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| - They had succeeded. Well, to be more accurate, Jason had. He had destroyed the Sword of Darkness. Billy was grateful; he didn't know how much longer he could've lasted against this formidable opponent. The rangers powered down and turned to Tommy expectantly, the pink ranger with an especially hopeful look on her face. He wasn't facing any of them. His back was turned and his head bowed to the ground, now helmetless. Turning around he scanned their face with somber eyes, lingering on Kim's yearning gaze last. Throwing his head back he let out an evil laugh. "You pathetic fools? You actually thought that would work? That I would let some tool control me? Some spell? Rita is my empress. I serve her because that is my duty and I want to." The rangers exchanged shocked looks. Kim looked like she had been physically slapped. How could Zordon have been wrong? Billy couldn't comprehend; all of the signs and science pointed to the Sword being cursed with a spell to keep Tommy's mind under Rita Repulsa's control. Had Rita really outsmarted them and thrown them a red herring? Tommy clucked his tongue and looked at the ground where his sword had been, shaking his head. "Pity. I liked that sword." He pulled out the Dragon Dagger and caressed the length of the blade almost lovingly. "But this will do." With only a brief glance at his target he let the weapon fly. It didn't take long to meet it's mark. "Consider this your only warning. Back off. You don't stand a chance against me and my empress." He disappeared in a flash of glowing green light. The green light seemed to signal something in the rangers' brains and they finally spurred into action. Kim screamed and Trini covered her mouth, barely able to stifle a gasp of horror. Billy brought his hand a way from his chest and held it before his eyes. Why was it covered in red? A numbing pain spread out from the center of his chest where Tommy's dragon dagger lay buried deep. He stumbled back and fell into his friend's arms. Jason caught Billy before he fell and slowly lowered him to the ground. Despite the excruciating pain, Billy felt safe in his friend and leader's arms. "It's okay buddy, we got you." Jason reached over to press the teleportation button on his communicator, making sure to keep a hold on his injured friend as they departed the scene in sparkles of bright red and faint blue. Too focused on his wounded friend he didn't even look to see if the others followed suit. It didn't take long for them to land on the Command Center floor. "Ay yi yi!" Alpha cried when he saw Billy, propped up by Jason on the floor and painfully clutching the dagger in his chest. The robot frantically waved his arms around, not sure what to do having never encountered a situation such as this before. Jason looked up at his mentor in panic. Pink, yellow and black lights landed off to his right. "Zordon, what do I do? I don't know what to do." It seemed Trini had calmed somewhat during the transport. She rushed over and crouched beside her blue and red counterparts, attempting to assess the damage. Gently she wrapped her long fingers around Billy's hand that clutched the dagger. "Billy, I'm going to pull the dagger out now. This may hurt. Zack," she turned to her other friend, knowing the sobbing pink ranger wouldn't be of much help to her. "I need something to hold against the wound, to stop the bleeding. A towel or something." He nodded and rushed off in search. There was a med bay off to the left of the main room that would have supplies. They hadn't had much use for the room so far in their rangering careers; they mainly suffered minor cuts and bruises. Plus, the power accelerated their bodies' healing. It didn't take him long to find a compress and he jogged back. Jason held Billy's bloody hand in his own as Trini slowly pulled the dragon dagger out, not wanting to rush and cause Billy further damage. As soon as she dropped the dagger to the floor it disappeared in a glowing green light, presumably to return to it's master on the Moon Palace. Zack rushed forward to put pressure on the wound. "We need to get him to a hospital," Kim finally spoke up, her sobbing reduced to sniffles and the occasional whimper. "And say what? We need help patching up our friend after he was sliced and diced during a fight with the green ranger? There'll be questions; they'll ask what we were doing there. Why he would attack us?" Zack responded. The blood flow didn't seem to be slowing much, soaking the towel he held to Billy's chest and staining his hands a dark red. "We can't treat him here. None of us have the medical knowledge or experience to treat a wound this severe," Trini backed up her friend. "And when we appear in sparkling lights, how do we explain that? Huh?" "Stop, i-it," Billy gurgled, trying to be heard but not having the energy to speak much louder than a whisper. "It doesn't ma-tter. Too late. Too much blood. J-just stay. With me." "Oh, Billy, no." Kimberly dropped to her knees in front of her childhood friend. All of the rangers tightened their circled around their wounded comrade who lay on the floor, trying to give him some sense of comfort just by being close. It didn't take long. His labored breaths were wet with blood, and he looked to each of his friends one last time. Trini had her arm wrapped around the pink ranger and pulled her close. Billy could feel droplets upon his shoulder from Jason's silent tears. He wished he had more time with this amazing group of people he called friends. "Love you a-all." Jason bowed his head. They had failed. The funeral had been a few days later. The rangers had come up with a vague story on what happened to Billy. A wrong place, wrong time incident in the bad part of the neighborhood. Mr. Cranston had been distraught; understandbly so, since Billy was all he had left after his wife passed. He accepted their story, not thinking for one instant that Billy's closest friends would lie to him. But he blamed Jason. For not protecting him. It hurt, but it solidified Jason's own beliefs. It was his fault. He was their leader, their protector. And not only when in uniform. That was how Billy and Jason met when they were children. Bulk and Skull were picking on the young genius when Jason intervened. After that incident, everyone in the school knew that messing with Billy meant you were messing with Jason. Lately, with becoming a ranger and taking martial arts class with Jason, Billy didn't need as much protecting. But Jason still blamed himself. He couldn't protect him from someone they had once considered a friend. It was apparent Kim didn't think he could protect her either. The day after the funeral she quit the team. Handed her morpher and her communicator back over to Jason. Apparently the death of a ranger was enough for Rita to keep quiet for a while. The remaining rangers took this time to grieve for their lost companion. But the day after the funeral they decided it was time to come together and decide what came next. Make a game plan. "Now we know who the green ranger is. We should use that information to our advantage. Why don't we just take him out, he won't be expecting us to come after him. A pre-emptive strike." This was Zack's suggestion. "We can't do that," Trini stated softly, "It would be against ranger code, the rules that Zordon set out for us when we first became rangers." "She's right, rule number two, never escalate the battle. It's not the ranger way." Jason shook his head, vetoing Zack's idea. He wasn't yet in a place where he was willing to stoop to their enemies' level. This angered Zack. "So, what we'll just wait for him to take out another one of us? 'Cause that seems real smart, bro. We gonna wait until another one of our friends is lying on the floor covered in blood and taking their last breaths? What if next time it's you lying there, or Kimberly?" Jason knew his friend was right, but he just wasn't willing to take that action yet. There had to be another way to beat Rita and her Green Ranger. The clearing of the pink ranger's throat broke the male rangers' stare down. "I'm sorry," she sniffled, close to tears. "I-I can't do this anymore." She unclasped the silver communicator on her wrist, unclipped the morpher from her belt and handed both items that made her one of Zordon's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to her leader. And that was it. Jason called out to the girl he considered a sister, but despite the slight shaking of her shoulders she didn't even turn to look back. Not once. Looking back, Jason would recognize that moment as the one to push him off that precarious ledge he had been teteering on since Billy's death. He was in freefall and there was no turning back. Trini was the next to leave. Really, Zack should have seen that one coming. She never was one for violence. Preferred diplomatic words to bruising fisticuffs. He didn't agree with it, but he could respect her decision. Especially after their last battle with Tommy. With their forces spread thin, being down two members, the battle was taking it's toll on the rangers. Trini was making fairly quick work of the putties, but they were able to team up and get the jump on her more than once since she lacked a teammate to watch her back. Her and Jason had been working together until the green ranger had made his appearance. Jason was all too eager to take him on. From his position battling Finster's latest creation, some weird sort of cross between a shark and a dog (at least, that's what Zack thought), Zack could see Tommy lead Jason further down the alley they were fighting in. Distracted by his own battle and the cloud of grey that was between Zack and the rest of the rangers, he could only catch quick flashes of red and green. They were all tiring, but Trini had finally managed to take out all of the foot soldiers. Knowing Jason was out for vengeance, she raced to help Zack. Together they were able to battle the monster with ease. "Watch out, his bark is worse than his bite," Zack warned the yellow ranger of the creature's bark that seemed to cause the sensation of pricking needles into whatever body part the sound waves hit. Now that Trini had joined him, Zack chanced a look down the alley. Jason and Tommy were both now too weak to hold their morphs and were battling hand to hand. They knew they were evenly matched, having come to a draw the last time they faced each other in a match. Both were ruthless, but Jason seemed lost in a vengeful rage. With a resounding war cry that Zack had never heard from his friend before, Jason rushed Tommy and tackled him to the ground. Unfortunately, Zack didn't see what happened next because he also took a blow to the shoulder for not paying attention. "Zack!" "I'm fine, I'm fine," he grabbed his shoulder. It was only a mild pain. Trini had her daggers out and Zack decided he should also bring out the big guns. He called for his power axe. Using their weapons they were able to defeat the shark-dog. After the explosion that signified his demise, the rangers turned to their leader. Seeing their nemesis on the ground, Trini and Zack tentatively demorphed. They were hesistant to approach though, remembering what happened the last time they faced the green ranger unmorphed. Jason was on top of Tommy, landing blow after blow. The blood flowed freely and coated his fist. His color now speckled his face as well. Trini gagged and averted her eyes at the sight of Tommy's battered face. "Jason!" Zack rushed forward and grabbed his friend's fist just in time to stop another punch to Tommy's nose, which already looked broken. "Stop, that's enough." Upon closer inspection, admist the blood Jason also had tears running down his face. He stood up and looked at his fallen foe before looking back to his friend. "He deserved it." It didn't need to be said that Jason did this for Billy. Trini had come back after she had composed herself somewhat and knelt down to take Tommy's pulse. Solemnly she looked to her two teammates. "He's dead." The three rangers stood together in silence. Zack couldn't believe how this battle had ended; rangers fought for the good side, they weren't supposed to kill. That had been the last straw for Trini. She had walked away from the scene without a word. The next time the boys had come into the Command Center they found the Sabertooth Tiger power coin laying on one of the consoles. No note was left. It had been a slow disintegration, starting with the death of the blue ranger. After Jason had killed Tommy, who had once been his friend, he couldn't do it anymore. He couldn't handle the life of a ranger and he couldn't deal with what he had done. He had failed all of his friends and his mentor. Zordon and Zack tried to get in touch with Jason, find him, but he was unresponsive. That left one ranger to face Rita and her cronies. He lasted for as long as he could, but eventually the black ranger fell. Then the Earth was overrun, without it's protector Rita was easily able to take control. Rita had succeeded.
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