...come, sweet death...
"One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly."
"Attention all ADMRC personnel," Cipher System blared overhead, "we have a code red situation in Ivory Glade, Colorado. All teams are required to be at their workstations in five minutes or less. Information level at the current time is low, but it is confirmed that a giant is attacking Ivory Glade as of 21:44 Mountain time. The Omni Rangers are responding to this external threat now."
Wilson moved off to the side and muttered, "It just concerns me that the first two attacks were three months apart, and this one is happening right away. On top of that, for some reason, both our satellite and ground surveillance have been disabled with no clue as to how or why. Please be careful."
Giving her best phony smile, Amber replied, "Of course. And I agree with you." Turning to her companions, she lifted the Shadow Morpher and announced in a booming voice, "It's morphin' time!"
"Omni Cerberus!"
"Omni Dragon!"
"Omni Pegasus!"
"Omni Hydra!"
"Omni Sphinx!"
Together, the five Power Rangers touched down at the site where Alpha Complex used to stand. Nowadays, it was merely a memorial fountain with a steady spray of water and a plaque indicating that a building once stood there. They used it as their incoming teleportation point for security reasons. One of the EON agents had told Amber they planned to turn this place into a museum someday, some distant future day, and the idea made her roll her eyes in disbelief.
The sky was disturbingly red, an illumination created by a combination of the late summer sunset and the northernmost buildings of Ivory Glade already burning down. Far away in the eastern sky, the night's moon had already shown itself, and the way it reflected the sinister arrangement of light you would have thought it was made of blood. It had stopped raining altogether, and only the sloppy mud underneath their boots gave any indication that a hour or two earlier it was fiercely pouring down. The weather was as out of control as their lives, Amber reflected inwardly. Plumes of gray and black smoke billowed up from the destruction of their hometown, hiding the figure of their next opponent in soot and shadow.
"Let me handle this." Amber spoke directly to Patrick in a level, serious tone, and the Blue Ranger silently nodded his acceptance. "I realize that having this much power is tempting, but we're still only humans, and using this power is a necessary evil."
A ripping sensation tore through her body as they once again teleported, this time into the piloting stage of an already-assembled Crusader Megazord. The seats were still warm from their last battle, and a pool of water sat on the floor that had crept inside through the crack in their protective visor shield. Seizing the controls, Amber moved the Megazord out of the Holding Bay and toward the chaos erupting near Ivory Glade. When the machine was close enough, she activated its flight ability, lifting it high into the air. It soared through the fire and smoke, sailing through the sky as fluidly as swimming through water, and immediately lashed out at the target with the Megazord's sword. The direct hit was loud and powerful enough to send a metallic rumble into the atmosphere.
"Oh my God!" Brittany shrieked.
The Crusader Megazord touched down, and Amber maneuvered it one hundred eighty degrees to confirm what she thought she had seen in that brief glimpse. Sure enough, they had struck the Crimson Crusader, creating an enormous gash in the torso of Cecil's CrusaderZord. Whatever she expected to happen next, it did not, because the Crimson Crusader simply ignored the damage and continued forward, crushing another building beneath its steel foot. A fireball shot from its mouth, smashing into an apartment complex, sending it up in flame instantly on contact.
Fumbling until she regained her composure, Amber turned the communication system on and bawled, "Cecil! Are..."
"What are you doing?" Rebecca demanded, a tone that was divided between shock and resentment. "Stop attacking our city!"
For a long time, no response came. The Crimson Crusader stopped its motion completely, although it never turned around to face them. Amber's hands trembled on the controls, preparing to attack if she had to, or defend if things went wrong. Then, the light indicating Cecil's incoming transmission began blinking, and he told them all in a fear-filled trembling voice, "Kill me."
The words stunned them all, and Amber was unable to stop from blurting out, "You too? What the hell is going on?"
There was no answered except the reactivation of the Crimson Crusader, destroying yet another structure, and another, and another. It was almost as if it were working faster, trying to annihilate as much of the city as it could before it was stopped. "No, no, no," Patrick was panting. He leaned over and slammed his hands on his controls. "Epoch Shock activate!"
Crusader Megazord dropped its sword, and a ball of crackling white electricity exploded from an opening in its palm. Then another. Then another. One by one they struck the rampaging Zord, slamming against it, sending a ripple throughout the entire machine. "Stop," Rebecca begged him, but his hand continued pressing the button over and over, "you're going to electrocute Cecil! We have to figure out what's going on."
The power surge must have worked, because the Red Ranger's vehicle ceased movement, paralyzed. "Cecil," Amber called frantically to him. "Can you hear us? Let us know if you're alive! What's wrong with you? Are you doing this for a reason?"
"There is no reason," he answered weakly. "No reason for me to be alive."
The sight was too blessed, a miracle in every sense of the word, and rather than fight the urge to grin like a wild animal who just caught her prey, she gave into it and watched with a joyful gleam in her eyes. Far beyond, she could see the two Zords fighting one another, and knew her devious plan was unfolding as anticipated. It fell into her lap so unexpectedly, it was almost too good to be true. That simple-minded little boy played right into her hands. To be this powerful, coupled with so much fortune, surely she would succeed where her two forebearers had ridiculously failed.
"I'll destroy the Power Rangers," Krista told herself happily. "When they're all dead, I can take the OmniTech Ability Bands for myself. Then, after the Eternal Demon is unsealed, it will give me dominion over everything. It will become the mind of God, and I will become the hand of God, and this entire universe will shake under my possession."
Placing her hand against the glass wall, she whispered, "Thanks, little brother..."
"Hello, little brother," Krista said in a sweet voice, staring at him intently.
Cecil struggled to regain his footing, and his composure, before even attempting to talk back. He openly gaped at her, taking in her image in its entirety, too shocked to remember to breathe. Finally, he found a shard of courage from somewhere, and asked, "Why? How? Is this...?"
"How is this possible?" she finished his question for him, calmly sitting down on the floor and folding her legs underneath her off to the side. The sense she was trying to emit was one of confidence, of strength, of control, and keep the Red Ranger completely off-balance no matter what. "Do you remember, when we were little, our parents used to listen to all those old Beatles records? I remember your favorite song was 'Hey Jude,' and we must have spent hours listening to it in their bedroom."
The reaction continued as expected. With the strength of his legs fading fast, Cecil sat himself, directly in front of here, never once daring to look away. He did not notice the elaborate decorations bearing the insignia of the Twilight Legion, a setting sun, and the Trinity of Darkness, three hands reaching for a single orb. Probably did not hear the buzzing of voices deep inside the Spire. Nor smell the candles burning all around them, their incense laced with pseudoine. She laughed, he cringed.
"I only have one memory of you," he said, paralyzed, unable to control his words. "And I am not even sure if it is real. I only have one picture of you, and I..."
"Aunt Sophie's house was always filled with flowers. Uncle Brown had a parrot named Johnny that he named after Johnny Carson, and taught him to say, 'Heeeere's Johnny!' over and over again." She paused, searching those ancient memories, and finally settled on one that might strike a chord. "You got a Bambi picture book for your fourth birthday and circled all the birds in bright red marker."
That must have worked. Suddenly, Cecil's eyes lit up, and he was leaning forward, hands pressed firmly on the hard floor, muscles tensing over the conflict of whether he wanted to punch her or hug her. Strangely, it was almost like he was listening to another voice, inside himself, telling him to stay calm and appear collected. Of course he was failing miserably. "What happened? Did you run away?"
"Sort of," she answered, acting demure, tracing an invisible picture on the ground with her finger in a childish manner. "Dad took us along on one of his flights and somewhere in the airport I got separated from the rest of you. I hid for hours and hours until a woman found me, and she took me to the place I grew up in, Twilight City."
She could tell there were tears stuck inside Cecil's lower eyelids, but he was fighting every step of the way. The sweat on his forehead, however, was not a stubborn about showing itself. "Arcanza's phony city," he said, disgusted. Even a reunion with a long-lost sister could not sate his hatred of Arcanza, apparently.
Krista shrugged with the intent to appear apathetic to that fact. "I never even met him. I was raised by a woman who called herself Tyamat..."
"You were raised by the Trinity Prophet?" Cecil interrupted her.
"She taught me what an evil place Earth is," Krista continued as though he had not interrupted, "how wretched and decrepit this planet is compared to what it should be. The Trinity has the power to make this world a better place; not by solving our problems the hard way, like you're trying to do, but by simply eliminating anyone or anything standing in the way of progress. She taught me to do whatever what necessary to bring the Trinity together at last."
Finally! Cecil was openly crying now. He was obviously hurt by what she was saying, and rightfully so, because those who were uninformed and unworthy could never hope to understand the goal, the greatness, the totality of what she was striving to fulfill, an ancient power that rivaled the Creator itself. "Krista..." he said, but it was all he could muster.
"Some Power Ranger you turned out to be," she scolded, standing up and brushing non-existent dirt off of her behind. Suddenly, four Legionmen surrounded her, preparing themselves to escort Cecil back outside the Spire. Internally, she said a prayer to the Eternal Demon for her plan to work as intended. "Either kill yourself, or let me kill you, because there is no reason for you to be alive."
As he continued sobbing, Krista walked away.
Now, even though Cecil knew the truth, he was being tormented by the reality of his current situation. Krista would stop at nothing to resurrect the Trinity, even allowing her younger brother to die in disgrace. He was not brave enough to do it himself, certainly not, which was why he was now goading his teammates. He wanted his friends to do it for him.
"I wonder," she sighed to herself, deep in thought. "I wonder if they will go through with it. But, I can't spend all my time up here waiting to find out." She touched the key hanging around her neck underneath her shirt and felt its coldness. "It's time to wake up the third Jotun."
The Red Omni Ranger stood on top of the left shoulder of the Crimson Crusader Warrior Mode as it roughly battled the Crusader Megazord, holding its own only because the more powerful vehicle was holding back from unleashing its full fury. Occasionally Cecil would slip, losing his footing for a split second before straightening himself, then using his Pulse Wave power to augment an extra bit of strength to his Zord's attacks. Finally, after several additional tense minutes, an enormous column of light materialized behind him, fading slowly to reveal the Titan OmniZord, his signature mythological figure, ready to join the titanic fight in progress.
"He just teleported his OmniZord all the way around the world!" Alex exclaimed.
"No way," stammered Rebecca in a breaking voice. "First of all, if we want to teleport something, we have to be physically touching it at the time. And second there's no way he could have that much power, and if he does..."
There was a urge somewhere deep inside Amber to reply to that statement, but with every logical fiber of her being she fought against it. Instead, she stayed quiet, observant, and vigilant, determined to prevent Cecil from destroying Ivory Glade any further. What she did not know what the price she was willing to pay.
Patrick had calmed down just a bit since his last rash move, but the way he still felt about the situation was obvious. "Aren't all the Omni Morphers equal? It should be easy to stop him if we work together, five against one."
Now the Titan was fighting as well, and Cecil's two Zords were beginning to gain an upper hand. Crusader Megazord succeeded in grabbing the Crimson Crusader's arms and securing them, disabling its capacity to fight back, but in response the Titan moved behind the Megazord and delivered a blow so devastating that the right wing broke off and crashed onto the ground below.
"Maneuverability down seventy-five percent," Brittany reported. "And that last attack exposed our energy cells. If those get hit..." She never finished her sentence, as the Titan struck instantaneously in precisely the same location, and none of the other Rangers needed to ask what the target was. "We'll only have fifteen minutes of operation left."
Finally, unable to bear the burden any longer, Amber hissed angrily to herself before teleporting out of the Megazord's piloting stage and to the right shoulder of the Crimson Crusader. Screaming at the top of her voice, she pleaded to Cecil, "Would Craig ever have acted this way? Would he have attacked his hometown completely unprovoked?"
The Red Ranger turned to her, and both of his Zords instantly dropped their assault and defense and stood motionless in the midst of the chaos they had succeeded in creating. "Craig," sneered Cecil, slamming his fist into the metal neck of his Zord. "If Craig was so great," he screamed back at Amber, angrily, "why did he abandon us over and over again? First, he ran away. Then he passed off his responsibility to me so he could disappear again. He refused to go home until it was too late, then does not show up for months, only to disappear a couple days later after saving the day all over again."
"I'm sure..." Amber began to reply.
"Why is he not here to pull our asses out of the fire this time?" hollered Cecil, completely ignoring her attempts to soothe his seething rage. "Craig Hopwood makes me sick. If I ever see Craig again...I will kill him."
There were a few moments of shocked silence, then the terrible sound of banging metal accompanied by a massive explosion of confusion. Feeling herself falling, Amber desperately reached out for the ShadowTech power and teleported back to the Megazord's piloting stage. She arrived in an awkward position and felt a painful jab in her lower back seconds before collapsing onto the cold floor. Fighting the temptation to scream, swear, or cry, she stood up and looked out through the visor.
One of the Rangers, apparently Rebecca, had forced the Megazord to punch the Crimson Crusader directly in the head. Forced so fiercely, in fact, that the uppercut had completely knocked its opposing machine's head off, sending it flying backward even as the CrusaderZord's body fell over benignly ending its threat.
"I think we should separate back into five individual Zords to stop the Titan," suggested Alex, "like Patrick said, the odds are better five-to-one, plus we will need it in case we have to form the Omni Megazord in the future."
"Right now it doesn't look like the Omni Rangers have a future," Rebecca interjected, slamming her clenched fists into her controls. Cecil was nowhere to be seen; hopefully he was safe, but it was also possibly that he...
The communication system suddenly activated, putting everyone at attention, but their hopes were dashed when it turned out to be Victor Wilson, not Cecil, contacting them from Omega Complex. "We have another situation," he informed them. "Another giant has appeared, this one at the South Pole. EON reports it may have the intention of melting the polar ice cap and initializing a whole new Great Flood. I've already dispatched Babel CarrierZord there, with four of the OmniZords inside. It's strange, but the Titan disappeared while we were prepping the launch."
"You have to go," Amber instructed them coldly.
"But Cecil..." Alexander began to protest, but she cut him off before he could speak further with, "I will handle this. I promise. You have to go."
Rebecca turned around, contemplated the plea for a few eternal seconds, then nodded acquiescence to her friend. "We'll take care of the third giant fast, then come straight back here. Be careful." In a flash of pink light, she vanished, and her acceptance was all the other three Rangers needed to teleport away as well.
Once she was alone, Amber heaved a heavy and burdensome sigh that made her entire body shake with its force. Unable to maintain the concentration required for her Black Ranger powers, she de-morphed, and instantly a wave of cold air slammed into her, causing her to shiver again. Struggling to remember the various codes and commands, she placed the Crusader Megazord on auto-pilot to return to the Zord Holding Bay. Next, she teleported to the piloting stage of the Titan OmniZord, and activated the communicator. "Wilson, we need another housekeeping assignment to Ivory Glade. The Crimson Crusader was..."
In mid-sentence, something caught her eye, and her words trailed off into endlessness. "What's happening there?" Wilson was frantic at the other end of the channel. Far below, near the foot of the Titan, there was a burst of red light, followed by a stream headed upward toward her.
Suddenly the Red Ranger was there, directly in front of her, terrifying. He was wearing the Battle Shield on his chest, brandishing his upside-down Chaos Sword, encircled with a glow of raw power that made Amber sick from its mere existence. Cecil lifted his hand, and instantaneously his Pulse Wave power destroyed the communication equipment, rendering Wilson's griping into a garbled mess of noise. The only prominent sound now was a hissing noise very much like an uncontrollable fire.
Cecil reached out, grabbed Amber's neck with one hand, and suddenly there was nothing but light, and tingling, and a single panicked thought in her mind that she was about to die at the hands of someone who used to be her friend. Just as she was about to cry out, the light faded, and she realized she was soaking wet.
They were both standing on the Titan's head now, in the dead center of another downpour of rain, still face-to-face and still desperately silent. "Cecil," she whispered gently, hoping he could recognize the torment he was causing her inside. "What's wrong? You can't mean what you..."
"All my life," Cecil said, almost struggling to get the words out, like he was pulling them from some part of his heart that had been locked away. He sounded so lost and so sad that Amber's sympathy instantly peaked. She wished he was not hiding behind his Ranger armor, or that he was unarmed so she would be able to hug him. "I have believed that philosophy had an answer. Where did we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" He took a step back. "I was an idiot. There are no answers. And when you think you have found an answer..." He laughed, the laugh of a person beyond any hope of being saved. "It is only another road to emptiness and a whole new struggle." Another step back.
Amber held out her hand, knowing all along it would make no difference. "Cecil..." she pleaded.
"After I stop struggling," he continued, but now his voice had an entirely different quality, one that seemed under control and perhaps even sane, "promise me you will defeat her. Promise me you will defeat my sister. Promise me you will defeat the Resurrector and put an end, once and for all, to this sick and twisted game of holiness and hellishness."
"Your sister..." repeated Amber, and suddenly the pieces were beginning to click together inside her mind. That woman from the airplane three months ago—Krista! She looked almost exactly like Cecil. Then Mulac and Cauac identifying "Mercuric" as the person who awakened them, they had not meant Cecil, they had meant his sister. And suddenly his weird behavior was a little bit more understandable; the sister he had been searching for the last twenty years had turned out to be the leader of the religious fanatics who want him dead.
The armor of the Red Ranger vanished without warning. Around his forearm, the OmniTech Ability Band still hummed and radiated, but with that single exception every other feature of him was calm. His eyes looked sad and inconsolable. Already his hair was beginning to be drenched in water, slapping atop his head. There was dirt and mud sloshed across his clothing. Both of his hands were bleeding, painting his skin in watercolor red, and as he stepped ever closer to the rounded edge he was beginning to leave a trail of blood from his feet. "Please, tell them for me. Please tell them I just want to be forgiven." Then, with all the composure and tranquility in the world, he detached the Ability Band, tossed it to her, and jumped off the head of the Titan OmniZord.
For a split second, Amber was stunned into motionlessness. It had happened so fast, and so final, that it took a lifetime within her mind to realize her friend and teammate was committing suicide. Then, as realization dawned, she screamed, "No! Wait!" Quickly she lurched forward, but then instinct kicked in and she found herself teleporting into the piloting chamber of the Titan. She had to catch him. She had to save him.
Adrenaline fueled her movement. She moved the control that corresponded to the Titan's right hand and moved it with a degree of desperation unachievable under any other circumstance. The Titan responded, catching Cecil's falling body in mid-air. Breathing a sigh of relief, Amber lost her footing and fell helplessly to the floor.
What happened next plunged the lives of the Omni Rangers into utter and unredeemable chaos. The Titan's hand tightened, closing in on itself, crushing its contents, leaving only Cecil's final painful scream as his testament to the world. Amber was immediately on her feet, tears rolling from her eyes, panting, "No, no, no, no, no," over and over. She jostled the controllers some more, panicked, unable to think clearly or rationally. The fist of the Titan OmniZord only closed with more strength.
Under the slowly-appearing stars that spanned the sky on the night of the twentieth of June, threaded amongst a cold and relentless rainstorm, the death scream of Cecil Mercuric faded into oblivion, taking with it the life of the executive director of EON, the closest and best friend of the universe's savior, the leader of the most powerful team of heroes across the cosmos, and the former Red Omni Ranger.
"Elemental Quartet Dirge," commanded Patrick, "activate."
All together, the four OmniZords—the Dragon, the Hydra, the Sphinx, and the Pegasus—began to emit a beam of white-hot energy that soon split into several smaller beams, then again into several more beam even smaller than the last, until the converge on the target from all four corners. The beams weaved a web of power, trapping the third Legendary Jotun, Ix—the Frost Giant, Colossus of the South, the Black Titan, the Honor of the Leopard—in the center. Then, once the giant was immobilized, four brightly colored fireballs launched from the mouth of each mythological beast, striking Ix all at once. The attack shook the ground, splitting a deep crevice into the icy-covered layers below, and there was no delay before the creature exploded, ending its rampage before any harm to the planet came about.
"Very good," Brittany complimented their newest member's newly-designed attack, "that didn't take long at all."
Putting his forefinger over his mouthpiece, Alex said, "Shhh. Listen."
"What?" Rebecca asked. Then, when she discovered what he meant, she added, "Oh."
The South Pole, indeed perhaps the entire planet itself, was completely silent.
Original Publication Date: 12 February 2005
