Chapter Text
The thing no one had told them about the Megazord was the fall that followed a forceful de-summoning.
At least the ground was soft, as cold comfort as that fact was.
“Well…” Franky groaned, prying himself off the ground, “That sucked,”
“And it’s about to get worse,” Wheeler growled, staring daggers at the monster who’d felled them.
The Black Ranger’s Dark Megazord screeched in triumph, before the amalgamation of metal and foliage…disappeared in a flash of sickly purple lightning.
The four Rangers stared at the space left behind.
“Huh,”
It was only then that Fiona noticed that there were only four Rangers at the moment
“Wait, where’s Green?”
Sylvia growled, summoning her whip, “Wherever he is, we have bigger problems at the moment,”
Another monster stepped into the clearing, flanked by a squadron of chittering Poppy Patrollers, petals unfolding into finery and unleashing an unholy sickly sweet stench, as if someone had fashioned a ball gown from a corpse flower.
“Prepare yourself Rangers!” A snooty voice issued from a mouthless, fan-like face, “For I, Duchess Noisome, intend to rid this world of your odious presence permanently!”
—
Her opponent sailed through the air, but caught himself as he landed, rising to face her, his fists raised.
“You don’t have to do this,” he grunted, echoing the Serpent in her dreams, “You-,”
“SHUT UP!” she yelled, her teeth gnashing beneath her helmet. She didn’t want to hear those words, especially not from him. He’d already troubled her enough, through every fight and every dream that followed, the epitome of doubt and danger made flesh. She was sick of it, so when she’d shattered the Megazord and seen he’d been separated from the others, she’d naturally sought the kill.
She would take no joy in getting rid of him, but it would be one less massive burden on her shoulders.
She expressed all of this with a single venom filled word, “Die,”
She charged, the Power thrumming through her veins sending her rocketing forth, double sided spear in hand.
He charged to face her, daggers raised, and they collided with a power and a force few could comprehend.
They grappled, her muscles screaming as she struggled to hold off his blades, now combined into their lethal double sided ranged form. It sounded like the chittering of bats, the sound growing louder and louder in her ears as the grapple continued.
Her world erupted into pain as the Green Ranger headbutted her, her visor cracking as the unexpected blow staggered her. He followed up with a slash that she parried, carrying the motion into a rising kick. He ducked attempting to sweep her leg but the force of her kick and the power of her Zord pulled her into the air, where she attempted to cave the Green Ranger’s head in with the heels of her feet. He slithered away, stabbing at her legs as her feet cratered the ground. She knocked the blow aside with her spear and forced him to roll to his feet.
They met again, her thorns against his fangs, her precision and unrelenting fury against his graceful fluidity and constant attempts to grapple. He turned away one of her strikes and slid behind her, but she caught him under the chin with the body of her re-assembled staff and twisted, pinning his neck between the staff and her shield.
The Serpent seemed so intent to coil around her, perhaps he needed a taste of his own medicine.
She pulled her makeshift vice tighter, trying to crush his throat, but his heels slammed into the back of her knees, folding her legs and sending her to the ground. She snarled, throwing him over shoulder, discarding her weapons and catching him in a triangle hold as she stood.
He flailed, gagging as he desperately tried to escape. Her muscles screamed in exertion, still sounding like the chittering bats, growing into a single horrendous screech as her strength began…to…falter.
Her leg erupted into electric agony as the Green Ranger used the inadvertent reprieve to draw his blade blaster and fire it into her leg. He slid out of her hold and spun lashing out with something golden—
There was the screech of metal and the screech of bats and her chest suddenly erupted in pain.
Both of them paused, their gazes following the path of the Green Ranger’s arm, to the hand wrapped around the handle of her thorn, to the thorn itself, lodged in her chest, bisecting the rose symbol covering the central diamond.
Somehow, she thought, detached from the pain, he’d grabbed her weapon during the grapple, and somehow, he’d stabbed her, and somehow, the blade had pierced the shield and the ‘fabric’ of her suit into the flesh beneath.
The Green Ranger’s hand slackened, then released as the Ranger staggered back.
“I’m so-,”
Her wild haymaker connected with his helmet and sent him flying, his landing digging a furrow in the earth.
He pulled himself to shaky feet as she pulled the thorn from her chest, ignoring the screech of metal and the screech of bats he turned to face her, his visor a spider web of cracks.
She screamed, louder than the metal, louder than the bats, and threw the blade with devastating force.
It connected, shattering his visor in a spray of crimson and a corona of glittering green particles. Her thorn followed a moment later, vanishing in a beam of white lightning as the Green Ranger hit the dirt face down.
She stumbled over, ignoring the pain, the fatigue, the screech of bats still ringing in her ears. She reached out for her thorns, but as hard as she tried, they refused to appear.
Nevermind, then. She’d reach out and seize destiny with her own two hands, and if need be, she’d crush the Green Ranger’s skull with them too.
She reached her bane’s prone body, and flipped him over, intent on seeing the face behind the serpent and rob him of the power of mystery.
Then she actually saw his face, and her world went still.
Because even with the bottom half of his face still covered by the sculpted mouthplate, she knew Loid Forger’s face like the back of her hand.
His morpher chose that moment to deactivate, the Power Coin at her hip buzzing as his uniform dematerialized.
His face was bloody, too bloody, and she frantically wiped at it to find that the wound was a relatively small cut that had bisected his eyebrow, little more than a flesh wound.
But if her thorn had struck a few inches lower, if it had disappeared a few seconds later-.
Bile rose in her throat as she perceived the blood staining her white glove.
She could have killed him. He could still die because of the Shopkeeper’s monsters.
Maybe, maybe she could take his Power Coin, present it to the Shopkeeper as ordered and keep him out of danger-.
She heard a distant scream, followed by an explosion heralding the end of the monster occupying the other Rangers.
She ran, leaving his Power Coin, only the crack in her visor and her blood stained gloves commemorating her fight.
—
“-oid, Loid, Loid!”
Loid shot up, the world spinning as his head throbbed in pain.
Still, questions ran his lagging mind roughshod, fighting for prominence.
What happened? Were the others okay? Had he been captured?
What about the Black Ranger?
He opened his mouth to ask, and an elegant “Blurgh?” tumbled out.
“Yeah buddy, Blurgh,” Wheeler cracked as Sylvia checked him for a concussion.
“What?-” he shook his head, hoping to put his thoughts into order, “What happened?”
“You disappeared when the Megazord when down,” Sylvia explained, pulling him up, “We tried to look for you but we were…interrupted,”
His nose finally connected with the rest of his brain, informing him that the rest of the team suddenly smelled like death, of the rotting corpse variety.
“That would be Duchess Noisome’s lovely work,” Franky sarcastically informed him over the sound of his gagging, “Wasn’t all bad though, we learned that the Power Blaster can be used with four people,”
Fiona piped up, “What happened?”
He sighed, “The Black Ranger happened. She saw that I’d been separated from you and decided to take advantage,”
“And you beat her?!” Franky blurted, entirely disbelieving.
He shook his head, “That’s the thing, I didn’t?”
There was a pause.
“Then, how are you alive? How do you still have your Power Coin?”
He had no idea.