pretty poison: by cynthia_harrell [power rangers: weather]
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters presented here and am not making any profit off of this whatsoever.
Title: Pretty Poison
Words: 3,352 (total so far: 29,900)
Theme: weather
Fandom: Power Rangers
Warnings: Power Ranger level of violence.
Tommi stood on the balcony and stared down at Earth. She didn’t know where Rita was, and didn’t much care. Being around her queen made her mind go strange. She stopped being able to think and only waited to be told what to do. That irritated her. Tommi liked being able to think, and the more time she had spent with Rita and her henchmen, the less thinking she’d been able to do.
She really shouldn’t stand there doing nothing, though. The Red Ranger needed to be taken care of. She should have already done it. Taken pleasure of him, and then killed him, as Scorpina had suggested. But the thought of doing so twisted something inside that she’d never even thought was there.
Just a few days ago, all I could do was think of killing him. Scorpina’s ideas were interesting but I don’t even want to do that anymore. She couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud. Anything that she did say to Jason…to the Red Ranger…would only be words of her loyalty to Rita. But deep within her heart, other reasons had been slowly unfolding.
Tommi rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. Finster had been doing something other than healing Jason, she was sure of it. Something that she should, in all loyalty, report to Queen Rita. That made no sense, however. Not just for him doing it, but for her lack of reporting it. The little scientist would never turn against his queen, any more than she would.
Everything was becoming too complicated for her. She liked life much better when everything was simple. Her temples were pounding harder, and in an almost instinctive move, she summoned her Sword of Darkness into her hand.
As soon as she did, the headache eased off, and everything was much clearer. She didn’t even need to play with the Red Ranger, really. She just had to kill him. There would be no more of this wishy-washiness, this neglecting to do her duty simply because he might be interesting for sexual purposes. There were thousands, millions of people down on Earth, many of whom would be much better looking, and who were much less likely to want to fight back.
There was absolutely no more need for standing around here. She turned and stalked back towards her room. Let Scorpina toy with her prey all she wanted. Green Ranger had better ways to employ her time: such as killing all of those who stood in Queen Rita’s way.
She was right outside of her door when something flared across her senses. She was used to the presence of the power of evil around here, but this was something new. It was clean and pure, intent only on helping others. Her stomach churned at its presence, and she growled, gripping her Sword even more tightly. The closer it was to her, the more able she felt to fight off the nausea this new awareness was causing. What could it be? What had invaded Queen Rita’s palace?
Power Rangers. The answer came in a sudden rush of knowing. Not Jason, though. Without his morpher, that presence of pure good was overwhelmed by all of the evil in the palace. No, these were fully powered Rangers, who were likely enough here to take her kill away from her.
Emerald light flared from her eyes, and lightning began to twitch in her fingertips. She was not going to let them get away with this. How dare they come and invade?
No matter, however. Sleek tendrils of shadow slid their way into her mind, weaving ever more closely around the darkness already there. They could do nothing. She was close enough to her room to be able to get inside and finish the Red Ranger off before any of them could do anything about it. By the time she found them, she would have his head to display as a trophy.
She threw the door open, entering quickly. If the Red Ranger were still asleep, then she would finish him off without a moment’s hesitation. If he were awake, she would do the same thing. The difference would be how much joy she took in the act.
A few quick steps brought her from the door to the bed, her blade already raised high. She began to bring it down, then stopped, staring. This was not happening! It couldn’t have been happening. Yet somehow, without her knowing how, in that short time that she had spent contemplating that treasonous dissatisfaction with her queen, it had.
The Red Ranger had escaped.
Zack looked all around carefully. They had had to teleport to one of the weakest parts of the barrier that normally kept them away from the lunar palace, which meant they would have to make their way inside and up who knew how many stairs to find Tommi and Jason.
“Okay, let’s get moving,” he murmured, starting forward. The door wasn’t that far ahead, and he hoped that it wasn’t locked. Blasting it off was possible, but that could probably stir up some trouble. If it’s putties, we can handle it.
The door turned out to not be locked, and Zack wondered for a moment why. He caught Trini looking at it thoughtfully as they all crept inside as well.
“Any idea why it wouldn’t be locked?” he murmured to her. Trini shrugged a little, but Kim grinned a little herself.
“Easy. Who in their right minds would come walking into a place like this? Why should Rita have to lock it?”
Zack thought about that for a second and grinned. Yeah, that was probably it. Who in their right mind would go wandering into a palace filled with evil witches, evil warriors, and clay heads? You. He ignored that little whisper of his own thoughts. If it weren’t for Jason being there, he wouldn’t be there either.
It didn’t take very long to find a set of stairs that wound its way upward, and the four of them carefully walked along, keeping all of their attention focused on every shadow and any place that so much as looked as if it held the capability to hide anything like a Putty, Scorpina, Goldar, Rita, or the Green Ranger.
None of those shadows held anything, no matter how high they climbed, however. Zack didn’t like it; shouldn’t there have been something strange in the area?
“Aren’t there any leftovers from her making monsters?” Kim whispered, voicing his same concerns. “Or just some rats or something? Not that I want to see a rat.”
“We’re on the moon.” Billy reminded them, keeping his attention moving around as they all were. “There isn’t very much to feed them or keep them sheltered.”
That was as good an excuse as any. There was dust on almost every piece of furniture they passed, and their own boots left imprints in the dust on the floor, which was a good four inches thick. “She really needs to take better care of this place,” Zack murmured. They were all trying to keep their voices low, not wanting to make themselves known even now.
“Guess she has better things to do than dust.” Kim suggested. “Like try to take over the world.”
Zack spied an ornately carved door ahead of them and motioned the others to be even more quiet as he crept towards it. This was the same method they’d used on the other doors they’d passed. Everyone else was quiet, while someone opened to see what was beyond it.
Slowly he pushed the door open, and groaned when he saw what was there. He would have preferred an empty room. Instead, there was a gray, furry bipedal creature standing in what looked like a laboratory of some kind. “Hey!” He might as well try to make this good, before whoever this was sounded an alarm. “Don’t make a move. We just want the Red Ranger and then we’re out of here.”
Large blue eyes blinked at him, then the creature nodded. “Of course. He’d up three more floors, then take a left at the gargoyle and two rights. You can’t miss it. He’s probably trying to escape already, or at least he will be if he realized I turned off the force field keeping him in there, so you’d best hurry if you don’t want to miss him.”
Zack’s eyes narrowed behind his helmet. “You’d better not be lying.” He wasn’t sure offhand what he’d do if the creature was, but he was going to sort of threaten anyway.
“I suppose you’ll only know if you go and find out.” The creature said reasonably enough. “Hurry along, I’ll have to tell Rita you’re here sooner or later, or she’ll twist my ears once she finds out you stopped here. You horrible Power Rangers forced the location of the Green Ranger’s quarters right out of me. I had absolutely no choice at all. By the way, you should pass where the Red Ranger’s morpher and communicator are being kept. I suggest that you pick those up when you go by, unless he’s already gotten to them himself.”
Zack slowly nodded; this was not what he’d been expecting, but what else could they do but accept the help? If this guy were lying, then…well, they were already in the enemy’s stronghold. What more could go wrong?
Almost as soon as he thought that, a dozen ideas for what could go wrong cropped up in his mind. He pushed them all away, however. Alpha had a lock on all of them. They could get teleported out if anything went completely wrong.
Closing the door again, he led the others on up the stairs in the way the furry creature had indicated. He only realized then that he hadn’t even bothered to get his name.
Jason pressed himself against the wall, breathing shallowly. There were Putties around the corner, and from the quick look he’d taken before, they were poking and playing around with his morpher and communicator. He hoped that they didn’t leave clay on it. He’d never tried to wash his morpher, and he didn’t want to find out the hard way that he shouldn’t.
He’d fought Putties unmorphed before, but not without being able to morph if he had to. That quick look had also shown him that they were the only ones there. No Goldar, no monsters, no one else. If he could just grab what was his and run, he’d probably be better off.
Of course, he wouldn’t do that. He had a lot of steam to let off, and without Goldar or Green Ranger, the putties were the next best tool to do so.
There was no time like the present. The longer he stood there, the better his chances of being discovered were.
His head snapped around almost at once, as a tap came on his shoulder, and he saw a Putty Patroller staring at him, making a curious warbling sound as he did so. Jason didn’t waste any more time. He slammed one fist into the Putty’s stomach, driving the clay creation backwards, and then seized the creature around the waist, lifting it over his head. He ran around the corner and threw his captive at the four other Putties who were there as hard as he possibly could.
“Hey, clay brains!” He didn’t bother with any other challenges than that, just charged in after, stomping, hitting, pounding with all of his might. His communicator and morpher were on a stand the Putties had been surrounding, and his improvised weapon had really only taken out two of them, he saw. The other two were circling around, trying to get at him from behind, and the one that he’d thrown had started to get up, being pushed off of them by the two that it had hit.
All right, he could do this. There were only five of them, and once he’d punched out a few frustrations, he could grab the morpher and the communicator and be out of there. He got down to business as quickly as he could. Punch. Kick. Dodge. Throw. Squirm away when two of them tried to pin him between them. Jump to avoid his feet being kicked out from underneath him. Decide that he’d worked out all the frustrations that he needed to at the moment.
“Time to go!” He dodged around the Putties one last time, seized the communicator and morpher, and headed down the hallway. They were after him in seconds; their lack of thinking skills didn’t prevent them from knowing that he wasn’t supposed to be doing this. At least not according to any orders that they had. “No need to give me an escort, I can find my own way!” Quirky puns weren’t his real thing, but he felt more alive saying something, instead of just running down the hall in utter fear of what might happen if he were caught.
Then he turned a corner, and slammed into something far harder than a Putty. The impact knocked him back a few inches, and as he tried to recover himself, realized that there was a firm grip around his wrist. He yanked back, and a far too familiar voice purred as he did.
“Going somewhere, Red Ranger?” Tommi stood there, unmorphed, but with his wrist firmly held between her fingers. “I don’t think so.”
“Tommi!” Jason struggled harder, but there wasn’t a great deal that he could do. She might not be morphed, but she was obviously stronger than he was right now. The slight sparks of humanity that he’d seen in her eyes before were all gone now. They were flat and emotionless, the eyes of someone playing with a meaningless toy. “Come on, you don’t want to do this!”
She said nothing, only drew her other hand up, which held a sharp and deadly sword. She pulled him closer by that wrist, placing the edge of the blade against his throat. She was going to do it, he could see that clearly, and he had time to do just one action that might hold a chance at saving his life.
“Tyrannosaurus!” And as she pressed the blade closer, his armor formed before it, pushing it backwards. If the Green Ranger was going to kill him, then he was going to make her fight for it! And if he could find a way to end Rita’s domination over her, then he would do that, too.
“Zack!” Alpha’s voice came over the communicator. “Jason has morphed! We can’t get a fix on him yet, but he doesn’t appear to be very far from you. If you can get close enough, I should be able to teleport you all back!”
They were nearly to the floor that they’d been told Jason would be on. Zack touched his communicator for a moment. “Got it, Alpha. I’ll let you know when we see him.”
He gestured towards everyone else to keep following him as he trekked down the second of the two rights that their mysterious, and possibly untrustworthy, guide had told them of. This area of the palace was a little better kept, and the farther they went down the hallway, the more noise was able to be heard, in a stark contrast to the frozen silence they’d left behind.
“Sounds like fighting,” Trini said, her head tilted slightly as she tried to listen better. “I think…I think that’s Jason!”
Zack listened as well, and heard very familiar noises. “Come on!” Together, the group charged down the hallway, and what they found at the end of it was fairly spectacular.
Green Ranger and Red Ranger were fighting, their swords clashing against each other, while half a dozen Putties or so were circling around behind Jason, ready to strike the moment he let his guard down. Zack didn’t hesitate for a microsecond. He charged right at the Putties, knocking three of them over and letting the rest of the Rangers fight over who got the rest. They were messing with his best friend, he was not going to take that.
“Alpha!” He shouted into his communicator as soon as he had recovered somewhat from knocking the three over. “We’re here, with Jason and Tommi!” What Zordon had said earlier suddenly flared back up in his mind, as he saw a thin thread of light gleaming off of the sword in Tommi’s hands. They were all needed…and now they were all there. “Teleport us out, now! We need to finish this!”
He didn’t want to tell Alpha to send them someplace where they were alone. He had to trust that the little robot would figure it out on his own. Their identities had to be kept a secret: especially Tommi’s right now. He didn’t know her that well, but if she were suitable to be one of Zordon’s Rangers, and he hoped that she was, then when she was free, she would loathe everything that she’d done under Rita’s control.
Meanwhile, Green Ranger herself just kept attacking Jason, striving with all of her might to crush her way through his defenses and finish this battle. She had to win, for the glory of her queen! She couldn’t let him defeat her! It wasn’t going to end like this!
She almost didn’t notice it when the energy of teleportation circled around her. If it hadn’t been for the surrounding scenery changing from the familiar hallway of the palace to the sandy beach outside of Angel Grove, she might not have noticed at all. But it didn’t matter.
“I can kill you here or anywhere else you choose, Red Ranger!” She hissed the words out darkly, charging towards him yet again. Before she could get close enough, however, Pink Ranger was there, interposing herself between Tommi and her target.
“You’re not going to do this, Tommi!” Kim declared, trying her best to push her back. Green Ranger was built larger and stronger than she was, however, and there was little that Kim could do to change that. “We’re going to stop you!”
“None of you can stop me!” Tommi replied, slamming the other girl to one side and resuming her march towards Jason. He would be first. She’d promised that to herself, to prove that she could kill someone that she…to prove that she could kill. That was all.
Trini tried to get in the way as well, slamming into Tommi’s stomach with a powered kick. Tommi stopped, looked at her, then backhanded her with a powered strike of her own. She was unstoppable. Unrelenting. Jason stood just a short distance away now, and she stopped, raising her Sword of Darkness.
She held it there for only a breath of a second, but that breath was all that was necessary. Billy and Zack, one from the left, one from the right, shot their blasters at her hand. There wasn’t much actual pain, but her grip loosened on it enough for Kim to dart forward and knock her sword out of her hand with a strong gymnastics-powered kick, while Trini, who had somehow ended up behind her, seized her arms to prevent her from going after it.
“What do you think you’re doing!?” Tommi shrieked, struggling. Why wasn’t Rita sending help? Where were Goldar, Scorpina, some Putties, a monster to back her up?
You don’t deserve my help any longer. Rita’s voice suddenly rang coldly in her mind. You’re useless, Green Ranger. You couldn’t even kill a helpless, unmorphed Power Ranger.
Then her queen’s voice was gone, and Tommi was aware of all the gifts gone as well, the extra strength, the ability to weave illusions, all fading from her. Only the Power remained, and it was weakening swiftly.
“What we’re doing is setting you free.” Jason said, drawing his own blaster. Tommi watched, helpless to stop him, as he took aim and fired at her…at the Sword of Darkness. Brilliant green it glowed briefly, a sickly green despite the brilliance, before it exploded.
The reign of the Evil Green Ranger was over.
To Be Continued
Title: Pretty Poison
Words: 3,352 (total so far: 29,900)
Theme: weather
Fandom: Power Rangers
Warnings: Power Ranger level of violence.
Tommi stood on the balcony and stared down at Earth. She didn’t know where Rita was, and didn’t much care. Being around her queen made her mind go strange. She stopped being able to think and only waited to be told what to do. That irritated her. Tommi liked being able to think, and the more time she had spent with Rita and her henchmen, the less thinking she’d been able to do.
She really shouldn’t stand there doing nothing, though. The Red Ranger needed to be taken care of. She should have already done it. Taken pleasure of him, and then killed him, as Scorpina had suggested. But the thought of doing so twisted something inside that she’d never even thought was there.
Just a few days ago, all I could do was think of killing him. Scorpina’s ideas were interesting but I don’t even want to do that anymore. She couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud. Anything that she did say to Jason…to the Red Ranger…would only be words of her loyalty to Rita. But deep within her heart, other reasons had been slowly unfolding.
Tommi rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. Finster had been doing something other than healing Jason, she was sure of it. Something that she should, in all loyalty, report to Queen Rita. That made no sense, however. Not just for him doing it, but for her lack of reporting it. The little scientist would never turn against his queen, any more than she would.
Everything was becoming too complicated for her. She liked life much better when everything was simple. Her temples were pounding harder, and in an almost instinctive move, she summoned her Sword of Darkness into her hand.
As soon as she did, the headache eased off, and everything was much clearer. She didn’t even need to play with the Red Ranger, really. She just had to kill him. There would be no more of this wishy-washiness, this neglecting to do her duty simply because he might be interesting for sexual purposes. There were thousands, millions of people down on Earth, many of whom would be much better looking, and who were much less likely to want to fight back.
There was absolutely no more need for standing around here. She turned and stalked back towards her room. Let Scorpina toy with her prey all she wanted. Green Ranger had better ways to employ her time: such as killing all of those who stood in Queen Rita’s way.
She was right outside of her door when something flared across her senses. She was used to the presence of the power of evil around here, but this was something new. It was clean and pure, intent only on helping others. Her stomach churned at its presence, and she growled, gripping her Sword even more tightly. The closer it was to her, the more able she felt to fight off the nausea this new awareness was causing. What could it be? What had invaded Queen Rita’s palace?
Power Rangers. The answer came in a sudden rush of knowing. Not Jason, though. Without his morpher, that presence of pure good was overwhelmed by all of the evil in the palace. No, these were fully powered Rangers, who were likely enough here to take her kill away from her.
Emerald light flared from her eyes, and lightning began to twitch in her fingertips. She was not going to let them get away with this. How dare they come and invade?
No matter, however. Sleek tendrils of shadow slid their way into her mind, weaving ever more closely around the darkness already there. They could do nothing. She was close enough to her room to be able to get inside and finish the Red Ranger off before any of them could do anything about it. By the time she found them, she would have his head to display as a trophy.
She threw the door open, entering quickly. If the Red Ranger were still asleep, then she would finish him off without a moment’s hesitation. If he were awake, she would do the same thing. The difference would be how much joy she took in the act.
A few quick steps brought her from the door to the bed, her blade already raised high. She began to bring it down, then stopped, staring. This was not happening! It couldn’t have been happening. Yet somehow, without her knowing how, in that short time that she had spent contemplating that treasonous dissatisfaction with her queen, it had.
The Red Ranger had escaped.
Zack looked all around carefully. They had had to teleport to one of the weakest parts of the barrier that normally kept them away from the lunar palace, which meant they would have to make their way inside and up who knew how many stairs to find Tommi and Jason.
“Okay, let’s get moving,” he murmured, starting forward. The door wasn’t that far ahead, and he hoped that it wasn’t locked. Blasting it off was possible, but that could probably stir up some trouble. If it’s putties, we can handle it.
The door turned out to not be locked, and Zack wondered for a moment why. He caught Trini looking at it thoughtfully as they all crept inside as well.
“Any idea why it wouldn’t be locked?” he murmured to her. Trini shrugged a little, but Kim grinned a little herself.
“Easy. Who in their right minds would come walking into a place like this? Why should Rita have to lock it?”
Zack thought about that for a second and grinned. Yeah, that was probably it. Who in their right mind would go wandering into a palace filled with evil witches, evil warriors, and clay heads? You. He ignored that little whisper of his own thoughts. If it weren’t for Jason being there, he wouldn’t be there either.
It didn’t take very long to find a set of stairs that wound its way upward, and the four of them carefully walked along, keeping all of their attention focused on every shadow and any place that so much as looked as if it held the capability to hide anything like a Putty, Scorpina, Goldar, Rita, or the Green Ranger.
None of those shadows held anything, no matter how high they climbed, however. Zack didn’t like it; shouldn’t there have been something strange in the area?
“Aren’t there any leftovers from her making monsters?” Kim whispered, voicing his same concerns. “Or just some rats or something? Not that I want to see a rat.”
“We’re on the moon.” Billy reminded them, keeping his attention moving around as they all were. “There isn’t very much to feed them or keep them sheltered.”
That was as good an excuse as any. There was dust on almost every piece of furniture they passed, and their own boots left imprints in the dust on the floor, which was a good four inches thick. “She really needs to take better care of this place,” Zack murmured. They were all trying to keep their voices low, not wanting to make themselves known even now.
“Guess she has better things to do than dust.” Kim suggested. “Like try to take over the world.”
Zack spied an ornately carved door ahead of them and motioned the others to be even more quiet as he crept towards it. This was the same method they’d used on the other doors they’d passed. Everyone else was quiet, while someone opened to see what was beyond it.
Slowly he pushed the door open, and groaned when he saw what was there. He would have preferred an empty room. Instead, there was a gray, furry bipedal creature standing in what looked like a laboratory of some kind. “Hey!” He might as well try to make this good, before whoever this was sounded an alarm. “Don’t make a move. We just want the Red Ranger and then we’re out of here.”
Large blue eyes blinked at him, then the creature nodded. “Of course. He’d up three more floors, then take a left at the gargoyle and two rights. You can’t miss it. He’s probably trying to escape already, or at least he will be if he realized I turned off the force field keeping him in there, so you’d best hurry if you don’t want to miss him.”
Zack’s eyes narrowed behind his helmet. “You’d better not be lying.” He wasn’t sure offhand what he’d do if the creature was, but he was going to sort of threaten anyway.
“I suppose you’ll only know if you go and find out.” The creature said reasonably enough. “Hurry along, I’ll have to tell Rita you’re here sooner or later, or she’ll twist my ears once she finds out you stopped here. You horrible Power Rangers forced the location of the Green Ranger’s quarters right out of me. I had absolutely no choice at all. By the way, you should pass where the Red Ranger’s morpher and communicator are being kept. I suggest that you pick those up when you go by, unless he’s already gotten to them himself.”
Zack slowly nodded; this was not what he’d been expecting, but what else could they do but accept the help? If this guy were lying, then…well, they were already in the enemy’s stronghold. What more could go wrong?
Almost as soon as he thought that, a dozen ideas for what could go wrong cropped up in his mind. He pushed them all away, however. Alpha had a lock on all of them. They could get teleported out if anything went completely wrong.
Closing the door again, he led the others on up the stairs in the way the furry creature had indicated. He only realized then that he hadn’t even bothered to get his name.
Jason pressed himself against the wall, breathing shallowly. There were Putties around the corner, and from the quick look he’d taken before, they were poking and playing around with his morpher and communicator. He hoped that they didn’t leave clay on it. He’d never tried to wash his morpher, and he didn’t want to find out the hard way that he shouldn’t.
He’d fought Putties unmorphed before, but not without being able to morph if he had to. That quick look had also shown him that they were the only ones there. No Goldar, no monsters, no one else. If he could just grab what was his and run, he’d probably be better off.
Of course, he wouldn’t do that. He had a lot of steam to let off, and without Goldar or Green Ranger, the putties were the next best tool to do so.
There was no time like the present. The longer he stood there, the better his chances of being discovered were.
His head snapped around almost at once, as a tap came on his shoulder, and he saw a Putty Patroller staring at him, making a curious warbling sound as he did so. Jason didn’t waste any more time. He slammed one fist into the Putty’s stomach, driving the clay creation backwards, and then seized the creature around the waist, lifting it over his head. He ran around the corner and threw his captive at the four other Putties who were there as hard as he possibly could.
“Hey, clay brains!” He didn’t bother with any other challenges than that, just charged in after, stomping, hitting, pounding with all of his might. His communicator and morpher were on a stand the Putties had been surrounding, and his improvised weapon had really only taken out two of them, he saw. The other two were circling around, trying to get at him from behind, and the one that he’d thrown had started to get up, being pushed off of them by the two that it had hit.
All right, he could do this. There were only five of them, and once he’d punched out a few frustrations, he could grab the morpher and the communicator and be out of there. He got down to business as quickly as he could. Punch. Kick. Dodge. Throw. Squirm away when two of them tried to pin him between them. Jump to avoid his feet being kicked out from underneath him. Decide that he’d worked out all the frustrations that he needed to at the moment.
“Time to go!” He dodged around the Putties one last time, seized the communicator and morpher, and headed down the hallway. They were after him in seconds; their lack of thinking skills didn’t prevent them from knowing that he wasn’t supposed to be doing this. At least not according to any orders that they had. “No need to give me an escort, I can find my own way!” Quirky puns weren’t his real thing, but he felt more alive saying something, instead of just running down the hall in utter fear of what might happen if he were caught.
Then he turned a corner, and slammed into something far harder than a Putty. The impact knocked him back a few inches, and as he tried to recover himself, realized that there was a firm grip around his wrist. He yanked back, and a far too familiar voice purred as he did.
“Going somewhere, Red Ranger?” Tommi stood there, unmorphed, but with his wrist firmly held between her fingers. “I don’t think so.”
“Tommi!” Jason struggled harder, but there wasn’t a great deal that he could do. She might not be morphed, but she was obviously stronger than he was right now. The slight sparks of humanity that he’d seen in her eyes before were all gone now. They were flat and emotionless, the eyes of someone playing with a meaningless toy. “Come on, you don’t want to do this!”
She said nothing, only drew her other hand up, which held a sharp and deadly sword. She pulled him closer by that wrist, placing the edge of the blade against his throat. She was going to do it, he could see that clearly, and he had time to do just one action that might hold a chance at saving his life.
“Tyrannosaurus!” And as she pressed the blade closer, his armor formed before it, pushing it backwards. If the Green Ranger was going to kill him, then he was going to make her fight for it! And if he could find a way to end Rita’s domination over her, then he would do that, too.
“Zack!” Alpha’s voice came over the communicator. “Jason has morphed! We can’t get a fix on him yet, but he doesn’t appear to be very far from you. If you can get close enough, I should be able to teleport you all back!”
They were nearly to the floor that they’d been told Jason would be on. Zack touched his communicator for a moment. “Got it, Alpha. I’ll let you know when we see him.”
He gestured towards everyone else to keep following him as he trekked down the second of the two rights that their mysterious, and possibly untrustworthy, guide had told them of. This area of the palace was a little better kept, and the farther they went down the hallway, the more noise was able to be heard, in a stark contrast to the frozen silence they’d left behind.
“Sounds like fighting,” Trini said, her head tilted slightly as she tried to listen better. “I think…I think that’s Jason!”
Zack listened as well, and heard very familiar noises. “Come on!” Together, the group charged down the hallway, and what they found at the end of it was fairly spectacular.
Green Ranger and Red Ranger were fighting, their swords clashing against each other, while half a dozen Putties or so were circling around behind Jason, ready to strike the moment he let his guard down. Zack didn’t hesitate for a microsecond. He charged right at the Putties, knocking three of them over and letting the rest of the Rangers fight over who got the rest. They were messing with his best friend, he was not going to take that.
“Alpha!” He shouted into his communicator as soon as he had recovered somewhat from knocking the three over. “We’re here, with Jason and Tommi!” What Zordon had said earlier suddenly flared back up in his mind, as he saw a thin thread of light gleaming off of the sword in Tommi’s hands. They were all needed…and now they were all there. “Teleport us out, now! We need to finish this!”
He didn’t want to tell Alpha to send them someplace where they were alone. He had to trust that the little robot would figure it out on his own. Their identities had to be kept a secret: especially Tommi’s right now. He didn’t know her that well, but if she were suitable to be one of Zordon’s Rangers, and he hoped that she was, then when she was free, she would loathe everything that she’d done under Rita’s control.
Meanwhile, Green Ranger herself just kept attacking Jason, striving with all of her might to crush her way through his defenses and finish this battle. She had to win, for the glory of her queen! She couldn’t let him defeat her! It wasn’t going to end like this!
She almost didn’t notice it when the energy of teleportation circled around her. If it hadn’t been for the surrounding scenery changing from the familiar hallway of the palace to the sandy beach outside of Angel Grove, she might not have noticed at all. But it didn’t matter.
“I can kill you here or anywhere else you choose, Red Ranger!” She hissed the words out darkly, charging towards him yet again. Before she could get close enough, however, Pink Ranger was there, interposing herself between Tommi and her target.
“You’re not going to do this, Tommi!” Kim declared, trying her best to push her back. Green Ranger was built larger and stronger than she was, however, and there was little that Kim could do to change that. “We’re going to stop you!”
“None of you can stop me!” Tommi replied, slamming the other girl to one side and resuming her march towards Jason. He would be first. She’d promised that to herself, to prove that she could kill someone that she…to prove that she could kill. That was all.
Trini tried to get in the way as well, slamming into Tommi’s stomach with a powered kick. Tommi stopped, looked at her, then backhanded her with a powered strike of her own. She was unstoppable. Unrelenting. Jason stood just a short distance away now, and she stopped, raising her Sword of Darkness.
She held it there for only a breath of a second, but that breath was all that was necessary. Billy and Zack, one from the left, one from the right, shot their blasters at her hand. There wasn’t much actual pain, but her grip loosened on it enough for Kim to dart forward and knock her sword out of her hand with a strong gymnastics-powered kick, while Trini, who had somehow ended up behind her, seized her arms to prevent her from going after it.
“What do you think you’re doing!?” Tommi shrieked, struggling. Why wasn’t Rita sending help? Where were Goldar, Scorpina, some Putties, a monster to back her up?
You don’t deserve my help any longer. Rita’s voice suddenly rang coldly in her mind. You’re useless, Green Ranger. You couldn’t even kill a helpless, unmorphed Power Ranger.
Then her queen’s voice was gone, and Tommi was aware of all the gifts gone as well, the extra strength, the ability to weave illusions, all fading from her. Only the Power remained, and it was weakening swiftly.
“What we’re doing is setting you free.” Jason said, drawing his own blaster. Tommi watched, helpless to stop him, as he took aim and fired at her…at the Sword of Darkness. Brilliant green it glowed briefly, a sickly green despite the brilliance, before it exploded.
The reign of the Evil Green Ranger was over.
To Be Continued