna do to us?" Moltor asked.

Now would be the perfect opportunity. Wait for the Archmage to outline the punishment or even begin it, then overtake him.

"I do so wish all five of you were present for this," the Archmage stated. "For you see, I have the perfect retribution in mind. After all, you do all so hate working with each other. I thought I'd give you all the chance to demonstrate exactly how you feel about your cohorts – or, in this case, give each of you a chance to demonstrate how you feel about your brother. No matter what I could have done to you, I'm certain it wouldn't match how you want to pay each other back for this horrendous failure."

In an instant, the agreement between Flurious and Moltor was broken. They looked to each other again, communicating an altogether different sentiment. They had thought to unite against a common enemy, but now, the tables had turned entirely. Neither could deny that deep down, he had a fierce desire to eliminate the other.

"Of course, the survivor would earn more time from me," the Archmage went on contentedly. "Perhaps even a pardon, given the impressiveness of the feat. Unless you mean to tell me that over the course of this mission, you have set your differences aside…"

Moltor pointed directly at Flurious. "YOU'VE ALREADY KILLED ME ONCE!"

"And I'm all too happy to do it again," Flurious proclaimed as he drew Thunder Edge.

They lunged at each other.

Even though only two combatants were involved, the Causeway itself seemed to shake, rumbling as Moltor's heat energy struck the ground, missing Flurious by a hair; the sea absorbed a misfired blast of ice, freezing over for a mile straight.

As he watched the deadly dance, the Archmage thought to himself that while this was, indeed, amusing, it would have been so much better watching all five duel to the death. Especially since if they had been successful in bringing back the Corona Aurora, the right to kill each other would have been their reward.

At last, Moltor faltered in his step. Flurious' blast connected with him head-on, solidifying him in what was practically a crystal of ice. Then Thunder Edge swung high before cutting down into it, like slicing a cake in half. Moltor was shattered into icy chunks, his fragments rocketing away on bolts of lightning. Flurious, victorious, grinned.

The Archmage took his leave then, before Flurious could get any more ideas about retaliating against him. His plan was to give Flurious, Mig, Benglo, and Kamdor a grace period: just long enough time to believe they were safe. Then he would come for them and finish the job.

What was meant to be a quick errand through time turned into a complex quest to learn exactly what had become of them after he'd left them alone, and once he learned of the fate of each, the Archmage abandoned his task entirely. It was far too much trouble. Better to cut his losses and focus on another plan.

...

When the Mystic Rangers reconvened to discuss the events that had transpired, Chip and Vida were holding hands. Xander knew he should have been happy for him, yet bitterness overtook him outside of his will. Madison had gotten her first kiss with the man she fancied, Chip and Vida had moved from lifelong friends to romantic partners…what did Xander have? A two-faced liar who'd used him to pursue a valuable treasure. And, in the end, nothing.

All the same, he felt obligated to apologize. "I'm sorry, everyone," he sighed. "You were right, Nick. I shouldn't have trusted Zevon so fast. I just thought – "

"Don't worry about it, Xander," Daggeron said firmly. "We've all been deceived before."

"We believed we had known and trusted Calindor far longer than you had known Zevon," Udonna reminded him, "and yet he was still able to do the same to us."

"It goes the other way around, too," Vida pointed out. "If we hadn't forgiven Koragg, then Nick's dad wouldn't be here."

"An act I thank you all for," Leanbow reiterated.

"Seriously, don't even sweat it!" Chip asserted.

Nick, however, was giving Xander a sullen I-told-you-so glare, and Xander realized that Nick was otherwise his one ally in the quintet who was also still single, perhaps unlucky in love, but that connection wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"What I wanna know," Chip went on, "is what happened to the jewels of the Corona Aurora, and the guys trying to take them!"

"I split them up," Clare explained. "I sent the jewels as far apart through the worlds as I could."

"Great going!" Vida complimented.

"I just…kind of…have no idea where they ended up," Clare admitted. "All I was focusing on was sending them away."

"Perhaps that is all the better," Udonna stated. "If even you do not know where the jewels are, then no one can gain the information from us."

"They'll be better hidden this way," Madison said cheerily. "Hiding them around Root Core slowed Zevon down that much. Hiding them around the entire multiverse will make them practically impossible to find."

"What did you do with Zevon, anyway?" Chip asked.

"I sent him away, too," Clare said. "I…don't know where he is either. I just know I was focusing on getting rid of both him and Kamdor at the same time, so they're probably in the same place."

"So long as that place is Not Here, I wouldn't care if you sent them to a tropical vacation destination!" Jenji remarked.

"I don't get it, though," Clare stated. "How was I able to become the Shining Moon Warrior again? That's Gatekeeper magic, and I know I had the staff, but my mother's tiara was the only thing that gave me that magic in the first place. And I used all of it up."

"I think I know what happened," Udonna realized. "Perhaps…Niella's tiara was dormant from the start."

"What do you mean?" Clare asked, baffled. "I put it on, and I got all of her power, and – "

"You are the Gatekeeper's daughter no matter what, Clare," Udonna reminded her. "The magic may never have been in your mother's regalia, but in your blood."

"Ohhhh, I get it!" Chip realized. "It's one of those confidence things! When Clare didn't believe in herself, she couldn't use that power, but now that she's gotten more confident after all our adventures, she knows she's worthy of it!"

"Really?" Clare's face lit up. "I'm the Gatekeeper? For good?"

"It does seem that way," Daggeron stated.

"YES!" Clare cried, hopping up and down in place. "This is AMAZING!"

"This had better be the last we see of any of those guys," Nick grunted. "If anything, this is a good argument why we need to be here now instead of at Radiant Garden."

"Darkness can rise anywhere, Bowen," Leanbow reminded him. "And Darknesses thought vanquished have a tendency to return. We must be on our guard. For all we know, Zevon could be in a place of great power, planning our undoing."

...

Zevon, at that exact moment, was facedown in the dirt, prying himself up to spit a mouthful of grass out onto the ground.

"Uuuuggghhhh…" he groaned. "That was less than idealastic." He twisted into a sitting position; luckily, he still held the golden circlet, which he set on his lap for the time being. "I surmppose that sorceress scattered the gemstones across varietous worlds." He checked his pockets; the compass still rested there. "Which may not be as much of a backset as she had hoped…"

He stood, brushing off his clothes of stray grass. With compass in pocket and circlet in hand, he turned a slow 360, remarking, "It's time I took inventiontory of my situation."

He stood on a grassy plain beneath a dark, starry sky. To one direction was a copse of trees just too small to be considered a forest. To the other was a tiny shack, and out front of that structure was a huge iron cauldron, big enough that Zevon could have bathed in it if he so desired.

"AHA!" he cried. "This is the domicain of a fellow potionewer! Perhappenstance I will find my methodologism of escape here!"

The door to the shack was unlocked. It was a very basic place of residence within, everything confined to two rooms – a large space that encompassed bed, study, and kitchen and a partitioned-off bathroom. Upon the desk rested a thick leather tome whose title proclaimed the contents to simply be "POTIONS."

"Exactly what I seeked!" Zevon cried as he rushed to the book. Placing the Corona Aurora circlet atop his head for safekeeping, he proceeded to eagerly open the cover. "Now, let's see…to open the door to market…to turn hair blue…to harness starstuff…EUREKAHA! To spirit away! I need to be spirited as far away from here as I can!"

He cross-referenced the list against the ingredients he found in the small cabinet beside the bed, bringing each out to the cauldron outside. Buckets of water were thrown in from the well out back of the house. Soon, the potion was being brought to a rolling boil, bursting bubbles of blue and orange.

"Now," Zevon remarked, "for the final ingrediencent!"

He ducked back into the shack, then brought out an apple that was twice the size of a normal fruit but still just small enough that he could carry it in one hand. "With the additiondendum of this apple," Zevon proclaimed, "my potion will be complete, and I will be spirited away from this – "

"ZEVON!"

Zevon whipped to look in the direction of the voice that had bellowed his name, and for an instant, his blood seemed to freeze.

He hadn't been the only one sent to this world.

Kamdor advanced upon him, twin swords drawn. "Because of you, I don't have the Corona Aurora, and I'm going to make you pay for it!" he bellowed.

Zevon's blood was melted by the fire of his pure anger.

"Because of ME?" he growled. "YOU WERE THE ONE WHO DIDN'T FINISH OFF THE SORCERESS!"

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN ATTEMPT TO!"

"I WAS GOING TO BEFORE YOU SHOWED UP!"

"ENOUGH!" Kamdor roared. "Now it is down to you and me, and when I'm through with you, it'll be JUST ME!"

"You think you can elimirase me?" Zevon asked cockily. "Just try it! I may not look physicalitally strong, but I can match you and more in a fight!"

"Oh, really?"

"OH, REALLY!"

It was a complete and utter bluff. Zevon's left hand rested on a particular potion strapped to his belt: a flask that amounted to a smoke bomb. When shattered, it would give him cover that would make Kamdor lose his trail completely. His right hand still clutched the apple. As soon as that apple hit the cauldron, the potion to spirit Zevon away would be complete.

The plan was simple. At the last possible second, all Zevon needed to do was throw the smoke bomb at Kamdor so that he could get lost in the cloud cover and simultaneously throw the apple into the cauldron, diving in after it if he needed to, so that the potion could do its work.

"I'M THROUGH WITH YOU!" Kamdor decided. "THIS IS WHERE YOU MAKE YOUR LAST INSULT!"

"You want a last insult?" Zevon responded. "THAT SILVER NECKTIE ON YOUR ARMOR LOOKS IMBECILIDIOTIC!"

He made his throw.

As the cauldron beside him went up in smoke and the apple bounced off Kamdor's helm, he realized that in the heat of the moment, he'd gotten a little mixed up.

Zevon was not the type to run from danger screaming. However, given that his entire plan had hinged on that bluff and throw, he knew he couldn't actually go toe-to-toe with Kamdor, not after seeing how easily he'd launched Clare across Root Core. His compromise was to turn and run the other direction at top speed, but with absolutely no screaming.

Behind the shack were more trees, and Zevon plunged into them, hoping to lose Kamdor's trail among the trunks. He zigged and zagged, thinking himself clever until he heard the telltale noise of one of Kamdor's swords cutting through the base of a tree and literally felling it to clear his path.

At least he was reaching the end of the trees, and on the other side –

Was a vista of the same shack, the same cauldron. The trees in front of the house and the trees behind the house were the same trees.

"WHAT?" Zevon cried, wondering if he'd run into a loop enchantment or this world was just that small. The good news was, since this was exactly the same place he'd left, his apple was there on the ground. The smoke bomb would not have diluted the potion any. If he could just scoop it up and give it a good toss into the cauldron –

Kamdor sprang into the air out of the center of the copse, silhouetted in moonlight. He sailed over the remaining trees and Zevon, landing neatly between Zevon and the apple and whirling to aim both swords at the potioneer.

It was here that Zevon suspected perhaps, his short life had come to an end for the second time in a year, and so anticlimactically, too. Whenever Mozenrath got around to resurrecting him, how could he explain that he'd died massacred by a man twenty times his strength on a backwater world nobody visited or cared about? Fighting over a worthless gold circlet, no less. Because he hadn't been able to throw an apple correctly, no less!

"END OF THE ROAD, ZEVON!" Kamdor declared. "FINALLY, THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU – "

And then he froze.

After staring at Kamdor awkwardly for a few seconds, Zevon, completely forgetting the point, asked, "Well? Are you or aren't you going to massaclaughter me? Just get it over with!"

Then he realized that Kamdor's visor was tilted upward, like he was looking at something in the sky. For instance, a dark winged shape that had appeared on the starry vista, slowly making its way closer to the small world.

When Zevon turned about to see what had stopped Kamdor in his tracks was the exact moment that the deadly dragon, venomous-green with a fanged snout and a thick, broad abdomen, had landed to see what intruders were visiting his realm.

As Kamdor was momentarily frozen in horror, Zevon broke into a relieved smile. For he knew that a warrior like Kamdor would have to fight his hardest against that dragon, knowing not the escape the apple could provide, and that meant finally, that Latin term Zevon had been searching for had come to save him, and furthermore, to illustrate the point, he remembered the term itself:

"MY AMADEUS EX MACHINIMA!"

Or at least he thought he did.

Three things happened at once: the dragon let off a jet of flame, Kamdor countered it with a tidal wave of electric magic, and Zevon ducked around the now-occupied Kamdor, slipping behind him to grab the apple. This time, he slam-dunked it directly into the cauldron, and after the boil became more dramatic than ever, threatening to froth right over the rim, a ring of sparkles ejected up from the cauldron, settling around Zevon and carrying him high into the air.

The last thing Zevon saw before he winked away was Kamdor locked in confrontation with the dragon, yelling irate battle cries as he spun and dodged around the beast's flaming breath. Surprisingly, Zevon found himself relenting a begrudging respect toward the armored warrior. After all, he could never engage a dragon singlehandedly like that. Kamdor most likely wouldn't even die from this encounter.

Zevon actually hoped he wouldn't, then chastised himself for that thought immediately, because if Kamdor didn't die here, that meant Zevon just might die at his hands later.

In a blink, he was free of the whole mess.

...

The next place Zevon arrived was a graveyard, which would scare most, but actually put him in pleasant mind of Ayam Aghoul. After checking to make sure the Corona Aurora circlet was still settled firmly atop his scalp, Zevon went for a little walk.

This place was looped, same as the potioneer's shack, so that when he reached the "end" of the graveyard, he was walking seamlessly through the other end again. He had to admit internally that the giant monolith shaped like the Grim Reaper really tied the whole place together. (Though he couldn't help but wonder: was it a monument, or was it an actual Reaper just standing very, very still?)

All the same, the loop signified that this place was in the same plane of existence as the shack, though whether they were part of the same world or two linked worlds in a dimension where everything acted like this remained to be seen. The good news was there wasn't a living soul to be found here. The best news was that included Kamdor.

The bad news was there seemed to be no obvious way out.

Sighing in defeat, Zevon brought out his scroll, dialing a familiar number and pressing it to his ear.

One ring. Two. Three. Then a voice: "Zevon? Hello? Zevon?"

"Mother!" Zevon cried upon hearing Yzma's voice. "I have called to requesitionit a favor. I have recently attemptified an excursation, but recent events have left me…in need of an extractrieval."

"WHAT?"

Zevon sighed. "…Mommy, I need a ride home."