Mystic Faith Part One
Earth-2806
Madison Rocca had seen some disturbing things during her tenure as the blue mystic ranger, but through it all, she had stayed optimistic. After all, someone had to.
However, this fight was slowing eating away at her faith that they would succeed in saving the world.
Moments before, they had seen their mentor be captured by a monster, a friend get obliterated trying to save them, and the lifeless husks of two of their comrades, the strongest warriors on their side, crash down on the rubble of their battlefield… a demonstration by the self-proclaimed Master that their struggle was futile.
Still, they persevered against the beast who devoured the very magic that empowered them.
"Your world is now MY world!" Five crimson tentacles shot out from their foe, as he towered over them, pulling them away from the bodies of Daggeron and Leanbow, and hoisting them to the air, towards his horrid face. "Would you like to see what my world looks like?"
Madison realized it. He was toying with them. He knew he had already won.
The Master opened his mouth wide, and darkness washed out over the world, twisting, and changing it, reducing it to a deserted wasteland in mere seconds.
Madison stilled.
No… The world… Did he just kill everyone, just like that?
How powerful was he?
She didn't let her thoughts wander off to the implications… that everyone she knew and loved except the other rangers were dead.
"It's so dark!" She cried, looking around. The skies were pitch dark. No building or tree around them. Only some rough mountainous terrain. No life anywhere around them.
"This is the future of your world!" The Master announced, tossing them to the ground. "There is no purpose for your species. Once I eat your magic, you will become part of the dust I walk upon. That will be your one and only purpose."
"We are not done!" Nick shouted, even as Madison felt tears stream down her eyes, but his voice brought her back, just like it had many times before.
They had restored reality before, when Imperious had cast a wish that took away their powers and twisted their world into one ruled by darkness.
They would find a way to fix it, but first they had to defeat this monster.
"You haven't defeated us yet!" Nick challenged the Master, as they got back to their feet. It was time to show them the full extent of their powers.
"LEGEND WARRIORS!" They yelled, activating their enhanced forms, and raising their Lion Staves, calling upon the Manticore Megazord, and teleporting to the cockpit.
"Yes, more power for me to eat!" The Master scrutinized them in amusement.
"Come on Rangers! We got to hit him with all our magic!" Nick yelled. They all nodded, placing their hands on their respective consoles and channeling their magic through it.
"Legend Striker, Spin Attack!" The Manticore Megazord rotated its lance, as strands of fire spun around it, before directing the enchanted flames at the Master, who simply opened his mouth and drank it.
"Impossible! He- He just consumed our spell like it was nothing!" Xander stuttered as the Master reached out, wrapping one of his tentacles around their lance, wrenching it away from the Megazord.
"You are NOTHING!" He declared, as the tentacle tightened its grip, shattering the lance. "The hopelessness and fear I feel inside of you makes your power even more tender to dine on!"
The tentacles wrapped around the limbs of their megazord, as he lifted them up, and again opened his jaws.
Droplets of vibrant magic rose from the Megazord and were sucked into his mouth. Even inside the panel, the consoles dimmed.
"Our magic!" Chip realized, as the legend armour started to dematerialize.
"He is taking it all!" Vida cried in horror.
The Manticore Megazord disintegrated in a shower of sparks… all of it was gone, absorbed, leaving no wreckage, as the rangers plummeted down. They crashed on the ground hard as the Master laughed from above.
Their legend modes were gone, and even their base forms were damaged. Their helmets were gone.
"Quick! We need to go!" Vida pulled her to her feet, dragging her with her as they ran into one of the caves. They continued running deeper and deeper, till they could no longer hear his laughter.
Chip lifted his staff, muttering a series of incantations. Cloaking wards. Madison realized having remembered the incantations from the spell books they had memorized back in their early days under Udonna's stern tutelage.
"Alright we are safe." The yellow ranger sighed. "At least for some time."
"Safe?" Nick repeated scornfully, turning around to face Chip. "Are you kidding me? That thing just destroyed our megazord, not to mention Daggeron and my dad…"
He turned away from them.
"So that's it?" Vida demanded, following him and pulling him around to glare at him. "The great Nick, the red ranger, is calling it quits?"
Nick didn't say anything and looked away again, except this time, he was blocked by the green mystic.
"Don't walk away, mate. Answer her." Xander said quietly. "Are you giving up?"
"Get out of my way." Nick yelled irritably, about to shove Xander out of his way.
"No, Nick. You answer that!" Chip added to the dissent.
"Don't you get it guys? Wake up and smell the darkness!" Nick snapped. "We have done our best. We failed. We are no match for that thing. Fine, you guys wanna hear it? Yes, I have given up."
He turned away again.
Madison couldn't take it anymore. Part of her wanted to shrink in a corner of the cavern and pretend all this was not happening, but that was not an option. Despite the fear and anxiety bubbling in her chest, she could not give up, and she won't allow her friends to do so either.
No matter what was going on, this wasn't their world. This was the Master perverting time to suit his own needs, but they knew it was not permanent. They had reversed a dystopian timeline before. There was no reason why they could not do the same with an apocalyptic one.
Damn it!
"NO!" She screamed, the fury exploding out of her, as she stormed towards the red ranger. "Don't you say that…. Don't you dare say that! Not you! You were the one who held us through all of this! You are not allowed to give up!"
Nick turned away from her, his eyes dissonant.
"Listen to me!" Madison gripped his shoulders, shaking him. "Giving up is not an option, not for us and not for you. We are a team, and you are our leader. We go on, no matter what!"
Nick met her eyes, still grimacing but she felt a small part of him was receptive to her words.
Before he could say anything, bolts of crimson tainted lightning tore through the cave, striking at their feet, sending them flying against the wall.
"It is time to finish this meal!" The Master cackled, as he appeared in front of them.
Madison winced, as the others groaned in pain around her, clutching their sides as they struggled to get up. No, this can't be how everything ended… They were all injured and weak… defenseless to the Master's attacks.
She turned to see Nick slumped against the wall of the cave, his eyes closed and a cut across his forehead with blood trickling down his face.
"No…" She murmured.
"Welcome to your end!" The Master gloated.
She looked at her sister, Chip and Xander… all of them exhausted yet still resisting.
"No…" She said again, her voice louder, as she punched her fist to the ground and propelled herself up. She staggered, looking at the Master. "No… Not like this."
"You?" The dark overlord snorted. "You are just one, and not even the most powerful one. The Light lies broken. What hope do you have against me, little girl?"
Madison flinched, limping over the prone bodies of her sister and her childhood friends.
"Maddy…" Vida murmured.
"I won't give up." She said, her magi staff appearing in her hand in a glimmer of blue light, and she pointed it at the Master. "None of us will…"
"Then you will die, blue witch just like the ones, who came before you." He snarled, shooting his tentacles at her like poisoned darts.
"Galwit Mysto Gonga Lujune!" She chanted, as water droplets coalesced from thin air and formed a spherical shield in front of her.
The tentacles slammed against the shield before retreating backwards, smoke coming out of the crimson flesh.
"Petty tricks won't save you, mystic!" He yelled in anger. "I will ensure your end is filled with misery!"
Madison gulped. It was a calculated spell, a rare one that not only summoned a water elemental but only imbued the water itself with light magic. In essence, it was the equivalent of 'holy water' certain communities use as defense against the dark occult.
The Master opened his jaws, and suddenly the shield of flowing water rippled as droplets were sucked out of it towards the Master, the water slowly transforming into a bubble of blue light and later merely a single speck of magical energy that entered the monster's mouth.
Madison could feel it leeching her magic, and her morph strain. She swung her staff, trying to break the spell, but found herself unable to. The liquid shield evaporated, and her staff disintegrated, but the connection between the Master and her magic remained. Bubbles of blue light floated up from her body, towards him. Madison tried to severe the connection, but it was all for naught. Her morph flickered before eventually giving out, and she felt a greater strain upon her.
The Master was not only draining her magic now, but also her lifeforce.
Crimson tendrils shot up from the ground, wrapping around her, keeping her in place.
"Didn't I tell you this is my world?" The Master taunted, approaching closer and eying her lecherously.
"NO!" Vida screamed, getting up and summoning her staff. She charged at the monster, only to shot by a bolt of lightning that sent her crashing back to the ground and knocked her out of the morph.
Xander and Chip attempted to do the same, only to find themselves sinking to the ground, as if they were trapped in quicksand… The ground had taken a crimson hue. Their morphs failed, and their yells became weaker, as their consciousness faded as well.
"Leave my sister alone, you monster!" Vida snarled, getting up again and running at the monster once again, only to be smacked by one of Master's tendrils, and sent flying across the cavern.
"V!" Madison yelled, as she saw her sister crumple on the ground and not get up. "NO!"
"You are going to die, and your friends soon after!" He leered at her, as one of his tentacles petted her head and her nostrils flared in indignation and rage.
"No words, blue mystic?" He laughed.
Madison felt rage burn inside her, but that would not help her. Heck, she had no idea what would, at this point!
She could feel her skin dry up, her eyes getting blurry, her head spinning and her heart beating slower. Every part of her body cried out in agony, and she would have screamed her lungs out, if she didn't feel so tired already, and if she didn't want to give this monster the satisfaction of breaking her.
No. It cannot end like this, not after everything they went through. All the battles they won and the sacrifices they made.
No. She had so many things to do.
She wanted to record more videos.
She wanted to go to film school.
She wanted to tell Nick how she felt for him.
She wanted to grow old with her friends and family.
She wanted to live her life…
No.
She needed to do something. Anything.
It wasn't just her fate on the line.
Her sister, Chip, Xander, Nick… everyone in the damn world…
"To use magic, you have to first believe in it." Udonna's voice whispered in her ear. One of the first lessons she taught them.
That's true.
That first day, even without their morpher or ranger powers, they had been able to fend off hidiacs.
But the situation was more perilous than that.
She felt the slimy tentacles wrap around her neck, and the Master's yellow eyes gazing at her. He was drinking in her fear… every last drop of it.
No.
She had to find a way to save herself.
The Master was drawing on her magic. If she was morphed, at least it would buy her a bit more time, and instead of her lifeforce, he would be draining the elemental energy of the Morphin Grid… which was hypothetically an endless source of energy.
But even if she were to ignore her fatigued state, she couldn't exactly move let alone raise her morpher and utter the morphing call.
Wait, it was still on her person.
Maybe there was a chance she could morph. She closed her eyes, reaching out for the magic of the ocean within her morpher. It was feeble. She could sense it, but accessing it was a wholly different matter.
"Magic is belief… It is faith… It is hope." Udonna had once told them, while regaling them of the stories of the warriors who had preceded them as the Mystic Force. How in their direst moments, they had been able to unlock powerful magic that had turned the tides of the war.
She gave up trying to force a link with the morpher and instead focused on magic itself. She clenched her teeth, and thought about the first time she had faced hidiacs. She had been so sure she was going to die that day, but then she had 'believed' in magic, and the henchmen had been taken out by water elementals before she even realized what happened.
'I believe in magic' She said in her head, repeating it over and over. 'I believe in magic.'
She could feel herself weaken, but she didn't stop.
'I believe in magic'
She opened her mind to the slimmest of possibilities that she and her friends would make it out of this battle alive. That somehow despite the odds stacked against them, they would win this war.
'I believe in magic'
She pictured her sister laughing and her parents smiling at her.
She saw Rock Porium. Vida DJing, Chip playing around with a newspaper roll pretending it was a sword, Toby poking his head out from his office, and Xander chilling in the couch.
She visualized Nick working on his bike with his black leather jacket on, before he stood and flashed her a cheeky grin, that made her feel warm and fuzzy inside.
She thought of Rootcore and Udonna, Clare, Daggeron, Jenji and Leanbow.
She remembered the endless greenery of the forest. Phineas. Leelee. The forest folk and Fireheart.
She thought of everything and everyone precious to her, and embraced the possibility of seeing them again, no matter how small it was.
Madison smiled despite herself, and opened her eyes.
The Master stopped leering at her and looked at her in confusion, before a wave of blue light radiated out from her, shredding the squid like tendrils that held her into ashes.
The monster howled in pain, staggering backwards.
She saw Chip and Xander's unconscious bodies being thrown up by the red quicksand, which quickly returned to being a stony terrain.
She saw the cuts dry up on Nick, and both him and Vida take a deep breath as they momentarily got up, before losing consciousness again. But that was okay. It meant they were still alive.
"What is this!" He yelled.
Madison did not understand it herself, but now, she felt a calm reassurance settle upon her. A comforting presence that made her feel everything would be alright again.
Was this magic?
It was different from other times she had channeled raw magic without her magic.
It was more than that.
She wasn't believing in just magic like she had before… She was tapping into something far more primal. She was believing in hope.
And somehow, the effort had rejuvenated her, and reversed all effects of the Master draining her energies.
The Master charged at him, but something kept him at bay.
"Impossible!" He growled.
Madison pulled out her morpher from her pocket, and flipped it open.
"Magical Source, Mystic Force!" She yelled as she had so many times before, raising her morpher and allowing the power of the Morphin Grid flow through her while being channeled by the mermaid spirit and the water elemental as a medium.
Except this time, it was different.
She couldn't hear the sound of waves crashing on the beach, or feel the feeling of being splashed with water when she morphed. She couldn't sense the water magic that usually accompanied the morph.
Instead, she heard the song of the mermaid… a melodious siren song that made her relax despite the despair around her and filled her with confidence.
She felt hope… true unfiltered hope, and she smiled.
Wait, her face was not covered by her helmet, and she could still feel her hair being loose and something firm resting on her forehead and against her cheeks.
She opened her eyes and looked down to see herself in a suit very different from her blue ranger form. It was still a form fitting blue suit, but the 'blue' was glowing brightly. The V shaped chest piece and skirt were missing, so were any emblems of the mystics or the mermaid. She still had a cape, but it was accompanied with a hood and tethered to the front of her suit around the golden medallion resting against her sternum. There was a symbol engraved on it. She couldn't recognize it, but it looked like a circle in the middle of two 'T's, and a cup shaped shape on either side. She supposed it almost looked like a lamp.
Her eyes flickered up to see the Master look stupefied at her new transformation.
"It is…" He stuttered at a loss for words. "Impossible… No…"
Madison could tell he was perturbed, scared even.
She didn't know what had prompted her new transformation, and she could tell it wasn't a normal ranger form.
She didn't know the extent of her powers or if she still commanded the oceans, but she knew she had power… power that came to her instinctively.
She thrusted her hands at the Master, and a glowing solid projection of a giant trident appeared over them, before darting at the monster and pinning him to the ground. As the three blades stabbed the flesh of the Master, black oily blood oozed out alongside small specks of magical energies.
This was new. She could create weapons with just her mind, and something told her she could do more.
She kept one hand towards the trident and her enemy, and directed her other hand towards her friends. A wave of blue light passed over them, healing their cuts and bruises, and each of them took a deep breath, opening their eyes and sitting up.
"What-" Vida shook her head, before gawking at her. "Sis?"
"That's so cool!" Chip whooped at her in awestruck eyes.
Xander let out a chuckle of disbelief and relief, while Nick just stared at her with wonder and new found determination.
"NOO!" The Master yelled, as he suddenly increased in size, becoming a giant within seconds, and the cave collapsed around them. Her trident projection shattered immediately, as she ran towards her friends, whose wonder turned into terror within seconds.
The Master started laughing again. Boulders collapsed on them, and dust filled their lungs.
"I don't know how you became a champion of Adara, blue mystic, but your new found powers don't hold a candle to mine!" He yelled.
Madison gulped. She could see her friends duck the collapsing rocks, but in their unmorphed forms, they would be crushed in instants.
She closed her eyes yet again, reaching out with her new powers, hoping it would save them just like the other miraculous feats it facilitated moments prior.
Blue light flooded out of her, enveloping everything in sight.
Pardon the punny title. Couldn't help myself.
If you guys are wondering, this is a canon divergent rewrite of Mystic Fate, the final episode of Power Rangers Mystic Force, and though I have teased the nature of Madison's new powers, all will be properly revealed in the next part.
The protection spell Madison used has the usual "Galwit Mysto" prefix of the spells used in the show, "Gonga Lujune" is a protection spell used in Magiranger, and "Suraksha" means protection in Sanskrit. "Gonga" coincidentally is similiar to the name of the Ganges, a sacred river in India and Hindu mythology, and hence the tiny nod to holy water. Basically, it is just me having fun inventing spells with ancient languages. XD
Regretfully, due to real life obligations that snuck up on me, I won't be able to timely participate in the IC Round Robin Challenge anymore, but I will be continuing the storyline I have teased in the previous chapters and thanks to the much appreciated understanding and cooperation of my fellow IC writers, it will fit in with the larger story of the challenge.