Chapter 75

The King Falls (4)

The explosion of white light that encompassed the air was almost as incredible as the shockwave of the bomb going off. There was a sudden calming silence as the bomb went off in the first place, and then came the cacophony. There was a sudden blast of pressure that knocked anything that stood in their way to the ground much like the fist of a zord striking a monster in front of them.

Rocky, Adam, and Tanya found themselves immediately flung off their feet and blasted backwards amongst a wave of hot air. But while they landed on the ground they found that they weren't hurt. But Goldar, Rito, and Scorpina certainly were. Their screams of pain filled their ears. Rocky rolled to his knees and brought his hand in front of his helmet to shield his eyes from the bright blast. He watched as Goldar, Rito, and Scorpina continued to writhe back and forth, continued to screech a sound that rivaled what a bat could make.

To that, Rocky grinned as he got to his feet. He clenched his hands, feeling a new surge of power run through him. As he glanced down at his hands he found that they were glowing a bright blue, as if his body was absorbing a new sense of power. His animals spirit, the ape, roared victoriously inside him, beating his chest with its fists, and waited for the chance to strike. He looked over at Tanya and Adam and saw them getting back to their feet as well, wisps of yellow and green glowing around their hands as well.

They must've felt the surge of power as well.

"What was that?" Rito demanded, jerking this way and that as he looked around. He swung his sword as he did so, as if trying to track a fly to swat. "What was that? It felt like all of my bones were being picked at once!"

"You numb skull," Goldar growled back towards her. He grasped Rito's shoulder to hold him still. "It was something those puny rangers managed to do .We have to get out of here before they come to their senses."

"Too late," Scorpina growled. She pointed over towards the rangers as they stood in a line in front of her. "Look!" She growled and clenched her hand into fists when she spotted Rocky, Adam, and Tanya slowly coming their way. "Looks like we'll have to take them down toge—"she paused and looked to the side where Rita and Zedd were slowly walking away, as if trying not to be seen. "Where do you think you're going?"

Rita gulped and turned back around. She put on a mask of confidence and anger. "What? You don't think you can handle these power brats yourself?" She demanded. "We've given you all the tools you need to take these brats down and you still need our help?"

"It's no wonder your little pukes can't do anything right," Zedd added. "Always have to have us helping you out." He picked up his Z-sceptar and put it together with Rita's wand. "Make our monsters grow!" They declared and while Rito, Goldar, and Scorpina grew to their massive sizes once more, Zedd lowered his scepter and grabbed Rita's hand. "Now let's get out of here before they realize what's happened. Master Vile is already waiting for us back at the Lunar Palace."

"You got it, Zeddy!"

"Looks like we're going to take these guys down again," Tanya said. "This time should be easier and then we can go on to stop the Machine Empire. King Mondo and the others aren't going to get away taking over Angel Grove, we're not going to let them."

"Let's call in the zords," Adam said. He and Rocky threw their hands into the air and called, "We need Zeo Zord power, now!"

Their zords came out of the hidden base and Rocky immediately got into his zord, piloting it towards Goldar. His zord raced forward and he brought the fist back, punching Goldar directly in the face. The golden monsters stumbled backwards then spun to kick Rocky but Rocky blocked it by bringing up the fist of his zord and followed through with a kick that knocked Goldar completely onto his back. As the golden monster worked its way back to his feet once more Rocky opened the front of the zord anda barrage of gunfire came blasting out, shooting Goldar in the face.

Tanya turned her zord around and the back opened to fire out two missiles that twisted and turned through the air to hit Scorpina. Scorpina rolled out of the way of the blast and turned into her monster form, complete with stinger, and charged towards he yellow ranger. She dodged a punch Tanya tried to grab her in and spun around so that her stinger whacked the face of the zord, cracking the protective screen. Tanya grunted in surprise as she was flung around in her seat. Then she shook her head and grabbed harder onto the joysticks in front of her. "Let's see how this sting feels!" She declared and shot her zord forward where it picked up speed as the seconds passed. Scorpina turned around and before she could bring up her stinger to attack once more she was rammed face first and knocked back onto the ground where Tanya continued to lay attacks on her left and right.

Adam made his zord duck and roll out of the way of an attack before he and Rito were locked up in a whirlwind of flying fists and swords. Rito continued to rant and rave at the top of his lungs while he attacked the green zeo ranger and Adam ignored it, focusing on attacking him the best he could. What could be easily said was that Rito certainly did not want to fail. The last time he had seen the skeleton monster fight so hard and viciously had been when Kimberly was leaving the team and her powers were in jeopardy. Rito had led the charge then and he led the charge now, putting a flurry of attacks on the villain as he could. They continued to stay locked in hand to hand combat before Adam finally gained the upper hand and knocked Rito onto his back.

"Alright guys, let's take these jokers down once and for all!" Rocky declared.

"Right!" Tanya declared.

"You got it!" Adam added.

The triangle, square, and oblongs on the front of the super zeo zords started to glow in their respective colors. Then there was a bright beam of light energy that shot from them and crashed into Rito, Goldar, and Zedd with so much power that it sent the three monsters flying as they screamed in pain. Once they landed on the ground they resorted back to their smaller forms.

"Let's get out of here!" Rito declared and the three monsters disappeared.

"Three down and more to go," Adam declared.

###

Kat's erratic breathing reached her ears, signaling that she was still, indeed, alive. How that was entirely possible she wasn't sure, but she was still alive. Slowly opening her baby blues, Kat took stock of herself. She felt…stronger somehow. There wasn't a scratch on her suit; no burns, no open circuitry, nothing that would show she had been hurt too badly.

Then she turned to look around the clearing as the dust settled. She saw the form of her jet cycle lying on its side on the ground, she noticed Master Vile was no longer in the clearing, and she could see Avalon lying on the ground, her arms over Fred's and Bailey's heads to protect them from the blast. The cogs were gone and the clearing was quiet.

Then Kat turned her attention back to Tommy, who lay prone on the ground. She couldn't tell, with his helmet still being on, if he was awake or unconscious. Reaching up, she pulled off her helmet and hurried over to Tommy, grabbing his shoulder. "Tommy!" She unclasped the sides of his helmet and pulled it off, Tommy's head lolling to the side. She couldn't tell if he was breathing. "Tommy?"

All of a sudden Tommy's eyes opened and landed on Kat. They narrowed into a glare and he reached up, grabbing Kat around the neck and holding tightly onto her. Kat gasped for air, heart hurting with the betrayal, and brought her hands up to pry Tommy's off. She coughed as the walls of her throat started to close together.

Tommy brought his face closer to hers and continued to glare. "Now I have you in my clutches, pink ranger!" He hissed. "I'm not going to let you continue to destroy my city. And if I have to use you to show the other rangers what'll happen if they continue this, then I'll do it."

Kat coughed once more and ressed her hands tightly around his wrists. "If that's what you have to do," She repeated. Tommy's eyebrows twitched for a moment and Kat lowered her chin to look him in the eye. "Then go ahead. But I want you to know that I can still help you. I can make sure that King Mondo doesn't still have a hold on you." Her eyes shifted downwards when she noticed a bright pink glow around her hands.

She tried not to smile.

"There's nothing you can do now, pink ranger," Tommy declared. "Because your time is up. I hope you're ready to say 'hello' to the other side. I've wanted to know what it's like." He started to squeeze even harder. This time the edges of her vision blackened and started to turn into pinpoints.

Kat's eyes shifted and she nodded slightly. Then she closed her eyes and turned her head away at the sound of a blaster going off, Tommy screaming out—more in surprise than in pain—and felt his grip loosen around her neck. Kat sucked in a deep breath of air and rolled to the side. She looked over at Avalon, who re-holstered her blaster and kept her distance with Fred and Bailey.

"If that doesn't knock some sense into him, I reckon I don't know what will," She commented. Her eyes turned towards the darkening skies. "Looks like the Machine Empire is still working. We have to move."

"Not yet," Kat decided. She rolled forward on her knees and grabbed onto Tommy's arm, forcing him to turn him her way. He looked dazed and as if he couldn't get a bearing on anything. "You're not a green ranger," she explained. "Or the ruler of the Machine Empire. You're the Red Zeo Ranger. The leader of our team. We look up to you to lead the charge and to lead us into a battle you know we can win. We can't keep going on without you, or else we're not a team."

"But…" Tommy closed his eyes and turned away. "You're trying to—"

"—we're not trying to do anything but save you, bro," Bailey pointed out, shuffling closer with Fred. She turned to Avalon with her device and what was left with Master Vile's bomb in her hands. "This worked out better than we thought. It seems like it's given you guys a boost of power, too." She nodded to the East where three of the zords were fighting against Goldar, Rito, and Scorpina.

"But why didn't it help Tommy out?" Fred asked, scratching the back of his head. "He was hit by the blast, too."

"I say a good punch in the back of the head will do it," Avalon commented, still giving Kat her space. The Pink ranger gave her a hard stare.

"Who says it didn't work?" Kat said quickly. She turned her attention back to Tommy and continued to hold his gaze. "The Machine Empire is trying to get you to destroy everything you love. Think about your friends and family. Think about everyone you love, you don't want to be the one that's going to hurt them all. You've been through this before and broke through it with the help of your friends and we're helping you now. You helped me get out of Rita's control and the others helped you get out of Rita's control. Now you have to do it for yourself. Think of the times we've shared."

Kat watched as Tommy closed his eyes and as he opened them they stared to glow red, white, and green over and over again. Finally he closed his eyes, bringing his hands up to his forehead. Kat lowered her hands and grabbed him. There was a pink glow that traveled from her hands and encompassed his body and when it faded Tommy opened his eyes once more. He blinked and looked around at his friends that kneeled around him.

"What…what's going on? How'd I get here? What happened?" He asked.

Avalon's eyebrow rose. "Or, we could've done that. That would've worked out better."

###

King Mondo screamed with rage as he watched Rita and Zedd flee from the fight with the rangers with Rito, Goldar, Scorpina, and Master Vile right behind them. He screamed so hard that his circuits warmed and steamed. He turned to Queen Machina, Archerina, Prince Gasket, Prince Sprocket, Orbus, and Klank.

"THOSE RANGERS HAVE SEEN THE LAST OF THEIR DAYS WE END THIS NOW! RITA AND ZEDD MAY NOT HAVE BELIEVEDI NTHEMSELVES BUT WE'LL DESTROY THOSE RANGERS AND TAKE OVER THEIR PUNY PLANET!"

"I'm right behind you, daddy!" Prince Sprocket agreed, clapping his hands gleefully. "I want to take them down myself!"

"Then let's go."

King Mondo led the group down to Earth, landing in front of the power rangers, who grouped together as Tommy slowly regained his senses. "You've made my job hard enough as it is. You're always getting in the way and you never know how to bow down and take it!" He pointed over to Tommy, who stood his ground. "You! You're going to pay for crossing the Machine Empire."

"I don't think so, Mondo," Tommy shot back. "You tried to turn me against my city and my friends. It almost worked but I knew they would have my back. I'm not going to let you destroy everything I love, even if it means sacrificing myself to destroy you."

"Hopefully this is a promise you can keep," King Mondo seethed.

Tommy smirked and held his helmet high above his head. He turned to Kat, who had hers tucked her her arm and nodded. She nodded back and the two called, "Back to action!" Before pulling their helmets back down over their heads.

There was a golden shaft of light that beamed down from the sky and Billy appeared next to them. "I'm with you," he added.

"Alright, good to see you, man," Tommy said.

"Power Rangers, Zeo!" The team cried in unison, falling into fighting stances.

"Attack!" King Mondo declared.

He led the charge towards the power rangers and wasn't going to stop until they were destroyed.

###

"Cadence, we have to start boarding."

Avalon opened her eyes and pulled her headphones down from her ears. She looked over at her mother who quietly beckoned to her from the flight gate with Bailey by her side. Avalon nodded and started to put her stuff away; picking up her books and shoving them into her carry-on bag. Then something fluttered out of one of them and fell to the ground.

Pausing, Avalon picked it up and turned around, smiling at the photo of herself and her friends at the beginning of the school year, all smiling warmly with their arms wrapped around each other. It seemed like such a long time ago after everything they had been through together; with the change in powers and teams and yet they all managed to be friends despite drifting apart in some ways. Kimberly was still in Florida, Aisha was now in Africa, and there were still things that continued to change.

Three days.

It had taken three days of intense battle before the power rangers were able to defeat the Machine Empire.

Through that three days they fought as hard as they could, giving in to more power than they ever thought was possible, than they ever thought they had in their bodies combined. And it had taken a lot of work through their brute strength and from Alpha and Zordon and Bailey and Fred and Jason helping them out to do so. It was a terrible battle; at one point Tanya's and Kat's weakness in their fighting showed and they were out of commission for a while, and that had severely put the rangers back. Then Tommy, Rocky, Adam, Avalon, and Billy tried to hold the Machine Empire off but it had done nothing more than allow the evil faction to push further into the city.

Bulk, Skull, and Detective Stone did their best to get as many people out of Angel Grove as they could, even helping the rangers in their fight against the Machine Empire; using their guns and the other weapons left behind at the precinct to fend them off while the rangers recouped. Finally, the rangers had prevailed but it came with other revealing truths.

Jason now had the gold ranger powers. The powers had taken so much energy from Billy despite his hard work to figure out what made them work and why they took so much life force from the human that got the power. He couldn't continue to hold the power and have it potentially take his own life before the studies could be finished. And Jason was the best option for the role; he worked with the rangers even when he wasn't a ranger himself and continued to prove himself as he did so.

Plus, Billy had received two great offers that he couldn't refuse. He had been accepted to speak at a Peace Conference in Switzerland that he and Jason were going to attend for a few days, then he was heading off to MIT where he had been accepted into an accelerated program due to his consistent attributes in the sciences. He had left Angel Grove the day before Avalon and Bailey went to the airport with their mother, much to the team's surprise and equal excitement.

As for Avalon's and Bailey's decision to leave; it wasn't permanent. Their mother had expressed interest in wanting to go back to Australia and the girls knew they had to go with her for the time being. It wasn't as safe for her as it had been before and she had been away long enough. To ensure that she got there safely as well as having been away for so long the girls decided to go back with her.

"It's not forever," Bailey explained before they left. "It's just for a couple months; we'll be back after that to help you out."

"Yeah, with the Machine Empire gone, you can handle things in case something comes up," Avalon added. She smirked. "And besides, you can't expect me to have come here and not finish school. You lot can't get rid of me that easily."

Saying goodbye was always hard.

Saying goodbye to some of the best people in your life, to people you went through tough situations with, to people you loved was even harder. Avalon was surprised to find that she cried throughout saying goodbye. Maybe it was having broken up with Billy the day before—which was a hard decision for the two of them to make in itself. They had gone back and forth for hours, speaking about whether or not they could handle a long distance relationship while focusing on two different aspects of their lives. There had been heated words and harsh silences until they finally came to the conclusion that hurt the both of them but knew was a better one.

Or maybe it was the weight of their entire journey they shared together that finally hit her and she cried.

Now her eyes were dry and she was ready for what was to come.

With a smile still on her face Avalon put the picture back into the book and placed it into her backpack. It continued to grow as she walked over to her mother and sister. Ellie smiled and reached out, caressing her eldest daughter's face.

"Is everything alright?" She asked.

Avalon nodded. "I'm great, mum. Let's go home."

Despite the ways everything had changed, she wouldn't change the journey for anything in the world.

THE END

A/N: Whew and now the story's over. I did say it would end differently than Zeo did and that's mostly because I did a time jump forward. I hope you're not too disappointed that you didn't see the final battle play out. There were multiple reasons that I chose not to; one of them being that I more than likely would've been repetitive with the way things went, I've written it about five times and still couldn't come up with a good way to show it, and because I wasn't sure if the battle would come across as lackluster. I had it planned out in a certain way and I know the way I read things as a writer and the way you guys read things as the readers is different but it still caused difficulties. Hope you don't hate me.

Avalon's story isn't over yet as the Dino Thunder story New Beginning is still being worked on. I decided to solely focus on this story until it was over and then go back to New Beginning.

But there's a short-story placed in Turbo that's coming up. It's called Ready When You Are and the first chapter will be up tomorrow! I didn't originally plan to do Turbo but figured I could make it work within the short story before the series moved on to Dino Thunder. But now that this story is over I'll work on Ready When You Are and New Beginning at the same time since the turbo one is a short story.

Now for the surprise…the Bailey series! For those who wondered why New Beginning had the cover photo of Av and Bay it's because it's part of the Avalon Series and the Bailey series, where it's in the future of the Bailey series. However the Bailey series will start with the season Lightspeed Rescue, the story entitled Headstrong. But don't worry, while the series will focus on Bailey, Av will still be a main character. The Bailey series will start after I finished the Turbo story and then I'll write them at the same time.

I hope you're excited!

Thanks to everyone who favorited, alerted, and reviewed! I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

~Avalon

PS - For people wondering I am open for requests, though I do have some rules about it:

-Be specific as whether or not you want it to be a one-shot or a multi-chapter fic

-If a multi-chapter let me know how long you want it to be; I have a tendency for my stories to run away from me (which can be a blessing and a curse) but if I have at least an idea of how long it'll be it's easier to write

-Let me know what characters you want/what season it will be in. There are some seasons of Power Rangers that I'm not well versed in while others I know a lot so even if its a crossover of numerous seasons let me know about the characters.

-That being said I'll write stories with OCs however it would need to be an OC that has a balance of positive and negative traits. Writing about someone who everyone loves and wants to be friends with, can do no wrong, can speak about a hundred languages, is very good in school, and has a means of being perfect is not fun.

-If you don't want a request but just want to send in your OCs for me to help with (as I know some people are better with constructive concrit than others) I'd be glad to help you with that as well.

-Don't rush me; I have my own stories to write as well as a life away form fanfiction but I'll do the best I can.

-Last but not least, I have the right to refuse a request