...become the mind of God...
"If you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
Cecil Mercuric stood among his friends. He had finally stopped convulsing, and his body still ached from the intensity of it all, but during the episode his mind was somewhere else completely and he had felt no pain or fear at all. Their expressions were varied from person to person, but he knew their thoughts mirrored one another's even if they had fallen apart as a team. Finally, Cecil realized what his best friend had told him all those years ago was true; the Red Ranger powers were destined for him, because he was the natural and emergent leader. During his absence they had begun to quarrel and fight but, he swore to himself, it was going to stop now. The next time they fought an opponent it was going to be as a true team.
"Amazing," Kaisa drawled, his gray eyes wide with surprise.
The sight had to be impressive to them all. Cecil was wearing the armor of the Red Ranger, including the golden Battle Shield on his shoulders protecting his chest and back, but not the helmet. His eyes were sharp and focused, so much so that he could see his reflection in a mirror several yards away, and could see that they were glowing red. Glancing at his right hand, he realized there was a soft white light surrounding his entire body and radiating outward. "This is one hundred percent OmniTech power," he told them quietly. "The Red Meridian Omni Ranger."
"That's amazing," Brittany remarked with a smile. "It's incredible that OmniTech still has untapped resources that even the Omnians have probably never known about."
Rebecca seemed worried. "Does it hurt?" she asked sympathetically.
"No," answered Cecil. "It is very invigorating. Maybe even a bit euphoric. But you are all about to find out for yourselves."
The frown on his face said Alexander was not too keen about the direction in which this conversation was headed. "What do you mean?" he asked in a voice that clearly stated he knew exactly what was meant.
"Forgive me for doing this so crudely," Cecil told them softly, "but we do not have another three months to spare to wait for all of you to evolve naturally. Remember, the key to unlocking this is extreme anger. You need to find an uncontrolled, impossible-to-handle, silent rage. Please be safe." He lifted his hand outward and focused every bit of his power into summoning his next ability. "Psychic Dive!" he screamed, sending a burst of energy into Alex, Becky, Brittany, and Patrick.
There was a dull thud as they hit the carpet below them, eerily in unison, out even colder and more unconscious than his sister was. What was curious, however, was that Amber had fallen, too, even though he intentionally sent no energy her way. She lay slumped over Alex, but facing Cecil with her eyes closed. He still could not get over how much she looked like Craig, even five years later, and even with their little individual quirks and different personalities. The poor woman was upset that the truth was always being kept hidden from her, but completely unaccepting of the fact that believing a lie was something better than knowing everything about everything. Being a part of EON certainly taught Cecil that lesson very quickly.
"So, everything went according to plan?" Cecil asked as he powered down and began moving his friends to more comfortable positions, so when they woke up they would not be cramped or sore.
From the corner of the Sanctum, Gabriel replied, "For the large part." He moved forward fluidly and began helping to rearrange the bodies. "One of the things we didn't anticipate, however, was the Committee ordering Amber be implanted with an explosive device. If it's set off, it will detonate with a five foot radius."
"I intercepted between the Committee and Wilson." Cecil grinned as he finished his task and plopped himself down in the chair beside his sister once more. Krista was still resting comfortably. "Amber was never injected with a miniature bomb. I think she got some of Brittany's anti-pseudoine vaccine instead. I had to act quick to make the switch and that was all I had available."
Gabriel was about to say something, but was interrupted when Krista suddenly came to, sat up straight, and gasped, "They're here!" She was shaking, her eyes open wide, sweat trailing down the sides of her face. "They're coming for us!"
"Who?" Cecil asked calmly, instantly by her side, rubbing her back to try and calm her down. "Who is here?"
"Outside," she answered, genuinely terrified. "The Hosts. The Eternal Demon's immortal, unending horde. They're going to kill us."
Cecil frowned, not because of her warning specifically, but because he felt the sensation as well, could sense a decent number of purely evil creatures approaching from the east. If he had to place them, he would say they were over the ruins of Ivory Glade at this very moment. There was little choice. "Kaisa, do me a favor. Stay here and interrogate Krista, find out everything she knows about the Eternal Demon. When the other Rangers wake up, send them out to help me, because I do not anticipate being able to handle this battle by myself." He pointed at Amber and added, "But not her. Something far more complicated is going on with her, and my gut tells me this has something to do with Craig, or Professor Donaldson, or whatever."
Nodding, Gabriel replied, "Understood," and placed a comforting hand on Krista's right shoulder in an attempt to help her settle down. She looked up at him, utterly confused, completely taken back by finding herself in as strange a location as this.
Holding his OmniTech Ability Band out in front of him, Cecil exclaimed, "It's morphin' time!"
"Meridian Red!"
He found himself plunged into an incredible darkness, followed by an immense brightness, and when he re-emerged Cecil Mercuric was standing on the upturned ground of what used to be the pleasant hometown of Ivory Glade, Colorado. Not too far above him, a cluster of twenty, maybe thirty part-bat, part-man, part-demonic creatures were gliding toward the mountains where his Sanctum was hidden. Somehow he had to get their attention, so he charged a super-sized Pulse Wave and sent it instantly flying directly into their midst. It exploded, knocking three of them out of the sky completely, and causing the rest to alter their course and zoom straight at him.
Right now, he knew he was not alone. Lifting his companion, the spirit of the Omni Morpher, he vowed to distract these beasts just long enough for his friends to acquire their own ultimate powers, then they would have a fighting chance against the Eternal Demon's forces.
"Well, well, well," a familiar voice laughed, piercing the air like a sharpened dart. "What have we here? Apparently we're not the only people who can resurrect the dead." Tracer landed on the ground in front of Cecil and folded his arms confidently.
Arcanza touched down several feet off to Tracer's side. "The power radiating from him is incredible, boy. Even with our immortality, this one is going to be capable of putting up a long and difficult fight."
"I have wanted this chance for a long time," Cecil growled, angrily shifting his eyes back and forth between the evil stares of the alien Arcanza and the deceitful turncoat Michael Tracer, "to kill the both of you with my bare hands!" An aura of tremendous power suddenly exploded from all around him, sending out a cascade of power that made his strongest ultimate attack, Annihilation Surge, look like a bucket of water beside a roaring, raging river. And that was only a demonstration for them.
It was enough to make them stop smiling. The Hosts moved in for the kill.
Amber, Brittany, and Rebecca were now resting comfortably on the couch in sitting positions, while Alex and Patrick each had their own seat. Gabriel sat, with Krista, on the floor. She had her arms around her knees, as if she were about to start rocking back and forth slowly to distract herself from the strangeness, but the touch she felt was oddly comfortable. There was a hot spring on the other side of the wall, so the entire room was extra warm, and placed on one of the jagged rocks was a photograph of the Mercuric family circa 1984. Maybe not the happiest of days for Krista, but certainly some of the simpler. She sighed, wiping her face again with the cold washcloth Gabriel had given her.
"The Trinity Prophet did something to me, early on, giving me a gift of sorts," Krista explained in a quiet voice. Truth be told, she could have screamed it at the top of her lungs and still not aroused the unconscious Rangers, but it still felt like a courteous thing to keep her tone muted. She supposed she owed some courtesy, at least, to them for helping her escape from Arcanza and Tracer. "And it's why I can see things, make sense of things, sometimes before they happen. I knew Arcanza would fail, and I knew exactly why. I knew Michael would fail, and I knew exactly why. But the Eternal Demon..."
Gabriel spared a soft smile. "You don't see another failure?"
She sighed again, tempted once more to start rocking, but it felt really good to take a deep breath of the moist and warm air. Like a private diluted sauna. Was this the type of place her brother liked? "It's seeking to steal all five OmniTech Ability Bands, which it calls the 'hands of God.' It already knows the Morphers are sentient. In fact, the impression I get is that all five Morphers are part of the same one spirit, and that this spirit is part of something even more, and it calls this spirit the 'mind of God.' Some kind of universal power source it's aspiring to control. None of it makes any sense to me, but to the Eternal Demon, these thoughts dominate its mind, eclipsing everything else."
"So, the Demon knows exactly what it needs to conquer the universe," concluded Gabriel, "and it's been using you, Tracer, and Arcanza to put all the pieces in one place."
Krista shook her head. "It can't be done here on Earth. There are three parts of God—the hands, the mind, and the heart. The 'heart of God' isn't on Earth."
The EON agent must have been familiar with the entire rest of the story, because he knew exactly to what she was referring. "Meridian-Omega," he growled.
"Our only hope to stop it," Krista sighed, "is to do it here on Earth. If it reaches the center of the universe, and its plan succeeds, no one will get out alive. Not even Michael or Arcanza. Definitely not me. I wish I had seen this before I..."
"It sounds to me like this Trinity Prophet manipulated you," Gabriel told her in a non-judgmental assessment. "Though you certainly bear the blame, I think you can still redeem yourself by helping us fight back."
She gave in an finally started rolling back and forth on her rear end and the balls of her feet, feeling a stinging sensation behind her eyes that could have very well been the beginning of tears. "No, I don't think so. The only way to fight back is up to them." She pointed towards the Rangers, still completely off this plane of consciousness. "If they can't transcend the limits of OmniTech, and become one with the 'mind of God,' the possibility of stopping the Eternal Demon is zero."
Dive.
Dive. The word echoed in Alexander Revell's ears, and at first it was the voice of an old friend, a comforting presence, a supportive force from his past. But then it became Alex himself, cheering himself on, propelling him forward, down deeper into the darkness that seeped into his mind. There was no vision here. He could not hear anything, it just was. Where he should have been tasting fire, feeling an icy chill, smelling the loneliness, it was numb and raw. All raw.
"I've been here before," a voice said. His own, but he had not said anything.
Sensations came back, and Alex's eyes snapped open. The world he saw was vast and beautiful, rolling meadows of green grass, trees all around giving shade and cooling, sun blazing high, high in the sky. Clouds rolled along, fluffy and light. Far in the distance, squirrels and birds played racing games with one another, and even a large bear passed through with not even the slightest interest in Alex or looking in his direction. He could even make out the figure of Grandfather Revell, contently sitting underneath one of the trees, napping.
The tranquility was uninterrupted even as a strange person walked forward out of thin air. It was Alexander, walking toward himself, but the old Alex, as he appeared five years ago. Slightly shorter, less toned, and deceptively innocent. This Alex's eyes were not sick or worn away; they were bright green, sparking, comforting, ready for action at any given second.
"Who are you?" Alex asked.
The new arrival smiled. Suddenly, the young man changed shape, growing and expanding, until suddenly Alex was face-to-face with an enormous green-scaled beast, spreading its wings, blocking out the sunlight and creating a panic in the tiny nature scene behind them. There was no doubt was this thing was. The Dragon, the mythological beast and physical representation of the Green Ranger OmniTech power. Just as quickly as it morphed into a monster, it reverted back into a mirror of Alex.
"You're the presence who lives inside the Morpher, aren't you?" Alex asked.
"I've been here before, when you were taken away," it told him again. "She forced her way inside, so fast I couldn't fight her off, and..."
Alex swallowed. Or at least, he thought he did, it was hard to tell here. He must be deep within his own psyche, because this was somewhat familiar to him, too. "You mean Fhare, don't you? She tried to invade and control my mind."
"I did what I thought would save us both," the human Dragon continued, sitting down in the middle of the grassy field. "Locked your mind away and took over your body. I couldn't let her have you. But, I have never had a body before, let alone one so complex and uncontrollable as a human body. It was frightening. So I fought back. I fought everything."
Resigned, Alex sat down in the grass as well, never turning away from his visitor, amazed that he was learning the truth behind his madness at last. It was an enormous relief to him, learning it was not himself responsible for so much destruction and devastation, but at the same time he felt sorry for this alien entity, who seemed normal and thoughtful enough to know right from wrong. Or did it?
"We have suffered so much pain," the Dragon moaned. Suddenly, there was a crack in the air, and the mirror's shirt sleeve on his left arm was ripped off, a large scratch appearing on his arm, blood gushing out from the deep, pseudoine-infected wound. "We've caused just as much. And it was all my fault."
"You're fault?" Alex repeated, stunned.
The Dragon nodded.
Alex reached out and grabbed the entity's hand. His own hand. "We worked together. And we fought to protect, to defend, to uphold what is good and decent in this world. I had faith in God all along, and after I became the Green Ranger I began to have faith in myself, as well. You changed me, but..."
"You were a better person before we became one," the Dragon accused.
He had not noticed until now, but the air was beginning to change, grow colder and more ominous. The sun was gone, hidden behind a black cloud, and it looked like it was about to open up and start pouring rain. Even the innocent animals were gone. He could feel the darkness and despair starting to conquer all.
The mirror Alex was boring a hole through his soul. "I made you kill. I caused you constant pain. I sent you beyond the touch of time and space. I turned you against your faith. My presence on this planet is what killed your family, your friends. One by one, they fell away, and I continued to protect you, save you, just so you could watch it all happen before your eyes!" The entity stood up, now surrounded by a pulsing green and black miasma. "Face me, Alexander Revell!"
Words started coming to him. He could not tell if they were his own, or someone else's, but he could distinctly feel their meaning. Extreme anger. Silent rage. It had to be released.
"I hate myself!" Alex screamed. The pleasant little world around him began to collapse in on itself, imploding, cracking away into bits and pieces of shattered black glass that crunched beneath his bare feet as he charged forward. He seized his mirror image by the collar, but it response it morphed back into the terrible Dragon creature, animal eyes burning with intensity. "I'm weak! I lost my body. I lost my mind. I lost my soul. It wasn't your fault, it was my own! Face me, Omni Dragon! Face me and..."
Ascend. The word pressed itself into his brain so forcefully he collapsed and pressed his palms against his temples to stop the reverberation.
Ascension.
Dive.
Dive. One word, it was like a cheer. Bright and upbeat, she could feel it sending support and channeling a feeling of camaraderie into her. Just like cheering at a football game, only it was completely different. She did not know where it was coming from, or why it was there at all, but it was impossible to deny it existed.
When she was able to see, to feel, again, Rebecca Spencer looked around at the strange place she found herself within. There was all sorts of action surrounding her, bursts of energy originating in front of her and jumping over her head, continuing to bounce as they stretched ever further behind her. A bunch of twisted gray coils created the walls off to either side and, when she reached out to feel them, they were scalding hot to the touch.
"Where am I?" she asked herself.
Becky walked forward for a few minutes, but none of her strange surroundings changed. She could have been turning around in place for hours on end and made it just as far as she had moving along the corridor. A sharp crackle of energy discharged from above her, slammed against the wired wall, and vanished with a disturbing hissing noise.
"I can tell you where you are," someone announced. Not someone, but some many, because it was a chorus of voices in unison that were speaking to her. Becky turned around and gasped upon seeing the sources of the voices. Standing in the middle was her father, Richard Spencer. On his left side was her family, her mother Diane and her sisters Katherine and Eleanor; on his right side were three of her friends, Harper Quinlan, Jeremy Palmer, and Rachel Manus-Vaughan. When they talked, the seven talked as one, "But you wouldn't listen."
"What's happening?" Becky demanded, instantly uncomfortable.
"See," her father laughed, and the others echoed, "See...see...see...see..."
Another electric spark passed above her head, and slowly she regained the ability to think for herself. But was she really? Apparently, she was in a live wire, standing dead center in an electric current, facing seven innocent people who had died because of her inability to protect the Earth. If this was the depth of her soul, she wanted nothing to do with it. "Maybe if I close my eyes, I can wish myself out," she told herself.
"Don't close your eyes," they warned her, "you won't be able to see."
She cautiously reopened them only to notice that the seven people were changing shape, they were melting into one another, creating a single creature, a large and powerful stallion with angelic wings protruding from its sides. Its own eyes were narrow and glowing brightly, and it was speaking from its mouth, "I need to you see."
"A winged horse," Becky grunted. "Pegasus. Are you the...essence, or whatever...inside the Omni Morpher?"
Pegasus nodded, a deep bow of his horse head. "A reflection of it. A reflection of you. Maybe a combination of both."
"Then you are the one to blame!" she screamed, her mind again becoming raw and uncollectible. "The one who took away my innocence. My happiness. My friends and family. I hate you!"
The horse stood up on its hind legs, for only a brief instant, but long enough to stop her from charging forward, ready to strike. Becky had not even realized she was doing so. This place was warping her entire perception of reality. Being so out of control was so foreign for her, it was beginning to frighten her, or at least it would have if she could feel her own emotions.
"Then you hate the wrong person," it told her. "Here is who you should hate." Suddenly, the Pegasus morphed again, this time becoming the image of Rebecca, but a few years younger and a couple pounds thinner, as well. The mirror image was wearing no clothes, no jewelry, no makeup, a complete reflection of the person Rebecca Spencer was five years ago. The innocent girl.
Becky laughed. "Hate myself?" she sneered. "For everything that's happened? No, because I've played nothing but a supporting role the entire time. All this shit happened because of Craig and Michael and those sick Omnian aliens."
"You were used?" her reflection replied with a twisted smile. "An insignificant pawn in a game that extends to the corners of the universe and makes the balance of light and shadow tremble at our voice? I don't think you were paying attention at all!"
Electricity. Heat and light, blended into raw energy, manipulated and controlled by man, a tamed and incredible source of power. OmniTech. Stray energy and starlight, blended into a morphing grid, manipulated and controlled by woman, a tamed but unexplored source of power. And both belonged to her. "I can feel it," she sobbed. "Everything I was capable of, that I didn't do, because I felt I wasn't important. And it was because of me that Dad...and Mom...Katie and Ellie...oh no..."
"Face me, Rebecca Spencer!" the Pegasus screamed at her.
"Face this!" Becky screamed back, sticking her middle finger up at her reflection.
The younger Rebecca vanished, replaced by a ball of electricity that fizzled out and harmless faded away from existence. "This was pointless. You're so pathetic."
"I know," she answered, unable to put a stop to her tears. "Everything I love has been stolen, and my heart is crushing itself inside me. I hate myself." She blinked, and a random idea popped into her head, so insane and incoherent that it made crystal clear sense to her. "But if I kill you, I will have my retribution! Face me, Omni Pegasus! Face me and be..."
Ascend. The sheer magnitude of the heavy words pressed down onto her shoulders, forcing her to her knees, making her whole body shake underneath the weight of her own world. Something inside her opened up.
Ascension.
Dive.
Dive. And that is what Patrick Manus was actually doing, diving down, passing through an ocean of pure, clean water, descending into an undersea paradise that beckoned him to keep moving farther down, and farther down still. He swam, completely ignorant of his water-filled lungs and the cascade of pressure encompassing him on all sides. There were no fish here. Just an endless sea.
Finally, his hand hit the bottom and, as it did, he collapsed onto the ocean floor as gravity began to overpower surface tension. Looking around, Patrick realized that he was now standing in Ivory Glade, except it was entirely submerged. He was standing in a sunken replica of his hometown. Unsure of whether he could open his mouth, he decided to wander around all the while trying not to breathe out.
Suddenly he saw him. A person in frightening black armor, with a pair of red eyes that looked like burning embers, holding a long scimitar weapon with a body hanging haphazardly from its blade. Those eyes turned toward him, interested, searching for a new victim. "Ah," the assassin exclaimed.
"Vesper!" Patrick screamed.
The victim of Sir Vesper's cruelty was still thrashing, trying to escape an inescapable situation. At last, acquiescent, she looked up and moaned regretfully, "Patrick, I'm sorry, I have to leave."
"Rachel!" he screamed his sister's name. "Don't die! Rachel!"
As her blood began to disperse throughout the water surrounding Sir Vesper, the black armor shattered, revealing the two twisted forms within. The first was a sickly man with long ghostlike hair and deceivingly beautiful chiseled-from-crystal eyes while the second was a scowling youth who radiated with disgust and apathy at the world around him.
Bane cried out, "What have you done? You let your sister die!"
Michael grinned devilishly and said, "Maybe you have a bit of class, after all."
"I...I didn't do it," whined Patrick. But even though he was thinking passive thoughts, his body was struggling to charge forward and attack both of them. He would strike the New Omnian down with the fighting technique he taught him. He would laugh as he wrapped his hands around Michael's neck and strangled the life out of the evil boy.
Before he reached them, the water around him frozen, turning to ice in a split second, paralyzing Patrick in a cage of subzero liquid. "Don't you feel that pain?" demanded Bane.
"What pain?" Patrick asked, exerting all of his energy just to make his teeth move in some manner that could form words. He was so sore. But he felt so numb.
Michael snorted contemptuously. "The pain of being inadequate and subservient to us, you dumbass," he answered. "When we were the Blue Ranger, this team was unbeatable; the second you took over, the world went to hell. Did you think nobody else would notice that coincidence? Everyone noticed!"
He started to argue, but Bane talked over him, his ghostly complexion taking on a much darker intensity. "I failed with you. It was impossible to build you up to anything resembling a good fighter. Your inexperience and weakness would be laughable if it had not wiped out the entire population of eight cities with millions more slated to die."
Again Patrick wanted to argue, defend himself, but the chance eluded him once more as the two former Rangers before him began to change shape into something much larger and more ferocious. It was an enormous scale-covered body with several long serpentine necks, each attached to a different familiar head. He could recognize Bane, Michael, his sister Rachel, the four other Rangers, Amber, and Gabriel, while the tenth and final head was a snake with shining eyes.
"The Hydra!" he gasped.
"Ssso, you know," the snake observed, lowering its head down to stare at Patrick merely inches away from him. The water rippled as the beast moved, but there was no sound or sensation created by the movement. "If you know the truth about me, then you alssso know the truth about yourssself."
Patrick's upper lip trembled as he fought to maintain a calm and composed demeanor, which was becoming harder and harder to do as his time in this strange place moved on. "I'm the one who rightfully uses the Omni Morpher," he said defiantly. "Michael's and Bane's hearts were both corrupted by evil. Even though I'm not their caliber of a fighter, I am a better person."
The Hydra laughed at him. "A better person, you say?" the head of Michael taunted in the traitor's own voice. "Perhaps, but even good people can be worthless. In fact, that's usually the case! Worthless! No value!"
"Worthlessssss," the snake emphasized. "Face me, Patrick Manusss! Face me and admit your insssignificance!"
"I...I..." Patrick stammered, but his mind was failing him as he felt himself giving into the despair of the reluctant truth. All those different people in his life, the nine other heads of the creature, laughing at him about his impotence. There was a feeling inside his chest, a tight knot that tormented him, and made him want to violently lash out. "I am unimportant," Patrick admitted sadly, "but...I have the power to fight back! You want to face something? Face me, Omni Hydra! I'll send you to..."
Ascend. The instant he heard the word, the beast, the city, and the sea all vanished, replaced by an all-blue void, carrying his limb body back up to where he began his journey.
Ascension.
Dive.
Dive. And she stood in a tunnel. All around her was nothing but blackness and an atmosphere soaked in depression and despair. Brittany was here once before, mentally, but she thought she had escaped forever. What happened to bring her back here? She knew the truth, of course, but how would she heal herself a second time?
"Walk toward the light," a voice instructed her. For the first time, she noticed a bright light shining at the very end of the tunnel, something that was not there on her last visit within. With a goal in mind, a comforting thought, she proceeded forward, walking at a slow and gentle pace.
As Brittany walked, visions began appearing off to her sides, scenes from her past that she would rather forget. Memories of her mother, beautiful and heartwarming memories, but bitter and painful now. She stopped to examine one of the visions more closely.
Angela Elliott was walking through the grocery store with her young daughter, a smiling face on both of the beautiful girls, pushing a shopping cart filled with fruit and packaged meat. The little girl dashed down the candy aisle, searching seriously until she located a package of her favorite bubble gum, then bounded back to her mother with an expectant look on her face.
"Will you still eat all your supper?" Angela asked the girl.
Young Brittany paused with her hand above the cart, not yet dropping the item, staring at her mom as she considered the proposition. So she could only buy gum if she promised to clean her dinner plate later? The decision was hard, but the girl took her hand back out and starting trudging back to put the package back.
Sighing, Angela said, "Oh, alright, you can get it." Beaming, little Brittany ran back, tossing the candy in with the other food, and wrapping her arms around her mother's legs in a grateful hug.
"Don't let go," old Brittany begged. "Don't let go."
Young Brittany let go and pulled a calculator out of her pocket. As the two of them continued shopping, Brittany began adding up the total of their grocery bill before they reached the check-out. The memory vanished.
"You let go," Brittany scolded that girl, tears seeping up into her eyes. "I let go. Why did I let go?"
"Walk toward the light," the unknown voice ordered her again.
She continued, trying to ignore the rest of the memories that appeared beside her, but in so many of them her mother looked so happy. Her father was content and omnipotent. Her brothers were annoying but affectionate. There were glimpses of other relatives, of her old friends, as well as new friends, and even her first meeting with Gabriel Kaisa towards the end of the tunnel.
But then, she found herself in a second tunnel, with the light moving farther away than it had been before. Now when she went forward, Brittany was surrounded by her painful and depressing memories. Being alone in her room crying after doing poorly on a test she had studied an entire week for. The scarring memory of her father telling her that mother had finally passed away. Learning that Ivory Glade had been blown away.
After what seemed like an entire lifetime, because that was exactly what it had been, Brittany reached the light, close enough that she could reach out and touch it. She paused, however, and turned around to look back down. There were some memories obviously absent from the review of the happiest and saddest moments in her life. No memories of anything that happened when she was morphed into the Yellow Ranger. And no memories at all of Craig Hopwood.
"Reach out for the sunrise," the voice prompted her.
Brittany turned and touched the light.
She was back in the place she dreamed about. A place she assumed was Heaven, because the previous time she was here, everyone she recognized was a loved one or acquaintance who had passed away. There was a field of flowers, an endless blue sky, and the most beautiful waterfall cascading from so high above her it seemed to be poured from Infinity itself.
The last time, Craig had appeared from those falls. This time, an ancient Egyptian Sphinx emerged from the same place, running through the air in circles down to stand before her where she stood. "I am surprised you made it," the Sphinx told her.
"You're the life inside the OmniTech," she decided.
"I am life, period." The Sphinx twisted its face until it looked as if the creature were irreverently smirking at her.
Brittany could feel a sudden burst of antagonism from this new arrival, and she began to wonder whether it was a friendly presence or a dangerous one. She stepped back and put her hands up defensively. "Don't even think about..."
Without warning, the Sphinx changed shape, turning into an exact lookalike of Brittany, the way she looked five years ago when she was still in high school. "I could have saved her," the mirror image whined. "I could have used pseudoine to cure Mom's cancer. But I didn't...and now she's..."
"What is this?" Brittany asked, getting angry.
"I am a Power Ranger," the doppelganger growled, "capable of performing miracles and making the impossible possible. I killed giant monsters by riding in giant machines. We traveled together to the center of the universe, and held enough raw power in our hands to tear a hole in time itself. But the one thing all these powers couldn't do..."
There was a thorn of rage lodged in the confusion circulating around inside her mind, and the only thing Brittany was able to focus on was lunging forward.
"My family don't even have gravestones, because the nuclear explosion burned their bodies to nothing," the other Brittany was sobbing. "All that's left of them are...are memories."
"Get out of my head!" the real Brittany screamed, and she began pummeling the other girl with a vicious bloodthirst. Each time her fist slammed into her attackee, there was a euphoric moment when she got the urge to laugh. She could have been punching for seconds, minutes, or hours, but when she stopped, Brittany was smiling and her opponent was an unrecognizable bloody mess. "This is my mind! You're not welcome here!"
You cannot ascend.
Looking around, Brittany was startled by the force with which the words had crashed down upon her. "What do you mean, I cannot ascend?" Standing up tall, she charged forward, directly into the torrent of water, and began climbing up. She felt refreshed and revitalized as the blood of her victim, her own blood, was washed off her body and clothes. "I can ascend myself! I don't need anyone, not anymore!"
"Face me, Brittany Elliott." Her hold on the rocks gave way, and she began falling back to the ground, knowing full well her life was going to end if she reached the bottom. Maybe she could fly...
Brittany called out, "No, you face me, Omni Sphinx! I have hated myself far too long to fall for your tricks now!"
You can ascend. The Sphinx caught her and stopped her freefall.
Ascension.
Use it.
Amber blinked and found herself in the middle of beautiful surroundings, a place she had never laid eyes on before and yet somehow it was comforting and familiar. There was a happiness to this place, and a bit of sadness as well, but the overall penetrating feeling was loneliness. The ground was covered in short green grass with each blade cut so perfectly it was extremely fluid in appearance. No trees, but flowers large enough to require two hands to hold if she were to pick them. A tiny creek filled with foamy white water flowed along harmlessly far off to her side. Where it bordered on reality, however, was when she looked up into the sky. It was a gentle golden color, a white-hot sun dispersing light across the world from far above, creating a world of shadows directly below her. That yellowish tint to the sky was warm, inviting, but like everything else it also felt the exact opposite.
She started walking around, examining her new environment, wondering where exactly this place was and how she had come here. Part of her wanted to escape and return to reality. A deeper, more honest part of her wanted to lay down, close her eyes, breathe that wonderfully fresh air, and never move again.
At the edge of the stream, she saw him. A man just shy of his elderly years, holding a cane in one hand, wearing a brown blazer and a pair of bifocal glasses. His image flickered and grew unstable, but Amber knew he was still there. And she thought she knew who it might be.
"Professor?" she called out. Then, more hesitantly, "Father?"
Abner Donaldson answered her, but she could not hear him, because even though his mouth was working and his lips moving, no voice was coming from him.
"I can't hear you," Amber told him, but he continued trying anyway, and from his expression whatever he was telling her was important to hear.
Another person appeared beside the Professor, a beautiful woman with silver hair dressed in the black and yellow Omnian clothing that her and the other former Rangers always wore. Seraide wore a soft smile, one formable only through the presence of motherly love, and would occasionally glance over to Abner in surprise. She was not flickering in an out of existence like he was, but like him, when she went to say something, no words came from her voice box.
"You cannot hear them," someone behind her explained roughly, "because everything they are saying is a lie. Here, inside your mind, you cannot hear lies. You cannot lie to yourself."
Turning around, Amber was shocked to see an old man. Old was an understatement, in fact, because he looked ready to fall apart at any minute. Very thin and gaunt, he stumbled far to the side as he attempted to walk toward her from the distance, and his frail bony hands clutched a dusty old book as if it were sustaining his life. "And you are?" she asked.
"Rzodin, a three-thousand-year-old Omnian priest," he answered. He grimaced in pain as he lifted his hand to motion to the world around her, "This place is the planet Omnis as it existed after Daermos, the form the Eternal Demon took in my time, was sealed away."
She looked again, and now Craig was standing between the Professor and Seraide, but unlike them he was not struggling to try and talk. He looked calm, peaceful, perhaps even a bit proud. Proud of her, maybe? Instead of being hazy or solid like his father and mother, his presence was electric, ready to meet and exceed reality, whatever that meant.
Back to Rzodin, Amber continued asking, "Can you tell me what's happening?"
"The time has come for it to awaken," Rzodin answered.
"For what to awaken?" She suddenly felt terrified of his answer.
Suddenly, Rzodin began to alter his shape, changing from a man at the threshold of death to a oversized dog-like creature with three distinct heads. "I cannot help you in your battle anymore," the Cerberus told her, "but you have something even more powerful than me locked inside your heart. Use it!"
"Use it!" Professor Donaldson's voice cracked through his muteness.
Seraide, close by, echoed him, "Use it!"
Without warning, there was suddenly a massively enormous group of people standing all around, all of whom looked familiar or she instinctively knew. All of the former Omnian Rangers, even Soleron, the man who trained her to become a Ranger herself, were there. Her friends were also there, urging her to use it. Some of her even older friends from North Carolina appeared as well. The monsters from Rapture Hold were staring at her intently, Corout in front of them all, grinning.
A man in the middle of the crowd moved forward, and everyone instantly darted out of the way to give him space. He was still a young man, Omnian by the look of his strange embroidered clothing, and even though very tough and powerful-looking there was an aura of razor-sharp and lightning-fast intelligence about him.
"Use it," he told her firmly, pointing at her heart. Amber knew who this man was, her biological grandfather, Prince Nyru, whose arranged marriage to Janoa had resulted in her mother Seraide's birth. Her grandmother and namesake Janoa appeared beside him, but was careful not to get too close, a woman clothes in all white with ancient red and gold symbols sewn into the dress.
Amber closed her eyes and began to concentrate. She released her mind, detaching herself from herself, and seized that mysterious essence that was always floating around her but never reachable before now. Instantly she was filled with a vigorous new sensation, beyond anything ShadowTech had ever done for her, an explosion of ancient power.
"I gave this to you," Craig's voice whispered. "Please, use it."
Filled with what once was the most destructive force in the universe, Amber surrendered to the Black Hole power and fell into a deep and inescapable void.
Cecil's Sanctum shook again, this time more violently than the last. Ever since the battle between Cecil and the Hosts had begun, the mountains themselves threatened to collapse and crush them all beneath. The temperature was getting colder by the minute, and Gabriel was nervous, hoping that the others would wake up before their situation became too unbearable to the point they would need to flee. Krista, unconcerned with the prospect of dying, lounged against the wall of the hot spring.
Suddenly, Brittany opened her eyes, and moaned, "Ascend," to herself.
Gabriel was at her side instantly, stroking her sweaty blond hair gently away from her dirty face. Even this rugged, the girl still looked so beautiful, and he wished that he had expressed his feelings with her more honestly. But the job of defending Earth was more important than personal relationships, and he knew she understood his situation. Even so, just once...
She reached up, pulled his head down, and kissed him.
The others were beginning to stir, also, but he ignored it, letting himself be carried away by emotion. There might never be another chance like this.
"Are you finished?" Rebecca's voice laughed. "Or do you want us to wait another hour so you two can get it on like rabbits?"
Alexander chuckled. Looking up, Gabriel saw them standing and watching, and instantly felt his face start to burn with embarrassment. Brittany, on the other hand, remained completely composed. "You're right," she admitted. "We need to go save Cecil before he kicks the bucket...again."
"One hundred percent," Patrick whispered in awe. "Let's do it!"
As the four of them raised their Omni Morphers, Brittany exclaimed, "It's morphin' time!" and the others added their own cry of, "Go Meridian!"
"Meridian Green!"
"Meridian Pink!"
"Meridian Blue!"
"Meridian Yellow!"
A bright light enveloped them all and, when it died out, they stood together in a line, ready and eager to teleport outside and jump into the battle to protect what was left of their planet. They no longer wore helmets, but still retained their Ranger armor, and each of them had glowing eyes that corresponded to their signature color.
"I've got to save Cecil," said Rebecca.
Patrick balled his hands into fists and shook in place as he added, "I feel Michael somewhere out there. I'm going to wipe that smirk off his face once and for all."
"And Arcanza!" Alexander sneered. "God help me put an end to his evil."
They teleported out together, united as a team once more, each of them armed with abilities and powers undreamed of since the dawn of time.
Well, a team again, except for...
Krista was bending over to examine Amber, who remained dead still.
Atop the rubble of what was once their home, rejoined with their old friend and teammate Cecil, the five Meridian Rangers stood together, their powers maxed out and their souls transcended to an entirely new and higher level, crying out for vengeance against the unholy enemy that had taken away the happiness in their lives.
"And so it begins..." Arcanza observed.
Cecil nodded. "...the final battle."
Original Publication Date: 13 May 2005
