Streaks of Purple Saga Volume One, Heather Ray [i love reading .TXT] 📗

from her wind-burnt face to glance at Rita once last time. She watched in dread as the witch raised one hand toward her.

She suddenly felt a magical chill channel through her body as Rita cast some sort of spell through her. With dawning realization, the Purple Ranger turned her head around.

The wall that stood just behind her, once battered with holes caused by destructive energy blasts, had suddenly sprung dozens of razor-sharp spikes. Each spike's tip glinted with magical light, easily a full yard in length.

Kreia swallowed hard, her eyes shining with tears of horrible resignation.

She could barely breathe any longer... she knew she didn't have the strength to fortify herself against Rita's assault. She would be impaled on the wall... and when she died, all of Regita's hopes and Erol's chances died with her.

Suddenly, Kreia heard a loud screech through the winds that rang in her ear. Instantly, the powerful gale ebbed, letting Kreia tumble forward a foot in front of the deadly spikes. She lifted her head in alarm, wondering at her sudden rescue.

A sob nearly escaped her when she saw Erol struggling against Rita's fierce grip.

"You... you can't have her!" Erol screamed, his eyes brimming with unshed tears as his arms wrapped Rita's throat, "You won't

take her from me!"

Rita growled, her eyes flashing with fury. "You dare lay your hands on me, human?!" she screeched. Suddenly, her body began flashing with slivers of white electricity that ran along Erol's exposed flesh. The former Green Ranger roared in pain, his hands releasing the empress as he crumbled to the floor, shaking off the charge.

"Erol," Kreia released in a quaking breath. She struggled to her feet, the world spinning around her as she tried desperately to save the man who saved her life.

She yelped in surprise at the vice-like grip that suddenly squeezed the breath out of her.

"You should have killed me when you had the chance, Girl," a cold, menacing voice whispered into her ear, "Now you've just lost the war."

Kreia's eyes blazed with fury as she struggled against Goldar's grip. However, the Titan had managed to muster more than enough strength to keep the nearly powerless Ranger at bay.

Rita tossed a mildly amused smirk at her former champion. "Well, I guess I underestimated you, Goldar," she admitted.

The Titan only nodded sharply in reply.

Rita then turned her frightening gaze to Erol, who still gasped in precious air.

"You'll pay," she swore, "but I'll be kinder to you than to her. She

will have to watch you die."

With that, Rita straddled the helpless young man, stretching her fingers in the air. "I haven't had blood on my hands in several centuries," she mused, "But sometimes, you just want to take the life of your enemy... personally."

Without further ado, she dug her impossibly sharp claws into the base of Erol's neck.

The young man screamed... the blood-freezing holler of dizzying pain and the slow ebb of one's life force.

"No... get back

!" Kreia screamed, her eyes spilling tears.

Suddenly... she froze.

The sound of the horrifying scream... one that would haunt her every moment for the rest of her life... rang in her ear. Her body shook as if she had been struck by a bolt of lightning. She felt the cruel laughter of the demon-beast that still held her. Thick blood poured in torrents from Erol's neck, bathing his tattered clothing and Rita's maroon gown to the point of soaking.

The feelings raged within... terror, sorrow, panic, love, hate... and her very soul caught fire.

Shaking, her soul drowning in something

, Kreia lifted her head and screamed.

Goldar, suddenly overwhelmed with an overpowering instinct of self-preservation, released the girl and ran for his life.

At first, it faintly looked like the girl was blanching. But it wasn't her skin that was overcome with an eerie pallor... but her entire form. Her hair and uniform also began to lose color as whiteness permeated her entire body.

The whiteness suddenly erupted, swallowing the entire moon palace in an overpowering tidal wave of purifying heat.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Zale's throat closed, and he stumbled away from the Viewing Globe as if he were burned. He backed into the steadfast form of Kazu. While the Yellow Ranger didn't seem to react as strongly, Zale noted the deathly pallor that had suddenly enveloped the man's skin.

The whiteness reflected in the Globe then succumbed to a blanket of static.

No one spoke, moved, or even breathed audibly for some time. The heavy silence was only interrupted by faint footsteps, rushing to the Command Center with urgency.

"I think I found what we were looking for!" Linis called, waving a handful of scrolls, "It seems Regita made a study of a technique he called 'Ascension', which gives a single Power Ranger unspeakable ability..."

The young boy frowned, moving deeper into the circular chamber to see what had so thoroughly grasped the attention of his four allies.
He came to a pause beside his sister, who suddenly enveloped him in a tight embrace. Linis choked out his surprise, gazing beyond her to the Viewing Globe.

"What's with the distortion?" he asked, his voice quiet with dread, "Did Rita put up a new kind of force field?"

Zale exhaled slowly, glassy eyes turning to the youngest team member. "It's over, Linis."

Linis blinked. "What's over?"

"OUR SCANNERS HAVE BEEN OVERLOADED BY THE ENERGY THAT HAS JUST ERUPTED WITHIN THE MOON PALACE," Zordon explained, his voice uncharacteristically soft. "ALPHA, HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO GET EVERYTHING BACK ONLINE?"

The small robot gulped, turning his spinning attention back to a diagnostic. "At the very least, two hours."

"Then we should wait until all scans can be completed," Kazu suggested, dropping his arms to his sides, "Once that has been accomplished, we must examine what remains of the palace, and see if we can find anything."

Linis paled. "Remains...?"

"Finally, we should honor Kreia and Erol with a ceremony, to aid their spirits into the afterlife."

Kazu took in a sharp breath, as if it physically pained his lungs to put to words what everyone feared.

Epilogue

Chapter One

The Black Ranger released a low growl of effort as he hefted a heavy marble slab. His muscles straining, he tossed it to the side, idly watching it float away under the moon's weak gravitational pull.

He then looked down at the area he uncovered, and cringed at the battered, crooked hand poking out of even more marble rubble.

"I found her!" he called through his helmet radio, kneeling beside the hand and digging fiercely. Almost immediately, he was joined by the Pink and Blue Rangers, who assisted him in unearthing the victim.

It was the first time they actually laid eyes upon Rita Repulsa, self-proclaimed Empress of Evil, at such proximity.

"She's out cold," Cherise diagnosed, "and wounded. But I think she'll live."

"Just like the other four," Linis noted bitterly.

Once the scanners were operational, Alpha conducted a full-scale sweep of the entire lunar surface, just to be sure no stone was unturned. The result was five life signatures... each one of a different species.
Not one signature matched anything human.

So the conclusion was evident: Kreia and Erol had died, while Rita and her henchmen lived.

Fate was cruel sometimes.

Sener released a deep sigh, as if unearthing the final survivor of the inexplicable explosion gave irreproachable evidence that the scans hadn't been mistaken. No human survived.

"Then let's put her with the others," he decided, lifting the woman in his arms. Together, the three Rangers crossed the scorched rubble of what was a magnificent palace only hours ago.

The Yellow Ranger nodded toward them, standing stiffly beside what appeared to be a golden cauldron. Beside him, the Red Ranger carried a large gold disk, decorated with a red jewel in the center.

"We've found them all," Linis noted, "Rita, Goldar, the goat-man, the bird-man, and the... the short blue thing."

"All of Rita's court... virtually intact," Cherise whispered numbly.
Sener growled deeply, passing Rita into Kazu's arms. He watched with smoldering rage as Kazu leapt onto the brim of the cauldron, and dropped her within.

"Why are we doing this?" he seethed, watching as the Yellow and Red Rangers topped the golden pot with the matching lid, "Why don't we destroy them all? Make them pay for what they did to Kreia and Erol? And the entire planet?"

"Zordon decided to imprison them in this dumpster," Kazu reminded him, his voice firm with resolve. "It is magically sealed... it cannot be opened from the inside. And if left here on the barren moon, no one will ever stumble upon it to free them. They will cause no more damage."

Kazu then relaxed his poise slightly, and laid his hand on Sener's tense shoulder. "It is the honorable thing to do, my friend. I refuse to attack my enemy when he is unconscious and unable to defend himself... but now with the Green and Purple Rangers lost, there is the very real possibility that we are no longer strong enough to face Rita's attacks if she did recover. By imprisoning her legion, we save Earth while maintaining our code of honor."

Sener bowed his head, clenching his fists