Streaks of Purple Saga Volume Two, Heather Ray [story read aloud txt] 📗

The gathered moisture had long since reddened the whites of her eyes. But after two hours of silent vigil, the tears that had trickled down her flushed cheek had long since dried.

Kimberly stared at Tommy, who still lay prone on a flat bed just to the side of the main hub of the Command Center. She pressed her lips tightly, stroking his tightened fist as if to soothe him. From the scowl on his face, she knew his slumber was in no sense restful.

What was wrong with him? What had Alexis... or Kreia... done to him?

The energy field that had built around him had long since dissipated, but he never regained consciousness. From the monitors, the Rangers were able to keep strict watch over his vital functions. He was breathing normally, and there was no sign of REM sleep. He certainly wasn't dreaming.

But why was he frowning? Could he be in pain?

Kim continued to watch him, tentatively reaching forward to stroke his forehead and smooth dark hair.

How many times had he been in this condition? Stripped of his power, attacked when he was down? How many times was he brought to the Command Center unconscious, fighting for his life?

He wasn't even a Power Ranger anymore, but his life was still in jeopardy.

Some friends we are,

she mused bitterly. We let her do this to you. How could we let her hurt you?

The Red Ranger watched Kimberly and Tommy from a slight distance, leaning against a console. Unlike the others, who had long since de-Morphed, he had chosen to remain in his armor.

His helmet was firmly planted beneath his arm, and a scowl of pure determination wrinkled his face.

Zedd wouldn't get away with this. He wouldn't be allowed the upper hand.

The Power Rangers never let one of their own down. And in some weird way, Alexis was

one of their own.

Sort of.

The entire situation was a complex puzzle, with pieces clearly missing from the picture. No one really understood what had happened, either to Kreia ten thousand years ago, or to Alexis.

But one thing was certain. Alexis was alive... for now.

After some research, Zordon was able to pinpoint the Purple energies again. That gave ample evidence that the Purple Ranger was alive, and somehow tapping into her power.

But she wasn't Morphed... that could be determined by the power readout. Some other outlet was being used for that power... but what?

"Anything?" he spoke.

"Scanners haven't detected a thing," Trini reported, "Alexis is definitely not on Earth, and she's nowhere on the moon that's scan-able from here. So she's either in a shielded area, or somewhere else."

"If she's on the moon, she'll be in some kind of a holding cell," Zack noted.

Jason frowned thoughtfully. "When Rita kidnapped me, she held me in a Dark Dimension. It wasn't actually part of the palace, though. You had to teleport into it. A completely separate plane of existence."

Zack nodded. "Right. That was also where she had the Green Candle! But... that was Rita's dimension. Does Zedd pull the same trick?"

Billy then spoke up. "It's unlikely that Lord Zedd is using Rita's Dark Dimension. From what we know of them, Zedd is by far the more powerful sorcerer. Therefore, it follows to assume that he has his own Dark Dimension, or something like that, that is superior to Rita's. And if it's a different dimension, our knowledge of Rita's will do us no good in determining its location."

"THAT IS CORRECT, BILLY," Zordon affirmed, "BUT THERE MAY BE ANOTHER MEANS OF LOCATING ALEXIS."

Zack, Trini, Jason, Billy, and Alpha assembled beneath the looming cylinder. Kimberly turned to face her mentor, her hand still resting atop Tommy's.

"What do you mean?" Trini inquired, "Have you figured something out?"

"FROM WHAT WE HAD OBSERVED NEAR THE LAKE, IT APPEARS THAT KREIA IS CAPABLE OF ASSUMING ALEXIS' BODY," he explained, "HOWEVER, WHILE KREIA IS SOMETIMES CONSCIOUS, IT SEEMS THAT SOMETIMES ALEXIS' CONSCIOUSNESS RESURFACES. THAT IS WHAT OCCURRED AFTER THE BATTLE BETWEEN GOLDAR AND JASON, AND THAT IS ALSO WHAT SEEMED TO HAPPEN AFTER KREIA KISSED TOMMY."

"She was trying to reach Erol," Billy recalled, "I don't know how exactly, but her intention was to probe Tommy's consciousness, and find some trace of Erol."

"I'm pretty sure it was Alexis who let him go, though," Zack mentioned, "Her eyes went back to green. So from the look of it, when she's Kreia, her eyes are black. But when she's Alexis, her eyes are green."

"If I remember right, Kreia did have black eyes," Alpha contributed.

Jason shook his head. "But she was Alexis all the time, until the fight with Goldar. Even when her eyes were black."

Kimberly groaned, withdrawing her hand from Tommy to bury her face in it. "This is so complicated..."

"INDEED IT IS, KIMBERLY. BUT SLOWLY, WE ARE CONSTRUCTING A HYPOTHESIS ON WHAT IS OCCURRING. ALEXIS HAS UNWITTINGLY TAKEN NOT ONLY THE POWER OF THE PURPLE RANGER, BUT HER CONSCIOUSNESS AS WELL. KREIA'S SOUL EXISTS IN THE PURPLE COIN, AND NOW THAT ALEXIS HAS TAKEN THE COIN AS HER OWN, KREIA IS ABLE TO EXERT HERSELF INTO ALEXIS' MIND, AND USE THE BODY AS HER OWN."

Trini frowned skeptically. "So when Kreia died, her soul was trapped inside the Purple Coin? How is that possible?"

Zordon shook his head. "THERE IS MUCH I HAVE NEVER KNOWN OF KREIA'S ULTIMATE ABILITIES. HER MAGICAL TRAINER, REGITA, ALWAYS HAD GREAT FAITH THAT SHE WOULD BE POWERFUL ENOUGH TO DEFEAT RITA'S FORCES ALONE. HER USE OF THE PURPLE ENERGIES AT HER DISPOSAL IS DIFFERENT FROM EVERY OTHER RANGER BEFORE HER, AND AFTER HER AS WELL. I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH A COMBINATION OF MAGICAL PROWESS AND A POWER COIN. BUT I AM SURE OF ONE THING: KREIA WAS ABLE TO TAP INTO HER OWN MAGICAL ABILITIES AND THE POWER COIN AT ONCE, USING THEM IN TANDEM TO CREATE MORE POWERFUL ATTACK SPELLS. PERHAPS IN THIS MANNER, BOTH SOURCES OF POWER CROSSED, LEAVING A BIT OF KREIA IN THE POWER COIN ITSELF."

Trini sighed tiredly, leaning against a console and staring down at the various control screens on it. "All we have to work with are tons of guesses as to what's going on," she pointed out. "No real facts."

"NOT QUITE," Zordon countered, "WE DO HAVE ONE UNDISPUTED FACT TO WORK WITH. SOMEHOW, ON SOME PLANE OF EXISTENCE, SOMETHING OF THE YOUNG WOMAN WHO WAS KREIA IS ALIVE. THAT CONSCIOUSNESS MAY BE REACHED."

As his image faded from the Transdimension Cylinder, Zordon met the puzzled stares of his five "children." And indeed, that's who they were. Brave, beautiful children, so young and new to the universe. Unlike their various predecessors, they never knew the true extent of power... wielded by either good or evil. Contemporary human society had no knowledge of the complexities of the universe. They didn't comprehend the existence of pocket dimensions, worlds within worlds, and dimensions between worlds.

The Rangers, even including brilliant Billy, had a hard enough time conceiving Rita's Dark Dimension, which was only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, reality was far more complex than a single plane of existence. It was more of a maze... a collection of interlocking and woven universes.

One such universe was the material, where all human beings, as well as any other corporeal form, lived. Most such beings had no ability to reach beyond that physical existence.

Another such universe was the whirling system of energies that compose the physical universe. That was where the Power truly existed... in a realm free of true matter. The Morphin' Grid itself, a material construct hidden within the Power Chamber, was only a device used to safely channel the Power. The Green and Purple Rangers' energies came from the Inochi Pool, a source of energy different from the Morphin' Grid's source, but nonetheless compatible.

Yet another was the universe of consciousness, where thought became, more or less, material. A realm populated only by those with intense mental discipline, who managed to transcend physical existence to experience a world where thought was truly mightier than any muscle.

That realm was the Astral Plane, the domain of the mind.

And as Zordon mentally separated himself from the material universe, allowing his consciousness to return to the dimension that had been his true home for over ten thousand years, he truly felt whole again.

His eyes fluttered open, gazing at the brilliant dance of vibrant energies that swirled in the sky. Of course, the sky and ground were constructed of the same energies as the people, meaning they, like the projected bodies of the resident consciousnesses, were subject to manipulation.

Zordon marveled as he stared at his astral body. It was merely a projection of his former physical body, except clothed in a strangely luminescent white armor that symbolized the telepathic defenses he had developed over the millennia of his existence.

Then, once he fully recovered his bearings, Zordon leapt into the liquid sky, opening up his very being in a desperate search.

His plan hinged on one crucial possibility: that Kreia, the young sorceress whose true potential was never quite realized, had developed the mental capacity required to reach the Astral Plane.

Such an achievement was painfully rare among humans. Some humans did try to clear their consciousnesses through meditation and prayer, reaching for the reality of pure thought. But so few truly succeeded.

The overwhelming majority of beings who could access the Astral Plane were those who had telepathic ability. The ability to use the force of thought and effect the physical world. Usually, this included mind-to-mind communication, but not always. Some minds actually manipulated physical objects, and proved telekinetic in nature.

Kreia was not a telepath, nor a telekinetic. She was a sorceress, and they tapped into the magical weave of energy. That was a different realm than the Astral Plane.

But years of intense training under Regita could have developed the mental discipline necessary to reach this higher realm.

Zordon was certain he recalled some measure of empathic ability with Kreia. She could feel others' minds and thoughts, at least to a limited degree. She felt danger, and on some level, she was bound to Erol. And it wasn't just love for him, either. She had connected to him.

And with every fiber of his non-corporeal being, Zordon hoped that those small abilities were evidence of something far greater.

The possibility wasn't great, but it did exist. Perhaps Kreia really was able to reach the Astral Plane. And if her mind could ascend to that level of awareness, then she could be reached. Not in the Physical Plane, where her whereabouts were shielded, but in the Mental Plane, where physical space had no meaning.