Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

One fateful day, the evil sorceress Rita Repulsa escaped her Space Dumpster prison and attacked Earth.

Five teenagers with attitude had their lives changed forever when Zordon chose them to defend the planet.

In the decades since, many more heroes have continued their legacy.

The people of Earth rest easy, knowing their home is protected by the Power Rangers.

Billy winced in pain, his body rolling to a stop. The grass had softened his fall but even then, everything hurt. It had been years since he had been in a fight. He tightened his fists and looked up, his eyes narrowing at his attackers as he spat blood.

“Any last words?” Rita cackled as he forced himself up from the ground and glared at the resurrected sorceress. Her robotic face made her look like a demon incarnate, exposing the insanity her former human body had thinly veiled.

“It’s Morphin Time! Triceratops!” A rush of grid energies reinvigorated him as he embraced the familiar blue armour.

He took up as a fighting stance, daring any of the putties to come forward.

“Putties, grid him into blue dust!” Rita drawled, pointing her staff at him and the clay golems left her side to charge at him.

He met them headfast, taking them out with punches and kicks. Same as the last time he fought them, nearly thirty years ago. He dodged a putty’s swinging punches, putting the minion in an armlock and using them as a shield for other attacks,

What he didn’t expect was Rita to enter the battle. He leaned back just in time to avoid getting his head slammed by her staff, only for a putty to kick him in the chest sending him staggering back. Before he could recuperate, a putty punched him in the face hard and he spun in mid air before crashing on the ground.

He heaved a sigh, struggling to his feet just as Rita let loose a volley of crimson energy that sent him crashing backwards once again.

“Why did you lead me here?” Rita asked, her screeching voice pestering him more than the flaring pain. “Was it your grand plan just to die outside in the fresh sea breeze?”

Just then, six teleportation beams slammed in between the witch and the ranger, the light subsiding to reveal the red, yellow, black, saffron, green, and pink mighty morphin rangers.

“Oh, you brought friends?” Rita drawled. “Now, it is a reunion!”

“Rita!” Tommy snarled, the dragon dagger appearing in his hand.

Zack and Kim rushed to Billy, helping him up to his feet.

“Got your distress call and zipped here as fast as we could.” Zack told him.

“Thanks, guys.” He said gratefully.

“Man, that’s Rita?” Zack said. “The robot look’s not for her.”

“She’ll look better on a junk heap.” Kim quipped, folding her arms.

“Why, you miserable brats!” Rita’s eyes flashed red as she raised her staff. “Destroy them all!”

The putties charged at them as the rangers leapt into action, all seven running at the nefarious witch and her cronies even as the ground behind them was consumed in a huge explosion thanks to Rita’s blasts.

Trini flipped backwards, dodging the putties’ attacks with unparalleled grace before taking them down with precise attacks.

Kim blocked a putty’s punch before flipping backwards and tearing through the encroaching golems with a flurry of kicks.

Zack punched his way through a horde of putties, using the brute strength of the mastodon to augment his attacks.

Jason found himself surrounded by putties on all sides. He blocked the incoming punches and kicks, before retaliating with his own.

Nancy, Billy and Tommy found themselves facing the diabolical witch herself.

“My, my… Tommy, how you have grown!” Rita taunted as the green ranger lunged at her with his dagger, which she blocked with her staff. Sparks flew as Tommy pushed her back before slashing her diagonally.

Nancy followed, jumping over Tommy’s shoulders, and striking the sorceress with her whip.

“Enough!” Rita yelled, slamming her staff to the ground and letting loose a wave of power that threw Nancy and Tommy back, forcing them out of their armour and the putties surrounded them.

Billy yelled, charging in. Rita blocked his punches with her staff before she tried to knock him off his feet by striking at his legs. The blue ranger leapt to avoid it, spinning in the air and smashed his elbow against Rita’s metallic face as he fell.

“My face!” Rita wailed, clutching her damaged face with exposed wires and blue sparks coming out of it.

“I was having fun. But you want to get serious?” She turned around to look directly at the blue ranger.

“Come on, let’s get deadly serious!” She snarled, unleashing a bolt of crimson energy at Billy, sending him rolling across the dirt. He coughed, trying to get back on his feet as his morph failed. Rita tightened her wrists and wisps of dark energies hoisted the genius up in the air.

“You know, I love my face just like I love all the power in my new robot body, thanks to my lovely husband, but I will gladly give up some of that energy for a spell that kills!”

Trini knocked out her fair share of putties and turned towards the battle with the witch, her eyes widening behind her helmet as she saw Rita rotate her staff, arcane symbols glowing behind her as she conjured a swirling crimson cloud of dark energies. The witch flung it towards Billy, who struggled to move but was restrained by Rita’s enchantments. His eyes widened as he saw the cloud move towards him, lightning cackling out of it.

“Billy!” Trini screamed, leaping to push Billy out of the way, taking full brunt of the attack.

“Trini!” He yelled. “NO!”

He watched helplessly as the crimson lightning cackled over the yellow ranger’s form, thrashing her body as her screams echoed through the battlefield before throwing her off the cliff in a huge explosion that devoured her completely, releasing a shockwave that threw everyone back and dispersing a cloud of black smoke in the air.

Everything seemed to stop and her body moved on auto pilot, pushing away the putties and running at Trini and Billy, but Nancy already knew it was too late. The crimson blast of chaos energy collided with Trini as she pushed Billy out of the way.

“NO!” She yelled. She wasn’t the only one. Billy, Kim, Tommy, Zack and Jason’s screams of anguish joined her own as Rita’s laughter cackled in the background, relishing in their despair.

The yellow ranger was thrown off the cliff, the cursed magic devouring through her armour and body, till there was nothing left of her but the sabre-toothed power coin which fell to the terrain below, the sunlight glinting off the golden surface.

The other rangers ran over to Billy, who was frozen in shock.

Jason and Zack looked down in horror. Kimberly fell to her knees. Tommy turned around to glare at the witch.

“Goodbye, Trini Kwan!” She drawled.

“You will pay for this, Rita!” Kim banged her fists on the ground before rising to face Rita. Tommy, Nancy, and Billy morphed into their armour, without uttering a word.

“Hardly!” Rita scoffed, raising her staff, summoning arcane energies that charged the air around them. “It’s your turn now, rangers!”

“Enough!” A bolt of lightning hit the witch, dispelling her powers and cutting through the remaining putties as the Mystic Mother appeared before them, her eyes blazing with fury.

“You!” Rita scoffed scathingly. “You are too late, imposter!”

“This ends now!” The Mystic Mother aimed her wand at her evil half.

“Fat chance!” The dark witch snarked. “You may have survived this battle, rangers but I have won! And soon, I will be coming for you, all of you and everything you love, when you least expect it! This is just the start of my revenge!”

With one last cackle, she vanished in a swirl of purple smoke.

Chapter Text

Billy, Zack, and Kim gathered inside Trini's house in Angel Grove. They had tried to reach Trini's daughter Minh in Angel Grove High, but the class hours were over and they supposed Minh was on her way home.

Jason and Tommy were with the Mystic Mother, trying to hunt down Rita along with their allies from other ranger teams. Nancy was back in Grid Battleforce, doing the same with the scientists there,

"So, what are we going to tell her?" Zack asked, gesticulating with his arms. "Maybe her mother drowned?"

"No. Minh is too smart for that." Billy quickly refuted the suggestion, pacing across the living room.

"Well, we gotta decide something quick because school is out." Zack shot back, his eyes drifting to where Kim sat on the couch numbly. "The others might need help searching the Dark Dimension."

"They have it handled and every other ranger on the planet is helping them. Minh needs us more than anyone else. You can't rush this. You can't decide quick on how to tell someone the worst news of their life. We can't lie to her. It's gotta be the truth." Billy stressed.

"Look, Zordon's rules-"

"Zack! Rules can be broken for a good reason!" The blue ranger cut him off harshly. "And for the record, if Zordon was here, I am sure he would say Minh needs to know."

"It's always been her and Trini. She doesn't have anybody else." He spluttered, a look of horror dawning on his eyes. "Who is gonna take care of her now?"

"Is that even a question?" Kim spoke up for the first time since Trini's death, her voice hoarse. She looked at them with puffy cheeks and red eyes. "We will."

The other two nodded.

"Our team… We have never been through something like this before. No, we must tell her the truth." Billy sighed. "Otherwise, how's she getting closure?"

"Billy, she is a kid!" Zack shouted. "She is a kid, Billy. She doesn't need to know that we are power rangers!"

"She needs to know Rita Repulsa killed her mom!"

"Guys!" Kim called sharply, standing up and looking past them. They turned around to see Minh looking at them shocked before her books and bag dropped from her hands.

"Oh, Minh." Kim said softly but the young girl looked at their faces with disbelief and horror, before turning around and racing towards her room.

The three looked at each other. Minh hadn't even tried to deny what they said. She knew from their faces.

In their grief, they had forgotten Minh had gone through her fair share of losses… her father and both her grandparents. And now, her mom…

"I will handle this." Kim told them firmly, following her goddaughter.

"We have to tell her everything." Billy repeated to the black ranger, both their faces ashen at seeing Minh.

"Is it true?" Nancy turned around from the surveillance monitors as the doors to the command room opened and her son burst in.

"Aunt Trini… What everyone is saying…" Ravi halted seeing the grim look on his mother's face.

"It is." Nancy nodded stiffly.

"No…" The blue beast morpher ranger murmured, tears welling up in his eyes. "Does Minh know?"

"Kim, Zack and Billy are going to tell her." She told him, turning back to the monitors. "I am scanning for any dimensional rifts."

"Mom, I can take over here." He offered. "You can take today off, be with the others."

"No." She said sharply. "What I need to do is find Rita."

Kim hesitated for a moment before entering the room. Minh was sprawled on her bed, clutching her doll, Mr Ticklesneezer.

The pink ranger closed her eyes at the sight of the doll Trini was fond of, before taking a moment to compose herself.

She sat down at the edge of the bed and placed a hand on Minh's shoulder. The girl looked up from her tear-stained pillow.

"She is gone?" Minh sniffed.

Kim nodded. It took everything for her to not break down sobbing. She couldn't afford to do that, not now, not in front of the person to whom Trini meant everything.

"It happened so fast. She was a hero." Kim said softly. "I am sorry we couldn't protect her."

"Where is she?" Minh asked. "Her… Her body?"

Kim gulped, her face contorting in pain and tears slipping out from her eyes involuntarily.

"The attack… It destroyed her completely." She said slowly.

"What?" Minh asked, sitting up. "I can't even see her one last time?"

"I am so sorry, Minh." Kim sobbed, pulling Minh into a hug.

"What will I do now?" Minh muttered slowly, pulling away from her.

"I am going to be with you Minh, whatever happens." Kim promised. "I am not going anywhere."

"None of us are." Zack said from the door as he and Billy stepped in.

Billy winced, taking out a charred device from his pocket. It was Trini's power morpher and coin.

He held it out towards Minh. "This was your mom's power morpher. It is the only thing that made it out of Rita's attack intact."

Minh faltered.

"Take it." Billy urged. "Trini would want you to have it."

The young girl sniffed, taking the coin from the blue ranger's hands.

Tears splashed on the golden coin as Minh looked at it, her fingers tracing the etching of the sabre-toothed tiger.

"Mom…" She gripped the coin tightly as she broke down into uncontrollable sobs. Kim looked at the other rangers helplessly, all three of them unsure of what to do.

Hope you liked this and please review. Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter. :)

This story has some spoilers for my Guardianverse/ Championverse stories. As seen, Nancy Shah is Commander Shah of Grid Battleforce and the mother of Ravi Shah. (It's Shah instead of Shaw in my stories because it is a more common indian surname.)

Chapter Text

Billy was never prone to anger or frustration before, but now pessimistic thoughts seemed to be a constant presence in his mind. It was his fault that Trini died. It should have been him. He had no family, no child… Trini had everything to live for, unlike him.

He banged his fists on the consoles.

It was all his fault.

Ever since Zedd’s resurrection by a necromancer, he had been plagued by thoughts that if the evil energies of Zedd could be revived, there might be a chance to do the same for the good energies dispersed in the Z wave.

However, Zedd had not been idle. While he was not an expert in necromancy like Reaghoul, he was proficient enough to summon Rita’s dark spirit in the mortal plane though he was unable to restore her physical body. His new ally, Scrozzle was able to construct a robotic vessel for her and the evil couple was reunited.

Sensing Billy’s attempt to revive Zordon, she hijacked the signal and broke into the Command Centre, attacking the blue ranger and his ally. Though he was able to lure her out into the open and enlist help from his team, they were no match for her evil powers, which were no longer inhibited by her god half and Trini paid the price for his actions.

“It is not your fault, Billy.” Alpha 5 reassured him.

“I drew her back to Earth.” He stated grimly.

“No. My memory banks have extensive information on Rita Repulsa. She would have come for all of you either way.” The robot told him. “This is not your fault.”

Billy didn’t reply but gave a disbelieving nod before teleporting away.

“Aie aie aie…” The robot muttered, turning towards the empty plasma tube in the centre of the hall. “Look after them, Zordon.”

Billy teleported into his secret lab, underneath his house. It was a place where he designed prototypes for non-ranger related innovations. Lately, it had turned into something else.

The monitors showed data he had covertly downloaded from the servers from Silver Guardians as well as SPD, everything they knew about time travel. Owing to the Time Force team, he knew time travel was possible and so was changing the timelines and he knew he would never forgive himself if he didn’t try.

From what he gathered, it would not be difficult to generate a time portal, especially with help of grid technology. The grid was a pathway into the past, present, future as well as alternate realities.

When he succeeded in going back, he would be ready for Rita, put traps in the Command Centre that would neutralise her energies the moment she teleported inside the premises and Trini wouldn’t need to sacrifice herself for him.

He would rewrite the timeline and Trini would be alive, with Minh and they would all be safe.

His calculations were accurate and with a few adjustments to the transportal device, he would be able to go back and stop himself from making the biggest mistake of his life.

“You can’t.” A sad yet familiar voice said from behind him and he turned around warily to see a man in a white jumpsuit with a silver triangle medallion on his chest teleport in front of him.

“Wes?” Billy squinted. Though he met the red time force ranger only a couple of times, he had been sure he had blond hair instead of brown.

“No. I am Director Alex Drake of Time Force and I am here to stop you from making a big mistake.” He said curtly. “Trini Kwan’s death is a fixed point in time. You cannot change it without causing unparalleled damage to the timelines.”

“What do you mean? Her death was a mistake.” Billy stressed. “She didn’t need to die and I will be doing the world a favour by destroying Rita before she murdered her.”

“You do not get it, Mr Cranston.” Alex rubbed his forehead. “Her death at the hands of Rita was always meant to happen. To reverse it would mean destabilising not only our timeline but the grid itself. It will lead to another Shattered Grid.”

“I am afraid I do not follow. What do you mean by a Shattered Grid?”

“In another universe very similar to own, a evil overlord killed Tommy Oliver in his early days as the green ranger, sending ripples through out time and fracturing time and space into pocket dimensions. The disruption almost wiped out the multiverse.” He told.

“But I am saving her-“

“It will be an anomaly, just the same.” Alex repeated. “I know it’s hard to accept but Trini Kwan was always meant to die when she did. She didn’t deserve to, obviously but it is what it is.”

“So, I just give up?” Billy asked helplessly.

“There is no saving her. To do so would mean dooming this universe.” He said sadly.

“What happens now?” He asked.

“I think you know the answer to that, Mr Cranston. Mourning is not easy but it is essential to carry on living. I am truly sorry.” Alex stated before pressing a button on his wrist watch and a purple portal appeared behind him. “Farewell, Mr Cranston. May the Power protect you.”

Billy threw the transportal device to the floor as he fell to his knees, crying. Alex was right. He couldn’t save Trini, not if it meant dooming the entire universe, including Minh. It was not something she would have wanted.

The only thing he could do was ensure something like this never happened to anyone else. He may not be able to change the past but the future was still in his hands.

Chapter Text

Rain poured down heavily, the clattering drops against the stone pavement reflecting the gloomy thoughts in his mind that even the loud beating of drum and the chanting of the Buddhist monks couldn't drown.

Jason stole a glance at Billy who looked stone cold. He knew that the genius was blaming himself but the real blame laid with him. He didn't stop Billy when he had informed them that he was trying to bring back Zordon… the slight possibility that their mentor might not be dead, just lost. In fact, he had supported the decision whereas the others had been unsure, Trini being the only one strongly against it on the basis that even if Zordon was lost, the process that would bring him back would result in him back in a time warp, the same prison that he had endured for ten thousand years. He should have agreed with her. They had all been messing with powers beyond their understanding, fighting a war against unimaginable odds. They were human after all…

She shouldn't have been the one to sacrifice herself for Billy… He should have been in her place. He was the leader. Protecting the others was his responsibility and he had failed them all…

A tear rolled down his cheeks.

Trini was his best friend, the one who always knew the right thing to say whenever he was having any sort of crisis and now, he was just supposed to reconcile with the fact that she was gone!

She was his first love and a part of him never stopped loving her. They had been so young when they had first started dating, eventually deciding to part ways as friends to avoid their feelings getting in the way of their ranger responsibilities.

Jason buried his grief and diverted his attention towards the crowd. Zack stood at his left, staring ahead with a blank look. After he had left the peace conference, Trini and Zack had started dating and their relationship lasted almost a decade only ending when Zack chose to move to Washington fulltime and Trini decided to return to Angel Grove. Both had tried their best to make the relationship work, calling it quits only when they could no longer deny the strain maintaining the long-distance relationship was putting them through.

Jason sighed, looking at Billy again. He and Trini had always been close. Trini understood him when no one else did and she had always protected him, till the very end.

He took a deep breath as Kimberly laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, the same pain in her eyes.

The monks stop chanting and one of them steps forward.

"The Buddha tells us that thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. This is how our sister Trini Kwan lived her life. She was that candle that lit so many other candles with her gentleness, compassion, kindness, and her leadership. She inspired so many to be their best in every act that that they do."

There was a poignant pause as the room full of mourners reflected on the words, some of them sobbing and others looking away to avoid doing the same.

"I now ask the family of Trini to stand."

Minh stood up, supported by Kimberly, Nancy, and her aunt Sylvia. Jason stood up alongside Billy, Tommy, Zack, Aisha, Sabrina, Rocky, Adam, Katherine, Tanya, Bulk, Skull, Nick, and Justin. Sylvia's wife Becky and their daughter Yen stood up as well.

"Will the appointed individuals come forward to help lead the casket in the procession?"

Jason stepped forward alongside Tommy, Zack, Billy, Bulk and Skull, as they walked toward the casket, each grabbing a handle and carefully lifting it and leading it down the centre aisle through the temple, Minh and the others following closely behind.

The rest of the funeral went without any fanfare. Minh hated it and stayed silent most of the times, letting her aunts and uncles do all the talking, only responding to people with nods. The entire thing felt like a sham.

All these flowers around the picture of her mother… the empty casket they buried… all these people coming up to say their piece and how sorry and shocked they were to hear about her mother's passing… None of it gave her any solace.

It hurt even more.

Her mother was taken away at such a young age while others far older than her were living fulfilling lives. Everything was so unfair.

And that's not even considering how her mother died. Blasted to atoms by a murderous witch.

What did saving the world and protecting innocents get her?

She may not have believed in God but she had always believed in karma and now she couldn't do that either.

After all the good her mother did, both as a doctor and as a ranger, was such a gruesome death really what she deserved?

It was all so wrong and it felt as if the ground was slowly crumbling away beneath her feet.

She was an orphan now.

Minh remembered her father Ritchie. Her parents had been high school sweethearts and reconciled after her mother had moved back to Angel Grove. Her parents had broken up before she was born and while they had been friends with each other, they never attempted to date again. That never stopped him from being a part of her life though. Her mother had always regarded her father as family though they weren't married.

Her father had died three years ago after succumbing to a rare form of cancer five months after the diagnosis.

And now, she felt all that pain come back again.

Both her parents were so kind and selfless and yet, both died so unjustly.

Why did they suffer such cruel fates?

Why were they taken away from her so soon?

Nothing made any sense anymore.

Katherine sighed, placing a bouquet of white roses over the casket.

Trini had always been so welcoming and kind to everyone. She remembered the first time they met at Ernie's Juice Bar after Zordon's passing.

Trini had no reason to stay in touch with her. They had nothing in common but she did and over the years, she became one of her closest friends.

All of it was too much to bear.

They had passed on the mantle decades ago and remained as reserve rangers. To face such a loss now, when all of them had lives of their own was simply devastating.

And poor Minh… While she knew the others would be there for the orphaned girl, she promised to herself that she would do the same, extend the same friendship and familial warmth Trini had shown her.

Tommy teleported into the Mystic Dimension in a burst of green energy.

"Tommy." The Mystic Mother said calmly, from her throne as Tommy walked up the dais.

"You missed the funeral." He noted.

"I thought it was best to not show my face considering it was my darker side responsible for all this pain." She sighed. "I am sorry. I should have sensed her presence sooner. If I did, the maybe…"

"Don't." Tommy shook his head. "None of us blame you. And if you hadn't shown up when you did, Robo Rita might have taken out all of us."

"I am the mistress of good magic. I should have been able to detect her sooner." She stressed.

"Maybe? But you and the Mystic Force were defending Briarwood and the magic realm from a demon invasion at the same time." Tommy said. "I don't think that is a coincidence."

"It isn't." She relented. "I did sense the taint of Lokar's essence on them. That is what alerted me to my darker half. This has Zedd written all over it."

"Speaking of Zedd, does Zophram have any clue on what Zedd is planning next?" Tommy asked, referring to Zedd's purified self, a former eltarian guardian and Mystic Mother's husband.

The mystic shook her head forlornly.

"None."

Tommy let out a grunt of dismay.

"But all of this is not the reason you are here. I am afraid I do not have the answers you seek, Tommy." Rita sighed.

"I haven't even asked."

"You don't need to." She cut him off kindly. "There is no reversing death, Tommy. It is the natural end of life and even rangers die."

"But other rangers came back from death before. Kendrix, Steel, Mack…" Tommy protested.

"All of it was the intervention of the Morphin Masters and even then, it wasn't as simple as you think. They didn't reverse death, merely prevented it. The Quasar Sabre absorbed Kendrix's body and soul before she could be destroyed. The Silver Beast Morpher was a hybrid…a robot and a human. Evox's attack destroyed his robot shell but his soul still survived on the mortal plane, allowing the Morphin Masters to create a suitable body for him. It is the same for the others." The Mystic Mother stated sadly. "They were exceptions and their survival nothing short of miracles but not every team is lucky. Thousands of rangers, entire teams even have died in battle and many more have died to natural causes, succumbing to illnesses or accidents. Death comes for us all, my dragon."

Tommy looked away, his face contorting in pain.

"I should go then." He said stiffly. "May the Power protect you, Mystic Mother."

"And you." The sorceress murmured softly as the ranger departed her realm.

Chapter Text

Adam had thought he had morphed for the last time when he came back to his dojo with Alpha 6 after helping the Overdrive Rangers, but fate had a different plan for him. Years later, he was forced back to action when the Armada launched a full out attack on the planet and the combined might of the rangers was barely enough to stop them. That was when he realised that Earth would never be completely safe if they continued to stay on the defensive and entrusted the planet's safety to mysterious forces.

Along with Tommy Oliver, Nancy Shah, Billy Cranston and other former rangers, he helped found the organisation Grid Battleforce, dedicated to the protection of Earth with help of grid technology. While the other former rangers stayed on the side lines, Nancy with her military experience and connections in the government became the face of the organisation and the director, with Cranston Tech and Bio Labs funding it.

Shortly after, they were contacted by SPD, asking for their help to fight off the nefarious Troobian empire. While the organisation had rangers of their own, they were more cops than rangers and SPD desperately needed a new strategy to change the tide of the war.

Though wary of trusting the powerful interstellar organisation with the grid technology Billy had worked so hard to prevent from falling into the wrong hands, the threat of the Troobian Empire could not be ignored.

The two organisations came at a standstill and their joint project – Space Patrol Alpha, an autonomous organisation backed by both, enlisting former rangers across the universe to help fight forces of evil while abiding with SPD's stringent laws as well as train the new generation of rangers, both SPD cadets or otherwise. Tommy Oliver was the obvious choice to lead S.P.A but he decided to take a role as a reserve member and a mentor for the cadets in order to focus on raising his son, and Adam Park found himself taking the reins of the operation.

He was joined by his former zeo team and Aisha as well as Carter Grayson of Lightspeed, Kai Chen, Kendrix Morgan and the Corbett brothers from the Galaxy team of Mirinoi, Aurico and Corcus of the Aquitar rangers, Andros and the Astro rangers, and many others across the galaxy.

The other zeo rangers stayed on Earth, taking charge of the SPA base and Earth's first ranger academy, while Aisha and Alpha 6 joined him in the SPA headquarters in the Sirius system, holding down the barrier against the Troobian forces.

While the planet Sirius had fallen decades ago, their valour had inspired the other planets in the system to take up arms against the Troobians and prevent them from expanding beyond the borders. Though the Sirians were driven to near extinction, SPD had eventually retaken the planet, making it the headquarters of the newly established SPA.

Adam's eyes shot wide open as the alarms started blaring. He spun around in his chair as the holographic screens in front of him showed a squad of krybots and a blue head terrorising a city on the planet Kaine-9.

The inhabitants of Kaine nearly resembled the Sirians, except the Kaine didn't have a scaly skin but instead a furry one just like the canines of Earth.

A team of SPD agents had already engaged the krybots but the energy blasts from their weapons seemed to be bouncing harmlessly from the robots.

"Director Park! Commander Campbell!" He turned around as a humanoid woman with a pair of feathery wings on her back, burst into the headquarters. She was Swan Shiratori, their chief intelligence officer, hailing from the planet Cigno 5. "Broodwing has stepped up his game. The scans are showing that the standard SPD issued blasters have no effect on them."

"Send a status update to SPD Central." Aisha informed quickly and Swan nodded, taking a seat near them. The veteran yellow ranger pressed a button and a second alarm echoed through the building.

Five teleportation beams appeared before them, revealing to be young individuals in SPA jackets trimmed with different colours and wearing communicators- three humans, one eltarian female and a kaine male.

The one in red was a black woman wearing a hijab of the same colour. She was Yasmin Manners. On her right was Arjun Panigrahi, a Indian male in blue and Zelena Zorren, the eltarian in green. On her left was Randel the Kaine in Pink and Umeko Tsukino in yellow.

They were the Power Rangers Prism Patrol.

"There's a disturbance in the Theta Quadrant of Kaine-9." Aisha told them.

Randel's eyes widened. "That's where my parents live!"

"The civilians have been escorted to safety." Adam reassured him as Umeko placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "But the SPD agents need your help."

"Right." Yasmin said. "Let's do it, guys!"

The others nodded as Swan swiped the holographic screens, teleporting them to Kaine-9.

Adam shared a sigh with Aisha as they turned towards the monitors to observe the rangers they trained morph and fight against the enemy forces. They now knew how Zordon felt every time they went to battle but even now, they had an advantage their mentor never had. Due to being trapped in the time warp, he could never intervene even when things went sour. They on the other hand had no such restrictions. They usually let the team take care of the threats for even though they were still prolific martial artists, they were still prone to age and their bodies couldn't handle the same stress they could three decades ago. In the rare event, the rangers needed help, they stepped in using either their ninja powers or their master morphers.

They watched the rangers quickly dismantle the robots and smiled at each other, proud of their students' feats and how capable they had become in so little time. The rangers teleported back in the headquarters, but before Adam could congratulate them on a job well done, a distress signal blared through the computers.

The words "BANDORA PROTOCOL" were on the holographic screens.

"Director?" Swan asked.

Adam turned to Aisha, knowing what this meant.

"Receive the transmission." He told hurriedly and the engineer did so, throwing the two of them a concerned look.

"Attention, all power ranger teams. Bandora Protocol initiated. Get to your assigned stations now." Alpha 5's familiar voice said urgently.

"We need to go to Earth." Adam sighed. Aisha nodded, both rising from their stations.

"What is happening?" Arjun asked.

"Earth needs our help. Robo Rita is back." Aisha said.

"Swan, you are in charge till we get back." Adam told the engineer, who looked flustered but nodded.

"We will go with you." Yasmin insisted. "Earth is our home too."

"No." Adam said firmly, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You five must maintain the peace here. If you leave, Grumm will most definitely take advantage of it."

"Don't worry. Earth has more than enough rangers to keep her safe but the Sirius system needs you guys more." Aisha smiled at them.

"May the Power Protect you." Zelena told them.

"And you." Adam and Aisha replied in unison before teleporting away in streaks of black and yellow.

Chapter Text

It was really unnerving how one year passed so quickly. Minh practiced her kata – the mantis style of kung fu just like her mom had taught her.

The mailbox outside Trini's house had changed, now showing "Kwan & Taylor" instead of simply "Kwan".

Zack was inside, tracing his fingers over the sabre-toothed tiger coin, grimacing as he remembered the fated battle a year ago… a battle that started out like any other but changed everything for them.

As he heard the door opening and fast paced footsteps, he sighed placing the morpher back inside the box on the mantlepiece, which was filled with pictures of Trini.

"Hey, you all good?" He called out to Minh who had just entered the house.

"Sorry, Uncle Zack, Time flies when I am getting my sweat on." The teenager grinned at him apologetically before heading towards the kitchen sink and grabbing a glass of water.

"Okay. We are meant to leave for the cemetery in ten minutes." Zack said, walking up to her. "You should clean up, get ready. We don't want to keep the others waiting."

Minh nodded as she drank the water. "I know."

She paused, hesitating before meeting his eyes. "Hey, you think they have made any headway finding Robo Rita?"

Zack did not let his annoyance show as he looked at her calmly, giving her a variation of the same answer, he had given the last fifty times she had asked her over the previous year, "We can ask them when we see them."

"Okay." Minh sighed, starting to move when she remembered something. "Wait, one more thing. Did you get the flowers?"

"Flowers?" Zack asked quizzically.

Minh frowned at him and he broke a smile, before pointing at a table in the living room where a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses lay waiting.

She smiled at him gratefully. "Thanks. I'll go take a quick shower."

"Yes."

"And order you a "World's Best Guardian" trophy…" Minh continued.

"Yes." Zack laughed.

"And then we can leave…" The teenager concluded before running up the stairs.

Zack grinned, watching her go. While the last year had been painful, the only highlight of it was watching Minh grow and become more like her mother every day.

As the two of them walked down to the cemetery, Zack winced looking at his watch.

"You know, Billy always gives me a hard time whenever we are late… especially when Tommy gets there before us." He told her accusatorily.

"Guess you can't use "but I am a busy congressman" as an excuse anymore." Minh joked, carrying the bouquet.

Zack shrugged.

"Sorry to mess you around." Minh told him, grimacing. "Today's not a day I have been counting down to, you know? It feels so weird. She was my whole world and she is gone but I am still here, still standing after everything."

"Yeah…" Zack nodded.

"Can't believe it's been a whole year." She said disbelievingly, her voice cracking.

"I know…" Zack said, putting his arm over her shoulder, burying the sharp pang of sadness in his own chest. "Seems like yesterday."

Suddenly, they heard a loud yell by a familiar voice.

"Tigerzord!"

They looked at each other.

"Pterodactyl!"

"Triceratops!"

"Tyrannosaurus!"

"Garudazord!"

Zack felt his instincts kick in. Something was wrong.

"Come on!" Zack hurried as they ran over to the sound, spotting Billy's blue car upfront. Minh dropped the bouquet as they scurried behind the car and she gasped, seeing the other morphin rangers facing a robot in a brown robe and a white wig arranged into twin hair cones. Her eyes narrowed, recognising who it was. With her were two monsters, one based on a serpent and the other a minotaur, both augmented with robotic parts. Behind them was a strange device, which looked like a big hollow disc connecting two columns of furniture, which was horizontally divided into something akin to book shelves.

"Before we begin, I just want to say, UNHAPPY ANNIVERSARY, RANGERS!" Rita cackled.

"That's Robo Rita, isn't it?" Minh growled.

"An ambush!" Zack realised, pulling Minh behind the car.

"How predictable of you all to get together on this special day!" Rita crooned before cackling. "And I have been so busy preparing!"

She pointed towards her new generals. "I even reforged some of my old minions! Do you remember them, Kimmy? Nancy?"

"Snizzard!" Kim remembered.

Nancy shook her head. It had the same monster that Rita had unleashed on the rest of the rangers while they were on a plane with Kim's uncle- a pilot, Bulk and Skull. Rita had slipped in a potion inside Kim's uncle's drink, making him fall asleep in the middle of the flight and forcing Nancy to fly the plane with help from Alpha's instructions and land it safely. It was the first time she had flown anything other than her zord and that thrill of flying the plane set her on the road to become a pilot and later join the Air Force.

"And Minotaur!" The other monster yelled, scandalised at being forgotten. He stepped forward, his voice deep and menacing. "Rows and rows of human graves! This place is beautiful!"

"Soon, all of Earth will be like this!" Snizzard hissed, his voice having a distinct nasal tone.

"Good! We will start with the Rangers!" Rita cackled.

"Not if we end you first, Rita!" Jason yelled as the rangers ran to meet the villains in battle.

"I got to help my team." Zack turned towards Minh. "But I need you to stay safe, okay?"

"But she is the one who…" Minh glared at the distant figure of Robo Rita. "We got to take her down. I have been training for this-"

"Hard no!" Zack cut her off sharply, not tearing his eyes away from the fight before sighing. "World's best guardian says "Do not move." You are not ready for this yet. Trust me."

Minh gave a relented nod.

Satisfied, Zack leapt over the car, morphing into his armour mid-air, and slamming his foot against Minotaur's shield, sending the creature staggering back. The beast roared, lunging at him with his spiked club, which the black ranger avoided and grabbed the monster by his arm.

Minotaur roared, throwing him off only for the blue ranger to jump in to his rescue, with a powerful kick against the beast's chest.

"What? No "Sorry, I'm late"?" Billy asked pointedly.

Before Zack could reply, the Minotaur huffed angrily, smashing his club against a gravestone. They shielded their helmets as the shattered slabs hit their armour, forcing them back.

"You will both be sorry!" He growled menacingly, walking towards them.

"You, okay?" Zack asked the blue ranger, as they got back to their feet.

Billy nodded, eying the monster who charged at them.

"Let's end this." Billy grunted. "Metallic Armour, Power Up!"

Grid energy enveloped their suits, giving them a metallic sheen and incredible power pulsed through their veins.

Zack let out a battle cry, leaping at the monster who covered himself with his shield, only to let out a yell of surprise as the black ranger's fist shattered it with just a single punch.

"Man, this feels great!" He grinned. Billy was next, sending Minotaur skidding backwards as he headbutted the monster.

"None of them even complimented my fancy new machine!" Rita whined to herself, watching the rangers battle her monsters. Minotaur and Snizzard were not the first choices for her new generals, but with Scrozzle's cyborg technologies, they seemed to be holding their own.

Zedd had tried to revive Goldar but failed. Scrozzle later informed them that the Titan had been resurrected a year ago by his previous master and had been defeated by the rangers in a different dimension, meaning his spirit could not be summoned from their home dimension, which was a shame… Goldar always got on her nerves, but she couldn't deny he would have been a great help in her mission.

She instinctively raised a protective forcefield around herself and her device.

"Nice try, Kimmy!" She sneered as the energy arrow fizzled out on hitting the forcefield.

"Enough games, Rita!" Tommy snarled, tearing through her barrier with Saba. He swung at him with the tiger sabre, which she dodged.

"You forget Tommy, my robot body gives me agility and strength beyond anything you can imagine!" She gloated, grabbing hold of his arm and slamming him hard against the ground. Saba dropped from his hands.

Rita cackled, slamming her staff to his back, making him writhe in pain.

"Let go of him, witch!" Saba growled, his eyes glowing red as the sentient sabre hovered in the air, firing laser beams at the witch, who hissed, scrambling back.

"Oh, I had forgotten you had a mind of your own!" She snarled, firing a crimson bolt at the sabre, which he flew out of the way of.

"You have to do better than that, witch." The enchanted sabre taunted just as Tommy scrambled to his feet, knocking Rita off balance with a sweep kick.

"Why, you miserable brat!" Rita snarled at him, slamming her staff to the ground, letting loose a wave of power that threw Tommy back, his armour flickering out. Saba let out a animalistic roar as the dark energy tore through the enchanted sabre, forcing him to retreat to the grid.

"Pathetic…" The witch scoffed, raising her staff at the defenceless ranger, wisps of blue magic binding his arms and hoisting him in the air.

"Tommy!" Kim yelled, running at them, only to be flung back by an invisible force as Rita thrust her other hand at the pink ranger. She crashed against Billy's car hard, as a cry of pain escaped her.

"Aunt Kim!" Minh yelled, running over to her.

"Minh… No. You shouldn't be here." Kim muttered as the teen helped her back to her feet.

"Do my eyes deceive me?" Robo Rita sneered. "Trini Kwan, is that you?"

Minh glowered at the witch. "My name is Minh, you monster! And you will pay for killing my mom!"

The witch let out a cackle of laughter.

"Oh, for a moment I was sure Trini was back from the grave!" She said, "You look much like your mother but your youthful vengeance reminds me of myself…"

Minh rolled her fists, letting out a battle cry but Kim held her back.

"Minh, no." She told her firmly. "Get behind the car till we handle this."

"But…"

"We will get her. I promise." Kim told her. "Trust us."

The girl gave a defeated sigh, doing as she's told.

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Kimmy!" Rita sneered as the pink ranger drew her bow and fired a string of arrows at her.

Rita shielded herself with her hands, creating a forcefield but in doing so, she was forced to let go of the magic restraining Tommy. The veteran ranger fell to the ground with a thump and smirked, taking out his master morpher.

"It's Morphin Time! Dragonzord!"

The green ranger leapt at the sorceress with his dragon dagger, cutting through her enchantments.

"Ahh, this is more like it!" She snorted. "You always do clean up better in green!"

She moved fluidly, avoiding Tommy's jabs, and countering them with spells from her staff. The witch cackled with arcane electricity, shooting it at the ranger, forcing him back.

"Tommy!" Kim yelled, running over to him, and helping him up.

"You two stand no chance!" Rita smirked as the machine behind her gave a deep hum.

"Snizzard, it's ready!" She called out to where her minion was fighting the red and saffron rangers.

"Nice moves!" Snizzard complimented as he and the red ranger was locked in a stillmate. If one looked from far, it almost looked like a dance. Nancy looked up from where she had crashed against a gravestone.

Snizzard finally snuck on the ranger, grabbing his wrist with his own, which instead of having fingers had a snake head.

"But mine are better!" He smirked as the snake head sank it's fangs into the unsuspecting red ranger, it's green eyes ebbing as green veins ran through the red suit and Jason let out a startled gasp, finding himself completely paralysed by the attack.

"Jason, no!" Nancy yelled, but it was too late. Snizzard stepped back and thrust his other arm at the ranger and a tangle of snakes shot out from his serpentine arm, coiling around Jason, it's dark magic enveloping his armour, cutting through the protection of the Power and miniaturizing him into the size of an action figure. The monster cackled picking Jason up and throwing him towards her mistress.

"A wonderful start to my collection!" Rita caught him, placing him in a shelf and looked at the others.

"One down, six to go!" She screeched.

"No!" Tommy growled, turning to Kim and giving her his dragon dagger. "Time for an old classic?"

"You know it!" She drew her bow, using the dagger in place of her arrows and fired it at the sorceress. The dragon turned into a green laser as the screech of a pterodactyl and the roar of a dragon was heard in the distance.

Rita countered it with her own magic, but was pushed back, the energy colliding with her and sending her skidding through the dirt.

"My Queen!" Snizzard leapt to her defence, lunging at the green and pink ranger with feral rage.

Tommy countered one blow with his dagger only for the monster to grab his other arm and the serpent head bit down.

"Got ya!" Snizzard hissed, paralyzing him.

"NO!" Kim yelled, lashing out at the monster with a flurry of kicks, sending him staggering back. She drew her bow but a powerful blast of energy slammed against her, knocking her out of her morph.

"KIM!" Nancy screamed, eyes drifting between Snizzard approaching Tommy and Rita raise her staff at Kim.

With a relented sigh, Nancy took to the air, her golden wings unfurling and she fired at the sorceress with her blade blaster.

"You brat!" She scoffed, as Nancy picked up the unconscious pink ranger.

Rita turned her head towards where Snizzard had a miniaturized green ranger in his grip.

"Like fish in a barrel! Bring them to me!" She commanded. Snizzard obeyed,

Zack and Billy ran over to the Saffron ranger as they glared at Rita.

"What kind of sick game is this?" Zack asked angrily.

"Oh, it's quite fun. My machine is draining their energy. Soon, they will be lifeless husks. You can join them!" She thrust her arm at them and tendrils of black energy wrapped around the two before pulling them to the ground before her.

"Billy! Zack!" Nancy shouted, drawing her blade blaster at Rita, who chuckled, deflecting the attacks with her staff.

Snizzard approached them, grabbing their arms with each of his hands and Nancy watched in horror as the snake heads sank their fangs into them.

Green veins spread through their armour and Snizzard shot out his tangle of snakes at them but suddenly, cracks started to appear in their metallic armour before they exploded in a massive burst of grid energy, frying the snakes and throwing Snizzard back.

"What happened?" Nancy asked Billy and Zack, helping them up. Both were back in their regular suits.

"Our metallic armour protected us from his attack!" He groaned, the three dropping into fighting stances.

Minotuar joined Snizzard as the two monsters advanced towards them.

Billy's eyes drifted to Kim, the captured rangers and then to Minh crouched behind Billy's car.

"Nancy, Zack, we need to go NOW!" Billy yelled, picking up Kim and running towards his car.

"He is right. We can't win here." Nancy sighed, firing at the monsters with her blade blaster as the two followed Billy, who placed Kim in the passenger seat in the front and sat beside her, taking the wheel.

Seeing the rangers retreat, Minh jumped into the backseat of Billy's car and opened the doors for Nancy and Zack to climb in beside her.

Billy started the car instantly, speeding away from the ceme.

"You think you can just drive away!" Rita drawled, appearing in front of them in a burst of crimson light.

Minotaur and Snizzard blocked them from behind.

"End of the line, rangers!" Snizzard hissed.

"Road's closed, rangers. Your move!" Rita cackled.

"What do we do!" Nancy asked as Billy jammed the accelerator pedal and Rita shielded her face as the car slammed against her full force, sending her skittering off the road before taking off the ground.

"What?" Minh gawked, amazed as she looked down to see the robot monsters glower at them from the ground, becoming increasingly distant as they flew higher up in the skies.

"You have a flying car!" She asked Billy.

"Well, that is what the Radbug Model is designed to do." The blue ranger shrugged as the rangers demorphed.

Kim moaned beside her.

"Aunt Kim?" She asked hesitantly.

"She will be okay, Minh." Nancy assured her before sighing. "We need to find a way to free the others."

"We will." Billy said firmly. "It's time to activate the Bandora Protocol."

Back in the ground, Robo Rita snarled.

"Well played Cranston. Fly while you still can!" She looked at the shelf where the red and green rangers lay frozen like dolls and smirked as the machine beeped, one of its tubes filling up with purple energies. "Soon, every power ranger will be where I want them. Much like your Trini!"

She raised her staff as she and the device vanished in a swirl of blue and purple smoke and her monsters followed, teleporting away in a burst of flames, leaving the cemetery deserted.

A bunch of flowers laid over a grave nearby, most of them yellow. A lightning bolt was inscribed into the gravestone and for a second, yellow light sparked around it,

Trini Kwan

Mother to Minh

Friend to All

A Great Hero whose legacy will never be forgotten

1977 – 2022

Chapter Text

“It all happened so fast!” Zack vented to Billy as they stood in the front porch of the Kwan-Taylor home, with Nancy and Minh tending to Kim inside. “That machine that Rita’s building, what does it do?”

“Honestly? Something that uses our power made by Rita? That’s a bad mix and if we don’t put a stop to it, I… I don’t think Tommy or Jase will make it.” Billy sighed.

“Then we got to destroy her!” Both turned around to see Minh walk towards them.

“We?” Billy blinked.

“Yeah!” Minh said, oblivious to the scepticism in the blue ranger’s voice.

“This is Ranger business, Minh. You are a teenager who has homework due.” Zack told her firmly.

“What- She killed Mom!” She exclaimed indignantly. “This is personal!”

Zack sighed, unsure of what to say.

“You know how hard I have trained!” Minh continued, flinging her arms in frustration.

“What you don’t understand is-“

“Let me finish!” She shouted. “If mom could do it… if all of you could do it as teenagers, so can I!”

Minh turned to Billy. “This is her legacy. I can help!”

“Minh, I am really sorry but you can’t.” Billy said empathically. “You are not a ranger.”

“Those monsters would overpower you in a second.” Zack added.

“And we can’t risk losing you too.” Kim’s voice came from the door as she leaned on Nancy for support.

“Mom’s morpher is there. I can use it and be a ranger. Fight alongside you guys!” Minh suggested.

“No!” Zack shouted firmly. “We are not putting you in harm’s way!”

Minh shot him a betrayed look.

“Besides, it doesn’t work like that.” Nancy sighed. “You don’t choose the power, it chooses you. The morphers … the power coins, they are not just tools. They are sentient to an extent. There is no guarantee that your mom’s morpher will work for you.”

“Look, the best thing you can do for everyone is to stay out of trouble and let us sort this out.” Billy said softly.

Minh turned to him, her eyes narrowing in anger. “Says the guy who caused all of this!”

“Minh!” Kim shot the young girl a glare.

“We all know that if it wasn’t for you trying to Frankenstein a dead alien, my mom would still be here!” She yelled at him, before storming back to the house.

“Minh, you come back here!” Kim shouted after her. “That’s no way to talk to your uncle!”

“Kim, it’s okay.” Billy started.

“It’s not and she is better than this!” Kim looked at him. “She doesn’t mean it-“

“I know.” He shook his head. “We need to go to Cranston Tech. It has the scanners we need!”

“Let’s go.” Zack sighed as the four pressed their communicators, teleporting away in streaks of coloured lights.

Rita let out a gleeful cackle as she slammed her staff on the lunar surface and the ruins of her old home glowed with dark power before the Bandora Castle stood in all it’s glory, as if it was never forsaken in the first place.

She appeared inside the throne room alongside her squadron of putties, Minotaur, Snizzard and her device which held the two captive rangers.

“Ah, this place brings back memories!” She sighed. “I wish my Zeddy was here with me but those accursed morphin masters trapped him in a crystal prison! Nevertheless, I will get him back and so much more!”

Her robotic eyes gleamed with crimson energies as she peered at the device. “Drip by drip, your delicious ranger powers ebb away. Let’s see how much I have stolen from you!”

She tapped a console as the tubes showed a rise in the purple energies and the sphere in the centre of the device sparked with wisps of blue energies.

“How disappointing!” She groaned, turning around, and walking over to the terrace, her generals following behind her. “This process is too slow! Should have known better than to trust this contraption by Scrozzle! Where is that rusty bucket of bolts anyway?”

She slammed her staff on the floor. “Scrozzle!”

The sound of hasty steps across the palace reminded her of her old subject, Finister but it was the robotic refuge instead.

“Yes, my queen?” He asked. Ever since Zedd’s capture, he had been in the servitude of the dark witch, carrying out her plans. He was the one who created Snizzard and Minotaur this time around, with his new and improved version of Finister’s old Monster-Matic, enabling him to empower Rita’s monsters with cyborg technology.

“Your device is slow and I need results fast!” The witch growled.

The robot shivered, scurrying over to the machine and giving it a look-over. “The machine was designed to drain the grid energies from rangers but the rangers are resisting the process.”

“How do I speed this up?” Rita asked impatiently.

“Maybe if you had more rangers? There must be nearly a hundred of them on Earth only…” Scrozzle suggested meekly.

“Excellent idea... I see why I keep you around!” Rita said appraisingly.

“I aim to please my queen!” The robot bowed.

“I can round the lambs up for slaughter!” Snizzard offered, his crimson eyes glowing in the shadows of the dimly lit palace.

“Not unless we can find them.” Scozzle scoffed, before turning towards Minotaur. “But maybe with some adjustments, it will be your time to shine!”

“Explain, tinkerer.” Minotaur huffed.

“I can augment you with scanners to detect spikes in grid energy.” He explained. “Once the rangers morph, you will be able to zone in on their location and sneak in on them.”

“Why not me?” Snizzard hissed.

“You already have the dual purpose of paralysing the rangers and keeping them in their current state, enabling the machine to drain their powers. Any more adjustments and we risk compromising your primary objectives.” He said dismissively, approaching Minotaur with his wrench.

“There is still the question of making the rangers morph.” He said offhandedly, taking apart Minotaur’s arm and inserting a green chip into it before putting it back.

“Good thing I know exactly what draws out a power ranger!” Rita smirked.

“No T-Rex or Dragonzord power! Ay, ay, ay, ay!” Alpha 5 wailed, flinging his arms as he looked at the sensors. “We will have to scan for something else if we want to find our friends!”

“Thanks, Alpha.” Hayley Ziktor gave a small smile. “It was a long shot anyway.”

 They turned around as four teleportation beams appeared in front of them, revealing the rangers.

“Ay, ay, ay! Rangers, you are here!” He said, flinging his arms. “Greetings!”

Zack grinned at the android. While they had aged a lot over the decades, Alpha looked the same and acted the same way as well.

“If the people upstairs only knew they had the world’s smartest robot right beneath their feet.”

“Still such a charmer. It’s good to see you again! Been a while!” The android said, his voice full of joy as he high-fived his old friend. “I guess life is busy when you are raising a teenager with attitude.”

“You got that right.” Kim stepped in, embracing the android.

“Raising a kid… not easy.” Nancy agreed.

“Minh definitely has attitude, right Billy?” Zack looked towards the blue ranger, where he was staring blankly at the computer screens.

“You alright, Billy?” Hayley asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah.” He nodded, giving his friend a small smile. “It’s just we haven’t been in a mess like this since…”

He trailed off, turning to look at the others. “Minh is right. It really is all my fault that we lost Trini.”

“Oh, Billy…” Hayley grimaced.

“Come on, man. You were trying to do something good.” Zack took his hand.

“And look what happened.” Billy said harshly, looking up at the scorched energy tube.

“Billy, Minh didn’t mean all of that. You know how much she looks up to you… to all of us.” Kim told him softly.

“But she was right. If I hadn’t tried to bring back Zordon-“

“I didn’t say this before because I thought we should be fully focused on finding Rita wherever she is, but think about this. She went through all the effort to thwart your attempt to bring him back.” Nancy said slowly. “It means you were onto something… something that scared Rita and Zedd enough for them to show their hand.”

“I…” Billy’s eyes widened.

“Look, we can figure this out later but let’s focus on the now.” Nancy told him firmly.

“She is right. Robo Rita is a force to be reckoned with and we must make sure she doesn’t hurt anybody else.” Zack agreed.

The alarms started to blare and they turned towards the Viewing Globe.

“The Monster Scanner has found something.” Alpha pointed as the image cleared to show putties attacking civilians. “It’s not Rita, it’s putties!”

“It’s more than that.” Hayley said, looking at the other monitors. “Angel Grove is not her only target this time. It’s the entire world!”

The rangers looked at each other gravely.

“Guess the time to activate Bandora Protocol came sooner than we planned.” Kim quipped.

“Ay, ay, ay…” Alpha muttered, pressing a console as a hologram appeared before them, showing a symbol that resembled Rita’s staff, what appeared to be a red sun in the centre of a golden crescent moon.

Names of various cities popped up.

Coral Harbour

Reefside

Turtle Cove

Harwood County

Panaroma City

Briarwood

Osaka

And many others…

“Attention, all power ranger teams. Bandora Protocol Initiated. Get to your assigned stations NOW.” Alpha announced boldly.

They had decided to name the protocol after Bandora, the witch coven Rita was part of. It meant an indomitable force and something Billy felt was suited for a situation that necessitated the union of all ranger teams.

“I should probably head over to Reefside and help my team.” Hayley gave the others a small nod.

“Be safe.” Billy said.

“You too.” The red head smiled at him before teleporting away.

“If I remember the plan correctly, visitors in three, two, one.” Zack counted just as three teleportation beams cackled beside them, revealing Tanya, Katherine and Rocky, all of them in their SPA uniforms.

“We got your distress call.” Tanya told them. “Bandora Protocol is happening.”

“Robo Rita is back?” Rocky asked.

Zack nodded.

“So, Tommy and Jason are fighting her?” Kat asked.

“No.” Billy said, not meeting her eyes. “Unfortunately, they have been captured and we need all the help we can get.”

Kat pursed her lips even as the others shot her concerned looks. Tanya gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze.

“We will get them back, Kat.” Kim reassured her.

Kat nodded, taking a deep breath, and looking at Billy as he filled them in on everything that happened the past few hours.

Hope you liked this chapter and review.

Chapter Text

Minh yelled angrily, venting out her anger on a wooden dummy as she repeatedly hit it with a pair of batons.

"Not a ranger?" She repeated Billy's words. "Not yet, you mean!"

She continued her assault on the dummy, finishing it with a powerful kick that threw it off balance.

"You will pay for what you did, Rita!" She promised.

Just then, her phone beeped and she hurriedly took it out from her jacket, tuning in to the newsfeed from Buzz Blast Angel Grove.

"Monsters known as Putty Patrollers haven't been seen in Angel Grove for many years, but today, they are back!" The reporter said frantically, the background showing the putties thrashing a very familiar surrounding… the Youth Centre.

"Citizens, keep your eyes open for attackers! Reports say this is happening all over the world! Power rangers, we need you, today more than ev-" She was cut off as the camera recording the footage fell to the ground and the reporter's yell was heard alongside the warbling of the clay minions.

Minh looked up determined. She couldn't sit by and do nothing while Rita carried on with her plan. She was the daughter of Earth's first yellow ranger. Being a hero was in her blood.

She stormed inside her house and over to the mantlepiece with her mom's picture.

She hesitated before opening the wooden box and taking out her mom's power morpher.

"I got to do this, mom." She whispered, looking at the smiling portrait of her mother before running out.

"It sounds like you barely got away." Katherine told Zack and Kim, fiddling with her marriage ring.

"And now we have an army of putties on our hands. What's next?" Zack sighed.

"It is likely we will find ourselves in a megazord situation soon." Billy stated.

"Billy, we have been in this game for thirty years. It is not just likely, it's inevitable." Nancy corrected him. "But don't worry. The Beast Morphers team and the others have fully active megazords."

"But not our team." Kim sighed. "With Adam and Aisha in space, I doubt we can count on them to come back in time. Without them, we can't form the ninja megazord. And without Jason and Trini, the dino megazord is off the table as well, I guess."

"Not necessarily." Billy said. "When I and Alpha created the Master Morphers with Ninjor, we had to create backups of some of the dino coins. Rocky, Adam and Aisha all have copies of the dino coins in their master morphers while the original coins were with Jason, Zack and Trini."

"That's nice but how does that help us now?" Kim asked impatiently.

"Using what we learnt from Ninjor, I and Alpha experimented with secondary connections to the Grid." Billy said and Alpha stepped forward, after he took out a box hidden in a secret panel in the walls.

"We made these proxy power coins as a contingency." He said, opening the box to reveal seven power coins.

"The dragon and tiger coins!" Kim marvelled. "With them, we can summon the Dragonzord and the Tigerzord!"

"More than that, we have the yellow coin." Alpha said, motioning to Tanya.

"Me?" She asked.

"It's high time you officially became a Morphin Ranger." Nancy quipped. "You have always been part of our team… our family."

Tanya smiled, taking the coin and inserting it into her master morpher.

Kim bit her lips before taking the pteradactyl coin from the box and holding it towards Kat. "You should take this too."

"Why? You already have the pteradactyl powers and I have my other powers." Kat said.

"True." Kim shook her head. "But I was almost captured too and with Rita upping her game, we should take all precautions.

"Okay." Kat gave a small smile, accepting the coin. 'But it won't come to that."

"I know." Kim said.

"What about the dragon and tiger coins? Who will wield them?" Rocky asked.

"We will keep them on standby for now." Billy decided.

"Whoa, are we sure about all this? Zordon was very clear. Duplicating active powers is very dangerous." Zack grimaced.

"It's not like we have much choice on that matter, do we?" Kim sighed. She turned towards Kat. "I don't care how dangerous too much pink energy is, our friends and the world need us. Once a Ranger…"

"Always a Ranger." The others said in unison.

"All right." Billy smiled, looking towards the monitors. "First up, there are injuries reported already in Angel Grove. We cannot let the putties run rampant any longer."

"If that's the case…" Zack nodded, stepping forwards, the others coming in formation behind him. "It's Morphin Time – Mastodon!"

"Pterodactyl!" Kim yelled.

"Triceratops!" Billy followed.

"Garudazord!" Nancy summoned.

"Zeo Ranger Three - Blue!" Rocky cried.

"Zeo Ranger Two- Yellow!" Tanya shouted.

"Zeo Ranger One- Pink!" Kat finished.

They morphed in a flash of colour, touching their belt buckles as they teleported out of the Command Centre, Alpha cheering from behind.

San Francisco

Justin looked alarmed, halting his jeep to a sudden stop as putties teleported in the middle of the streets, spewing chaos as they leapt on top of the other cars, punching at the glass panes or trying to grab the passengers within if there were open windows.

"Justin, what's going on?" His wife, Kendra asked worried, her eyes drifting to their sleeping daughter in the backseat.

"It will be alright." He promised her, giving her a chaste kiss on her forehead. "Whatever you do, don't get out of the car."

"Justin, what are you-" Her eyes widened as Justin opened the car door and exited the vehicle.

"Justin, get back here!" She screamed panicking.

"I will be alright." He smiled, shutting the door behind him. He touched the hood of the car. "Keep them safe, buddy!"

Kendra squinted but she was sure that the car gave a hum in response.

"Hey!" Justin yelled, calling out the putties.

"Justin, what are you doing?" She screamed as the putties left the people they were attacking and circled Justin, who smirked before taking out a metallic key from his pocket and flicking his arm, the grey band on his arm becoming some sort of wrist device. He inserted the key into the device.

"Shift into Turbo!"

There was a flash of blue light and the blue turbo ranger stood in place of her husband. She watched shocked as he swiftly took out the putties with kicks and punches, before taking out his blaster and firing at the rest, reducing them to rubble.

The other cars had fled and the streets were empty except for them.

Justin gave a small smile as he demorphed.

Kendra's jaw hung wide open.

"You are a ranger?" She asked shocked.

"I told you I had an interesting childhood." Justin shrugged, hopping back in the car. He smiled at his daughter, who was still sleeping. "I will fill you in later, but we need to get to safety."

Briarwood

As the putties swarmed the streets, seven individuals in black robes appeared before the minions in a burst of golden light.

"Ready?' Nick asked his companions.

"Ready!" They responded, taking out their morphers.

"Magical Source, Mystic Force!"

Powerful magic enveloped them, transforming them into the Mystic Force Rangers.

"Strong as a Tree, Green Mystic Ranger!"

"Serene as the Snow, White Mystic Ranger!"

"Everchanging as the Wind, Pink Mystic Ranger!"

"Fluid as the Sea, Blue Mystic Ranger!"

"Fast as Lightning, Yellow Mystic Ranger!"

"Malleable as Metal, Black Mystic Ranger!"

"Forceful as Fire, Red Mystic Ranger!"

"Power Rangers Mystic Force!" They declared, charging at the putties.

Magical Realm

"Flurry of Snow!" The warrior mage in white armour leapt backwards, her snow staff glowing as she hurled a spell circle at the putties, encasing them in a giant slab of ice.

The Snow Sorceress snapped her fingers and the slab burst into smithereens.

Not far from her, her husband, the Wolf Warrior made short work of the clay minions with his sword while the other knights escorted the villagers to safety.

Blue Bay Harbour

The ninja storm rangers shot through the small army of putties, destroying them in seconds with their elemental attacks and ninja speed.

Mariner Bay

The titanium ranger swung his axe, slicing a putty in half and watching with grim satisfaction as it reduced to clumps of clay.

He heard gunshots and smirked on seeing the red ranger fire his blaster at the minions. Carter hadn't changed even after all these years. Still coming in, guns blazing.

The yellow, purple, blue, and green lightspeed rangers wielded their V-lancers, cutting through the putties while the Platinum, Pink and Yellow rangers led the civilians to safety.

Ocean Bluff

Two purple rangers fought side by side, taking out the putties gracefully with precise attacks. One of them had a simple plain suit with the symbol of the Pai Zhua imprinted on his chest while the other had a flowing cape, a V shaped golden chest armour, golden gauntlets modelled after a scorpion stinger and the symbol of the mystics on her belt buckle.

They nodded at each other as they let loose their animal spirits – a wolf and a scorpion that decimated the remaining soldiers.

Elsewhere in the city, the other Jungle Fury rangers fought off their fair share of foot soldiers,

Reefside

Hayley looked at the computers in the Dino Cave as the dino rangers fought against the putties. She never thought she would have to do this again.

The team felt incomplete without Tommy in his black suit and while the others hadn't asked her yet where he was, she knew the question was inevitable. They must have assumed Tommy is with one of his other teams and she didn't have the heart to tell them that their mentor had been captured by a villainess who had no reservation against killing.

New Tech City

A police jeep halted in front of the putties as seven officers hopped out, each wearing a coloured jacket and a S.P.D. badge. One of them was a blue skinned alien resembling a beaver and another, a pale skinned hartunian, with a giant third eye on the bridge of her nose.

Their leader, Charlie, a confident Latina woman wearing red, scoffed as she saw the putties.

"Seriously, this is the global crisis that got everyone's panties in a twist?" She wrinkled her nose dismissively at the foot soldiers even as they surrounded her team. "Ready, guys?"

"Ready!"

"S.P.D. Emergency!" They morphed into their suits. Their helmets resembled that of the famous Astro Rangers and their suits were augmented with black tactical gear.

"S.P.D. A Squad!" Charlie announced proudly as the rangers aimed their blasters at the putties and opened fire.

Pine Ridge

Izzy growled, morphing into her green ranger armour and leaping at the putties that surrounded her girlfriend. She slashed at them with her sword, forcing them away from Fern before swinging her sword in an arc, sending a diagonal slash of green energy that sliced through them.

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" She asked Fern.

"I am now." She reassured. "Thanks for saving me."

"Always." Izzy smiled underneath her helmet just as her morpher beeped and Solon's voice filtered through.

"There is a group of putties attacking Buzz Blast."

Izzy turned towards Fern, who smiled. "Go, I will be okay. The team needs you."

She gave her a nod before teleporting away in a burst of green light.

Angel Grove

People screamed as they ran away from the platoon of putties.

A putty swiped his arm against a lunch table, tossing all the things placed on it away as he climbed over it, his red eyes fixated on the trio of teenagers huddling against each other against the damaged wall behind them.

"Please…" One of them whimpered.

The putty didn't understand the words but it sensed the fear around him. He leapt down from the table and leered at the trio, just when teleportation beams appeared nearby them, drawing the attention of the putty.

"Hey!" The blue zeo ranger called, drawing his zeo pistol and firing at the putty, destroying it and the trio breathed a collective sigh of relief, scrambling to their feet and running away as the other putties surrounded the rangers.

"You putties want a fight? You got one!" Rocky announced.

"All these years and they still sound like angry turkeys!" Kat quipped while Kim and Zack laughed.

"Then let's carve them up!" Tanya said, swinging her clubs as they ran at the henchmen.

A beeping sound came from Minotaur's arm and he extended it, a green light projecting out and forming a hologram of the globe in front of them, showing many red dots on various places.

"Finally! My ranger tracker has got a hit!" Minotaur growled.

"You mean… my ranger tracker, since I created it." Scrozzle scoffed snobbishly before turning towards Rita. "As I said mistress, there are hundreds of active rangers on Earth… more than enough to power your device!"

"So, all of them morphed?" Snizzard hissed.

"Are we surprised my putty bait worked?" Rita screeched, as if daring them to contradict her. "There is a reason I am in charge, fools!"

"Go to the grid fluctuation coordinates and get those rangers!" She ordered. "My masterpiece has a thirst for power and those do-gooders will quench it!"

"Yes, my queen!" The two warriors bowed before teleporting away in a burst of flames.

Chapter Text

The Mystic Mother massaged her head, feeling the psychic brunt of the numerous attacks across the planet. There was no questioning who was behind it. Just when she thought her dark days were behind her and she had redeemed herself and forged a new identity for herself, her past came back to haunt her literally.

She needed to help her charges as well as the other rangers.

Despite Rita Repulsa being a separate entity from her, she still felt somewhat responsible for what her darker counterpart did.

She needed to put a stop to her before Rita or rather Robo Rita caused any more harm.

She rose from her throne, preparing to teleport just when she sensed a hostile energy signature intrude in her castle. She flicked her wand, erecting a forcefield around herself just in time.

Crimson lightning slammed against the barrier, the magics cancelling each other.

"Nice place, you have here!" Robo Rita sneered at her. "Too bad I am going to destroy it!"

"You don't have to do this, Rita." The Mystic Mother said. "I understand your pain but there is a better way to deal with it than revenge."

"Really?" Robo Rita gawked at her before cackling. "Can't believe I became such a pushover!"

"I know you, Rita. I was you!" Mystic Mother continued, only for the dark witch to look at her incredulously.

"Hard to believe when you speak like Zordon!" Robo Rita spat, raising her staff. "You are corrupted, impure… a mockery of my greatness!"

The mistress of good magic heaved a sigh. "I tried but if the only way to stop you from hurting others is to destroy you, I shall."

The robot doubled down in laughter.

"You… destroy me?" She chortled.

"We both know my good magic far exceeds your power! Let me show you, dark one… Holo Mirage!" The Mystic Mother chanted, shooting a hollow sphere of golden energy at the dark witch, only for black lightning bolts to pierce through the sphere as a dart would a balloon, causing it to explode.

Robo Rita smirked.

"I may not be strong enough to defeat you but I know someone who can!" She smirked as a large shadow solidified in front of her, taking the form of a blue skinned being with cold soulless eyes and hair resembling porcupine quills wearing black robes.

"You didn't!" Mystic Mother reeled back in horror. "Even in the dark days, I never opened the Gates to Talos! What have you done?"

"Something I could never do before because your goodness held me back!" Rita smirked, her red robotic eyes glowing ominously. She blew the white witch a kiss with her mechanical hand. "Have fun, you two!"

The witch vanished in a swirl of purple smoke, leaving the Mystic Mother to face the demon she once worshipped.

"What do you want. Lokar?" She asked grimly.

"Is that any way to greet an old friend?" The demon smirked.

"Friend?" She repeated, her eyes narrowing. "I was a woman in pain and mourning, and you manipulated me into being a monster… an instrument of your will and untold destruction!"

"You were nobody and now the entire universe knows your name." He flashed his jagged teeth at her.

"They loathe me, rightfully so, for what I did…" She spat.

"Loathe or love… Very similar emotions. You are in their hearts and minds and that gives you power over them!" The demon laughed. "Why else do you think you have the power you do? Able to become a patron goddess of the most powerful realm of magic is no small feat and you owe it all to me! I have come to add your realm to my own!"

"You give yourself too much credit!" She scoffed angrily, cosmic energies converging at the tip of her wand. "Everything I have now, I worked for it and even though they thought the worst of me, I proved them wrong time and time again. I owe you nothing, least of all my home!"

"This realm will be mine!" Lokar snarled, thrusting his hands forward and sending a barrage of dark energy at the sorceress, who blocked the attack with golden magic from her wand.

"As long as I live, this realm will never belong to you!" The Mystic Mother vowed as light and dark energies collided, each trying to push the other into submission.

Nashville

The gold ninja steel ranger and yellow dino thunder ranger fought side by side against a horde of putties.

Levi Weston strummed the cords of his guitar themed ninja sword, firing a bolt of golden lightning at his attackers.

"I am jealous." Kira quipped, leaping backwards to avoid getting struck by a putty, "I need something like that!"

She turned towards the attackers, the faceplate of her helmet disappearing to reveal her smirk.

"Stay back." She instructed the other ranger, who obliged, stepping behind her as she let loose her sonic scream on the putties, the sheer force of it slamming them to the ground hard enough for them to disintegrate.

"Epic!" Levi whistled, patting her shoulder. "Maybe we should do more joint tours?"

"I am game if you are." Kira grinned as her faceplate rematerialized. She touched her comms. "We secured Paris."

"Good. Osaka is being overrun with putties. They need all the help they can get." Hayley's voice filtered through. "I am teleporting you guys there."

"Right." The two rangers nodded before they disappeared in streaks of yellow and gold.

Stone Canyon

As putties swarmed the streets, chasing after defenseless civilians, bolts of crimson and navy lightning crashed in the middle of the army of minions, throwing them backwards.

The crimson and navy ninja storm rangers did not waste any time tearing through the ranks with their thunder staffs.

They were not the only ones. Multiple individuals completely clad in black hood and robes with the crest of the Thunder Academy pinned to their chests shot through the shadows wielding katanas and staffs, quickly decimating the enemy ranks.

Blue Bay Harbor

Wind ninjas ninja streaked through the city, swiftly taking out putties and herding the civilians to safety while the Ninja Storm rangers fought in the centre of the city.

Silver Hills

The silver guardians leapt from their trucks, pulling out their sidearms and opening fire on the putties, drawing their attention away from the civilians they were after.

Two of them broke out of the ranks and charged at the minions, slamming their hands on their wrist morphers, morphing into the Red and Quantum Chrono Rangers.

"Quantum Defender!" Eric Myers yelled, firing with his blaster.

"Time Strike!" Wes Collins struck the putties down with his sword, before swinging with a wide arc and reducing the putties to lumps of clay.

Kolkata, India

Putties jumped in the middle of the road, some of them getting run over by speeding buses and cars before they managed to stall the vehicles and slam against the car windows or bus doors.

"Hey!" A sharp cry drew the putties' attention. They turned around to see five rangers with animal motifs. They were the Power Rangers Astral Force.

"Tiger Claws!" The orange ranger growled, as gauntlets with retractable claws appeared over his hand just as he leapt at the putties, slashing them with a feral fury.

"Feather Fan!" A fan of vibrant plumage appeared in the blue ranger's hand.

The putties made a warbling sound from their mouths, that sounded like laughter.

The blue ranger smirked underneath his helmet. It wasn't the first time his opponents had underestimated him due to his weapon of choice.

He flapped the fan at the direction of the leering putties, watching with smug satisfaction as the feathers shot out like darts and cut through them.

"Monkey Whip!" The green ranger took out her whip, lashing it at the putties.

"Elephant Mace!" The yellow ranger charged at the putties, smashing them to smithereens indiscriminately with his mace.

"Serpent Staff!" The red ranger swung her staff, taking out the foot soldiers effortlessly.

Magic Realm

Mystic Academy

Preston winced, rummaging through his sling bag. While the Nexus Prism was no longer on Earth, most of the technology Mick had created for them using Ninja Steel was still intact and with help of others like Hayley Ziktor, Nate Silva and Cameron Watanabe, Mick had been able to recreate their morphers, but this time, their ninja stars were made of crystallised Morph X augmented with what little scraps they had left of Ninja Steel.

He pulled out his ninja star and gave a sigh of relief.

Preston heard the battle around him. The sound of objects smashing against something else, cries of pain and incantations for magical attacks.

A ninja would be out of place in a school of warlocks and knights but he did not have much options left.

In addition to the initial wave of putties, monsters and demons have joined the attack on the magical realm.

He inserted the star into his ninja battle morpher and stood up from his hiding spot.

"It's Morphin Time! Ninja Spin!" He shouted, transforming to his ranger form in a burst of blue light.

The blue ranger unsheathed his sword and pounced on the putties. His sword cut through the clay golems easily, and he turned his sight at one of the demons who had cornered a group of novice wizards.

The demon had red skin, black horns jutting out of his forehead and obsidian armour. He raised his trident, which glowed with dark energies.

Before he could step in, a burst of golden and yellow light slammed against the demon, pulverising it.

Preston turned around to see a figure in majestic yellow armour with golden highlights. His armour resembled that of the Solaris Knight with a flowing yellow cape and his red visor had golden thunderbolts on either side and the head of a thunderbird above and a metallic faceplate beneath. He lowered his crossbow before becoming a yellow blur, that quickly cleared the grounds of nearly all the putties and monsters.

The ranger reappeared beside Preston, his form still cackling with yellow electricity.

He was Chip Thorn, the Storm Sentinel, one of the realm's most valiant knights and powerful mystics, as well as the headmaster of the Mystic Academy.

The two rangers exchanged a brief nod before charging at the demons who had been strong enough to withstand Chip's Lightning Barrage Attack.

Despite his body being reduced to a size of an action figure, Tommy was still somehow conscious albeit unable to move a muscle.

The last decade, he had taken an initiative in ranger affairs, becoming the de facto leader of the Rangers of Earth as a whole. Even when Draven captured them, he had feigned unconsciousness and freed himself and the others.

This was different.

He was completely helpless and he felt the machine slowly draining his powers and his lifeforce along with it.

As much as he hated the feeling of being the one needing to be rescued, he had faith in the other rangers.

While Rita had given them their fair share of misery, she had never been this dangerous before. He hoped the others would be able to stop her in time.

Paris

The city's defenders were busy rescuing citizens from the seemingly infinite armies of clay foot soldiers.

Ladybug swung her yo-yo, slicing through the putties.

Chat Noir was by her side as always, smashing through his fair share with his staff.

While this was still tedious, it was not as hectic compared to what they usually face.

Charterville

It had been decades since they transformed but the Beetleborgs easily slipped back to their roles as the city's defenders. The gold and platinum beetleborgs tore through the golems while the silver beetleborg led the civilians to safety.

Crossworld City

Ryan Steele sighed, kicking two putties back. His wife Melissa smirked at him as she took out five more within seconds.

Their friends fought nearby. JB and Kaitlin took out their fair share of minions before they regrouped, after confirming they were the only ones left in the area.

"You guys ready?" Ryan asked.

"Ready!" They nodded.

"Trooper Transform! We are V.R!" Ryan, Kaitlin and J.B. yelled.

"Magical Source, Mystic Force!" Melissa cried, black magic enveloping her as she morphed into her knight form. "Power of Metal, Polaris Knight!"

The four warriors didn't waste any time, leaping into battle and quickly decimated the putties.

Beijing

The Shaolin Rangers worked in unison, with their kung fu skills and elemental powers, gracefully defeating the putties.

Tokyo

The Dragon rangers charged at the army of putties, their dragon staffs held high.

Leawood

Morgan Stewart did not hesitate before jumping in front of the putties and sending them staggering backwards with a powerful kick.

She placed a device on her belt buckle and sighed. Uncle Dex had given her this, after telling her it should be only used in emergencies and she guessed the current scenario did qualify as one.

"ECTOPHASE ACTIVATE!" She yelled, allowing strange energies to wash over her. "POWER RIDER!"

She was clad in black armour and her helmet had a insect themed design. Golden lines ran through her suit like lava lines and a pair of wings sprouted out from her back as she remembered what her uncle always called her.

"Firefly…" She murmured, looking up at the unsuspecting putties and smirking.

She flew at them, swiftly taking out with fireballs.

Reefside

"Krista!" Conner yelled as he saw the green ranger stiffen as Snizzard sank his fangs into her hand. Black cobras sprang out from Snizzard's arms, coiling around her and she was instantly miniaturized to the size of an action figure.

He charged at them, unleashing his super dino mode, the spikes in his arms cutting through the putties unfortunate enough to be in his path.

Before he could reach the serpent cyborg, a burst of fire blocked his path and Minotaur teleported before him.

"Get out of my way!" He grunted, slashing the monster with his spiked arms.

"Make me!" The monster growled, hitting the ranger with his club, forcing him backwards.

"Derrick!" Conner turned around on hearing Ethan's scream to see the same fate befell the orange ranger.

Ethan jumped at Snizzard only for several putties to ambush him from behind.

"Ethan, NO!" Conner screamed, running towards his friend only for Minotaur to grab him from behind and forcefully hurl him to the ground. He let out a cry of pain as he skidded across the streets.

Snizzard bit down on Ethan, only to let a roar of dismay as his fang broke.

"Joke's on you snake face, I got really strong skin!"

Taking advantage of the distraction, Ethan kicked the monster backwards and tried to grab the orange and green figures in the monster's hands, only to be hit by a blast of crimson energy.

"So, you lot are Tommy's students?" Rita leered at them, her staff glowing with crimson energy.

"Rangers, get out of there NOW!" Hayley screamed through the comms.

A multitude of energy arrows made their way at the dark witch, which she easily swatted aside. Trent helped Ethan to his feet while a purple energy blast sent Minotaur flying back.

"Conner, you alright?" Ahana asked, helping him up.

He nodded at the purple ranger before looking at the green and orange figurines in Snizzard's hands.

"We can't win this." Ahana told. "We have to retreat."

"But-"

"We will get them back, I promise." She said firmly. He gave a reluctant nod as they regrouped with the other rangers.

"Don't worry, you will join your precious mentor soon!" Rita smirked.

She swung her staff and a storm cloud of crimson energies headed their way.

"Hayley, any moment now…" Trent said, seconds before they teleported away.

San Angeles

Mack yelled, cutting through the putties with his lance, as he saw the serpent monster ambush Rose.

"No!" He yelled as black cobras sprang upon the pink ranger, turning her into a figurine.

Snizzard cackled at him and the other Overdrive rangers, before teleporting away with Rose.

Panorama  City

Lauren and Jayden fought back-to-back, cutting through the masses of putties with their spin swords while Antonio was a golden blur as he sliced apart the grey minions with his Barracuda blade.

Turtle Cove

"Dad!" Emma cried as she saw her father push her out of the way of Minotaur's attack. Sparks flew across his armour as he rolled across the street.

"No!" Gia held her back as Snizzard hoisted the lunar wolf ranger up and sank his fangs into his shoulder.

Emma took out her phoenix blaster, firing on the putties that blocked her path but it was too late. She watched helplessly as cobras coiled around Merrick's body and shrunk him to the size of an action figure.

Snizzard cackled, picking him up and vanishing in a burst of flames.

Harwood County

Troy punched a putty in the torso, sending it staggering backwards. Rohan kicked another away from civilians while Jake and Noah shoved two to the ground forcefully, causing them to shatter into rocks.

Mexico

The Phantom Ranger flickered into view as Minotaur attacked him with his club, hitting him despite the fact his invisibility cloak was on.

"Your invisibility won't work, Phantom Ranger!" He growled. "With my upgrade, I can pinpoint the exact location of all rangers!"

Coral Harbour

"No!" Roxy cried in terror as she watched Ravi be captured by Snizzard in the computer screens. Betty placed a hand on her shoulder while Ben chewed his lips.

"Retreat!" Blaze yelled, taking the mic that had a direct link to the ranger's comms. "All of you, retreat!"

Summer Cove

"Cal!" Haley yelled as she saw her friend get thrown aside like a ragdoll by Minotaur.

"Oh, you are gonna pay for that!" She fumed, turning towards the monster and summoning the Lion Fire Armour.

She jumped upon the robot monster, pummelling it with powerful punches, that cracked his metallic armour.

"This isn't over!" Minotaur coughed, crawling away from the white ranger and disappearing in a swirl of flames.

Angel Grove

While the other rangers tore through the masses of putties, the blue zeo ranger drew his hatchets as Snizzard closed in on him and the pink zeo ranger took on Minotaur.

Two putties ambushed the blue ranger from behind, forcing him to let go of his hatchets.

"Well, look what we have here… Something to sink my fangs into!" Snizzard hissed, the eyes on snake heads of his arms glowing an ominous green as he slowly approached Rocky.

"That's not good." Billy grimaced as he grabbed a putty in a chokehold before pushing it to the ground and drawing his blade blaster.

"Sweet dreams!" Snizzard taunted Rocky, as the snake heads on his arms opened to reveal their forked tongues and metallic fangs.

Billy leaped, firing on the putties, causing them to explode and freeing Rocky in the nick of time. Just as Snizzard was about to attack him, he jumped over the monster and kicked the back of his neck as he landed.

"Curses!" Snizzard grumbled as he hit the hard pavement.

"Nice rotation on that kick, Rocko!" Billy complimented the other blue ranger as they regrouped. "You still got it!"

"I never lost it!" Rocky shot back good naturedly.

Minotaur slumped against a wall as the power disc returned to Kat's hands.

"The civilians here are safe!" Kat noted, seeing the other rangers defeat the remaining putties and Kim return after leading the civilians to safety.

"On to the next fight." Billy decided as they teleported away.

"No!" Snizzard grunted, running up to the place where they stood moments ago. "They slithered away!"

"Who cares?" Minotaur snorted. "As long as they are morphed, I can track them!"

He tapped a device strapped to his arm and smirked. "Seems like they went to the park."

"A nice place to grab a bite." Snizzard hissed as they teleported away.

Unbeknownst to the monsters, they were seen and heard by someone else.

"Oh no!" Alpha 5 wailed, seeing the scenes unfold in the Viewing Globe. "The team is about to find themselves in a monster sandwich! Aye, aye, aye!"

Angel Grove Park

The putties threw a civilian against a big advertisement board featuring Bulk and Skull's newest food venture, which broke into half as the civilian hit the ground hard before crawling to his feet and running away from the clay minions.

Zack leapt into action, kicking the putty back and slicing it apart with his axe.

"This is a worldwide alert to all Power Rangers. Minotaur is tracking you." Alpha 5's voice filtered through their comms.

A putty threw a young woman off a rooftop.

"NO!" Nancy yelled, her wings unfolding as she sprang to the air, catching the woman in her arms and safely returning her to the ground.

"As long as you are morphed, he will find you. You must power down." Alpha warned.

"Got it." Rocky responded, cutting through a couple of putties with his hatchets.

"Good work, Alpha!" Billy said quickly as the rangers regrouped.

"If we can't morph, how will we fight these creatures?" Tanya asked.

"We will think about that later." Kim cut her off. "If they are tracking us, it means-"

Before she could complete her sentence, twin flames appeared before them, depositing the two monsters.

"Yep!" Kim shrugged.

"They followed us here." Billy sighed.

"Ruin them Snizzard." Minotaur growled.

"My pleasure!" The other monster cackled.

"Power Down!" Billy said, their morphs fading away to reveal their civilian attire.

Before the monsters could step any closer, the rangers teleported away.

Minotaur let out a grunt in dismay, swinging his mace wildly and thrashing a dustbin and littering the surrounding grass.

"Rangers, look, look!" Alpha yelled excitedly as the rangers rematerialized inside the Command Centre. "SPD satellite scans picked up activity in a concentrated spot on the lunar surface."

"Let me guess, the Bandora Castle?" Kim rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Kimberly." Alpha 5 confirmed.

"If she is making herself at home, then our friends and Rita's machine must be there too." Zack surmised. Billy grimaced.

A beep came from the Viewing Globe and the rangers turned.

"What's that?" Rocky asked.

"An incoming call… from outer space!" Alpha 5 said, looking over the data in the monitors before pressing a button.

The flickering image of Adam, Aisha and Alpha 5 appeared on the Viewing Globe with their background showing various futuristic technology and monitors. Like Kat, Rocky and Tanya, they were wearing SPA uniforms.

"We got the protocol alert." Aisha told them sincerely. "Our ship is zooming to you from the Sirius System."

"I am afraid it will be six hours before we reach your side of the galaxy." Adam sighed. "Then we will be in teleport range."

"Aye, aye, aye…" Alpha 6 wringed their arms. "Robo Rita's timing is the worst! She gives a bad name to all of us robots!"

"Amen, Six!" Alpha 5 agreed, and despite herself, Kim chuckled. Despite everything the robots had been through, it pleased her that they remained youthful at heart.

"So, Rita got Jason and Tommy." Adam sighed, rubbing his palms together, his eyes straying towards Kat and Kim. "It's rough, especially for you guys."

"We are not even going to tell JJ what happened to his father because he will be home soon." Kat said calmly. "We are going to get Tommy and Jason back, today."

"Right." Aisha smiled at them. "You have got this."

"Oh, and Billy, that stealth tech you designed for us, it was a game changer." Adam said to the inventor. "Thank you."

"You are very welcome." Billy smiled at him.

"Being invisible has definitely helped our team's run-ins with the Troobian Empire." Aisha nodded.

"Safe travels, okay?" Rocky told his best friends.

"Thanks, and good luck." Aisha beamed at them before the transmission ended.

"So, what now?" Alpha 5 asked.

"Well, there are still putties in town… in every town." Zack said, eying the monitors. "We can't morph. People aren't safe."

"Wait. Maybe we don't need to morph." Billy said. "I have seen how our powers work and our ninjetti forms are not as strongly connected to the Grid. I doubt it would register in whatever scanner Minotaur is using to track rangers."

"That is great!" Rocky whooped.

"Yes, but not all of us were ninjetti." Tanya pointed out and Zack nodded.

"And what about other ranger teams?" Kim asked. "How would they fight?"

"I don't know about all rangers, but the Dino Thunder team have superpowers and the rangers from the Guardian Academies have their own elemental powers." Kat told them.

"And the others have genetically altered powers like the Overdrive team and my son's team. Not to mention that we rangers aren't the only ones fighting for Earth. Other superheroes like the VR Troopers, Beetleborgs and the Ninja Turtles are out there too. Heck, even SPD agents, Silver Guardians and even normal law enforcement officials are doing the best they can to help." Nancy told them, just when her phone rang. 

"Speaking of my son…" She gave them a small smile as she picked up the call but instead of hearing Ravi, she heard Roxy's frantic sobs.

"Nancy, they got him!" Roxy said panicking.

"What?" Nancy cried in alarm. The other rangers looked at her concerned.

"The monsters attacked our team and captured Ravi, Devon and Nate!" She told her mother-in-law.

"Oh no…" Nancy stepped back, feeling dizzy as a thousand different thoughts ran through her head. She grasped the panels for support, the others rushing to her side.

"We will get him back, Roxy. You and the others stay safe. Retreat to the headquarters and tell the other rangers to not morph." She instructed.

"Okay. Stay safe, Nancy." Came the reply.

Nancy cut the call and turned to the others, her face ashen. "My son and half of his team… Snizzard got to them."

"We will get him back." Billy promised while Kim hugged her.

"We have to." Nancy said stiffly.

"Aye, aye, aye… It's not just them." Alpha said as a hologram showing other rangers popped up in front of them. "Rangers all around the world have been captured!"

"Oh no!" Kat covered her face as she saw the visuals of the green and orange dino thunder rangers.

"Ashley…" Tanya murmured softly, seeing her successor among those captured.

"We will get them back, all of them." Rocky tightened his fists. He turned to Billy. "We know Rita is on the moon, right? Why don't we just go there? Crash her party?"

"Snizzard and Minotaur would get in the way." Kat shook her head before she tilted her head, her eyes glinting. "Unless we can draw them out?"

"That's a good thought." Billy agreed. "I bet you I can develop something that will keep them away from the Moon and keep them away from us."

"Whatever we do, we need to come up with a plan fast." Nancy urged, not turning her eyes away from the holograms of her son and the other Beast Morpher rangers.

"Maybe we can ask the other ranger teams for help? What about Mystic Mom?" Zack asked.

"Mystic Mother." Alpha 5 corrected. "Unfortunately, our systems have not been able to contact the magic realm ever since this mess started."

"We will contact the other ranger teams once we got a plan in motion." Billy decided. "I bet you I can use that stealth technology I developed for Adam and Aisha's Prism Patrol team."

"I bet you can too, Billy." Kim grinned at him. "Gotta love that big brain of yours!"

"They are made of metal, right?" Kat wondered. "Maybe we can exploit that?"

Billy nodded speculatively, when they heard a yell. One of the screens showed a lone teen fighting putties in the Youth Centre.

"Oh no!" Billy broke off, turning around. "Is that…"

"Minh?" Kim shrieked worriedly.

"Minh!" Zack yelled, the three of them looking at each other worriedly.

"Ay, ay, ay!" Alpha cried.

Just then, the alarms blared and the Viewing Globe showed a giant robotic version of another foe they never thought they would see again towering over Angel Grove.

"Is that…" Billy squinted. "King Sphinx?"

"We would need the megazord." Zack said. "But Minh?"

"I will go after Minh. You guys handle the Lion King reject." Kim said quickly. She turned towards Kat, who gave her a reassuring nod.

"I will go with her." Nancy said. "You guys won't need me for the Megazord."

"Okay, just get her back safely." Zack told them.

Nancy nodded. "We will. Don't worry."

She turned towards Kim and nodded.

"Ninja Ranger Power Now!"

Clad in ninjetti robes, they looked at the others one last time before teleporting away.

"Alright, our turn now. You guys ready?" Zack asked.

"Ready!"

"It's Morphin Time!"

"Mastodon!" Zack cried.

"Pterodactyl!" Kat called out.

"Triceratops!" Billy yelled.

"Sabretooth tiger!" Tanya said.

"Tyrannosaurus!" Rocky finished.

"Power Rangers!"

"Ay, ay, ay… Brings back so many memories! Go, go, Power Rangers!" Alpha cheered as the rangers teleported out.

Hope you guys like this and please review. As you guys can see, I have included cameos of all Earth based ranger teams and a few Oc teams, which may be explored in my future stories. As I said before, there are a few spoilers for my Guardianverse series.

There are a few more cameos left in the next chapter, which will conclude this three part arc, before we move on to the final act of the story.

Chapter Text

One year ago…

The moment she teleported back to her home, Kimberly couldn't hold back her tears anymore. This couldn't be happening. In all her years as a ranger, she had never imagined any of them would lose their lives, especially after so long…

The risk had always been there but after a while, fighting villains in spandex became second nature and the anxiety had faded away, leaving only the thrill of battle and the adrenaline rush.

Trini was her best friend, her sister in all but blood… She was the first person Kim would call whenever she had any news to share, good or bad. Trini was the one who always knew what to do or say in times of crisis.

Kim might have been the heart of the team, but Trini was the glue that kept everyone together, the one who sorted out miscommunications before they turned into arguments.

This was so wrong.

Kim wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.

She needed to go back, but she couldn't let Minh see her like this.

Minh was the one whose world shattered in a single moment, not her.

She owed it to Trini to look after her daughter.

Her phone rang. She took it out from her jacket and saw the caller ID.

Lila.

Her eldest daughter loved her aunt Trini so much…

Kim sniffed. Trini had been there for her when she had discovered her pregnancy, more than her own family or even the father of her child.

How was she supposed to tell that Trini was gone to a child who viewed her as a second mother?

This was all so wrong.

She steeled her breath, swiping right on her phone and answering the call.

"Mom, you won't believe it, I got the internship!" Lila screamed excitedly.

"That's…" Kim broke into sobs.

"Mom?" Lila asked. "What is wrong?"

Kim couldn't say anything.

"Mom?"

"Yes, sweetheart." Kim managed between sobs. "Something happened today. Something horrible."

Lila needed to know. Despite how much it would sadden her, she deserved to know. Trini did so much for her and her daughter.

"Mom, you are scaring me." Came the panicked reply.

"It's your aunt Trini. She is gone." Kim sobbed, pressing her back against the wall as she slumped down to her knees.

"What do you mean… gone?"

"Mom?"

"What happened?"

Kim sniffed, not knowing what to say. Lila, like many of their kids, didn't know that their parents were moonlighting as superheroes for the better part of three decades.

"There was an accident." Kim said through her teeth. "Trini… She didn't… She didn't make it."

Lila cried from the other side.

"Why? How?"

"I don't know sweetheart." Kim sniffed. "She is gone."

"Minh?" Lila asked.

"She knows. She… She is a kid, Lila and she… I should get back to her." Kim said.

"I am coming too." Her daughter said, her voice trembling yet full of conviction. "I am going to book the fastest flight back home."

"Lila…"

"Aunt Trini is... was family. Minh is family. All of us need to be there for her."

"Okay…"

"And mom, take care of yourself too." Lila said.

"Yes, sweetheart." Kim promised, cutting the call, and looking up at the ceiling.

How was this fair? Any of this?

Why now?

Trini was a good person… a hero in every sense of the word.

Why was she taken away from them so soon?

Chapter Text

One year ago…

Jason teleported back to the Command Centre, bristling with rage. They had searched the entire planet as well as the dimensions connected to it. Their allies in outer space including their contacts in SPD couldn’t find any trace of Rita’s energy signature.

Mystic Mother had suggested that Rita might be hiding alongside Zedd in a new dark dimension, something their magic or scanners could not pick up.

There was no catching her.

Trini’s murderer was roaming free, no doubt planning something nefarious and they couldn’t stop her.

It infuriated him to no end.

He had prided himself in being a great leader. Ever since they were teens, it had been his responsibility to ensure his friends survived the alien encounters. He was the one who signed them up to be superheroes. If anyone should have to sacrifice themselves, it should have been him, not Trini…

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

He turned around to see Alpha 5.

“I am sorry Jason.” The robot said. “I should not have encouraged Billy. Zordon would have never wanted this, not for him.”

Jason sighed, embracing the robot, who patted his shoulder.

“Zordon was your friend. All our friend. If there was a chance, he could be still alive, we had to take it.” He shook his head. “Don’t blame yourself, Alpha. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s me.”

Alpha let go of him before looking at him, the lights on his saucer head blinking red. “You should not blame yourself. You might have been the leader, but all of you were heroes. Trini was one of the finest heroes this universe has ever seen.”

Jason sighed.

“What do I do now, Alpha?” He asked. “How do I fix this? Trini is gone and Minh…”

“She is not alone. She has you guys. I wish I could help but…”

“You already have, Alpha.” Jason smiled at him. “More than you know.”

Jason teleported back to his home late at night to find his wife waiting for him in the living room.

“Did you find her?” Lauren asked him.

Jason shook his head.

“I am sorry.” She said, reaching out for his hand. “We will get her. We always do.”

“But we won’t get Trini back.” He stated blankly, melting into her embrace.

“I know.” She said softly. “But she will live on in our hearts and our memories, just like my father does.”

“Can you talk to Minh?” He asked.

“I will, when she is ready to hear what I have to say.” Lauren said calmly. “Right now, it won’t matter to her what anyone says. She is going through the worst time of her life and she will believe, and rightly so, that no one can understand what she is going through.”

“But you do understand…” He pressed.

“I was a lot younger than her when I lost my father but at the same time, my brother and I always knew there was a chance he may not come back. It was no secret to us that our father was a ranger.” She sighed. “Minh not only lost her mom, she also found out that there was a side to her that she never knew. She needs support but at the same time, she does need some time to wrap her head around it all.”

“I am sorry, Lauren. I didn’t mean to bring up memories of your dad…” Jason said, looking up at her.

“No. It is alright.” She shook her head. “All of this happened a long time ago and I am at peace with it. My father, Trini, and others like them were heroes and while their deaths are tragic, they died honourably fighting to protect what they loved.”

“I was the leader…”

“Jason, you are speaking like my brother now. Just because we are leaders, doesn’t mean we can control the battle. No matter how much we plan or train, we cannot win every battle.” She reprimanded him.

Jason gave her a soft smile. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.”

Lauren kissed his forehead. “Well, I am here whenever you need common sense whacked into your brains.”

“Jasper…”

“He fell asleep. He is pretty upset, understandably so, about Trini.” She took a deep breath.

Jason sighed. “You told him already?”

“How long could we have sheltered him from the truth? The funeral?” She grimaced. “He needed to know and he handled it well.”

“He shouldn’t have needed to… He is seven. Minh is fifteen. All our kids… Our lives are affecting them.” Jason rubbed his temple.

“We are rangers, Jason. We always will be, and for better or worse, it is going to affect our children.” She said simply. “It’s late. We should get some sleep. Go freshen up, I will heat your dinner.”

Jason gave her a quick hug before heading towards the bathroom to take a quick shower. When he and Lauren decided to start a relationship, they had been subject to a lot of judgement, even some coming from within the ranger community, given the twelve-year age gap between them, but their teams and friends had supported them wholeheartedly, seeing the love they had for each other.

He remembered having doubts before proposing but Trini had set him straight.

He remembered her telling him that being with Lauren had made him happier and that he would be an absolute fool to let her go… that it didn’t matter if he was older than her, because she was way wiser than he could ever be.

He owed a lot to Trini, who had always looked out for him.

Life without her was going to be hard.

If he was the older brother of the team, Trini was the older sister. They knew each other the best back when they were teens and that bond had only grown over time.

As he felt the cold water of the shower wash over him, he felt his mind wander to the time he and Trini had spent together as a couple. They had brought out the best in each other and only had to let go because of timing. Their love for each other had never lessened, merely changed to a more platonic one over the years.

He missed her so much.

It was hard to recognize that feeling of loss over all the anger he had for Rita and the guilt he had been drowning him, but he missed her so much.

Tears rolled down his cheek alongside the rivulets of water from the shower above.

She was gone too soon, too suddenly.

He missed his friend and yearned for a way to bring her back but knew it was impossible.

There was nothing he could do but accept she is gone and move on.

Chapter Text

One year ago…

Billy never saw it coming and he prided himself on always being prepared. He was planning to bring back one friend, instead in the process he ended up losing his best friend.

Despite having access to time travel, he could not go back and save her, because apparently, the universe has decided her death was a fixed point in the timestream.

Trini had so much more to give to the world and had so much to live for.

He showed up for the funeral despite the guilt weighing him down. The others had told him it wasn't his fault but if he was the one, whose actions drew Rita into the Command Centre… It was his attack that disfigured Rita's face, enraging her to the point of casting a fatal spell… an attack meant for him, not for Trini.

He was the one who should have died, not Trini.

Never Trini.

Trini was the strongest and resilient person he knew, from her tough childhood immigrating from Vietnam to losing her husband to a unbeatable disease and raising her daughter on her own. It wasn't fair!

He sighed as he slumped into his chair and looked at the small box on the corner of his table. He opened it, revealing a diamond ring, the diamond being one he received as a gift for helping the people of Andresia resettle and rehabilitate their planet.

He and Trini had started dating almost a year ago, finally acting on the feelings they had both felt for each other since their childhood and every moment he spent with her had been nothing short of perfection.

He was planning to ask her to marry him. None of his previous relationships had lasted long but Trini brought out the best in him, cloaked him in a blanket of love and unconditional support. And now, he felt so empty, so exposed without her.

This was all so wrong!

He sighed, closing it, and placing it on one of the drawers underneath the table.

He had never loved anyone like he had Trini. She was his soulmate.

Without her, he felt like a bird whose wings had been clipped.

No, this cannot go on. He couldn't lose himself to grief, when there was work to be done.

Minh needed him.

The rangers needed him.

He had no time to feel the endless pain that threatened to overwhelm him. It was like a floodgate, the moment he opened it, even considered breaking down, the gates would open and he would drown… be useless and worthless.

Trini died for him and he needed to honour her sacrifice.

He needed to protect what she loved and avenge her.

But who was he kidding? He couldn't be a parent, not like this?

Whoever ended up close to him died.

His mom when he was a kid.

His dad in one of the Machine Empire's attacks.

Cestria in Dark Specter and Divatox's invasion on Aquitar.

And now, Trini.

He knew scientifically, they were all separate incidents but he couldn't … wouldn't take the chance that the same fate might befall Minh.

Of course, he would look after Minh, but he would do so from a distance.

He couldn't be her guardian, not after being the one responsible for her mother's death.

He was sure one of the other rangers would gladly agree to be her guardian, most probably Kim or Zack since they were godparents.

Meanwhile, he would everything in his power to mobilize all resources at their disposal and bring Rita to justice.

Chapter Text

The Juice Bar was crawling with putties. Some teenagers hid under tables, as the putties banged on the tables over them, taking pleasure from their fear.

Minh yelled, tossing a putty over the counter. She jumped over it and knocked the putty back with a well-placed kick to its torso.

“Get out of here!” She yelled to the others. “I have got this!”

The putties converged on her, sensing her as a real threat. Taking advantage of the distraction, the other civilians promptly fled the building.

Minh smirked as the putties surrounded her.

“Sorry, am I interrupting?” She drawled before grinning at them, her eyes betraying her excitement. “You guys are in for a treat!”

She took out her mom’s morpher from her jacket pocket and thrust her arms forward. “It’s Morphin Time! Sabretooth Tiger!”

Nothing happened. She looked at the morpher confused before tapping it again.

The putties made their warbling sounds, which started to sound like jeering laughter.

Giving her no time to respond, one putty jabbed at her, which she dodged.

“I don’t need any powers to beat you posers!” She grunted, putting the morpher back in her jacket and lunging at the grey soldiers. She got a couple of good hits in before the putties overwhelmed her.

She fell to the ground as a putty jumped on a chair beside her and peered down at her with it’s crimson slitted eyes, which infuriated her to no end. With all the force she could muster, she spun her legs in a sweeping motion, taking out the legs of the chair, forcing the putty to fall headfast on the floor. As it got up and growled at her, she crawled backwards and looked around, grabbing a discarded mop.

She swung the mop at the nearest putty, only for the creature to break it with a single kick. She staggered back, hitting a shelf before looking down at the two pieces in her hands.

Minh took a deep breath. It was okay. She still got the situation in hand.

Her mom had always told her to trust her instincts and be aware of her surroundings… that perspective made all the difference…

She looked down with a smile.

She didn’t have broken halves of a broomstick in her hand, she had twin batons.

She struck out with her batons, parrying the numerous blows from the putties and sending some flying back when another putty nabbed her leg from behind, forcing her to fall to her knees. Two putties restrained her arms, forcing her to drop her makeshift weapons. Another kicked her in the chest, knocking her against the counter. Minh grunted before kicking another putty which creeped towards her and leapt back to the fight with vicious punches and kicks on the grey army before a putty delivered a powerful kick to her spine, forcing her to fall on her face. Taking advantage of her helplessness, two others caught her and slammed her back against the counter before tossing her to the ground.

Maybe she had underestimated these grey foot soldiers. She took a deep breath, looking at the golems fearfully as they leered at her.

No, this wasn’t over. She was not going down without a fight.

She tightened her fists, willing herself to get back on her feet despite the pain that seared through her entire body.

Suddenly, blazes of saffron and pink illuminated the bar as two figures teleported in front of Minh, stopping the putties from coming any closer.

“Minh!” The one in pink robes turned to her. “Are you alright?”

She gave a nod, recognising the voice to be her aunt Kim’s, which meant the other was her aunt Nancy.

“Good.” Kim said sternly, focusing on her while backhanding a putty that tried to attack her. “Because after this, Minh Thuy Kwan, you are so grounded.”

Minh nodded sheepishly.

The saffron ninja made hand gestures with her hands and replicated herself into three clones, who lunged at the putties with kicks and punches, that reduced their number within seconds. Minh watched, her jaw agape as the putties were reduced to lumps of clay that fell to the floor unceremoniously.

The pink ninja flipped backwards, landing in the middle of the putties, before tearing through them.

As the last putty was destroyed, Minh clapped her hands and smiled, only to stop as the two ninjas took off their heads and stared at her disappointedly.

“Minh.” Kim said as they came up to her. “What in the world were you thinking?”

“I wanted to be like mom!” She defended.

“Well, Trini would not want to risk your life needlessly.” Nancy countered, rubbing her head. “Fighting to protect others is an honourable thing but we can do it because we have powers. You don’t. The morpher did not work for you.”

“Even if it did, you are going to be nowhere near monsters or putties, hear me?” Kim told her firmly.

“But… you guys did this all the time when you were my age!” She raised her hands in exasperation.

“Times were different then. We were the only ranger team then, now there are hundreds of rangers across the planet!” Kim shouted back, before placing her hands on Minh’s shoulders. “Please Minh, there is a lot going on and we can’t focus on saving the world if we don’t know if you are safe. Please.”

“Okay.” Minh sighed, nodding her head.

Kim’s face softened as she pressed a kiss on her goddaughter’s head and pulled her into a hug.

“I know how hard it is for you…” Kim said, letting go of Minh.

“It is okay, aunty.” She gave a small smile. “I was in over my head anyway. If you guys hadn’t come when you did…”

“You were.” Nancy agreed before pausing and smiling at her. “Don’t think me saying this is a greenlight for you to pull any more antics like this, but you did good. You made sure the civilians were out and you held out more than any other unpowered human would against the putties. You acted like a hero but you are not ready to be one yet. That is why the morpher didn’t work for you.”

“How do I make it work?” She asked.

“I don’t know.” She sighed. “All I know is your mother would agree with us when we say you should sit this one out.”

Minh sighed at the two, gave a relented nod.

Kim held her hand tightly and nodded at Nancy. They pressed their communicators and all three of them teleported away in jets of pink, saffron and white.

Chapter Text

London

Andros swung his spiral sabre, cutting a line through the endless army of putties that overwhelmed them.

A sudden yell drew his attention.

Carlos and Ashley were leading the civilians to safety, and did not notice Snizzard sneaking up on them from behind.

"Let them go!" Andros yelled, his eyes widening behind his helmet in fear for his partners. He punched codes in his wrist morpher, summoning his Battlizer as he dived at the monster holding miniaturized versions of the green and yellow turbo rangers, only for the monster to let out a cackle and teleport away.

"NO!" He yelled furiously, before turning his fury at the remaining putties, incinerating them with a powerful missile blast.

New York

Shuriken slashed through putties, the sharp steel slicing through the rock minions and reducing them to rubble as the five ninja turtles came out of the shadows of a deserted ally.

While normal turtles would have long died, the mutagen exposure that had turned them into human hybrids kept them sharp and active.

Venus joined the tips of her index and thumb fingers of both hands, forming a diamond spell and closed her eyes as mystical energies glowed around her. She let out a yell as energy orbs crashed against a group of putties that cornered a defenceless young girl.

The girl turned to look at her rescuer, only to scream at seeing the humanoid turtles and run away.

Venus looked away dejectedly. Leonardo placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"We have protected this city for thirty years and they still look at us as if we are monsters." She sighed sadly.

"Not all of them." Raphael reminded her.

"Yes." She smiled, thinking of their human friends. "Not all of them."

Angel Grove

Of all the zords she had piloted as a ranger, Tanya had to admit that the sabretooth tiger was a different experience all together. She could feel her instincts taking over and being one with the zord on a base level. She could feel the animalistic instincts and feral impulses of the sabretooth tiger, which was surreal to say the least.

Maybe it was the mighty morphin powers or maybe it was the fact that she was wielding a zord influenced by a living being instead of a car or alien weaponry.

Whatever it was, Tanya didn't care about it much, instead focusing on her zord's controls as the sabretooth tiger dino zord leapt at the giant robot monster, slashing at it with their claws.

King Sphinx threw her off only to be hit by a blast of ice from the Mastodon zord's trunk.

As soon as he shattered the ice and freed himself, the pterodactyl zord cut through his face with their sharp talons.

The horns on the triceratops zord's head shot at the monster with metallic wires attaching it to the zord like a hook. It wrapped around the monster, restraining him as the tyrannosaurus zord opened their mouth and unleashed a blast of fire at the monster.

The triceratops zord withdrew their hooks as the monster spun before toppling to the ground.

"Ready, guys?" Billy's voice came over the comms.

"Right." They responded back.

"Initiating Megazord Formation." Billy said and Tanya felt the zord move on it's own and a thud as the tiger zord attached to some other zord. Before she realised it, she was enveloped by a teleportation jet that transported her to the cockpit of the megazord with rest of the team.

They saw King Sphinx get up from the ground and point his sickle at them.

"Quickly finish this guy, before-" Zack started just as a pair of wings unfolded from the monster's back and flapped repeatedly, summoning strong winds that shattered the windows of skyscrapers nearby as well as knock down billboards. "Uh oh."

The Megazord stumbled as the winds slammed against them.

"What do we do?" Kat asked.

"I say, let's fight fire with fire." Rocky said, taking out his master morpher, which flashed blue as his zeo coin replaced the tyrannosaurus coin.

"May be a tad unconventional but go for it, Rocky!" Billy gave him a thumbs up.

Rocky nodded, raising his morpher. "Zeo Zord III – BLUE SPHINX!"

Flash of blue lightning shot through the skies and hit the Sphinx, dispelling the stormy winds. As the dust settled, they saw the blue sphinx zord pounce on the monster, letting out a mechanical roar as he forced the monster to the ground.

"Sphinx Battle Armour NOW!" Rocky shouted, as the sphinx flew to the air, folding on itself to form a lion head vest with golden accentuations, which attached to the megazord's front, replacing the pterodactyl zord which instead attached to the back and flapped it's wings open.

"POWER SWORD!" They yelled as the giant Power Sword appeared in the megazord's hand, supercharged by blue zeo energy and the megazord swung it, striking King Sphinx diagonally with it, taking the monster out.

They watched as the monster wailed on falling backwards, seconds before being consumed in an explosion.

"Yeah!" Rocky whooped.

"Nice job, guys!" Zack commended.

"We still got it!" Kat smiled.

"As amazing as that was, we have to get back to the Command Centre." Billy said.

"Yes. This was just a distraction. We need to take care of Rita and her robots." Tanya nodded.

"Right." The others said.

"Alpha, disengage the megazord." Billy said over the comms.

"Ay, ay, ay… On it, Billy!" The robot responded as the rangers teleported out and the zords disengaged before teleporting away to their hidden locations across the planet.

"Rangers!" Alpha turned towards them as they returned to the Command Centre. "Giant monsters have attacked other cities and thankfully, the other ranger teams and their zords handled them, but Rita has captured more rangers!"

The hologram displaying the list of captured rangers now showed a few more rangers – the red, blue and green lightspeed rangers, the Lunar Wolf Wild Force ranger, the Green Turbo Ranger and the Phantom Ranger.

"We need to put a stop to this." Tanya said firmly. "We cannot allow Rita to capture any more of us."

"We won't." Billy sighed, swiping some of the holographic slides, his eyes narrowing as he pulled out one slide detailing schematics for a device. "I will make the necessary adjustments on a modulating device I have here, but we will need something else."

"What?" Tanya asked.

"Kat gave me the idea. The monsters are all made of metal and what attracts metal?" Billy looked at the others expectantly.

"Magnets?" Kat shrugged.

"Exactly. We need a giant magnet that can trap the monsters." Billy said.

"And where will we get that?" Zack asked.

"Where else? Angel Grove junkyard. It should have everything." He told them. "Can you guys go and check it out while I finish recalibrating the modulator?"

"You got it." Rocky nodded.

"I will stay here till Minh gets back." Zack said.

"No worries. Three of us have been on scavenger hunts for stranger things before." Tanya said with a reassuring smile.

"We got this covered." Kat told them firmly, before they teleported out.

Just then, Kim and Nancy teleported back into the Command Centre with Minh in tow.

"Minh! Thank the stars, you are safe!" Zack sighed in relief, hugging his ward.

"Yeah, all thanks to aunties!" Minh smiled, returning the hug.

"But you are grounded, young lady." Zack said, letting go of her.

"What?" Minh gawked.

"You deliberately disobeyed me. You went out looking for danger instead of staying put." Zack reprimanded her.

"The putties were attacking the Youth Centre and you guys weren't there!" She exclaimed.

"So, you thought you would go and help out." Zack raised his eyebrow. "How well did that work out?"

Minh looked away hurt.

"Zack, I talked with her." Kim came in between them before things could escalate. "Minh promised she won't go looking for danger anymore."

Kim nudged Minh with her elbow. "Right, Minh?"

The young girl gave an exaggerated eye roll before relenting. "Yes, aunty. I won't."

"Good." Zack nodded. "Now that you are here, welcome to our Command Centre!"

"Awesome place!" Minh said impressed as she looked around. "Who knew Cranston Tech was hiding all of this?"

"Not the public and not my employees." Billy said. "This place is secret, so let's, uh, keep it that way, okay?"

Minh huffed, raising her hands as she wandered to the other side of the room.

"She is gonna need another talk." Zack sighed.

"Give her some time. All of this, especially after Trini's loss, is too much for her." Nancy sighed before turning towards Billy. "Any headway on the plan to rescue the captured rangers?"

"Working on it." Billy nodded, getting back to adjusting the schematics, Alpha peering over his shoulder.

"Right." Nancy nodded.

"We will get Ravi back, I promise." Kim assured her, taking her hand.

"I know." She replied, her eyes not straying from the holographic image of the blue beast morpher ranger.

Chapter Text

Billy, Nancy, and Kim had gone off to assist the others in the junkyard, leaving Zack, Alpha 5, and Minh in the Command Centre.

“Pleasure to meet you.” Alpha said, approaching Minh and extending his hand. “I am Alpha 5.”

“I am Minh Kwan.” The girl shrugged, shaking the robot’s hand.

“I know. I was a friend of your mother’s.” Alpha said. “Ay, ay, ay… Trini was my dear friend.”

“Wait. You knew my mom?” Minh asked.

“He did.” Zack said, coming over to them. “In fact, Alpha 5 was there from the start. He was Zordon’s assistant and tech advisor for some of Earth’s earliest ranger teams. He was instrumental to our victories.”

“Ay, ay, ay… You are making me blush, Zack!” Alpha said.

Minh giggled.

“Wait… ay, ay, ay…” Alpha wailed his arms, his sensors blinking rapidly. “I am detecting the yellow ranger energy signature from you.”

“Wait… Minh, tell me you didn’t.” Zack shook his head before outstretching his hand. “Come on. Give it to me.”

Minh sighed, handing the yellow morpher to her uncle. “Thanks a lot, Alpha.”

“Ay, ay, ay…”

“Alpha, can we have the room please?” Zack asked curtly.

“No problem, Zack. My sensors are detecting a vibe.” The robot said, walking over to the computer terminals on the other side of the base.

“If I thought this was going to get you in trouble, I never would have told you the truth!” Zack sighed in frustration. “But Billy-“

“What?” Minh asked sharply.

“He insisted. He thought it would be good for you. Closure and all that.” The black ranger said before glaring at his ward. “But here we are, in a full-on crisis, and you are trying to play ranger!”

“What is so wrong with that?” Minh shouted. “I feel like I am saying the same things over and over again to you guys! You all and mom did the exact same thing! I am just following her example! Isn’t that a good thing?”

She huffed, walking away from him.

“What do you think it means to be a ranger?” Zack asked from behind. “Kicking butt? Cute quips? Having fun? It is HARD!”

“I know.” Minh said turning around. “But someone needs to dole out justice on the bad guys. Rita killed mom!”

Zack grimaced.

“She needs to go down!” Minh continued.

“But you don’t need to be the one to take her down.” Zack grunted.

“I am ready. I am happy to do it! Whatever it takes!” Minh said before pointing at the morpher in Zack’s hands. “So why won’t that thing let me morph?”

“Minh, we have told you before. The coins are sentient. They can see into who you are. They only lend you their power if they find you worthy.” Zack said.

“So, I am unworthy?” Minh scoffed. “I am a good person!”

“I know that. We all know that.” Zack said placatingly. “But what you are feeling, what you want, it is not justice. It is revenge! When we were your age, my mentor told us that only monsters seek revenge. That’s what Robo Rita is doing now. We stopped her years ago and now, she wants to even the score and hurt us as much as she can. That’s why she… she killed Trini.”

“I know.” Minh said exasperatedly.

“All our colours mean something in the grid. Do you know what yellow stands for?” Zack asked her.

Minh shrugged.

“Honour and integrity. Holding on to your beliefs, your morals and seeing the best in everyone.” Zack said softly. “That’s what your mom did till the very end.”

“Holding on to revenge, all that hatred does you more harm than it does Rita. It eats you up from the inside. There is no honour in revenge.”

“You guys destroy monsters and aliens every other day, and me wanting to avenge mom makes me a bad guy?” Minh asked sarcastically.

“We do so to defend innocents, because there is no other option left.” He told her. “Our enemies are motivated by revenge and hatred. We are motivated by love and the desire to protect those we love from the horrors of the universe. That is what makes us heroes. A mission of revenge can never end well. That’s not what we want for you.”

“What about what I want?” Minh gulped. “Maybe, it’s not your call.”

“You wanna be a hero?” Zack pressed. “It is a selfless path. You don’t do good expecting something good to happen to you. You do good because it is the right thing to do. You have to give up on things you want for the greater good and no one will ever know how much you sacrificed for them and the world! It is not easy!”

“I don’t care if it is hard!” Minh protested.

“But I do!” Zack yelled at her. “And your mom did too! That is why she never told you she was a ranger! So that you can live a normal life and I don’t want you to throw that away. You want to be a hero? Well then, you must set aside your ambition and your personal feelings! That’s the only way that coin might work for you!”

“That’s twisted.”

“Welcome to the life of a ranger.” Zack scoffed.

“I am sorry, Uncle Zack. I didn’t want to shout at you but –“

“I know it is hard, Minh. At your age, losing what you have, you are stronger than all of us to withstand it.” Zack said, placing his hands on Minh;s shoulder. “And you don’t need to be a ranger to be a hero. To me, you already are one.”

“Thanks, Uncle Zack.” Minh sniffed. “I just… Rita running around after what she did to mom, it is just…”

“I know. We will stop her, Minh.” He promised. “Just let go of this anger. Setting aside your emotions, your ambitions can be a good thing. Like me, making sure that you have a good life and a good home.”

“It was worth giving up your career in Congress… for me?” Minh asked disbelievingly.

“You are absolutely worth it.” Zack smiled, pressing their foreheads together as he embraced her.

Placing his arm around her shoulder, he led her towards the centre of the base, overlooking the giant cylinder in the centre.

“If you understand that, then you can understand how hard Uncle Billy is trying to fix what he thinks he set in motion.” Zack said, pointing at the tube. “Zordon sacrificed himself for us long ago. You never met him. He was our mentor but almost, a father figure. Billy thought there was a chance he could still be alive, his energy and spirit scattered across the cosmos instead of him passing on. He did not expect his experiment would be like a beacon which drew Rita to Earth. But who are we kidding, Rita would have come after us either way. He blames himself for all this, for Trini’s death.”

“I don’t blame him, I don’t. Not for mom’s death at least.” Minh relented.

“But you do blame him for something.” Zack countered. “That anger towards him didn’t come from nowhere, kiddo.”

“I am glad that you were there for me, Uncle Zack and there is no one else I want taking care of me, but Uncle Billy was going to marry my mom. He asked me for permission a few weeks before everything and after she was gone, he barely talked to me. He pushed me away and he was supposed to be stepfather!” Minh said grudgingly.

“I did not know he and Trini were…” Zack closed his eyes before sighing. “Minh, your mom, and Billy loved each other from the moment they laid their eyes on each other. The nature of their love had changed over the years but not how much they cared for each other. Your mom always protected Billy and was the only one who could understand and reach him at times.”

“And Billy… He was always the first to help your mom through any problem she was going through.” He admitted. “But Billy had a tough life. He lost his mom when he was young and he lost his dad to a monster attack when he was a few years older than you. His first real girlfriend was killed in the same attack that Zordon sacrificed himself to stop. And then your mom…”

“He lost everyone he loved.” Minh said slowly.

“And I know he loves you very much and he doesn’t want to lose you too.” Zack said.

“I didn’t know that’s how he felt.” Minh muttered softly.

“Just stay here while we execute our plan. Okay?” Zack pleaded.

She gave a small nod.

“And don’t worry. We have saved the world before.” Zack grinned at her flippantly as he moved to where Alpha was monitoring the putty crisis worldwide.

Billy placed his modulator on the giant magnet attached to the crane and inspected it with his scanner.

“Now it will really pack a punch!” He smirked. “Alright Kat! Lift her up.”

Kat gave a thumbs up at his direction, from her seat inside the crane and pulled one of the levers down, lifting the arm of the crane tied to the magnet.

“So, uh, this thing is used to sort old scrap, huh?” Rocky asked Billy.

The blue ranger nodded.

“Well, Minotaur and Snizzard perfectly fit that definition.” Kim snarked.

“All right! We are set.” Billy motioned for Kat to stop and she paused the lever, before hopping out of the crane.

“Let’s bait the trap!” Kat said.

“Everyone clear on the plan?” Billy asked.

They nodded.

“Right.” He sighed, summoning his morpher. “It’s Morphin Time!”

“Pink Ranger Power!”

“Blue Ranger Power!”

“Red Ranger Power!”

“Saffron Ranger Power!”

“Zeo Ranger One- Pink!”

“Zeo Ranger Two- Yellow!”

In a flash of grid energy, they morphed into their armour.

Billy grabbed the remote that would activate the magnet and glanced at the others.

“All right, we are set.” Billy said. “They could be here any second, so look sharp.”

“Always do.” Rocky quipped as they waited for the inevitable arrival of their enemies.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Minh looked at the cars parked outside the Cranston Tech headquarters.

She glanced over a sleek car before moving ahead. "Maybe too much of a flex."

She rolled her eyes at the motorcycle. "Overdone."

Finally, she smiled on seeing the familiar Radbug and gave a nod of approval.

She drove the car through the cliffside, randomly pushing the buttons, thinking at least one of them would be for the flight mode.

"Come on!" She yelled in exasperation. "Why won't you fly?"

As she traversed the empty road, she saw an overturned car before her and a man waving his hands. "Help! They are after my boyfriend! That way!"

The man pointed ahead and Minh pressed the accelerator. "Hero practice won't hurt!"

She swerved the car past the man and saw a man in pink shirt trying to fight off four putties by himself with help of a tree log.

"Move! Move!" She yelled frantically and the man turned to look at her in surprise before rolling out of the way as the Radbug slammed against the golems, smashing them into globules of clay that splashed across the windshield.

"Yeah! What a mess!" She cried happily, clicking a button as the wiper cleaned the putty dirt from the windshield.

"Whoa!" She yelped as the car finally took flight and the winds blew her hair back.

She turned behind to see the couple embrace happily and waved at them before flying up through the clouds.

The junkyard wasn't hard to locate. She had been there many times with her mom and Uncle Billy to salvage the junk and keep it clean.

The city looked so peaceful from up in the skies and she gently lowered the car down in the middle of the junkyard, where the monsters lay trapped.

She parked the Radbug before hopping out of it and glared at the monsters.

"Somebody's lost!" Minotaur grunted.

She glared up at the restrained monsters.

"Hey girlie, did you take a wrong turn?" Snizzard snarked.

"You don't remember me from the cemetery?" She asked, her voice shaking with anger. "You messed with my people and your boss killed my mom!"

"We work for an intergalactic war criminal. You will need to be a lot more specific." Snizzard hissed.

"I am Minh Kwan! And you are about to face the Sabretooth Tiger!" She shouted at them, pulling out their morpher and pointing it at the monsters.

Nothing happened to her surprise.

She had saved that couple out of benevolence, no personal feelings involved because that was the right thing to do, just like taking these monsters out would make the world a better place!

"Wha- I am doing the world a favour!" She exclaimed, tapping the coin. "Work! Damn it!"

The monsters laughed seeing her frustration.

"Stop laughing, freaks!" She snapped at them, raising her morpher yet again. "Sabretooth Tiger!"

Laughter again.

"Stop laughing!" She yelled. She put her morpher back and pulled out her blade blaster and pointed it at the monsters, immediately making them stop.

"You won't dare!" Snizzard said fearfully.

"We are defenceless!" Minotaur pleaded. "Where is your honour?"

"Where was yours when you attacked and captured rangers?" She retorted, her fingers on the trigger.

"Now what do we have here?" A screech drew her attention as Rita and Scrozzle walked out from behind her.

"Another kid playing the hero!" Rita leered at her. "I tend to make that difficult! Ask your mom!"

"Rita!" She snarled, turning her blaster at her and opening fire. Scrozzle yelped, scurrying behind the witch who cackled as she rised her staff, absorbing the attack before retaliating with her own energy blast which threw Minh back and knocked the blaster out of her hands.

Minh grunted as she got up. Her eyes drifted towards her fallen blaster and she ran towards it only for another blast to destroy it.

She looked up at the witch and snarled. "If I can't blast you to nothing, I will take you down the old-fashioned way!"

Minh took a deep breath, taking the Praying Mantis Style fighting stance. She joined the forefinger and long finger in each of her hand while folding the rest. She hoisted her hands up and lifted one leg, just like she had trained so many times before.

Use your enemy's strength against them. Her mother's words whispered in her ear.

She looked at the robot, inspecting it for any weak points. Her entire body was made of hard metal. Minh's eyes drifted towards her staff… the same staff Rita uses to channel her magic. With that gone, she stood a chance.

She lunged at the witch, who dodged the attack, trying to whack her with her staff.

Minh leaned back, letting the staff rotate above her before retaliating with a kick that knocked the staff out of Rita's hands and into her own.

"NO!" Rita screeched as the young girl snapped it into two by hitting it against her leg. A wave of black magic dispersed in the air as she tossed it to the ground.

"You will pay for that, girl!" Rita snarled, charging at her, only for Minh to dodge it and kick the robot in the back, sending her rolling in the dirt.

"My queen!" Minotaur cried from above.

"You will pay for what you did to my mom!" Minh yelled, only to feel a jolt of pain force her to her knees.

Scrozzle giggled, appearing from behind her, pointing a taser at her. He pressed a button and another blast of electricity hit her, sending her flying against the Radbug.

"Valiant attempt, child but foolish nevertheless!" Rita commended, getting back on her feet. Scrozzle picked up the broken pieces of her staff and handed it back to her, which she joined together with a burst of crimson energy. "But didn't your uncles and aunts tell you that evil doesn't play fair?"

Minh tried to get back to her feet, only for the witch to swing her staff in a sweeping motion, knocking her legs and forcing her to fall back on the ground with a thud.

She winced in pain as Rita chuckled.

"Now what to do with you…" Rita pondered, as she pointed the staff at her, the ruby emblazoned in it glowing ominously.

Chapter Text

After Trini's funeral

In the loft of the Kwan House

Sylvia looked at Zack fiercely.

"She is my niece. Minh should come with me!" She said strongly.

"Then she has to leave her home… the home Trini built for them… the home she grew up in, and not just that, all her friends in school and us!" He shot back.

"I can give her a good life, Zack. She is my flesh and blood. Trini and her folks took me in when my parents kicked me out. I owe Minh this much."

"You live in London." Zack stressed. "You are talking about Minh adjusting to a different country. Already, this is taking a huge toll on her and on top of that, another huge change like this…"

"I am just trying to do what is best for her. I promise you, Zack, I and Becky will love her as much as we love Yen! And this house, we will keep it as it is and Minh can move back here when she is old enough." Sylvie said. "I just want what is best for Minh. And she needs to be with family!"

"We know that but Sylvie, we are her family too." Kim said softly.

"Kimberly, no offence but you and your partners already have your hands full with three kids."

"Lila is in college now and-"

"JJ is in high school and Hope is just starting school. On top of that, you can't go back and forth between here and Reefside. Jason's son is so young, it wouldn't be fair to ask him to take Minh in. Billy has his company to take care of and Zack lives a busy life in Washington DC. None of you have the time to devote to Minh." Sylvia said firmly.

"We will make time, Sylvia. I am her godmother." Kim said.

"Kim, I and Becky are perfectly able to take care of Minh." Sylvia reassured.

"I am not questioning your parenting skills, Sylvie. You both are amazing parents, but Trini wanted to raise Minh here, in Angel Grove. And I love her like my own. You know that."

"It is not just that. Kim, Zack, you guys know I love you guys and respect you a lot…" Sylvia paused.

"But?" Zack raised an eyebrow.

"You are rangers. Heroes. Trini was one too but superpowers are not full proof obviously. She died because she was a hero. This life you have… It is dangerous, not just for you but also for people close to you." She grimaced.

"Oh, Sylvie…"

"How many times did Rita or Zedd go after your friends and relatives? Heck, they even held me hostage when I was just a kid. I don't want Minh to get intwined in this. She has already lost enough. We all have." Sylvia looked away, tearfully.

"We all want Minh safe, Sylvie."

"But you all have your own lives, kids and careers, not to mention your duties as rangers." Sylvie asked. "I want to take care of Minh. That's the least I can do."

"We do have our lives, but family comes first. Always." Zack said determinedly. "I will take care of Minh."

Sylvia turned towards him confused. "After all this talk about uprooting Trini and moving her to London, you want-"

"I am not going to take her to Washington." Zack said. "I am moving back to Angel Grove. I will move here, so that Minh doesn't stay in her home."

"But your career-"

"I have done a lot of good as a congressman. It's time for me to take care of my family."

"You don't have to-" Sylvia started.

"I know but I want to." Zack said.

"If you leave everything you have worked for, how will you take care of Minh, let alone yourself?" Sylvia asked.

Zack chuckled.

"I have plenty of savings." He reassured. "Besides, I still have contacts in the Angel Grove law firm. It won't be difficult for me to get a job if I need it."

"You would do that?" Kim asked. "Give up everything for Minh?"

"Yes. Just like you, Sylvie or anyone else in our family." Zack nodded his head sincerely.

"What about your duties as a ranger?"

Zack took out his morpher. "This is just for emergencies. I am retiring. The other rangers can hunt down Rita. From now, my only priority is to give Minh a good life and a good home."

"Okay." Sylvia said slowly. "This is the best plan and what is best for Minh. Thank you, Zack."

"It is the least I can do."

"Still, I will leave only after getting you settled in here." Sylvia said.

"I would expect no less." Zack smiled.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

“This ends now, Rita.” Tommy said as the rangers walked towards the space sorceress, who edged back towards the dumpster.

“Do something!” She screeched at her robotic assistant. Scrozzle turned towards her silently before taking out a device.

“Good luck, my queen.” He giggled, pressing a button and blue light wrapped around his form, whisking him away to parts unknown.

“You traitor!” Rita yelled before turning towards her enemies.

“Shocking but not unexpected.” Billy scoffed. “Pretty hard to inspire loyalty when your word means nothing.”

“I may be an old witch but I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve!” She placed her palm on the red gem on the dumpster.

“NO!” Jason yelled, his eyes widening behind his helmet as he drew his blade blaster and opened fire on the sorceress, who cackled with glee. “STOP HER!”

The others charged at her, only for the lid to slide open and fall on the barren surface with a thud and a wave of dark energy to burst out of it, which threw the rangers back.

Four beams shot out of the cannister and materialised into four beings the rangers never thought they would see again.

“Welcome back, my minions!” Rita laughed.

“Empress?” Goldar asked hesitantly.

“How?” Finister whispered.

“Wait, I thought she was sealed with us.” Baboo tapped his chin with his long fingernail.

“Maybe our minds were scrambled because we are locked out for so long!” Squatt blinked. “And since when was Empress a robot?”

The four henchmen turned to look at the sorceress, who snorted.

“After ten thousand years, I am free!” A screech came from the dumpster as the past version of Rita emerged from the dumpster, before looking at her other self and blinking. “Who are you?”

“Why you, of course!” Robo Rita chuckled.

“Huh?” Rita stuttered.

Goldar scratched his head and pointed his sword from one sorceress to the other. “Two Ritas?”

Finister adjusted his glasses and Squatt gawked at them.

“What do we do?” Kim asked slowly as the rangers regrouped.

“Rita has already changed the timeline.” Billy said. “Best thing we can do to course correct is defeat them and put them back in the dumpster.”

“Rangers!” Goldar snarled, spotting the rangers.

“What?” Rita screeched.

“Yeah. Goldar, do us a favour and kill those brats, while I have a long conversation with myself.” Robo Rita waved offhandedly.

Goldar looked at the past version of Rita, who gave a nod of approval. He lunged at the six rangers.

“Here, let me help.” Robo Rita extended a hand towards Rita, helping her out of the dumpster.

“How can you be me?” Rita asked.

“Oh, don’t be a simpleton.” Robo Rita snorted. “I am you from the future!”

“I travelled back in time?” She asked disbelievingly. “But the time space continuum…”

“Have you forgotten everything Father Dearest taught us? If you want a decisive victory, you got to cheat.” The robot said.

“How can I be sure you are me?” She asked suspiciously.

“Why else would I free you?” Came the snarky reply. “The only thing I want is for us… for you to win against Zordon and claim your rightful place as the supreme ruler of the universe! With my knowledge of future events, we can squash our enemies before they even become a threat!”

Rita peered at her robotic self closely, before cracking a grin. “I believe you.”

“Well, then let’s get the show on the road!” Robo Rita laughed heartily.

“No…” Minh murmured. Her eyes drifted to the time portal which closed in on itself. Their way back home was gone and Rita had succeeded in her plan to free her younger self.

Last time, her mom died while all the rangers faced a lone witch and now, they faced two sorceresses along with Rita’s henchmen and they were down a ranger.

She watched as the younger Rita slammed her staff to the ground and the pieces of Robo Rita’s staff flew up from the ground and merged back into a new scepter, gently falling into Robo Rita’s hands.

The two witches crossed their staffs and let loose a barrage of lightning that sailed past Goldar and struck the rangers, throwing them back and forcing them out of their morphs. They hit the hard surface of the moon, the impact knocking them unconscious.

“NO!” Minh yelled, running over to them.

“Uncle Zack!” She shook the black ranger, who didn’t respond.

“Don’t bother child!” Robo Rita scoffed. “Our magic depleted their reserve powers. It would take hours for them to regain consciousness. Time that they don’t have. Nor do you, for that matter.”

She swung her staff, crimson energies swirling around her.

Minh gulped, standing up and stepping in front of the unconscious rangers protectively.

“Send Trini my regards!” She laughed menacingly, aiming the staff at the young girl.

“The Forbidden Spell…” Rita pursed her lips. “It’s chaos magic!”

“Oh, don’t be a party pooper, young me!” Her older self said disdainfully. “If you want to get rid of the power rangers, you got to stop holding back!”

“And now, back to you, Minh!” Robo Rita snarled, the energies converging on the front of her staff. She was just about to fire when Minh gasped. White electricity cackled around her body as well as around the other rangers, before they teleported away.

“NO!” She snarled.

“What happened?” Goldar asked.

“What do you think, you baboon!” She spat.

“Zordon.” Rita gave the robot a knowing look.

“No matter. He and his pathetic charges will all die soon enough and this time, I will have the pleasure of personally executing them!” She vowed darkly.

“Future Rita is scarier.” Squatt whispered to Baboo, who nodded.

“Oh dear…” Finister wiped the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief.

“Now what, empress… empresses?” Goldar asked.

“Now it’s time to conquer Earth and then the universe!” Robo Rita laughed, her past self and her henchmen joining in.

Chapter Text

Forces from the Future

Minh blinked as her head stopped spinning.

"Where am I?" She asked, looking around. All around her were futuristic panels not unlike that of the Command Centre, holographic screens. She saw the others lying on the floor.

"No…" She panicked. She had no idea where she was and the others were unconscious.

"Uncle Zack, you need to wake up." She stooped to shake the black ranger.

"They won't. Not yet." She looked up at hearing the unfamiliar voice. A brunette in a white jumpsuit and a gold triangular badge pinned on her chest was standing nearby along with others. Some of them wore similar outfits while others wore variations with coloured stripes on their uniforms.

"Who are you all?" She asked.

"I am Director Jen Scotts of Time Force. We are rangers. Our job is to police the time stream and prevent time criminals from altering the timeline for their own benefit." The woman introduced herself coolly. "It is nice to meet you, Minh Kwan despite the circumstances."

"What… Where am I?"

"You are on our time ship. We teleported seconds before you were about to be vapourised by Rita's attack." A black man in blue uniform piped up from behind Jen. He wore glasses and had a bulky frame.

"Eddie, don't interrupt the director." A man with a similar uniform to Jen interrupted, rolling his eyes.

Jen gave a small smile. "It's alright, Lucas."

She turned towards Minh and gave her a kind smile. "I know everything must feel overwhelming but we are here to help."

She nodded to the others.

"Take the Mighty Morphin Team to the Med-Bay."

"On it, Director." A dark-skinned woman with a white bob, in a black uniform nodded. Her eyes flashed silver and several drones emerged from the walls and Minh yelped in shock.

"Don't be scared. They are on our side." The woman assured her. "Oh, I am Vesper by the way."

The drones hovered over the unconscious rangers emitting a blue ray that swept over their bodies and a transparent panel solidified out of thin air underneath each of the rangers. The panels detached from the floor and gracefully floated in the air before following the drones out of the hallway.

Minh scampered behind them, running past the officers.

"That's the legendary Minh Kwan?" Lucas asked sceptically.

"Must you always be condescending." A silver haired handsome man in a green uniform raised an eyebrow. "She is not even a ranger yet and already been through hell and back. Give her a break."

Lucas snorted. "And she might be the reason the timeline deviated from the original course of events. Rita was stopped before she even went through the portal."

"You really are dense for a ranger. We should try eliminating all possible reasons before accusing one of our own." Joe said forcefully.

"What did you say, you silver punk?" Lucas scowled. "I have been a ranger long before you were old enough to talk."

"And yet I outrank you." Joe smirked.

Lucas gritted his teeth. "I wonder what Nadira saw in you…"

"Well, it's clear why she left you." Joe retorted smugly.

Lucas clenched his fists and leapt at Joe, who easily sidestepped the attack before retaliating with a low spinning sweep kick that threw the blue ranger off balance and sent him stumbling backwards. He would have fallen if Katie hadn't caught him.

"Enough!" Jen barked and the two men stopped glaring at each other. Lucas shrugged, pulling away from Katie.

Katie and Trip shared concerned looks.

"We are facing a crisis. We cannot afford distractions. Is that clear?"

"Yes, madam." Joe said, standing up and smoothing his uniform.

"Lucas?" Jen looked at her long-time friend.

"Yes, Jen." He mumbled.

"Okay, we have faced crises like these before. We need to split up and fix this aberration before it becomes an omega level threat." Jen said. "The Ritas think Zordon teleported the rangers away. They don't know that we have set up a sub dimensional shield around Earth, which will block them from attacking the planet. We need to take out Robo Rita and erase the memories of Rita and her henchmen before they realise it."

Jen looked at one of the Hyper Force rangers, a woman of Indian descent, with flowing black hair that reached her waists, clad in a purple and black suit. "Uma, we will need you to cast the spell that will seal them back in the dumpster, even if it's for a couple of months before they are eventually freed again. The timeline should be preserved at all costs."

The director tilted her head towards her own team. "And there is the matter of Scrozzle. Alpha 55 detected his energy signature near the Alpha Centauri system, which is currently being attacked by Mondo's machine empire. We believe he is trying to ally himself with Mondo and his robotic minions. Katie, Lucas and Trip will intercept Scrozzle before he causes irreparable damage to the time stream. Jack and Matthias will stay behind to protect the ship and the morphin team. Everyone else, including myself, will capture the moon aliens and bring Robo Rita to justice. Everyone clear on the plan?"

There was a murmur of agreements.

"Good. We move out now." Jen said.

Billy laughed, pushing the door to his bedroom open as the former yellow ranger wrapped her her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He could feel her soft breath on his face and it was only a moment before their lips met.

It was one of the most magical moments in his life. He felt loved and needed… something he felt would be impossible after Cestria's passing.

Billy couldn't tear his eyes away from Trini, her hair askew with a few strands falling over her face as they rolled away from each other. They were in Billy's bed, a thin film of sweat over their naked bodies, their clothes scattered all over the room.

"Hey," Trini said, her fingers running through Billy's hair before caressing his face. "You should come to visit more often."

"Yeah, about that…" Billy winced. "This might be the last time in a while I am on Earth. There are rumours of an army gathering in the far sectors of the galaxy."

Trini tried to hide her disappointment but failed to do so.

"Hey, I will be back." Billy said quickly.

"I know but maybe someone else can save the galaxy this time. It doesn't always have to be you." She said softly.

He bit his lips. "This army… this armada… It might be stronger than even the Alliance of Evil. It will take more than a single set of ranger powers to beat them this time. I have been corresponding with a being called Gosei, Zordon's successor to create a ranger team who can access all our powers."

"You are the best person for the job." She relented.

He nodded.

"I want to stay on Earth, with you and the others…"

"But duty calls." Trini sighed.

"You can come with me?" He offered. "We can see the universe, different planets-"

"I have seen my fair share of the universe, Billy." She smiled. "And I have spent years saving the world. Right now, I want to be home, with the people I care about."

"I understand." He said slowly.

"Hey…" Trini took his hand. "Let's worry about the future tomorrow. We do have each other today."

Billy nodded, pulling up the blankets as they snuggled under it, seeking comfort in each other's warm embrace.

Billy's eyes snapped open.

He felt pain all over his body and a headache that was slowly receding. Everything was too bright.

"You are awake!" A familiar face and a familiar voice.

It was Trini grinning at him.

Except it couldn't be her.

"Minh." He realised, as the sluggishness of the idyllic dream faded and he sat up. "I am so glad you are okay!"

He hugged the daughter of the love of his life.

"Me too, Uncle Billy." She smiled.

"You wouldn't believe what happened!" She said excitedly as they let go of each other. He looked around to see the other rangers lying on beds beside him, their bodies glowing as drones hovered over each of them, coating them with a layer of energy that flashed in various colours.

"The others…"

"They are safe." Billy turned sideways as two individuals in uniforms stepped towards them. One was wearing a white jumpsuit while the other was wearing a black suit with yellow highlights. Both looked oddly familiar and he blinked repeatedly as soon as he recognised the resemblance.

"Bulk? Skull?" He asked in surprise.

The two looked at each other, exchanging confused glances while Minh's eyes shot wide.

"Who are Bulk and Skull?" The man who looked like Bulk and even sounded a bit like him asked.

Billy squinted. Well, while the resemblance was uncanny, the last time he met his former bullies, Bulk did not have a beard or a mop of blond hair on his head and Skull certainly did not have a crystalline gem on his forehead.

"They are friends of my uncles and aunts." Minh explained. "But he is right. That's why you two looked so familiar!"

"Well, I guess after all this blows over, we will have to check the history records for this Bulk and Skull." The other man, who resembled Skull said.

"Well, if Wes can look like Alex and have similar DNA, despite there being a thousand years between them, anything can be possible!" Bulk's doppelganger said.

Alex… That name caught his attention. His eyes wandered over to the triangular badges on their uniforms and it became stark clear who they might be.

"You are Time Force." Billy deduced.

"How did you know?" Minh asked.

"I have crossed paths with Time Force before." Billy said.

"You have?" Not-Skull asked, confused. "There was nothing of that sort mentioned in the debrief but you are right. We are Time Force. I am Matthias of Edenoi, the Silver Time Force ranger and my buddy here is Jack Thomas, the Yellow Hyper Force ranger."

"Nice to meet fellow rangers." Billy nodded. "Pardon me for being so brash but what happened? The last thing I remember was Rita, or rather Ritas blasting us with their combined dark magic."

"You were rendered unconscious." Jack told him. "But we teleported you all here in our time ship before she could kill you. Our teams are taking care of Rita and Scrozzle as we speak."

"And my team?"

"The dark magic knocked you out of your morphs. Your powers protected you but it will take some time for you all to recover." Jack said.

"Don't worry." Matthias placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Our teams have faced Rita Repulsa before. You can rest assured we will stop her."

Billy gave a small smile at that, though he was still not at ease completely.

"Ay, ay, ay!" Another familiar voice echoed through the med-bay.

"Alpha?" Billy asked, turning towards the direction of the voice but it wasn't who he expected to see.

They were an Alpha Unit, no doubt, with the golden lightning bolt on their chest and the saucer shaped head, but they were painted black and they were bulkier than the one he remembered in his time.

"Greetings, Dr Cranston." The robot said. "I am Alpha 55."

"55…" Billy murmured softly. From what they knew from Wes Collins, the Time Force team was from 3001. It was peculiar how so many Alpha units had been built over a span of just a thousand years while only seven Alpha units had been forged in the last twenty thousand years.

"Ay, ay, ay… Rangers, the scanners picked up an attempted teleportation to Earth. Our shield blocked it…"

"That means Rita will be on to us." Jack said. "Have you alerted Jen and the others?"

"I have." Alpha nodded.

"What do you mean on to us?" Billy pressed.

"Our ship projected a sub dimensional barrier on the planet to prevent Rita from attacking Earth before she is supposed to and potentially creating a variant timeline or rewriting our current timeline." Matthias told him.

"So, the ship is the source of the barrier?" Billy asked.

"Yes, so?" Jack asked before Matthias' eyes widened, catching on to Billy's implication.

"They might try to attack the ship to disrupt the shield." He realised.

"Our ship is cloaked." Jack shrugged.

A sudden tremor rocked the ship as alarms started to blare.

"You were saying?" Billy snarked. "Our coins radiate energies which Rita can track with her magic."

"Okay, never mind that…" Matthias bit his lips just as a blast of red energy slammed against the two officers and Alpha 55, sending them skidding across the floor as Robo Rita appeared in the middle of the med-bay.

"Oh good! Not only are the rangers all in one place to be slaughtered, I get to kill two more pesky brats and get a time ship too! This is truly my day!" She cackled.

"Not so fast, you fashion reject!" Matthais grunted as he and Jack stood up and tapped their morphers.

"Time For Time Force!"

"It's Morphin Time!"

In a flash of silver and yellow lights, they stood morphed and drew their weapons.

"Time Force Silver, ready!"

"Hyper Force Yellow, ready! Power up!"

Rita clapped her hands.

"Fantastic show but two against one doesn't seem very fair, does it?" She sneered. "Let's even the odds, shall we?"

She tapped her staff on the floor and a group of putties appeared before her, except their stripes were crimson instead of plain black.

"Meet my new Super Putties, you power posers!" She screeched.

The henchmen launched themselves at the rangers except two, who creeped towards Minh and Billy.

Billy clenched his fists as he jumped in front of Minh and took out his morpher as well. He morphed in a flash of blue light and summoned his lance.

He yelled, jumping at the minions.

Rita's eyes drifted towards the other rangers who lay unconscious and defenceless. She raised her staff, only for an energy barrier to form in front of them.

"NO!" She turned to glare at Alpha 55, who staggered to his feet. "You will pay for that, you pesky robot!"

She fired a blast of energy from her staff, only for Alpha to create another forcefield around himself, dispelling the attack before raising his left palm at the witch, which instantly reconfigured into canons, that fired a blast of energy that threw the witch back.

"What! The bumbling robot servant knows how to fight in the future?" Rita spluttered.

"We have evolved in a thousand years to be equipped with the ability to defend both rangers and ourselves, if the need arises." Alpha 55 told her seriously. "You made a grave mistake attacking my ship and those under my protection."

If Rita still had her human body, she would be blinking repeatedly. She burst into laughter as she stood up with the help of her staff.

"Well, you still have your sense of humour, Alpha but I am afraid you will need more than that to best me!" She snarled, her eyes glowing crimson as tendrils of crimson energies shot out from her staff towards the android, only for Billy to step in between, deflecting the attacks with his lance.

"There is nothing wrong with loving more than one person, Kimberly."

Even as she heard Trini's voice, she found it hard to believe what she was hearing.

"It isn't?" Kim asked. "They are married, Trini. Both of them. I lost my chance with Tommy and never had one with Kat to begin with. And now, we are adults. I have a kid. They have a family of their own, their own kid. I can't just mess it up."

"Kimberly…"

"It's too weird, Trini." She shook her head. "I need to get over them."

"You love them." Her best friend told her.

"I don't know… I mean, the first time we hooked up was when all of us were very drunk but we kept on meeting up…"

"What are you really thinking, Kim?" Trini asked.

"What if they are just entertaining me to… you know, spice up their marriage or something?" She said, her voice wavering. "What if I don't mean anything to them!"

"Kimberly, you know that's not true." Trini said calmly. "The way they look at you, they care about you a lot. I can see it in their eyes. They do love you, Kim."

"But it is…"

"Kim, you know there are many polyamorous marriages and relationships. While it is not common on Earth, it is there and I have seen some many people thriving in relationships with multiple individuals on other planets. They make it work. And you can too. Heck, you don't even have to look that far. Andros, Carlos, Zhane and Ashley have been making it work for more than a decade!"

"What if it doesn't work out?" Kim asked.

"Kimberly, I don't believe that. You deserve people who love you as much as you love them. But in the off chance it doesn't, you know you can survive that. You owe it to yourself and to Kat and Tommy to at least try."

"I…" Kim broke into tears before pulling her best friend into a hug. "What would I do without you, Trini!"

Trini smiled, running circles over Kim's back. "I will always be there with you, Kim."

Just then, the surroundings changed from Kim's apartment to something she couldn't discern. Yellow flames lit up around them and Kim pulled back in concern.

"What the-" Kim said, letting go of her friend.

"Kimberly, you need to wake up." Trini shook her shoulder. "Now!"

"What…" Kim stuttered as Trini lit up in yellow flames and she screamed before consumed by an all-encompassing yellow light.

Kim gasped as she woke up.

She looked around to see Zack, Nancy, Jason and Tommy in similar states, sitting up on their beds.

"Minh!" Zack yelled, drawing their attention. They saw a forcefield in front of them and beyond that, a ferocious battle. Minh was holding her own against a putty. Two unfamiliar rangers and someone who looked a lot like Alpha being overwhelmed by squadron of putties.

"Billy…" Kim shouted as she saw the blue ranger pinned against the forcefield by Robo Rita.

They looked at each other and sprang to their feet but it was already too late.

"Oh Cranston!" Rita growled at the blue ranger. "I grow tired of you always coming between me and my plans!"

She raised her staff and let loose a barrage of lightning that threw Billy against the forcefield, forcing him to let go of his lance.

"NO!" Alpha 55 came to his defence, only for a couple of putties to restrain him from behind.

"It ends now, Billy!" She yelled, firing another wave of dark energy that knocked him out of his morph. Tendrils of crimson energies bound him, preventing him from moving as they smashed him against the floor repeatedly, making him cry out in pain. Blood trickled down a gash on his forehead.

"Uncle Billy!" Minh yelled, from where she was being held by a putty.

"What a waste! Trini died for you and now, you will share her fate!" She taunted, swirling her staff, and making the same motions she did to cast her infamous killing spell.

The bolt of red energy hurled towards him and he glared at Rita, his head held high. Even if there was no escape, he wouldn't let Rita have the satisfaction of seeing him give up,

"NO!" It wasn't just Minh screaming. It was the voices of his friends too.

Minh shook off the putty and dived in front of Billy, taking the brunt of the spell as she collided against the forcefield and then rolled over to the ground.

"NO!" Kim yelled.

"MINH!" Zack cried in anguish.

"NO!" Jason and Tommy yelled at the same time.

The super putties thrashing Jack, Matthias and Alpha 55 stopped as the two officers watched with wide eyes. Not only had they failed to protect the rangers, they had lost one of the most important figures in ranger history on their watch and on their own ship.

Alpha 55 closed his palm and the forcefield flickered away and the rangers ran over to where Minh lied.

A silver laser courtesy of Matthias cut through Billy's restraints and he fell to the floor, his face broken. He crawled over to Minh speechless, too shocked to even cry. His heart hammered in his chest.

"No…" Billy whispered, taking Minh's hand, and checking for a pulse, only to find none.

"No…" He pressed his fingers against her carotid, hoping for the faintest of pulsations and was disappointed once again. "No! No!"

"She can't be gone!" Zack yelled, stooping to cradle Minh in his lap. "Minh, you need to wake up! Please!"

"No, not again!" Kim wept, falling to her knees beside Billy and Zack. "Not Minh!"

Jason breathed rapidly, unable to believe what was happening.

Tommy clenched his fists, trying to remain calm, even as tears ran down his cheeks.

"Yes, this brings back memories!" Rita giggled, as the putties regrouped behind her, marvelling at the rangers' broken faces as they mourned the loss of one of their own, once again.

Hope this makes up for the late update and I am sure no one saw this coming!

I wanted to include the Hyper Force rangers because even though they were created for a RPG, they were the original Power Rangers design which were not based on Sentai. On top of that, the show is amazing and the characters were played by talented actors/storytellers/gamers. I urge you all to check it out, if you haven't already. All the episodes are on YouTube as well as on Spotify (on audio format).

I want to thank my bestie Super Shadowhenshin for helping me find a way to include the Hyper Force/Time Force teams in a way that makes sense.

In Hyper Force, Nadira gets married to Joe Shih, the former Time Force Silver and current Hyper Force Green ranger (and portrayed by the amazing Yoshi Sudarso) instead of Lucas, though Lucas/Nadira was heavily shipped in the Time Force season. That led to brief conflict between them in the season finale and I am just expanding on that in here. Plus I am not a huge fan of Lucas so I am sorry for any fans who feels offended, though I would like to point out Lucas was a hothead and sort of a jerk in canon too.

Matthias is an OC made by me. I really wanted Bulk and Skull to show up in the special and when I decided to include Hyper Force in this story, which included a character portrayed by Paul, the idea to create another character who is portrayed by Jason Narvy (in my head) came naturally and the spot for Time Force Silver was open for him.

Other OCs are Uma and Priya, the Purple Hyper Force and Time Force rangers respectively.

Hope you like Billy and Kim's dream/memories with Trini. And yes, though I heavily hinted at it in previous chapters, I wanted to confirm that Kim is in a polyamorous marriage with Kat and Tommy.

Also, thank you everyone for supporting this story! This story got more than a 100 reviews on fanfiction.net, which is truly something amazing, especially in the PR fanfic community since very few readers take the time to review. So I wanted to thank all of you who have reviewed. It means a lot and honestly keeps me going! And I also wanted to thank Ginsenshi, who has always supported and reviewed all my stories on ao3! Your support means a lot! Thank you!

On the note of reviews, I didn't respond earlier because I didn't want to spoil it but no, this is not going to lead to a separate timeline, though that would have been amazing too!

Hope you enjoyed the story and please review. :)

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During his time as a Time Force officer and later a Hyperforce ranger, Jack Dealgoode Thomas had witnessed several tragedies. Heck, he had seen his entire timeline get wiped away and his reality rewritten into one where evil had prevailed over good for over a thousand years. After many failed attempts, his team along with allies across the multiverse had managed to put the timeline back on track, but it was not the same as before.

In the original timeline, Billy Cranston had made a gross mistake during his attempt to find Zordon by accidentally consolidating Rita Repulsa's dark energies, which had scattered across the cosmos, into a spirit form. Rita had swiftly taken possession of Billy's assistant, Alpha 7 and manipulated his robotic shell to create her new physical body. In this new timeline, Rita was resurrected by Lord Zedd and his robotic ally Scrozzle and simply intercepted Billy's beacon, tracing it back to the Command Centre and attempted to stop him before he could potentially bring back her greatest enemy.

In addition to this, many other things have changed.

Scrozzle was never part of Rita's minions and she was destroyed by the rangers before she even crossed the time portal, negating the involvement of Time Force. The energy drain on the captured rangers were far more severe and they had remained trapped in miniaturized forms till the healers of Aquitar had restored them.

But one thing had been pivotal to Rita's defeat. In the original timeline too, Minh Kwan had jumped in front of Billy Cranston and taken brunt of the attack but the attack had been non-fatal and her selflessness had proven her worthy to the yellow power coin, paving the road for her to be the next Yellow Mighty Morphin Ranger.

Jack really hoped it would hold true in this timeline too but despite events occurring similarly, all bets were off, mainly due to the reason, they were in 1993 not 2023 and nothing can be predicted. If it were occurring in 2023, the timeline would auto correct itself and try to replicate the events of the original timeline.

So, he watched the original rangers surround Minh with bated breath. It had only been a minute but it seemed as if hours had passed since Minh had been hit by the chaos energy attack.

He looked at Matthias and Alpha 55, unsure of how to proceed.

"Alpha, can you scan her for life signs?" He asked.

"Ay, ay, ay, Jack! I already did but…" The robot trailed off and the assembled rangers wilted at the assessment.

"No…" Nancy whispered.

His eyes wandered over to the Saffron Ranger, who leaned against the wall, the color having drained from her face.

"What a tragedy!" Rita sneered and Jack resisted the urge to punch her deformed face. "That's what being selfless gets you!"

"Minh!" Zack shook his ward. "Minh, can you hear us? Minh!"

"Zack…" Jason murmured, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder.

Kimberly was bawling her eyes out, Tommy holding her.

Suddenly, Nancy squinted and rushed over to the others, kneeling beside the others near Minh.

"Guys, see this!" She said, pointing at where Rita's blast had hit Minh, having burnt off a hole in her jacket, exposing the power coin in the pocket beneath, which was glowing with yellow energies.

Jack's eyes widened and he smiled.

He knew what was about to happen before it. Rita had no idea what was coming for her.

Billy narrowed his eyes as yellow energies radiated out of the power coin and wrapped around Minh's unconscious form like creeper vines.

He could sense the power and he let himself hope once again, placing his trust in the Grid the first time since Trini's death.

Minh inhaled sharply as her eyes snapped open and she sat up.

"Minh!" Zack yelled, enveloping her in a tight hug.

"You are okay!" Kim cried tears of joy, wrapping her arms around both.

Nancy stood up and looked at the others, exchanging grateful smiles. They had seen miracles happen before… weapons and new abilities empowering them when all had seemed lost, but they had forgotten all about those after Trini's demise.

"I am back…" Minh whispered as her godparents let go of her.

"What!" Rita screeched, raising her staff, only to be hit by a burst of yellow energy that threw her backwards. She slammed her staff against the floor, using it to spring back to her feet.

"You!" She snarled at the yellow Hyperforce ranger, who held a canon on his shoulder. Before she could counter attack, the ranger leapt at her, as he turned the canon into a giant hammer.

"Putties, protect me!" She yelled, her minions jumping in front of her, taking the blow meant for her and spreading out.

Matthias and Alpha 55 fired their blasters, preventing any putty from even nearing the morphin rangers and Minh.

"Okay, that's cool!" Minh said awestruck.

"You know what's cooler?" Nancy smiled at her, pointing at the yellow energies that enveloped her.

"What?" She asked, looking down and seeing the yellow tendrils that crawled out from her mother's morpher.

She took it out from her pocket and felt a jolt of electricity the moment her fingers touched it.

"No way!" She exclaimed.

"You know what it means, right?" Billy asked.

"But it wouldn't work for me before…" She frowned.

"Now, it does because it finds you worthy." Zack said with a smile as he and Billy helped her up.

"Go on." Kim gestured her.

"You wanna say it?" Jason asked.

"You're kidding?" She grinned, smiling wide.

"The spotlight is all yours, kiddo." Tommy chuckled. "Come on. Let's give them a helping hand."

The rangers smiled at each other before confidently walking forward, with Minh in the middle.

"It's Morphin Time!" She shouted as they took out their morphers and hoisted them forward.

"Garudazord!"

"Mastodon!"

"Pterodactyl!"

"Triceratops!"

"Saber Toothed Tiger!"

"Tyrannosaurus!"

"Dragonzord!"

"POWER RANGERS!" They shouted, transforming into their armour in flashes of coloured lights.

"Whoa! It actually worked!" Minh said disbelievingly, looking at her gloved hands.

"You are a ranger." Zack said.

"A legit ranger!" Minh agreed proudly.

"And you got a skirt too." Kim pointed out. "Your mom preferred one without."

"Yeah, it looks cute." Nancy said.

"Okay guys, as amazing as it is, we still need to take care of Rita here." Jason reminded them just as the sorceress let loose a burst of crimson magic that threw back Jack and Matthias, knocking them out of their morphs. Alpha 55 hovered over them protectively, firing at the putties near them with the repulsion blasts from his palms.

"Putties, surround them!" She snarled, and the putties true to her command, left the defeated time force officers and swarmed around the Morphin rangers.

"Did we plan a Phase 3?" Kim asked.

"What phase?" Tommy asked Zack.

"Oh, the plan we came up with to rescue you and the others." The black ranger told them quickly.

"Let me guess, Phase 3 is laying the smackdown." Minh guessed.

"Precisely." Billy said jovially, snapping his fingers.

"Let's do it guys." Jason said, summoning their power weapons.

Nancy lashed out at the putties with her power whip, the energy of her weapon incinerating them on contact.

Billy snapped his lance into two bladed halves and cut through the putties. Zack swung his axe. Jason and Tommy and Jason sliced through the ranks of the minions with their dragon dagger and power sword respectively.

Minh swerved, getting punched in the face by a putty before swiping her left dagger at them, sending sparks flying through their chest and as other putties surrounded her, she felt her body move on instinct, slashing the grey soldiers apart with her daggers as if they were extensions of her body, almost as if they were claws.

"Love it!" She quipped, finishing the last of her attackers.

"Bring it!" Kim goaded Rita as she flipped over the army of putties to smack her face with the bow.

"You insolent brat!" The witch snarled, stumbling back. She charged at the pink ranger, tendrils of red energies shooting out of the red gem of her staff and darting towards her opponent.

Kim effortlessly dodged each blast with her typical grace and maneuverability.

"Yup, still got it!" She said smugly, as the attacks exploded behind her, leaving a charred mess on the floor.

The other rangers rallied behind her as they faced the evil empress.

"Ready to give up now?" Kim asked.

"Never!" She yelled, her eyes flaring up with crimson light as red lightning shot out from her fingertips. The ship shook violently.

"She is going to destroy our ship!" Jack yelled, staggering to his feet.

"Alpha 55, you need to teleport her off it." Matthias urged.

"Ay, ay, ay!" Alpha nodded, turning towards the witch.

"Your pathetic robot does not have the power to do anything!" She snarked.

"You are mistaken." The android said confidently, his chest compartment folded outwards and a canon flung out, pointed straight at the baffled witch.

"You got to be joking!" She grunted before the canon fired a powerful energy blast, that flung her against the wall, momentarily weakening her enough for Alpha to lock on to her energy signature and teleport her out of the ship.

"Rangers, I have teleported her to the moon." He told the assembled heroes. "You must take the fight to her. The ship won't withstand another attack!"

"Got it." Billy managed to nod his head though he was stunned to see an Alpha take out a villain all on his own. The future really was something to look forward to.

"Prepare to teleport rangers." Alpha 55 told them. "Ay, ay, ay, may the Power protect you."

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Tommy Oliver had never thought he would ever land up dealing with this much paperwork and that was saying something since he was till recently, a high school science teacher.

Wes had smirked at his bafflement when his assistant had dumped the stack of official documents needing his approval on his desk. That bastard knew exactly what Tommy was getting into and remained mum! And come to think of it, so had Billy, Anton, Carter, and everyone else in the ranger community who ran their own organizations.

He groaned as he bumped his head against the stack of papers. Many people would kill to be in the position he was in… the Director of the most powerful organization in not just Earth, but the entire universe, but the truth was that he was doing this out of necessity than anything else.

Many veteran rangers had considered banding together after the 'Legendary Battle', which would have nearly devastated their planet if not for the intervention of a rogue Morphin Master, who had gone out of her way to temporarily restore the powers of all former rangers and bring in allies in form of ranger teams from different timelines, all to give Earth a fighting chance, but those thoughts had remained half baked ideas till Draven had kidnapped former rangers in an attempt to copy their powers and lay siege to not just their dimension but the entire multiverse by breaking through the dimensional barriers. With enemies going after lone rangers, it became clear that rangers needed to be in touch with each other. Former rangers took up arms against rampant evil like the Troobian Empire by collaborating with SPD to create a sister organization called Space Patrol Alpha (SPA). Led by veteran rangers like Adam, Andros and Delphine, the rangers working for SPA strategized with other rangers across the universe and SPD officers to make the universe a safer place.

Grid Battleforce was the first step in weaponizing grid tech and giving rangers back up, but Evox's near conquest of Earth proved that simply giving new teams access to old ranger tech and weapons was not enough.

Any doubts they had were cleared after the return of their oldest enemy Rita, which cost them the life of one of their own.

They had remained on stand by when Zedd had been resurrected and taken on the Dino Fury team.

Bandora Protocol had just been the start.

On other planets, there were ranger academies. Individuals trained to be rangers under the tutelage of veterans instead of being thrust into battle.

Of course, anyone could be a ranger and it was impossible to predict who the Grid will choose to be a ranger, but they could do the next best thing…

The forces of Evil always had an army. For so long, it had been a lone team of five or six teenagers facing against insurmountable odds.

It was time that the forces of good had armies of their own.

Hexagon was more than just an institution to help train and for lack of a better term, 'unionize' rangers and its name was more than just a reference to how most ranger teams had six members. The name was quite literal… Hexagon was formed by the union of six different organizations that had devoted themselves to the protection of innocents – Lightspeed Rescue, Silver Guardians, Grid Battleforce, SPA (and by association SPD), the Guardians of Earth (which included the Ninja Academies, Order of the Claw, Mystics of Rootcore, the Shiba Clans, the Wild Force of Animarium, Ninjor, Gosei and the Sentinel Knight amongst others) and last but not least, the Trans dimensional Guardians, a loose alliance they had formed with rangers of other dimensions like the RPM rangers and Dino Charge rangers.

The organization was formed in large part due to the efforts of Wes Collins and Andros, both leaders of teams who had faced enemies who had nearly defeated their teams, but they had their own responsibilities to Time Force and SPA respectively and could not stay on Earth for too long and the best candidate to rally all rangers was none other than himself, who had not only spent a large part of his life in spandex, but also had served alongside different teams and even generations of rangers, making him a contemporary legend and his name synonymous with the rangers of Earth.

He had wanted to say no and continue his comfortable life back in Reefside but he had seen the extent to which evil could go. Zedd and Rita had proved that in their most recent escapades. Trini had paid the ultimate sacrifice and Minh had taken up her mother's mantle, something none of them had ever wanted.

He needed to create a safer world and if he was being honest to himself, living a mundane life when he knew there were nefarious forces threatening to take over the planet had burdened him with guilt every waking second for the better part of the last three decades. After what happened to Trini, he could no longer stay aloof.

He needed this. Being a ranger had given him purpose. Helping innocents and destroying evil had made him feel alive. As much as he loved his family and teaching job, he knew he was to do more for the universe.

Maybe this was it.

This was his chance to leave his mark on history by laying the groundwork to ensure that Earth would always stay defended, for years and maybe centuries to come.

Trini, Zordon and many others had given up their lives to give the universe a fighting chance. He would ensure none of it was in vain.

Let evil come, but this time Earth would be ready for them.