The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
—John Milton, Paradise Lost
"You have failed the god of betrayal," Lord Tracer told him with the venom of a hundred-stone snake, a vicious reptilian inhabitant of the now-burning New Omnian forests, in his voice. He stood in front of a carved golden chair lined with prisms and embedded with mirrors that, when light hit it, would reflect and refract at exact angles, creating a massive and brilliant display of colored and color-changing light. Such specific and grandiose design was clearly Arcanza's aptitude, and being occupied by the little boy who played god unfortunately eclipsed that. Down here, in the huge open cavern below the Genetopia building where their master plan continued to be assembled, closer to completion than it had ever been, with no sunlight, the throne was dull and lifeless. And it was not the only thing.
Standing and leaning on one foot as though ready to jump at and kill the next thing that moved, Michael Tracer's dark eyes darted back and forth between Corout and the Twilight Legionnaires working diligently about their assigned tasks. The boy may have been a poor choice as a successor from a tactical point of view, but from a morale point of view he transcended any other still alive. Conceived by two Legionnaires, born in the presence of Arcanza, and raised in the epicenter of the empire Twilight City, Tracer won instant empathy with his followers. His speeches to them, laced with rage at their past failures and strong promises of future successes, ignited even the most unenthusiastic of the members. And his periodic demonstrations of power were utterly frightening; when Corout had designed the Pseudo Morpher there was no one who could have foretold the stark terror it would cause...even in its creator.
Remaining on one knee, Corout answered, "Yes, Lord Tracer."
The Betrayer's hands were in the pockets of his black pants, and from the protruding fabric Corout could tell they were balled into fists containing the youth's unending torrent of anger. "How could that one Ranger surpass me?" he demanded.
"The Pseudo powers are like a mirror," Corout explained thickly, still kneeling and facing the dirty floor. "When you face one opponent, your power equals that of your opponent. When you face five opponents, your power equals that of five opponents. In terms of raw power, neither you nor your opponent can surpass the other."
Michael snapped, "I'm well aware of that," and clenched his teeth to prevent another outburst or tirade.
An itch was developing on Corout's nose, but he wrinkled his face and conditioned himself to ignore it before continuing. "As far as I can tell, one of two things might account for it. First, and most probable, the Pseudo powers were not identifying the Green Ranger as an enemy." He did not dare say that the true reason would have been that Tracer himself made that determination, and not the power itself. "The second alternative is that, although you were fighting the Green Ranger physically, you were fighting something else entirely that you could not identify."
"Rise," Lord Tracer ordered. Corout lifted himself onto both feet as fast as his sore muscles would obey, then scratched his nose slowly, tilting his head as though in deep thought. "So I've lost twenty-five Legionnaires, the third-to-last Rapture Holder, and created a new enemy who I can't touch."
"On the other hand," grinned the Omnian, "you have created a new enemy for the Omni Rangers that they cannot touch, and has them more worried than anything we could have thrown at them. Played correctly, this situation will give us more than enough time to finish."
Tracer snorted and fingered the Lifeblade handle sheathed haphazardly into his belt, a weapon that converted time, in the form of age, to space, in the form of a virtually indestructible blade of energy. "We can't have someone...or something...with that much potential to ruin our plan running loose. Lord Arcanza wasn't about to allow Ego to be unleashed on the world, and I won't let Alexander Revell pick up where that soul-sucker left off." Waving a finger in the air, he attached a demand, "Bring me Devus; I have orders for her."
The request surprised Corout, but he struggled to keep the little composure he had remaining and tasted sour words as they left his mouth. "Devus is unaccounted for, my lord."
The Betrayer's face took on yet another degree of anger as he swooped down from his undeserved throne. Face to face, he asked sharply, "Where is she?"
"Devus and Fhare have...had a relationship," answered Corout. "If I were to guess, I would say she is in mourning somewhere alone."
"A relationship," Tracer sneered. Returning very slowly to the chair and sitting down so gently that the smoothness of the action so closely following an explosion of rage frayed yet another of Corout's nerves. "When she returns, inform her I wish to speak with her. You're dismissed." Hurriedly the Omnian scientist gathered his courage and headed for the elevator that would take him down to the lower working areas. "And one more thing," his lord called to him from a distance. "Any sin you or your remaining two Rapture Holders commit that jeopardizes my plans from this point onward will result in your punishment. I'm sick of these failures and unpredicted events."
Corout bowed deeply, answering, "So am I, my lord," and fled as fast he could.
The piloting stage of Gemini Destiny was remarkable, considering the limited technology the Professor had access to while designing and constructing it. Oriquin would have never imagined that Rade, that innocent young boy in the crew of Galaxy Hunter, would grow up to co-create some of the most incredible and most powerful vehicles since ancient times. Reaching to place his hand over the orb that connected him to the ship's communication computer, Oriquin asked, "Alpha, how is Amber?"
"She is in good physical condition," the robot tending the Professor's daughter answered immediately. "I expect her to wake up at any time. I will call you when she does."
"Thanks," Oriquin finished. He released his hold on the orb and, feeling his empty stomach beginning to rumble, turned toward the exit to make his way to the dining stage. His favorite Earth food was a turkey, cheese, and lettuce sandwich, and he had been imagining one all day now. As the door slipped open, though, something appeared before him. It looked like a small reflecting pool, impossibly standing upright from top to bottom, and he could faintly see himself staring back awestruck.
A woman emerged from the pool, completely dry, and looked disapproving as she twisted her hands together nervously. "You are..." she began slowly, then tilted her head sideways. She did not look very attractive, but she was not ugly; she would have easily fit into a large crowd of people at any gathering in Ivory Glade. "Oriquin?"
"Yes I am," he replied.
"I am Devus," the woman introduced herself awkwardly. "I demand that you give me Fhare's body and let me take her so her soul can rest unmolested." Oriquin pursed his lips and stared at Devus blankly. "What?" she asked arrogantly.
The Omnian lord muttered, "Just so," and motioned to a seat near one of the windows. "Have a seat."
"No thanks," Devus told him, "this is business."
Oriquin crossed his arms and stared down at the floor as he thought how to use this situation to his advantage. Clearly she wanted Fhare's body, and likely would do anything to acquire it, including sabotage her superiors in some manner. But as he thought, an idea came to mind. And suddenly this unexpected meeting was more than coincidence; it was synchronicity. "I will make you a bargain."
Nervously, Devus took the bait and asked, "What bargain?"
"Your powers to open gateway like that one might benefit us," Oriquin explained, smiling inwardly to himself. "All you have to do is lure the Green Ranger into one and transport him--unharmed--into one of the containment cells onboard this ship. Then I will tell you where you can find Fhare's body."
"A deal," Devus agreed. Without wasting any time, she created another gateway inside the frame of the piloting stage doors. She walked through and instantly it vanished out of existence.
This spur of the moment plan was farfetched, he knew, but Oriquin was desperate to at least capture Alexander to prevent him from another mass destruction. With Fhare, who was controlling his mind, dead, Oriquin was not confident that the poor boy could be saved and restored to sanity.
Kneeling in the foreboding mixture of wreckage and upturned ground, Cecil, as the Red Ranger, lifted another heavy block of shattered cement and was relieved to see a man's dead body underneath. Not really relieved, but a hybrid emotion of sorrow and reprieve. The man, his black and orange uniform torn to shreds around a mangled body drenched in dried black blood, was the final Legionnaire body to account for. Bracing himself, and laying his hand on his deceased enemy, he felt a warm rush of power flow up from the Omni Morpher and down into the corpse as it teleported to the locked basement of Eurren Research Center all the way in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Without Alpha Complex to hold the pseudoine-infested bodies, it was their only other secure choice of storage.
Speaking into his communicator, Cecil acknowledged, "Final anomaly disposed." Turning around, he took in the sight of the giant humanoid-robot Cerulean, Gold, and Rose Crusaders piloted by his friends, as well as the Crimson Crusader and Titan OmniZord being controlled by auto pilot, helping to clear away the rubble and create a stable environment for rebuilding to begin. Alexander, in his state of insanity, had left a huge amount of devastation in his footsteps.
"That's good," Becky answered in a sweet, quiet voice.
A column of light shot out of the Gold Crusader and touched down near Cecil, reforming into the Yellow Ranger before him. "I just can't believe Alex could do this," Brittany sighed, crossing her arms and staring down at the ruins of the shopping center. "He must not have any control of his body at all. Do you think he knows what he's done?"
"I hope not," answered Cecil. "It is philosophically ironic, though. Alexander is probably the farthest thing from a naturist possible."
"Naturist?" Brittany wondered.
"Yeah," he answered blandly, "like Charles Darwin or Karl Marx. Someone who acknowledges only nature and things experienced by the senses as reality."
Brittany shook her head, agreeing, "Not like Alex at all."
Within seconds of the conversation's end, and within feet of Cecil, the air began to grow thick, as the gasses that normally existed in the form of air instantly liquefied. A portal that rippled like a stone tossed into water opened as Cecil and Brittany watched intensely. The woman called Devus emerged. Instantly, the Chaos Sword, upside down but ready to strike in a heartbeat, materialized in the Red Ranger's hand. The Yellow Ranger, too, called forth her Light Whip and held it at the ready.
"Put your weapons away," Devus ordered, "or the bargain is broken."
"What bargain?" demanded Brittany, while Cecil at the same instant growled, "We have no bargain with you."
The Cerulean Crusader above withdrew its trident weapon and aimed at Devus. Bane was inside piloting it, and he thrust the three prongs forward, forcing the Rapture Hold woman to open another gate and teleport to another area close by. "Stop this attack," she warned, "or I will open a gate and send you all outside of time and space."
"Pulse Wave!" Cecil's attack sent a wave of dark red energy rocketing toward his enemy.
A bright flight of light appeared between Cecil and Devus, and quickly the familiar form of Oriquin took shape. Still surrounded by Starlight, he held out his hands and caught the Pulse Wave, then flung it in a different direction so it exploded harmlessly in the sky. "Listen to me," Oriquin ordered, "Devus has agreed to help us in exchange for..."
In mid-air beside the Omnian lord a watery gateway appeared, apparently leading to some desert location by the looks of it, and Devus forcefully shoved him through. "Consider our agreement void," she snarled. The ethereal door vanished in the space of a blink. "Now for the rest of you."
A loud clap of thunder reverberated through the air and high above in the skies, as four forked bolts of lightning lanced down from high storm clouds and struck the earth violently, throwing up rock and asphalt where the hit. The Cerulean CrusaderZord kept its footing, but the others--Gold, Rose, and Crimson--toppled over and landed face-down in the debris. Thick columns of several shades of green light began forming all around, brightening as they merged into one another and dimming as they separated just as quickly. In the center of all the confusion, the Green Ranger was descending. His uniform color was paler and more eerie than it used to be.
"Alex!" Brittany exclaimed. Next to her, Rebecca and Bane teleported themselves, ready to battle their friend turned threat.
Devus laughed, using a gate to appear behind Brittany and hiss, "Your friend cannot hear you. Fhare could brainwash people infected with pseudoine by sealing their mind and taking control of it herself. Without her, his mind is completely sealed, and he is unable to control his actions." A sharp attack knocked the Yellow Ranger down, then Devus flowed into another fluid series of kicks that surprisingly demobilized Bane. She was a talented martial artist.
The Green Ranger charged forward, the Nature Axe prepared, and Cecil jumped out of the way just in time. He countered with a quick Psychic Trance attack to try and temporarily confuse the berserk Ranger, but it had no effect. Alex slid to a stop, turned around, and hurled the deadly weapon directly at Cecil. Hoping it would work, since he had never tried such a thing before, Cecil activated three powers at once. Instantly, the Force Barrier went up, the Ruby Armor replaced his normal Ranger costume, and the Annihilation Surge began to disintegrate the axe. The Surge, however, was unable to act in time to stop Alex's weapon before it smashed through the Barrier. It hit Cecil directly in the chest.
The blade was a fraction of a centimeter from touching flesh. It embedded itself quite deeply in the Gemstone Armor, and by some wild stroke of luck Cecil was still alive after that terrifying instant. With both hands he fought to pull the weapon out and surreally fingered the vertical gash it had left in his suit. "He almost killed me," he whispered to himself in disbelief.
Summoning the courage to look up again, Cecil saw that the Green Ranger was now focusing on Devus as the object of his assault. The two-handed Stone Cannon materialized in his hand and fired; a thick explosion of energy struck her shoulder and completely destroyed it. With her left arm limp, but without any cry of pain or surprise, Devus jumped at him, slashing him with her good hand. A kick to the crotch made him double over, and a subsequent kick to the head sent Alex flying through mid-air. Holding her hand out, Cecil could see the thought process spinning in her eyes as she prepared to open a gateway.
"No!" he cried. "Wherever you send him, he will find his way back and only create more casualties along the way. We have to save Alex now."
Devus shifted her eyes to look at him, grimaced, then turned back to Alex and smiled devilishly. Before the Green Ranger landed, a horizontal portal opened below him. With a final thunderous explosion in the darkened sky he fell through, vanishing, and instantly the gate winked out of existence. Laughing, Devus turned to Cecil, and said, "Now for you."
Sitting up in bed, Amber massaged her temples to try and ease the intense headache she had, trying to be careful avoiding ripping out the intravenous hook-up in her left hand. She tried to control her breathing evenly and not be startled as Alpha-S2 entered the room. "Amber, you're awake!" Alpha exclaimed.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"You're in the Infirmary of Gemini Destiny," the robotic incarnation of Alpha System's data explained. His AI had been programmed with a normal human's personality, so his interaction with people was a high priority. "It's been about a day since you were knocked out. Alex disappeared for a while, but he's back now, and the others aren't doing so well against him."
She clenched the sheets of her bed in her fists, but managed to ask nicely, "Is there a monitor I could watch them on? If they need help, I have to..."
"You need a little more rest before you're back to full capacity," Alpha-S2 warned, "but I understand. That monitor there should work." The prism-shaded screen beside the Infirmary entrance came to life, displaying an overhead image of the smoking ruins of Southlake Mall. She recognized Cecil, Rebecca, and Devus still standing. Bane and Brittany were lying still nearby, but still morphed and protected.
"Where's Alex at?" wondered Amber. "I thought he was there."
"I thought so, too," Alpha stammered. "I don't know what happened."
The entrance opened again allowing Oriquin, his clothes covered in sand and face wet with sweat, to walk inside. "Devus opened a gateway beneath him," he growled. "She was supposed to transport him to one of the cells here on Gemini Destiny, but he's not there." The Omnian sighed, dropping his rear end to the ground and sitting against the wall, as though his entire store of energy had been depleted by something. "He could be anywhere, now. Anywhere on Earth, anywhere on New Omnis, even in the core of the sun. This situation just keeps getting worse and worse..."
His words continued, but no more reached her ears. A sudden ball of fire replaced her heart, spreading extreme heat and light throughout her body. Everything in her scope of vision went pitch black. Amber could feel energy gushing out of the ShadowTech Ability Band, more than morphing required, even more than her ultimate attack, Eclipse Surge, required. And suddenly, she knew how Alex must have felt, because she lost control of her body, and something ancient...something primal...something powerful took over.
"Stay back," Cecil ordered Rebecca, pushing her further behind him more forcefully than he would have liked to. One surprise after another was taking its toll on Cecil's psyche, on his leadership abilities, on his humanity. Still he felt he had a duty to protect Becky from this monster, who was slowly but surely ruining their lives.
Devus clicked her tongue, taunting, "It does not matter where you stay, my power can get you anywhere. There is no place to hi..."
Her words were interrupted by a scream. Instantly all three of them looked up just in time to see Amber descending. She was wearing the Black Ranger costume, but her helmet was missing, and a mysterious dark aura surrounded her. It was not the Zenith Aura, because it was not a rainbow of colors, but something more sinister and more innately deadly. Both of Amber's eyes were glazed over, solid black, and it was impossible to tell where she was looking.
Devus, eyes wide with fear at the sight, opened a gateway before she could draw another breath, but Amber moved at unbelievable speed. One moment she was in the air hovering, the next she was in front of the escape portal blocking Devus's way. Amber grabbed Devus with both hands and squeezed until the Rapture Holder began screaming in a voice that caused Cecil pain just to hear.
Cecil quickly used Omni Analysis to assess the situation, but the results he derived from it were so impossible he discarded the information. His next thought paralyzed him with fear: What if Amber had gone berserk too? "Come on!" Cecil screamed as he grabbed Becky and ran toward his other two friends' bodies to retrieve them. He stumbled over a large chunk of upturned dirt and steel mixture, but Becky's strength kept him from falling forward. Reaching Brittany, he realized she was still powered up, so her life force must still have been strong. Touching her gently, he teleported her to Gemini Destiny's bridge, then dashed across yet more rubble to do the same to Bane. Finally, to be complete, he took advantage of holding Becky's hand and repeated the process a third time.
Turning back to the battleground, Cecil watched and prayed as the two women faced off, Devus with frozen panic and Amber with blank rage. Suddenly a dense, enormous, and frightening black ball formed above them in the sky, and Cecil recognized what it was. It was the Eclipse Surge, but on a gigantic scale, ten times more powerful and lethal than it normally was, a force that could swallow an exploding nuclear bomb. And just as suddenly as the mega-Surge was created it fell directly on both combatants. The ground trembled under the strain of the collision, but he could not see what happened because the entire area became darker than midnight. He felt the OmniTech do something strange, then, as it sprang to life without him activating it, and teleported him against his will.
Opening his eyes that still stung from dust and smoke thrown up from the Eclipse Surge smashing into the earth, Cecil found himself on the Parapet of Power, the small mountain ledge jutting out from one of the Rocky Mountains overlooking the entire city of Ivory Glade. This place was where he came to clear his mind, to relax and think, away from the worries and dangers the rest of his life wrought upon him. Straight ahead, on the eastern border of the city, he saw the half-cleared ruins of Alpha Complex. Turning left, he shivered as he saw black and gray smoke drifting upward from an enormous crater that, a week or so before, had been the site of Southlake Mall and its surrounding businesses on the southern border of Ivory Glade. Gemini Destiny hovered in place at the edge of the cloud of smoke.
"I don't understand," Cecil sighed to himself, disregarding his usual efforts to avoid contraction and speak with sophistication. He had enough on his mind than to worry about things like that now. "The Analysis showed Amber with ten times her normal energy level! With that power she could have blown Devus away, but instead she..." A lump formed in his throat and he had to finish the thought in his mind instead. She had committed suicide to stop a threat Cecil should have easily stopped himself.
The communicator watch alarm went off, but he ignored it.
Oriquin had changed into clean clothes in an attempt to quickly forget his short desert adventure, and now he stood before the crystiglass front window of Gemini Destiny, facing inward, with the large dust cloud slowly but surely dissipating behind him. The four teenagers were seated together, in seats next to the main computer consoles, watching him with forlorn and concerned looks.
"Amber is still alive," he told Cecil, who had finally although reluctantly answered his call. The young man looked up, relieved, and started to stand, but the Omnian commanded sharply, "Sit. After we talk you are free to go to her."
"You're forgetting our little conversation," Cecil growled. "I'm the lead..."
"Yes, you are," Oriquin interrupted him, "but I am assuming you understand the difference between conceit and respect."
Glancing to each of his teammates, who looked similarly reassured but still overwhelmingly depressed, Cecil sat down smoothly. "Fine," he grunted.
A weak smile spoke his thanks for him, then Oriquin continued addressing them. "I know what has happened to Alexander has affected all of us, and even our most hopeful plans have somehow escaped our control and resulted in disaster. But please understand, I more than anyone know the torture and chaos losing someone close to you can unleash from the depths of the soul. We do not know where Alexander is, or what state of mind he is in, and while Corout, the Pseudo Ranger, one Rapture Holder, and an army of Twilight Legionnaires still exist, we can not afford to allocate limited resources to recovering him. I promise we will learn the truth, but we must wait until Arcanza's legacy is dead and buried."
He expected Cecil to retaliate by accusing him of being selfish and unconcerned with the welfare of others. He expected Brittany to give him some emotional or intellectual reason for making saving Alexander a priority. He expected contempt from Rebecca, and suspicion from Bane. But none came.
"I understand," empathized Cecil. "If that's all, the four of us want to see Amber now and make sure she's okay."
"Fine," Oriquin grunted, and turned away from them as they left. With his finger, he wiped away a tear that had been sticking in the corner of his right eye.
Back in the Infirmary, Amber shook her head slowly and muttered, "I don't remember anything except waking up and asking Alpha what was happening to all of you." She tilted her head and looked at the short robot to ask, "Did I pass back out?"
"Actually, you..." Alpha-S2 began, but Cecil cut it off.
"You passed back out because we wanted you to," he told her coldly and factually. "We knew you would try something stupid, so we instructed Alpha not to let you leave under any circumstance."
Amber frowned at the obviousness of the lie, knowing something else had transpired, but if the truth was being kept from her, there must be some important reason. So, to change the subject before she got angry, she asked, "What do we do now?"
"I know there is a way to save Alex," Becky insisted, "I just don't know how."
Suddenly, Alpha-S2 gave a sharp cry, and Brittany held the robot still and asked gently, "What's wrong?"
"An incoming communique," it answered. Pointing toward the monitor beside the Infirmary door, the prism screen came to life instantly.
On the screen, Craig's head and shoulders appeared, but the quality was scratchy and unstable, like a television in which the cable was about to go out. His thin hair was darker now, most of the red had been swallowed by the brown, and longer besides. It seemed his face had also changed a great deal, from the softness of innocence to the hard and sharp features of a fighter. His eyes still contained the blue of the ocean, but no longer held the sparkle of life.
"I just learned what happened to Alex," Craig said in a smooth and cool voice, drained of any expected sympathy or disappointment. "And, knowing Cecil, you're probably already making plans to rescue him. Don't." He paused briefly, probably to let that resonate in the silence. "Concentrate on fighting the war with Twilight Legion. I promise I will save him, but until then, if the Legion's plans are carried to completion, we will all wish what happened to Alex had happened to us."
The transmission was cut off quickly, and Alpha-S2 gave another painful exclamation as it was. "How thoughtful," Cecil said underneath his breath.
"We should listen to Oriquin and Craig," Amber concluded, and the statement sent an uncontrolled shiver up her spine.
Becky agreed, "Yeah. But we have to let Alex's family know what's happened. Somehow. We owe it to them."
Standing up straight and giving her a reassuring pat on the back, Cecil volunteered himself with, "I will do it. It is my duty to all of you, Alex included."
"But how are you doing to do that?" Brittany wondered, her hands tightening as she pressed them together nervously. "We took oaths never to reveal our identities. It was one of the three rules of OmniTech laid out for us."
"I never took the same oaths you did," he justified himself. Shifting his attention to Amber, still sitting up in the bed, his expression got darker and more distant than it had even been for as long as she knew the unique Cecil Mercuric. He looked at her Shadow Morpher, smiled, then turned back to the others with the same grin. "The time for playing by the rules is over."
Original Publication Date: 18 October 2001
