...the next bright bolt falls...
"The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy."
Today was the second anniversary of her pledge. Two years ago on this very day, Valerie had pledged herself to the new Twilight Legion, with the hopes that the Resurrector, the third and final goddess in the Trinity of Darkness, would bestow eternal life and eternal glory upon her. Of course, all she had to show for her pledge as of right now was a bloodstream filled with pseudoine, some kind of chemical that gave her special powers that men and women who were not members of the Legion could only dream about. The day after being infused, Valerie was able to burn down her ex-husband's house by merely touching his door, and she realized then what incredible things that the Trinity could offer her. The Lady Resurrector was promising that their ultimate goal, the Rapture, was about to happen, which would bestow endless life to anyone blessed enough to have sworn themselves to her.
Her hands clasped meekly in front of her, Valerie waited as the doors of the elevator opened slowly, admitting her into the Resurrector's throne, and instantly her breath was taken away. This was the fortieth floor of Digireign Spire and without question the single most holy place on the planet. Instead of normal walls, there was only some type of unbreakable alien glass, allowing anyone to stare for miles in any direction, although now the only thing of interest to see was a gigantic circular wall of fire around the three Spires. And even if that wall was not there, the Lord Destroyer had obliterated the nearest city, so it would only be a view of wasteland.
The Lady Resurrector was laying on her back on a towel on the floor, staring upward at the ceiling that sloped upward into a single point that reached far, far above even this height, deep into the black clouds smothering the atmosphere. Her eyes were fixated on the stained glass depicting three hands all reaching for a single ball of light, the insignia of the Trinity of Darkness. Valerie had never seen the spaceship the previous Twilight Legion had built, a massive construct called Trinity Rising, but apparently this image was a replica of the one on the ship designed in person by the missing Lord Betrayer. The gold, blue, purple, and black literally danced around the room as firelight passed through the colored picture.
"Lady Resurrector," Valerie announced herself with a curtsey, which seemed awkward when wearing a black jumpsuit with two diagonal purple slashes across the front and a silver setting-sun symbol on the side opposite the slashes.
"What?" the goddess snapped, annoyed that her concentration was broken.
Valerie swallowed nervously. "I'm sorry. Excuse me. I was asked to find you immediately and inform you that the Omni Rangers have broken through our barrier and are approaching Digireign Spire now."
Slowly, the Lady Resurrector stood up, and for the first time Valerie could see something she had never seen in the woman before: humanity. The usual spark buried deep inside her dark and penetrating eyes was completely absent, and even her voice was more diluted than before. Valerie knew what this woman's real name was, but to think it or speak it would certainly mean her instant death, and she would never know the ecstasy of immortality.
The Resurrector pointed toward her glass walls. "I can see everything from up here, you brainless twit. Did you really think I didn't know what was happening? Don't answer that. Just tell me who asked you to find me."
"The Lord Destroyer," Valerie answered quickly.
The other woman grimaced, her hands clenched tightly into fists, while simultaneously her forehead became creased in what could be construed as deep thought, pain, or even anger. "So, Arcanza's taken to ordering my followers around now," she muttered to herself. "After he led all his Legionnaires to their deaths." Sighing deeply, the Resurrector motioned toward Valerie and ordered her, "Follow me. You're going to witness the single greatest miracle in your life."
Beaming proudly, her faith in her goddess instantaneously restored, Valerie stood upright and grinned anxiously as the Resurrector walked past her and onto the elevator. The Legionwoman kept at least two steps behind, but not so far as to hold her leader up. Together, wordlessly, they descended one floor down, and emerged into a very high-tech laboratory with computers, tubes, and wires everywhere. A loud hum was accompanied by a steady stream of beeps.
The Resurrector approached a giant container big enough to hold an entire person inside, with the single word "Ice" etched on its outside. She pressed a switch that made the monitor displaying an ECG nearby turn off, and bright red liquid began to splash onto the floor as the container opened up. There was a young man inside that container, wearing nothing at all, who could not be older than his late teens or early twenties.
Suddenly, Valerie realized who the young man was, and gasped, "Oh!"
"I need you," the Resurrector told the youth. "The Omni Rangers are approaching. You must stop them, once and for all."
The Lord Betrayer opened his eyes.
"We split up into three groups," Amber instructed, her hands flexed firmly on the hands of her Shadow Blades. The Zenith Aura that encircled her was pulsing in tune with her heartbeat at a dangerous high rate. "Gabriel and I will take the main Spire, Alex and Brittany take that one, and Rebecca and Patrick can take the last. If you find either Arcanza or Krista Mercuric, both of you use your communicators to contact the rest of the team, then we will teleport to regroup and take them down."
Rebecca nodded her agreement, a surprising move for a woman who a mere hour ago hated Amber with every fiber of her being. "Okay," Alexander confirmed. "Every Legionnaire along the way..."
"Kill them," growled Amber.
"But..." Alex started to protest, and Gabriel also stammered, "Don't do this..." but Brittany interrupted by summoning her Shine Saber and giving it a sharp test swing.
A laughing voice from above made the entire team fall silent.
Patrick looked up, threatening, "Who's there? Show yourself!" The only thing close to them at the moment was a statue of a demon-like creature with sharp-edged wings and horns protruding from its temples. It was made of solid gold, sparkling as it reflected the firelight from the burning Gates of Hell.
"Hello again, old friends," the voice replied. "It's been awhile. I hope you haven't forgotten..."
Suddenly, the voice triggered her memory, and Amber exclaimed, "Michael!"
Michael Tracer leaped down from behind the statue, his golden-brown eyes firmly locked on them as a whole, wearing a smirk that sent a cold sheet of ice down Amber's back. He was wearing a navy blue silk shirt with the top button undone, tucked into black pants, they themselves tucked into a pair of gray boots. In his hands he held a single knife. His brown hair was a tangled mess, dripping with some kind of dark red almost plasmalike liquid, but clearly not blood. "Amber!" he answered back, mocking her surprise.
"I don't know how you came back to life," Rebecca snarled. As she talked, her Coral Armor appeared over her suit, the Electric Hammer materialized in her hands, and her Ionic Field barrier began to form around her. "But I'm glad you did, because now we get to kill you a second time."
Laughing, Michael dropped his stance and leaned against the statue. "I didn't come back to life," he told them with a grin. "Actually, I never really died. I'm only a clone of the original Michael, brought to life by a few notes the original Arcanza left about my DNA sequence. Plus...this." He held his hand out, and instantly a bright bolt of energy shot out from it, striking Patrick and knocking him to the ground with no time to react. "I'm Michael Tracer version 2.0, don't you know?"
"Ha!" Brittany replied, charging forward with her Shine Saber. "Get ready to crash!"
The sword came down directly toward his neck, but Michael merely reached up and grabbed the weapon with his hand. It did not slice his hand open, or even elicit a painful reaction, just a casual move to stop a killing stroke. He never dropped his wicked grin as he used his foot to kick Brittany back, still grasping the Shine Saber as she lost hold of it. Michael turned it around to put the handle in his hand and waved it tauntingly at Brittany as she lay on the ground. "Bad girl. I keep it now," he sneered.
Lunging forward, instantly Alexander screamed, "Tremor Wave!" The ground below began shaking violently, but even tiny earthquake paled in comparison to the powerful flying kick the Green Ranger executed, aimed directly at Michael's neck. Instead of dodging to the side, however, the wicked youth performed a sudden backflip, and when Alex's foot struck only air, Michael retaliated with a vengeful stab of his knife. Blood squirted out as the blade pierced through the Green Ranger's boot and into the sole of his foot, and the scream that accompanied the strike was painful to hear.
She felt guilty, but she had to seize the opportunity while his attention was distracted, and Amber snuck behind their foe using her Silhouette Sneak power. While Michael was laughing at his triumphant injuring of Alexander, Amber thrust both Shadow Blades forward with every ounce of her strength. They sliced into Michael's backside on either side of his spine, then she twisted and pulled them enough to create a large bloody "X" on his back. "This is revenge for the Hopwoods," she whispered, almost evilly, then quickly jumped back, leaving the sharp weapons where they were, embedded inside him.
There was no scream. No angry holler. Not even the slightest flinch. Michael merely laughed as he dropped his own weapons, reached around, pulled the Shadow Blades out, and tossed them away to the side. Even as he did so, the wounds were beginning to heal themselves, leaving no trace of an assault except the shredded shirt on his back. "You can't do anything right," Tracer snorted.
"Blizzard Surge!" Patrick summoned. Suddenly a large cocoon of ice began forming around Michael, trapping him inside a jagged block of frozen water.
Barely any time at all passed before the subzero prison shattered on its own. And when he emerged from it, there was a bloodcurdling black glow in Michael's eyes, obviously focused on Patrick. "So, even on their second try, they were unable to find a suitable replacement for me," he sneered. He made a sweeping motion with his left hand and, telekinetically, Patrick was struck with a blow powerful enough to send him sailing backward.
Kneeling down on one knee so he could avoid putting pressure on his wounded foot, Alexander called for his, "Dragon Cycle!" and, when the vehicle materialized before him he jumped onto it, readying himself to attack at high speed.
"No cheating!" Tracer yelled. The glow in his eyes intensified; the engine on the Dragon Cycle exploded, rendering the Green Ranger's transportation useless.
Brittany and Rebecca had taken the opportunity to join hands, and now their was a large barrier of red and gold around them, with both the Lumina Cannon and the Volt Cannon aimed straight for Michael's head. They fired together and, when the energy beams discharged, the barrier around them incorporated itself into their attack and created a single enormous fireball in place of the two weak individual energy balls. "Burn in hell!" Rebecca screamed.
Falling back into a defensive stance, Michael replied, "Not yet. I need to tell you a story first." There was no way to describe what occurred next other than he emitted some kind of pulse, invisible, that snuffed out the gigantic fireball like a child blowing out a birthday candle. Not only did that pulse eliminate that attack, but it also made all of the Rangers' armor vanish, even the weapons and Dragon Cycle. Smiling devilishly, Michael lifted up his right hand to display a tiny pebble, ordinary except for the fact it gave off a gentle silvery glow.
"A piece of Meridian-Omega!" Brittany gasped.
"What's that?" asked Gabriel, visibly nervous. He helped Alexander to stand up by allowing him to lean against him.
Rebecca answered, "An item that negates our powers. Or absorbs them. Something like that. It used to belong to Arcanza."
Sucking air in through his teeth to make a sound of irritation, Michael angrily informed them, "You're all out of line. It's my turn to talk. You've already had your fun, now it's time I had mine." Turning to Amber, he proclaimed happily, "Everything you know is a lie."
"What do you mean?" Amber asked quietly, but she was eclipsed by Gabriel calling out loudly, "What is that supposed to mean?"
Michael began walking toward Amber slowly and that was when she realized he was doing something to paralyze her and keep her in one place. When he was sickeningly close, he reached out to touch her cheek with his empty hand and repeated in fake concern, "Your friends have been lying to you for years. They know something about you, something that will destroy your life. I knew it, too, but we haven't seen each other for so long, I never got the chance to tell you." He looked around, twisting his mouth into a half-grin, and glanced in every direction before continuing, "Now I have the chance."
"I won't believe anything you tell me, you sick son of a bitch," Amber assured him, and she would have spit on him if she could have.
Refusing to take a hint, Michael replied, "Let me take you back to a day twenty-three years ago, when a man named Donaldson and an alien woman named Seraide were huddled together inside a building I believe you are familiar with, called Alpha Complex."
"I swear, Tracer, the second I am able to move again, I'm going to cut your head off," growled Rebecca. He must have used the same new power to paralyze the rest of the Rangers as well. "I'll break your skull under my foot."
"On that day," he continued talking, ignoring the peripheral threats that were directed at him, and began moving toward Brittany this time, "they were celebrating. And there was much to celebrate! Not only the completion of the Orion Five Projects, but also the birth of a set of twins. A little boy and a little girl who got half their chromosomes from a brilliant, kind-hearted professor, and the other half their chromosomes from a princess who traveled thousands of light-years wearing a device just..." He tapped Brittany's Omni Morpher. "...like..." He tapped it again. "...this."
Gabriel warned, "Get away from her, Tracer."
Another smirk, another taunt, and another part of his so-called story. "Me, Revell, Spencer, and Elliott, we all know who those twins grew up to be. Mercuric knew, too, probably before any of us ever did. Soleron and the other Omnian Rangers knew all along. Lord Arcanza certainly knew. In fact, Amber, your dearly departed Mommy and Daddy knew even before he did." He paused. "Oh, I think I use the term 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' too loosely."
"What..." Amber stuttered, her head beginning to feel light. "What...?"
Michael laughed as he leapt up back onto the demon statue and began screaming at the top of his voice. "Amber Donaldson, this is your life! Seraide is your mother, Abner Donaldson was your father, and Craig Hopwood was your twin brother! You were Orion Project Numero Cinco, a twisted little half-breed, and you were probably the only person who didn't know!"
Cold. Amber could actually, physically, suddenly feel her heart go completely ice cold, sending her entire body into a deep shiver. And then there was an empty feeling. Nothingness. It was spreading through her unimpeded.
Vicki Donaldson hugged her daughter in her arms, wet trails forming streaks from her lower eyelids to her chin, unable to catch her breath. She was rocking her daughter, kissing her, then paused to say, "He brought my angel back."
There was still cold, but now there was something new, something raging hot, seething her forearm as if she just placed it on a stovetop. "You're lying," Amber told him. The ShadowTech Ability Band was pumping something through her: power, energy, vitality, life. She did not realize she could move again until she actually was, directly toward Michael, with nothing on her mind except the desperation to hear the truth. "You lied to us all, again and again. You're lying again now!"
Tracer's smile winked out, replaced by a serious look that shifted and darted to each of the six young men and women who wanted him dead. "Ask him," he said simply, pointing to Alexander. "Or her, or her, or him. They don't lie to you, do they?" He laughed.
Amber turned around and was instantly face-to-face with Alex. She had not intended to teleport to the location, but she did, as the Shadow Morpher must have activated on its own. A small detail like that, however, was pointless to wonder about right now. Alex, still leaning against Gabriel with his left foot raised up in the air, looked ashamed and repentant. His black hair was tangled and sweaty, and those sickly pale green eyes distraughtly sought to escape. But he could not move now, could not run away. Standing tall, but in a similar paralyzed position, Gabriel only clenched his teeth, utterly without a clue as to what he should do. A nice man, but a poor substitute for the Red Ranger she had killed.
"I want..." Amber began, then swallowed a lump in her throat. "I deserve the truth. Am I a project? Did I get dragged into this fight intentionally because of who I am? Was Craig my brother?"
The nervous twitch was answer enough, but Amber was holding out on him for vocalization, because she wanted to hear the admission. Alex could not prevent himself from looking directly at her as his mouth began to move. "I..." he stuttered. Quietly he finished, "I sinned against you, who I love above all things."
Her left hand moved. The sound of the slap was louder than the crackling roar of the flaming wall, louder than the screaming commotion from the interiors of the Spires, louder than the laughing of the villainous Betrayer who had finally succeeded in shattering her faith into pieces. Amber's hand stung from the force, compounded by the fact her whole arm was a cinder. And as she felt the pulling sensation that always occurred when she teleported away, she could still hear Michael's dark laugh.
Reflections. She sat alone, in the massively imposing laboratory, back propped against the hard wall and butt on the even harder floor, staring at the final container, and reflecting. A thousand thoughts bounced around in Krista's head, each one setting off another thousand more, until her thinking was so fuzzy and unfamiliar she felt light-headed. There was red fluid still spilt all around her from releasing Arcanza and Michael. Two Legionwomen bustled back and forth, laboriously attempting to clean the room and erase the memories of the two rebirths and one death that had taken place here today. Only a gentle steady beeping dared to cut through the silence.
"I'm still a child," Krista sighed, but the women never considered stopping to listen to her introspection. "I sent my little brother to his death. I resurrected a psychopath who is destroying entire cities. I unleashed the Legendary Jotuns that were supposed to protect Earth and had them destroyed. And now, I've allowed a soulless murderer to kill the Omni Rangers." She twisted her hands until her knuckles cracked. "But why am I still unhappy?"
Finally, one of the women turned around and cocked her head to the side. "Lady Resurrector, what is there to be unhappy about? The Trinity of Darkness has been reunited, as prophesized. That means the Eternal Demon is about to return and grant us immortality and dominion over the universe. We are only hours away from paradise."
Krista nodded reluctantly. "When I release the final clone," she continued, "there will be no turning back. It will be the beginning of the end." Pushing herself up, she jumped onto her feet and walked slowly toward the final container. The bold letters spelling out "Fire" on its cover were almost taunting in their simplicity masking a truth so complex and twisted that even she was intimidated.
"My lady," the other Legionnaire told her, "please."
Something deep inside her was forcing her back. Even though she had not moved or closed her eyes, she was seeing visions of two children playing. They were smiling, together, standing in a field of red flowers, feeling happy. True happiness, not this pale imitation of happiness that Twilight Legion had filled her with. Everyone in this building was the same way.
Something deep inside her was beginning to crumble. Her mind was like a ball of clay that was starting to harden and fracture apart. It was a heavy sensation, an unpleasant feeling, but refreshing. All of a sudden she wanted to feel rain for some reason. Dance in the middle of a rainshower, without any clothes on. A longing to feel clean?
Something deep inside her was screaming a warning. The slow beeping was replaced with the sound of whispering, and gentle conversation, then the cries of a helpless little girl who only missed her mommy. And daddy. And little brother. A voice of a woman, seductive, leading her away into the abyss. And echoes of "I only have one memory of you."
Something deep inside her restored her conscience. Instantly, her hand raced toward the life support system's emergency shut-off and self-destruct mechanism. "This will be the beginning of the end," Krista repeated, "but the end of Twilight Legion."
Something deep inside her felt pain. Slowly, Krista turned around and, through a cloudy mist created by all of the tears that instantly fell, saw Arcanza, brushing his hands off and telling her sternly, "No you don't." Moving her hands down to her right side, she wrapped them around the handle of a knife and pulled it out, fighting not to scream at the blinding flash of pain that swept across her. He had stabbed her.
"Don't do it..." Krista challenged him. A warning.
Arcanza shook his head sadly. "Child," he replied, irritated, "you bring so much shame to the Trinity of Darkness, I've decided to replace you."
"I'll stop you..." she hissed, angry.
"Perhaps," Arcanza agreed with a frosty sneer. "But you'll never stop him." With a smooth gesture, he disengaged the life support, opened up the container, and granted the third and final clone passage into a world now doomed to chaotic annihilation.
It happened so fast, it was hard to keep track of everyone, but Brittany could feel adrenaline fueling every part of her body, even the smallest muscles in her eyes, enabling her to keep a sharp watch. She was clenching the handle of the Light Whip in her fist, but any time she tried to attack Michael he was able to dodge the weapon at an inhuman speed. Of course, "inhuman" was the perfect way to describe him, no matter what he was doing. The dark young man almost appeared to be enjoying this, taunting them, playing mind games. It had been ten minutes since Amber teleported away and they were beginning to wonder whether or not she was coming back. Certainly she would not abandoned them because of a withheld truth that, at the current point in time, meant so very little.
Rebecca had drawn her Omni Blaster and proceeded to fire rapid shots, but she must have known it was going to be a useless gesture. The blasts struck Michael in various places, but he never so much as flinched, let alone indicate the assault was bothering him. He pointed his finger at Patrick and sneered, "Bam!" Instantly Patrick's Turquoise Gemstone Armor, a piece of an armor once thought to be impenetrable, blew away.
"Whatever has happened to Arcanza and Michael," Brittany panted, out of breath despite being morphed, "it has made them invincible and incredible powerful."
Gabriel nodded his agreement, and replied with a hint of sorrow, "Maybe they finally achieved what they set out to. Maybe they became gods."
"No," Alex growled, "never!" Stunning the rest of his friends, the Green Ranger suddenly lifted himself upward, off both of his feet, to hover in the air without assistance from anyone. His Morpher was glowing brightly. "Environment Surge!" he screamed. A terrifying beastlike roar echoed high above them, and Brittany could tell the ground was about to open itself up in an attempt to swallow Michael whole and bury him under the earth for eternity.
Michael realized it too. And, as he did, he vanished.
When he disappeared from their sights, Alexander called off his attack while Gabriel and Brittany searched the area with a desperate urgency. They saw Patrick, climbing to his feet, still stinging from the Betrayer's last attack, but no one else.
"Oh god!" Brittany gasped. "Where's Becky?"
A familiar evil laugh answered her question exactly the way she had not wanted it to be answered. They turned around together just in time to see the personally most frightening scene they could imagine. Rebecca was de-morphed, lying face-down in the mud and sludge on the ground; Michael was crouching over her, tauntingly dangling his knife over the back of her head. "Here I was," he told them with a flash of teeth, "expecting this lovely young lady to cut my head off as soon as she could move again. Funny how things never turn out the way we expect."
Brittany was certain he was about to do it. Kill her best friend, her teammate, a woman her soul had literally been entwined with, creating a connection deeper and more profound than anyone else could know. "Michael, you bastard!" she screamed.
He looked up with a puzzled expression on his face. "What the hell?" he growled. "Which one of you is doing that? Why can't I move my hands?"
Suddenly, Michael was flung back by a powerful invisible force, flying a good thirty feet before landing on his back and grunting as all of the air was pushed instantaneously from his lungs. Brittany instinctively turned around and saw a young woman behind them. She was not beautiful, but not ugly either, someone easily forgettable except her eyes seemed recognizable. One of her hands was extended outward and the other was pressed firmly over an open wound in her right side underneath a deep tear out of an otherwise-stunning red and cream dress.
"Krista!" Michael screamed wildly, thrashing in the mud.
"Krista?" Rebecca exclaimed in shock, struggling to get back to her feet.
The woman named Krista did not even bother to introduce herself. "There's no way you five can defeat Michael," she informed them solemnly. "His DNA sequence has been altered with pseudoine, and replicated inside a plasmalike poisonous substance called pseudocioal, into a gene structure called an Eternity Helix. It makes him immortal, and gives him powers that may even surpass your own. I know the deactivation sequence, but you have to help me escape!"
"Help you escape?" wondered Brittany.
Alexander, still hovering, blurted out, "Absolutely not! This is a trick we have fallen for over and over again, but not this time. Get lost, or we'll finish you off next."
"I wish you could," Krista replied sadly.
"We can take her prisoner, regardless," said Gabriel, holding his palm out. "Force Barrier!" The barrier instantly sprang up around Krista, but before it could form completely it began to crumble and fall apart, dissipating into nothingness.
Michael was there. Again, he had moved so fast they had been unable to keep track of where he was, and now he was snarling and foaming at the mouth, his knife inserted deep into Krista's left side. The surprise attack was too much for Brittany to bear, and she screamed out, "Stop it!"
And without warning, her OmniTech sprang to life, burning her forearm as it began to cycle an enormous amount of power. She could see bright white tendrils streaking out from it, wrapping themselves around not only herself, but also Gabriel, Alexander, Patrick, Rebecca, and Krista. They continuously wrapped and wrapped at a faster and faster pace until they enveloped all six men and women.
When the light died away, everyone was gone, except for Brittany and Michael, standing across from one another, both of them shocked at the end result. "Did you just..." he started to ask, dumbstruck. "Did you just vaporize everyone?"
"No," she panted, fighting to not give into her urge to fall on her knees in exhaustion, "I teleported them to someplace safe, away from you."
Michael needed only a second to assimilate the information and nod his head in futile acceptance. "Well, then, when you get back to them, give them a message for me. You can be a little angel, a messenger of god." He snorted. "Tell them they will not survive the return of the Eternal Demon. It is destined to happen now."
"I have a message to you, too," Brittany replied, but she was not saying the words herself. Her mouth and voice were working of their own accord, just like her Morpher had merely seconds ago. "I am what will be."
There was pandemonium and uproar all around her, but Amber was doing a fantastic job of phasing it all out and being intentionally apathetic. She had not known where to go after her revelation and had somehow wound up in the middle of the fourth floor of Omega Complex, the place called Control Point 2000, surrounded by EON agents and analysts all sitting around unable to do anything despite their high-tech, high-priced computers. Then, only a few minutes after she arrived, they exploded into a tumultuous blind excitement.
Finally, not from care but from a tinge of irritation, Amber approached the nearest monitor and muttered to herself, "What the hell is going on?"
On the screen was an image of a man, dressed from head to toe in a tight black outfit, with holes cut only for his eyes. Behind him, an assortment of at least seven EON soldiers were attempting to stop him, but the bullets they fired never slowed him down in the least. Perhaps just as strange, the image was dark and shadowy, as though there were heavy overcast clouds outside blocking out the sunlight. The man in black noticed at last that he was being attacked, and executed a perfect backflip, landing behind the seven security guards. A roundhouse kick took down two, a powerfully-delivered punch knocked out the third, and a fluid series of additional martial arts eliminated the remainder. The fighting style was exactly the same. He lifted his head, looking directly into the monitor, and instantly the image vanished. He must have destroyed the camera.
"He's invincible, too," observed Amber, scratching her head. "Just like Michael." Then it dawned on her and spurred her into action at last. "It must be Arcanza! He's trying to destroy EON."
"Code blue," Cipher System announced overhead. "Intruder confirmed. Location is ADMRC main entrance, first floor. Security has been dispatched. All civilians please proceed to your emergency safety stations. Repeating..."
Amber seized a nearby unused computer terminal and logged into Cipher System to get an exact position on Arcanza. She decided to wait and see where he was headed, then intercept him before he got there and finish him off permanently. The fiend had killed her parents...well, the people who raised her, anyway. Come to think of it, he had killed Professor Donaldson, after all. And everyone on Omnis, everyone in those cities here on Earth, and maybe thousands of people inbetween. The ShadowTech Ability Band was getting warmer again, and Amber had this deep feeling that could only be explained like she was being compelled by the universe to get revenge. Closure.
One of the EON members took notice of what Amber was doing, and offered, "That spot there is where the elevators are. It looks like the perp is just waltzing in and riding the elevator."
"But why?" Amber asked, more of herself than of her unsolicited helper. "If Arcanza just wants to destroy the building, why would he come inside to do it? Is he planning to set off a nuclear explosion like in Ivory Glade...?"
The dot on the map indicating Arcanza's location suddenly vanished. "Hey!" the analyst gasped. "That shouldn't of happened. We should be able to trace his position even as he rides up."
The thought popped into Amber's head instantaneously, even though she wished it had not, because the implication it held was even more disturbing than her first impression. "Maybe he's not going up," she said with a sad voice.
"Where else could he go?" the EON agent wondered.
Amber never bothered to answer. Lifting her Morpher, which was still emitting some type of strange, unidentifiable pulse, she exclaimed, "It's morphin' time!"
"Omni Cerberus!"
When she could see again, she was standing inside Archetype, the former resting place of the Omni Morphers where they had been placed in safety for the three years they had not been used. It was brightly lit up now, illuminated by fluorescent lights embedded on the walls just below the ceiling. Seven tapestries hung around the chamber, each one containing the signature color and mythological beast of one of the Rangers, except the last which was a field of solid white. Beneath that seventh tapestry, the sealed box still sat, draped in a black cloth with the five-diamond decoration on it. Arcanza was headed here right now, but hopefully he was not expecting her, and Amber would have the advantage of surprise. She had unlocked an unstoppable power years ago when she had been afraid Alexander was dead, and there was no reason she could not do the same now.
She stood in the center and bathed in the heated rush that the Zenith Aura filled her with as it flared up around her. In each hand she clutched one of the two Shadow Blades, still dripping with Michael Tracer's tainted blood. Something deep inside Amber almost made her feel excited at the prospect of fighting the twisted man responsible for so much heartbreak, fear, and bloodshed across the universe. "Hurry up," she whispered, "I am the destroyer of the god of destruction."
The arch around the door suddenly began glowing, and the supposedly-unbreakable exodustone fractured into billions and billions of tiny pieces. They made a crunching sound under his feet as Arcanza strolled through and took his first look around Archetype. All she could see were his eyes. His deep, ocean blue eyes...
It was not Arcanza! Arcanza had vile, disturbing eyes, crystalline and clear, almost invisible, with a deadly spark of insanity buried deep within them. His eyes were unforgettable. And he had passed those same crystal eyes on to his sons, Bane and Salodis. This intruder's eyes, however, were brilliant blue, betraying no sign of danger or madness. In fact, they almost looked exactly like Amber's own...
"You're not going to leave here alive," she informed the stranger.
He examined her, dismissed her, and walked forward as if to merely move around her as though she would let him. It only ticked Amber off a little bit more. She thrust a Shadow Blade in front of him to stop him and warned, "If you move forward any more, I won't hesitate to kill you."
The man in black gently pushed the Black Ranger's weapon away from himself, then reached up and pulled his mask off, gasping as he inhaled his first breath of the stale underground air. Amber made no mistake about who he was. Short, thin red-tinged brown hair, grin splitting his handsome young face, standing as tall as her, both dressed in skin-tight black clothing, they could have been twins. They were twins.
"Craig!" she exclaimed.
The entire Earth was covered in darkness.
"So," Arcanza said, standing in the top floor of Digireign Spire, his throne room and his alone, feeling ecstatic over the fulfillment of his master plan, "the door to unending time and space arrives at last, ready to be opened."
After moving ever so slowly, the black clouds radiating outward from Digireign Spire had finally reached the opposite ends of the planet, and now there was no place safe from Twilight Legion's vicious shadow. The sun, the moon, and the stars, all of them were completely sealed away. Children in Great Britain were waking up to blackness, and old Argentinean women fumbled through virtual blindness. This was, without question, the world's darkest hour.
"Incredible," Michael whispered, watching the flames that surrounded the three Spires be absorbed into the black clouds and begin streaking across the sky like flaming bolts of lightning, "even before its return, the Eternal Demon is tearing the Earth apart."
Over Abner Donaldson Memorial Research Center, the black clouds were beginning to thin and dissipate. They broke up over the course of seconds, of minutes, until they began to recede. Behind the black clouds, however, was another cloud, this one smoky and inconsistent. And buried deep within this smoke was a fiery core, shifting its color from bright red to yellow to orange, threatening to scorch the fragile Earth with its blaze.
"No," Krista moaned, fighting through the pain, struggling not to lose consciousness but at the same time unable to avoid the pressing sensation on her heart alerting her to what was happening, "I have to stop this. I can't let him unseal..."
The Ethercell had reached its destination.
Original Publication Date: 26 March 2005
