Water lapped around Oriquin's bare feet, a cold sensation of standing in something bigger than him, something just as natural, too, washing off dirt that has covered them for so long it had solidified into boots of dried mud. When you walk the "path of vengeance" your soles, and your soul, get dirty. He had been standing in the middle of this stream for an eternity now reflecting on his destroyed home world, his death-infused descent into insanity, and the enemies he had battled and triumphed over. Each time his thoughts wandered to something else, such as where he was or why he was here, the pure crystal edges of the stream filled and illuminated with a light so blinding it was intensely painful. Should he try to look down at the waters the same thing would occur. Maybe it was not water at all. Maybe it was blood.
The light surged again, piercing his body, mind, and soul with its extreme whiteness. Screaming stuck in his throat, tears froze inside his eyes, blood ceased flowing through his veins. Slowly it died out and the sky became deep blue again, the sun became a large hovering black orb again, and a robed figure stood before him.
"The grace of the spiritual lineage shine on, protect its chosen, and embrace you, Oriquin, son of Taerys and Janoa," the Mage Messenger chanted in a spoken song. His voice flowed as smoothly as the water, as strong as the light. "Follow and find your blood." Slowly the formed retreated, floating backward, directly ahead. It was blood after all!
Oriquin walked forward, trusting he could, at the same pace as the messenger. Something felt increasingly uncomfortable as he continued but he proceeded nonetheless, eager to see where this welcome distraction would lead him. Taking the chance, he looked down, but the universal light punishment was apparently still in effect. When he regained his senses the guide has returned before him and repeated, "Follow." It moved. He followed.
After some time, if time truly progressed in this place, Oriquin and the Mage Messenger found themselves waking not through a stream, but through a river, rapids rushing on either side pushing them along at an accelerated pace. More patience and trailing brought him to the top of a waterfall, the messenger vanished silently. "What now?" cried Oriquin.
"Follow!" the messenger's voice resonated all around.
A deep breath later, Oriquin found himself stepped over the edge of the falls, and an incredible sensation of water rushing up through his body, from his clean feet to his troubled mind, washing out all of his thoughts and feelings.
"Lineage shine on you, my son," a gentle female voice whispered.
"Lineage shine on you, my son," a rougher male voice echoed.
Oriquin watched as a couple materialized before him, surrounded by the empty darkness of a void except a warm light spreading around them. The man was tall, decorated in the royal violet silk, golden circlet, and Seal of Meridian-Omega, beard and hair almost as dark as the surroundings. His eyes, and his companion's eyes, were golden, but a richer shade of gold than those of Omnian priests. The woman stood to the man's shoulders, one arm wrapped around him, golden hair folding down her back. She wore a sheer pure white dress decorated with red and yellow lacing, ancient Omnian symbols stitched into the hems.
"Father!" exclaimed Oriquin as recognition temporarily returned. "Is this...Mother?"
Taerys nodded, wrapping his arm around the legendary Janoa, mother to both Oriquin and Seraide, High Lady of Omnis until she died giving birth to him. Seraide was not a full sister, though, because she was sired by Nyru, a noble who had perished when a Solar Research Facility exploded. Oh, how destiny loved to bring things full circle! The same research that would unmask Rapture Legion and ultimately lead to...
"My son has grown into a troubled and tormented man, but nonetheless a wonderful and virtuous leader," Janoa was whispering, her gaze seemingly looking further away than Oriquin stood. "He is so handsome, Taerys, and so real, and so alive. Why is he here? He is alive."
The assassinated Lord of Omnis brushed her hair with a hand. "I begged the lineage to bring him here. The price was...painful." Turning to his son, with the same distant look, he spoke gravely, "When you return to consciousness, you will find yourself on the shore of a planet its inhabitants call Earth. There will be a man there, a man of significant intelligence, who will help you in rescuing the last men and women of Omnis. Trust him and listen. Within this man is the key to defeating the Trinity of Darkness."
"The Trinity...?" Oriquin repeated in a daze of incomprehension.
With a nod, Taerys repeated, "A long struggle awaits you, my son. Use your courage, for it is the greatest of your assets. Use your virtue, for it will always guide you true. Use your reason, for the power of that weapon is surpassed by nothing. Use your heart, for only it can unite courage, virtue, and reason. And keep love for us within in..."
"Keep love for us," Janoa sadly added, "within." She reached out, laying her hand on Oriquin's chest, over his heart, and whispered, "The lineage always lets us keep...love..."
Both Janoa and Taerys faded back into the darkness and the free-falling feeling returned to their son. The warm touch of his mother remained on his heart, as well. And when he opened his eyes back in reality it was still there.
Blurred vision, the taste of something salty, plugged sinuses, and a thin puddle of water surrounding him welcomed Oriquin back to this plane of reality. A middle-aged fairly handsome man was watching him with grayish blue eyes shining with intelligence behind a pair of glasses. "You are awake now?"
He grunted his acknowledgement and reached up to touch the side of his head, bandaged and treated for some serious injury. The man nodded, as though saying he was responsible, and instantly Oriquin knew he was trustworthy. A brief sense of hope, however, was countered by sadness as he realized that moment with his parents was probably a delusion. "Did you rescue the others?" he asked weakly.
"There were others?" the man exclaimed, looking around frantically. "Did they wash ashore too? Where?"
"Crash," Oriquin spoke, trying to form the words perfectly so his savior could understand him. "In the water. Can you...help them?"
The rescuer was already holding onto a device of some type and speaking into it as he pressed a button. His voice was drowned out by a concentrated ringing in Oriquin's ears. Slowly his hearing returned and the stranger was saying, "A rescue team is being sent out right now to look for them." He extended his hand as a gesture to help Oriquin to stand. "My name is Abner Donaldson. I am the supervising professor at the Eurren Underwater Research Center nearby. Do you feel well enough to tell me who you are?"
"Oriquin," he said as he stood. His clothes were still soaked and torn and, as he was examining them, he noticed a shining disc sunken in the sand nearby. The Seal. The memories. "I was the High Lord of Omnis until it was incinerated by a simultaneous implosion and explosion of the star Meridian-Omega."
Donaldson's eyes widened in disbelief and he looked as though he was staring at one of those terrible underworld creatures from New Omnis. "Extraterrestrial life," he whispered. "Amazing." He used the device again, the ringing in the Omnian's ears also returned, then stopped as suddenly as it had the first time. As he spoke into it, the Lord of Omnis walked over to pick up his Seal and wrap it securely in his tattered cloak. The professor's voice called out, "Come along, Oriquin, we are going to save everyone else."
"I trust you," Oriquin said as, together, they hurried along the shore to the dock from where the rescue team was ready to set sail. Only minutes later a brave group of twelve people were pulling Soleron out from a floating piece of Galaxy Hunter, followed by Rade, Talyserys, and Laurasia. Unexpectedly, Arcanza pulled himself out of the water and onto the boat, a mixed glare of distrust and surprise, supporting Pyrial as well. Finally, Professor Donaldson himself spotted another body struggling to stay afloat, so he dived into the water himself to reach the figure and haul it back to the rescue vessel. Seraide was wet and off-balance but tears of relief and thankfulness rolled down her face all the same.
Soleron regained his composure almost immediately and lifted his OmniTech Ability Band with the shout, "OmniTech Morph!" As the Red Ranger, he drew his Blaster and aimed it threateningly at Arcanza. Always the soldier.
The professor was breathing heavily, his hands pressed together so tightly the blood was leaving them, his eyes watery as he fought the natural urge to blink as if he might miss something. "Spontaneous morphology change," he whispered. "Apparently due to some method of highly refined energy containment. Can all of you do that?"
"Just the Omni Rangers," Rade explained, slowly realizing his wishes for adventures had come true beyond his wildest dreams. "Him, her, him, her, and him," he pointed out each of the Rangers. "They use OmniTech to morph and protect Omnis, its people, and Lord Oriquin. Every twenty-five years the Rangers pass their power to someone else. If they do not, their sanity abandons them and they have to be killed. I read that happened once."
Donaldson listened intently. Oriquin, on the other hand, stood silently at the front of the vessel looking out over the water that was rolling more fiercely than before. Overhead the skies were darkening and one of the rescuers remarked, "Looks like a storm's coming in."
"You know what a storm is?" another person asked one of the Omnians.
Lifting the Seal of Meridian-Omega from the bundle of his cloak, the Lord of Omnis, Watcher of the Heavens, Meridian-Omega's Chosen, flung the disc out into the crashing waves. "Lineage shine on and embrace the brave men and women of Galaxy Hunter," he prayed quietly, adding, "Please give my love to my mother and father."
Arcanza must have overheard, for he laughed ominously, earning a point blank energy blast between the eyes from Soleron. Stunned and unprepared for the sudden attack, the villain slumped backward and started chanting in a meek and distant voice. It was surprising he survived, let alone unharmed at all. "What did you do to him? And why?" whispered Donaldson to Soleron.
"He is an assassin who stole all life from our home because he believes he is a prophesied harbinger of destruction," answered Talyserys. "There is a long history of evil with that man."
The Professor nodded his understanding. "I beg you, though," he replied, "to keep him alive. I would very much like to study both him as well as all of you, especially your incredible powers. My government, the United States of America, would be very interested in duplicating your..." He gestured toward Soleron. "...abilities."
"Your making us one of your projects?" Seraide asked, sounding shocked.
He nodded, a smile sliding onto his face, and replied in a rush, "Yes, exactly, a project! My greatest project, sent to me from the heavens. The five of you, Oriquin, Arcanza, Rade, Galaxy Hunter, a grand project that will completely change this world! Would you willingly participate in such an experiment?"
The question was directed to Soleron. The Red Ranger pointed to Oriquin and said quietly, "The decision is his."
From his position at the boat's front, the homeless lord blinked back freshly formed tears and tried to focus in on all of the passengers. His best friend Soleron, morphed and vigilantly watching Arcanza as the villain muttered to himself. His half-sister Seraide was staring at Professor Donaldson with a hazy aura of admiration and fright. Pyrial was looking around as he came to. Laurasia was dipping her charm flute in the water and stirring it slowly. Talyserys sat at the opposite end with his eyes closed and prayer on his lips. Next to Donaldson, Rade was waiting with excitement for any response.
"My father told me a legend when I was little," Oriquin sighed. "About the Tribe of Oryon, the only group who escaped disaster when the Old World was flooded. We Omnians are very much like that tribe; the only ones who escaped the water. I trust the Professor."
"Very good," Donaldson exclaimed, pushing his glasses back as they slipped to the end of his nose. "The Orion Projects will begin immediately. We will need a place to conduct them. Eurren will not suffice at all. Ah! I once visited a cozy little Colorado village that would serve just wonderfully..."
Alpha Complex was completed by the end of the month, August 1979, along the eastern city limits of Ivory Glade, Colorado. Using some technology follow-up divers salvaged from Galaxy Hunter, a computer system more complex than any created before now. Government funding continued to come in limited quantities since Abner Donaldson's "Orion Five Projects" were classified as private. Military personnel were under strict orders to patrol the perimeter of the complex and not set one foot inside.
Half a year later, Rade, the Rangers, and the Professor completed construction of incredible vehicles, an idea Rade had sketched when it came to him during Alpha Complex's erection. Named OmniZords, the giant sized replicas of mythological creatures Titan, Pegasus, Sphinx, Hydra, and Dragon, they were never tested and stored underneath the northern mountains. Another fleet was designed and begun but were never finished.
Around September of 1980, a little more than a year after rescuing Oriquin and his companions, Donaldson began the main goal of the project: duplicating the OmniTech Ability Bands. Code-named "ShadowTech," he carefully planned and executed a series of tests on each Omni Ranger. Also sometime around then, Arcanza was caught in his cell hiding a black-feathered falcon, the same one from New Omnis, that he called Courier. Intense tests on Courier revealed the bird was inoculated with a serum Arcanza named "pseudoine" that randomly enhanced the attributes of humans. The Professor injected some of this material—roughly analyzed to reveal its DNA-like structure and function—into one of the military officers, inadvertently turning him into a vicious and incredible monster. The Omni Rangers battled the beast in the midst of the city, with Donaldson eagerly monitoring all energy activity, and destroyed it.
ShadowTech was interrupted by chaos. During another experiment involving pseudoine injections and soldiers, it became evident that one infused man seemed unaffected. Shortly afterward, however, he was assisting Arcanza in escaping from confinement; apparently the substance had more than one use and the villain's sharing of information had an ulterior motive all along. Free to roam the halls of Alpha Complex, the assassin hunted down the Lord of Omnis to fulfill a dark promise.
Seizing an Earth firearm from the brainwashed soldier, Arcanza shot at Oriquin repeatedly inside Control Point. The Lord of Omnis cried out and fell back onto the floor. Closing in to fire again at close range as Soleron had done, footsteps suddenly echoed nearby and were approaching. Paranoid about being imprisoned yet again, the destroyer of Omnis fled through the hidden passageway behind the controls. Soleron rushed into Control Point ready for battle, but found trace of nobody. Arcanza was gone, and with him Oriquin's body.
Soon after a transmission from the escapee was received. "On this day," he announced with a cool evil smile, "the Trinity has triumphed over the Lineage once again. I am sure you know by now: I am the one who killed Oriquin, as I slew his father before him. When your OmniTech power cycle is finished in, oh, about twenty years from now, expect to hear from me again, Rangers. You will be going insane by then and will probably assist me as I complete the submergence of the universe into the evil of the Trinity of Darkness."
Professor Donaldson swore to hunt down and finish Arcanza, taking full responsibility for everything he did. He persuaded the Rangers, as a last desperate attempt, to enter a cryogenic state, reasoning that perhaps it would freeze their power cycle as well. Therefore when Arcanza returned, they might still be in control of OmniTech and not losing sanity. Finally, in the cold days of December 1980, Soleron agreed with the idea.
It was after the other four Rangers were frozen that Seraide told the Professor. Their side project, mating between Earthlings and Omnians, had finally succeeded. She was carrying their child. Donaldson took care of her inside Alpha Complex until the next September.
The wind was wild as it blew down from the mountains, over the city, and around Alpha Complex, carrying a scattering of leaves and other material with it. All of the building's lights were off, the place had been all but abandoned for the last few months, and with them the security system.
Stretched to stand on the front of his feet, Oriquin watched through the glass window at the warm scene within. His sister lay on an examination table, head elevated, an aging doctor friend of Donaldson's positioned to deliver the child. The Professor himself held her hand, a sad look written on his face. What was he thinking? Oriquin wondered.
"I see your child," the doctor announced. "Listen and do exactly as I tell you..."
She obeyed his directions. A couple years as the Yellow Ranger must have made her tougher and braver, for she delivered her baby girl with little pain. Physical pain, at least.
"Wait!" exclaimed the doctor. "There is another one. You are having twins! You are doing fine, just do exactly the same things as last time, do you understand...?"
Minutes later, a kicking baby boy and a gentle little girl were placed in Seraide's arms. The moisture in her eyes must have been as much as was in Oriquin's and Professor Donaldson's together. "My precious girl," she whispered. "My strong boy."
"Seraide..." Donaldson started to say.
"I know," she replied, stopping him from continuing. "Please, just let me have a moment alone with them. I don't want to think about the future right now."
The doctor and professor departed, leaving the Omnian mother with her twin babies and unnoticed observer. "Two wonderful lives, after so much suffering and death. Two wonderful lives to carry on the bloodline of a forgotten world." She kissed the head of the quiet girl. "I will name you Janoa, after your grandmother. She was a beautiful, noble, and caring woman. You will be, too." Placing her lips on the boy, who was growing restless, she continued, "Feisty and ready to take on the world, are you? I think I will name you Oriquin. Yes, little Oriquin, to carry on your uncle's name and his legacy. You will be strong and courageous and think with your head and your heart."
Closing his eyes, Oriquin felt the cold trails of another airstream envelop him and spirit him away. Voices were carried as well.
"Are you finished, Seraide?"
"I am."
"I called my sister. She says she will take one; the boy. My brother Charles, out east, agreed to raise the girl..."
"You are going to separate them? No, please Abner, do not sep..."
"Seraide, we were clear on this. Our intention was never to keep them and raise them as our own. They are part of the Orion Five Projects. They are the fifth and final project!"
"Our children are not proje..."
"They are. Come along, now, Joyce is waiting up for us. I have arranged a private flight to North Carolina..."
"Do you not want to know their names?"
"No, I don't, Seraide, they are not ours to name."
"He is Oriquin. He is going to be strong, and think with his heart..."
As the voices trailed off to become whispers, the older Oriquin felt his own chest grow cold and empty. A firm hand came down on his right shoulder, a gentle on the left.
"Is it time to go?" he asked his father and mother. "Time to see the light of the Lineage? I am ready." He felt a pulse of life beneath his feet, racing him through the emptiness in between stars and planets and matter. The planet of Omnis appeared before him, exploding, deluging him with bright white light.
Seraide's loss. Oriquin's nothingness. This was the end of the prophesied path.
"Keep love for us," he heard Seraide say, saw her laying a hand over her newborn son's little heart, "within." The Lineage opened and prepared to embrace Oriquin, Meridian-Omega's Chosen, the Watcher of the Heavens, Lord of the Dead, the last reigning Lord of Omnis.
Original Publication Date: 8 October 1999
