"Solarius Knight's genie, yes, that makes sense, he lost his genie and Imperius made him grant a wish that the power rangers never existed."
"Okay," Xander said slowly, "What about the Bulldog and Yeti?"
"Fido and Fifty Below," Koragg explained, "They work for Imperius, and are as much my enemy as yours."
"Wait, what?" Chip demanded, "Am I missing something? You and the Mummy have been trying to get rid of us for over a month, and now you're saying that you don't like the new guys because they got rid of us?"
"Not because they did, but how they did it," Koragg insisted, "and how they tried to get rid of me. Most of all how they plan to overthrow the master."
A villain with a moral compass, Star quipped inside Nick's head, And here I thought I've seen it all.
Shut up Aunt Star, you aren't supposed to be helping us, remember, Nick snapped slightly, "So you want Darkness to rule, but not if it can't be done nicely?" he asked, with a chuckle.
Koragg stomped up to him, glaring down, "If there is no Honor, victory is meaningless."
"You want to help us?" Chip demanded, "Yeah, right."
"We don't have much choice here," Xander pointed out, "Besides sit back and allow darkness to win."
Maddy nodded, turning to Nick, "Can we trust him?" she asked nervously, "Your ring, it would tell us if he means us harm right?"
Nick shook his head, "Not really, not with Koragg," he confessed, "He's part of the Gate Keeper line, like I apparently am, my Keeper Protection has a hard time telling if a blood relative is a threat or not. That's how a lot of the Keeper families got wiped out."
"So what do we do?" V asked, "I mean, Xander's right, we can't just sit back and do nothing, but if Nick's necklace can't warn us of Koragg's plans, can we truly trust him?"
"I don't know, but it's the only option we have, so we will just have to keep our guard up," Nick insisted, before turning to Koragg, "Okay what do we need to do?"
"You must go to the Tribunal of Magic and ask them to reverse the wish," Koragg announced.
"Whoa there," Nick exclaimed, "the Tribunal of Magic, are you insane? Do you know how many have been lost trying to reach their dimension?"
"What's the Tribunal of Magic?" Chip asked.
"They're in charge of all magic," Nick explained, "But they're pretty hands-off, reaching them will be nearly impossible, and Aunt Star claims that they really don't like being disturbed."
They really don't.
"That might be true, but they are also your only chance of reversing the curse."
Nick sighed, "Fine, but how do we get there? They are in a different dimension. Are you planning on opening a portal or something?"
"Unfortunately my magic is gone too," Koragg confessed, "Follow me, there is only one way to get to the Tribunal of Magic."
…
The five friends followed Koragg through the forest, Nick grasping his ring tightly in his hand, where in the world could Koragg be taking them? He wondered.
"Where exactly are you taking us?" Nick asked.
"The only way to get to the tribunal is to go with him," Koragg announced as they entered a clearing, to find Fire Heart waiting.
"All right, Fire Heart," Chip exclaimed happily as the five teens quickly hurried forward only to fall back when Fire Heart lashed out, breathing fire right in front of them.
"He doesn't remember us," Maddy exclaimed in confusion, "We raised him from an egg."
"No, you didn't," Koragg announced, walking past them, "You never found the egg, I did. I raised him."
Maddy closed her eyes, this just couldn't be happening.
"He is my Dragon," Koragg said, before saying a quick spell and announcing, "He will take you now."
"Thanks," Nick said as he walked past mounting up.
"Go with Honor," Koragg ordered them, as Fire Heart took off into the air.
As Koragg watched them vanish into the air, Phineas slid up next to him, "Is that them?" he asked eagerly, "The ones you spoke of?"
"Yes," Koragg announced, before moving away, "And our alliance ends here."
Phineas slowly raised his hand, "Bye… Friend," he said sadly.
…
"Woohoo," Chip giggled, as the wind whipped through his hair, "You guys have to admit this is one exciting adventure. Not knowing where we're going, not knowing when we'll get there. Not even knowing if we'll get back!"
Nick glanced over his shoulder at his friend, "Yeah, who wouldn't want to go to who knows where to meet with a group of beings that go to great lengths to ensure that they don't get visitors."
"I know right?" Chip asked happily as Fire Heart suddenly dodged away from a large fireball.
"Keeper's Curse," Nick swore, tightening his grip on the dragon, "Now what?"
"Are you going somewhere?" Necrolai demanded as she laughed and sent another fireball at them.
"Cool," Chip announced, "We're under attack."
"Under attack with no magic," Nick argued, shaking his head grumpily, "Not a good combination," he insisted, "Come on Fire Heart we can lose her, do your stuff."
It took about fifteen minutes of Fire Heart flipping and spinning with the teens barely holding on.
"I don't know how much more of this I can handle," Maddy yelled into Nick's ear,
"Just hold tight," Nick ordered, "Look, there's some sort of portal up ahead, I think that's where we are headed."
Fire Heart suddenly plunged forward, shooting through the portal as it closed behind him.
"That was close," Xander announced, sliding off Fire Heart and glancing around, "Now where are we?"
The others followed suit, glancing around the desert landscape. Nick tentatively poked at his ring, "I don't know," Nick confessed, "But my ring is warm to the touch."
"That's good, right?" Chip asked, nervously looking around, "It's like a warm fuzzy feeling, isn't it?"
"No," Nick insisted, removing his ring from around his neck, and twirling it in his fingers, "It means that this place can be dangerous if we aren't careful."
"By Dangerous, what exactly do you mean?" Maddy asked nervously.
"One misstep from any of us could get us all killed," Nick confessed, glancing around, "Come on, I think we should head this way."
V glanced at Nick, before turning around, looking all around them, "Everything looks the same, how can you be so sure that we need to go that direction?"
Nick placed his ring back around his neck, "Because my ring is significantly hotter when I face that direction, which means that that direction is more dangerous than all the other directions."
"So it's the most logical direction we should go," Maddy asked with a grimace, "Towards the danger. Without magic to protect us."
"Hey, I tried to warn you that this mission wasn't going to be an easy one," Nick insisted.
"You know what, I've changed my mind," Chip announced, "I don't think this is exciting anymore. Any possibility that we can go back?"
"The portal closed behind us," Xander pointed out.
"The only way forward is onward," Nick agreed.
…
Xander leaned up against a skeleton of a tree, "Are you sure we're headed in the right direction?" he demanded, glancing at Nick.
Nick pulled out his ring and held it up on his palm, "I think so, the ring is still warm, but it's steady, so I don't know for sure."
"I wish that they had some signs out here," Chip groaned.
"Yeah," V agreed, "Something like 'Secret Tribunal of Magic, three miles ahead."
"Well, then we'd know that we were headed in the right direction," Maddy insisted, "Instead of having to rely on Nick and his ring to tell us that…"
Nick suddenly stopped, signaling them to stop and be quiet, "Something about to happen," he announced, "My ring just started vibrating."
Up ahead a patch of sand blew upwards, forming into a humanoid form.
Great, Nick thought, taking in the white pasty skin and sunken eyes, an undead warrior, at least that means we're on the right track.
The undead warrior pulled out his sword glancing at them, "Why have you come here Humans?" it asked in a soft voice that hissed slightly.
"That's none of your business," Nick insisted, taking a step forward, trying to remember what Aunt Star told him about undead Warriors, but he couldn't remember anything.
Xander pulled him back right as the sword swung right at him, "Let me handle this," he insisted, stepping forward and holding his hand out, "Hi the name's Xander," he announced.
Nick, however, wasn't paying much attention to what he was saying, trying to think about what he knew about the undead warriors. They usually are those who failed to… His eyes grew round as realization hit him.
In front of him, the undead warrior chuckled, "Tribunal of Magic, then you are headed in the right direction."
Xander and the others cheered and were about to take a step forward when Nick stopped him, "Guys, that's an undead warrior," he announced.
"Okay," Vida said, "What's an undead warrior?"
"Is that like a Zombie?" Chip asked, "Is he going to eat our brains or something?"
"No," Nick said, "Undead Warriors are those who tried to, in this case, reach the Tribunal, and failed. At their failure, they were cursed to guard the Tribunal for the rest of Eternity. We'll have to fight him and any other undead warrior we come across before we can meet with the Tribunal."
"And if we fail?" Maddy asked.
"You'll be cursed for all eternity to defend the home of the Tribunal," Nick said.
"Doesn't your ring thingy protect you from curses or something?" Xander asked, "So we have nothing to fear."
"It only protects me," Nick insisted, "And that's if the Keeper's Curse doesn't decide that this Curse is a perfect companion curse for it."
"So, don't lose?" V suggested as several other undead warriors rose from the ground before them.
"At times like this, I wish we still had our magic," Nick admitted, dropping into a fighting position.
…
Nick was extremely grateful for all of the training his parents insisted he have on fighting. Even if he had no desire at the time to become a Power Ranger. He wasn't sure if any of them could have survived the battle without it. The others held their ground and V and Xander managed to defeat a few of the warriors themselves, but it was clear that out of all of them, Nick had the most training, as he was thrown into the air by the original warrior, and he was able to twist around, knocking the warrior down and landing lightly on his feet.
"Wow, that was amazing," Chip called out after noticing that the only undead warrior around was the one that Nick was fighting.
"Yes, you have proven yourself," the warrior announced, holding something up for Nick to take, "Here, take it, you've earned it."
Nick frowned, picking it up, "A key?" he asked in confusion, "What do we need a key for?"