THE RECKONING, PART 1.

15:40

The Dark Ranger was a few kilometers from the island, specifically from the control room that had armored glass. It was a glass that could be destroyed by one of the two missiles that he had in the glider. He had two missiles in case the first missile failed or if he needed to shoot a plant trying to attack him.

The glider assembly was fairly stable as long as there was no external force acting on it to make it unstable. The Dark Ranger was grateful for what J'onn had done with the little time he had. Now, he hoped to enter the island, sabotage control with a device he'd asked J'onn to build, then go to defeat Ra's Al Ghul and use the Soul Stealing Sword. It was a pretty complicated plan. Anyone would tell him that, but he was going to do all this for everything he considered important.

Before reaching the danger zone, his mind began to wander about how he had met his Rangers and how they were in danger from his great rival. Kal was the leader and physically stronger. His technique was still lacking, though. He wouldn't survive Ra's, or maybe if he takes pity on him.

John had started out as a stuffy ranger who believed himself to be the most capable and the best to be the leader. He had become a little more respectful and supportive of his teammates, but his evolution was not yet complete.

Barry was still the easygoing and funny one, but at least he was serious when he needed to be. Shayera was was a tough girl, but at least she had become more obedient after the incidents of her trying to be superior to Diana, that and her conflicts with Barry. Fortunately, she had improved, but it wasn't enough.

And Diana…his mind was sighing in frustration at the thought of his Blue Ranger.

Diana was the woman he chose from the base in Greece, but only because he knew that she could bring not only physical strength but also agility and mastery in combat. She had turned out to be the toughest of the five. She didn't back down from his furious reactions or his cold attitude. She was also disobedient, obviously being raised as a princess, but she had progressively improved in that regard.

Diana had became a more obedient Ranger as well as stronger and more skilled in combat although like the others, he still had unfinished business. However, that wasn't the reason he was frustrated. He was in that state because she made him feel things he dind't want to feel.

He couldn't believe that her mere presence made him feel that way. No one had made him feel this way in a long time, but he couldn't allow that. He was the commander of Zone C, and his greatest enemy was attacking the zone. Even if that wasn't happening, he still wouldn't act on his feelings.

He wouldn't let his Rangers perish on the battlefield again. He also couldn't let the Zone fall back into decay. That meant focusing on work, and nothing else. Still he would do anything to save them, especially her. That was what was about to happen…or so he thought.

Reaching the radar of the island, he noticed there was no longer turrets thanks to the Rangers. Otherwise, he wouldn't be here now. As two plants were going to attack him, he had to fire one of the missiles, making ashes of those two plants because they attacked forming a cross before being destroyed.

It was time to destroy the cristal before more plants attacked him, forcing him to use the other missile if he didn't do it now. He readied his sights, and after two seconds, the missile was fired at the glass, shattering it.

The Dark Ranger pressed the button on the glider, flying at high speed, but began to disintegrate with the force of the wind and what it required him to do to destabilize the construct. Seeing this, he grabbed the Dark Sword and severed his belts, causing him to jump out. He lands hard, rolling on the ground somewhat burned due to the missile's explosion.

There were some ninjas on the ground, but they were all unconscious. They hadn't died, although they would have bruises and some broken bones when they woke up. He knew very well that they would not stay too close to the crystal when they saw a missile coming to destroy it and the plants would not be able to block it.

The Dark Ranger took out the device and placed it behind the control desk. Afterwards, he pulled the Morpho out.

"J'onn, it's in position. You know what to do," he said.

"I'll do my best, commander, but it's the League of Shadows. Your electronic security could cost me more time than you have calculated when fighting Ra's," J'onn told him.

"Then I hope you will by the time I defeat Ra's," The Dark Ranger said before hanging up and putting his Morpho back in his place.

Before he could get further into the base of the island to find Ra's, several smoke bombs exploded around him. He drew his Dark Sword and swung around to attack or at least push back the ninjas who had the intended to attack him. Sure enough, he drove them back.

The ninjas tried to attack again, but the Dark Ranger, along with his sword, was a very tough fighter. The ninjas tried their best to land a hit on him, but they were either blocked or deflected, and then hit hard by the Dark Ranger.

"Ra's must already know that I'm here. It's better to be careful," he thought before entering the base.

XXX

Before the Dark Ranger entered the island using two missiles, the fight between Deathstroke, Lady Shiva, and Ra's against the Rangers had dragged on longer than they had expected.

In the fight between Kal and Deathstroke, the mercenary showed that he had trained harder to get revenge on Kal as well as having more tricks, but he would not use them while Ra's was here. The last thing he wanted was to hurt the man who had hired him.

On the other hand, Kal had a lot of strength, and his attacks were better than their first matchup, putting him at a relative advantage. That is until Deathstroke drew another of his swords and caught Kal off guard, landing several quick blows. Sparks flew, knocking him to the ground, but Kal got up quickly and continued his fight. Deathstroke was getting angrier that he couldn't take him down, at least not for now.

Elsewhere, the blows between Diana and Lady Shiva were raging. The two trained women were fighting using the anger they felt for each other, but not for the same purpose. Lady Shiva just wanted to kill the Blue Ranger for what she had done to her. Diana wanted to defeat her and take her to a place where she wouldn't hurt the good people of Zone C. While something told her to eliminate her, something else told her it wouldn't be the right thing to do, not after what the commander said about killing criminals.

The fight dragged on, but neither woman managed to gain an advantage over the other, in part because Ra's was there. Lady Shiva would never do anything to harm her master, even if it prevented her from attacking without a care in the world.

On the other hand, John, Shayera and Barry were being defeated by Ra's Al Ghul. John created arrows, swords, clubs, wrecking balls, nets, cannonballs, whatever necessary to stop the mercenary, but Ra's and his sword were so strong and powerful that it was impossible for him to stop him. Barry was throwing objects and debris that had fallen from the fight as well as gunshots at him.

Shayera was shooting at him, but the three of them made sure to keep their distance from him. The first time he had defeated them he had made them adopt this form of attack. If the fight was already quite even when it was the five against Ra's, now the three of them could barely stand on their own. They couldn't do it for long.

In less time than they thought they would lose, Ra's used the Soulstealing Sword to grab Barry with the sword's energy and slammed him into Shayera and John. John tried to save him with a giant hand, but the sword's power was too much, breaking his hand, and then hit by Barry. With the three of them on the ground, Ra's grabbed the handle of the sword with both hands. It was time to take them down.

"Soul Stealing Sword, killing blow," Ra's said.

He swung the sword slowly and, once in position, ran towards the three Rangers. He landed the blow, causing an explosion and knocking them off their feet and making their suits vanish. "You guys put up a pretty normal fight…" he said, pausing before saying that last word. "... but now, their souls will go to this sword, just as it happened with the other three Rangers."

"No you won't!" Kal yelled, trying to brush aside the mercenary keeping him busy, but to no avail.

"Stop!" yelled Diana, who, like Kal, tried to interrupt Ra's, but Lady Shiva made it difficult for her.

Ra's wasted no time and began to recite some words that no Ranger could understand. It made the Soul Stealing Sword begin to glow. It was a matter of seconds before a Ranger was sucked into the sword again, but was stopped by a loud tremor which instantly extinguished the sword.

Seconds later, a ninja came down to where he was, and knelt in front of him.

"Master, the Dark Ranger used missiles to enter the island. The others are trying to stop him, but they won't last long."

"Wayne is here?" Kal asked.

"We have to help him," Diana said.

"I don't think so. I am your opponent, Amazon," Lady Shiva said, almost hitting her in the chest.

"You can't do it either, red," Deathstroke said.

"We'll do it," John said trying to get up, but the ninja quickly hit him, and did the same with Shayera and Barry so that no surprises would occur. Seeing this, Ra's knew it was best to stop Wayne because he possibly had some plan that would ruin his chance to destroy Zone C.

"Get these three Rangers and follow me. I'm going to destroy Wayne," Ra's ordered.

"Yes, master," said the ninja before snapping his fingers.

Other ninjas quickly came and grabbed John, Barry and Shayera as well as taking away their Morphos so they couldn't transform. With everything ready, Ra's, the ninjas and the three Rangers went to the place where the Dark Ranger was. Kal and Diana tried to stop Ra's, but they still had to defeat their opponents, who still didn't show a weakness or advantage they could use to win.

Ra's, the ninjas and the Rangers were escorted to where the Dark Ranger was. He was already defeating the last ninjas who had tried to stop him.

"It's good to see you keep doing the same stupid thing, Wayne," Ra's calmly told him.

"And it's good to see you keep doing crazy things, Ra's," The Dark Ranger said, barely containing the anger he felt for the terrorist.

"Crazy things, I agree with you, but I'm doing the sensible thing. When a forest overgrows, fire is inevitable, and your late commander along with your late scientist did not understand that when three of his Rangers died with that ideal. One more left the área. He at least saw the truth," Ra's said, releasing more anger with each word he was saying.

This made the Dark Ranger grit his teeth. This made him angry. Dick had given up on Zone C, and there was no one to blame again but him, but he wouldn't let him bad-mouth Jim Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth as if all all their efforts had been in vain.

"But they died thanks to the incompetence of the drivers and their own skills with technology. I was hoping that the supreme commander of the League would see that you were more incompetent than them, but I don't understand how my plan failed and you ended up back there. But, enough of my voice," he said before taking out the Rba Almas Sword from his sheath. "It's time for you to join your three Rangers in the sword, and later, your other five Rangers will do it too." He finished pointing the sword at him.

"Well, then you will see how I defeat you and save Zone C as well as my cadets," he said before drawing the sword from him as well. "Dark Sword, activated," he said, grabbing the blade of the sword with one blade and the handle with the other.

"Soul Stealing Sword, full power," Ra's said and the sword lit up again.

With that said, the two rivals ran towards each other. If that were a movie, surely someone would have backtracked between their first confrontation on that fateful night. Plus the Dark Ranger was the Red Ranger before putting the actual confrontation into normal speed with no frills whatsoever, either that or they would have used slow motion to exaggeration.

As they entered the fray, the two struck a downward blow, but it was stopped by the other's sword. Neither of them was willing to back down at that point, it was win or lose everything…or die in the case of the Dark Ranger.

They stayed in that position for a few seconds, each trying to hurt each other, but both had the same strength. They moved away just as the other's sword was about to touch the other's chest. Ra's side slammed into the helmet, but the Dark Ranger ducked and side slammed into Ra's legs. Ra's jumped and tried to land a slam to the ground, but was dodged as well. The Dark Ranger got up and took a swing at Ra's, but was blocked.

While this was happening, John, Barry, and Shayera had woken up, but they were still weak and the ninjas had swords pointing at them in every direction. With Ra's there, it made it almost impossible for one of the three to use their powers without taking a hit or a fatal stabbing. But they could cheer, and John wouldn't let this opportunity pass him by.

"Commander, you can do it!" John shouted. Unfortunately for him, he was punched in the stomach, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Do not say anything. This is between my master and your commander. One more like that and I'll stab you in the chest," the ninja ordered and warned.

John wanted to do something, but he was still in pain. Barry and Shayera hated being put in such a terrible position of just watching but doing nothing else.

XXX

16:00

J'onn had found this level of League of Shadows security too challenging, and exasperating. He could figure it out, but he was still a long way from directly hacking into control of the island. Every time he managed to shut down a computer barrier, another was put up.

Even though this was already starting to make him impatient, he knew he had to keep going. All the Rangers and their commander were risking their lives inside the floating island, but he would still have to take breaks to destroy the plants that kept growing and destroying the city. Although at least the plants had stopped being fired, because thanks to the commander entering the control room with a missile, the ninjas had to leave.

XXX

The fight between Ra's and the Dark Ranger had started very evenly, but as time passed, the terrorist understood the Ranger's pattern. Every attack he tried to make was blocked, followed by a strong blow that pushed the Dark Ranger back.

Even as he tried to slash upward, Ra's sidestepped and gave him a hard roundhouse kick which knocked him down, but he got up quickly and landed another blow with his Dark Sword. Another blow was blocked, and Ra's used this to grab his arm and throw him to the ground.

It seemed that no matter how many times the Dark Ranger fell to the ground, he always got up to continue fighting. Although, this time, defeat at the hands of Ra's seemed like it was going to happen.

On another part of the island, Diana and Kal still couldn't beat Lady Shiva and Deathstroke. Just like the duel between the Dark Ranger and Ra's Al Ghul, their lives depended on winning.

With the ground clearer, Deathstroke unleashed a light bomb which blinded Kal for a few seconds. With this, he took advantage to jump from one of the upper floors and land a downward blow with his two swords. Kal went down again, but got to his knees quickly enough and managed to grab both of Deathstroke's blades before he could slash his throat with those weapons.

Deathstroke drew the pistol from him and shot at Kal, but he used his strength to grab the two blades with his immense strength. This was rather awkward for the mercenary, as he thought the Ranger would use them as projectiles against him, but he folded them with both hands and tossed them aside before grabbing his Ranger sword again. That wasn't all Deathstroke had, so he drew his metal staff and attacked again.

On Diana's side, Lady Shiva also wanted to increase the difficulty with the special attack she had used on her in their first duel. It was unlikely that Diana would be able to stop it with just a sword, so she made her move once it was over.

She somersaulted backwards to get away from her so he wouldn't interrupt her movement. When she saw what she wanted to do, Diana knew that she would have to change her strategy. Because she couldn't do what she did, so she took out her Morpho and waited for Lady Shiva to start the attack. When that happened, Diana pressed the start button grenade and threw one at Lady Shiva, but at a safe distance so she would only knock her down. The attack was effective and Lady Shiva fell on her back. It had weakened her quite a bit, but that assassin would fight until the end.

"I must admit that you have become more dangerous, Amazon, but that cannot defeat me," Lady Shiva said, showing her confident smile that hid the anger that she continued to feel towards the Blue Ranger.

"Well, it means a lot to me because you told me that I could not reach my potential with the Justice League, but I have done it thanks to my friends and my commander, and now I am going to defeat you," Diana said moving slowly so that Lady Shiva took in everything what she was telling her.

"You are still arrogant," Lady Shiva said before continuing with the fight.

Returning to the Dark Ranger and Ra's, the fight was even worse than the Ranger had anticipated. In their first two fights in a long time, he nearly overwhelmed Ra's, but the terrorist always had a surprise in store. In this match, however, Ra's was just having fun as he made him see that no matter how hard he tried, his attacks were useless. Even he had managed to get him to drop the Dark Sword. This made him put away the Soul Stealing Sword, because taking away motivation with his fists made it more enjoyable.

In the next attack, the Dark Ranger tried to kick his chest, but Ra's jumped and kicked him downward, knocking him to the ground with a heavy blow. He took the opportunity to kneel down and put his head close to him.

"You will never learn. You can't beat me, and nothing you do is going to change that. You will never redeem yourself. You do not need redemption. You just need to surrender and accept your Destiny," Ra's said without showing the pleasure he felt with this situation.

The Dark Ranger quickly threw a punch at Ra's face, but Ra's blocked it and grabbed his wrist again, throwing him to the ground again. Oddly enough, the Dark Ranger rolled away from him a bit and got to his feet again, but this time he didn't attack him.

"Do you think I do it for myself? Do you think I do it because I want redemption from that night? Do you think I want to avenge the Rangers that you and Lady Shiva killed?" The Dark Ranger asked, but received no answer from Ra's, who only wanted to let him talk to know how pathetic he could be. "I've wanted to get revenge on you for a long time, but I won't, because that's not justice. That's revenge. I do it for them, and I do it for my cadets who are here trying to stop you and save Zone C. I do it for my commander and I do it for my scientist, and I do it for the people in Zone C who have lived in fear since that my actions caused there to be no more Power Rangers for a long time.

"That is why I will always keep trying to stop people like you, and any threat, and that is something you will never understand, Ra's," he concluded before continuing to fight against his greatest rival.

NEXT: THE RECKONING, PART 2.