Her first instinctive reaction was rejection, denial. The surreal nature of Fred telling her this while clothed in the garb of a Psycho Ranger lent an air of dreamlike unreality to the proceedings. Maybe this was nothing more than another nightmare; she'd certainly had her share of those since the Conquest! In another moment she might awaken in her great-aunt's house, or better yet in T.J.'s strong arms.

That desperate hope died within her as she listened to the sounds of the next shift taking their places in the factory, smelled the industrial scent of metal in the air and felt the throbbing ache in her right wrist.

This wasn't a dream.

She stared into Fred's faceless helmet, her already watering eyes pleading with him to take it back, to admit that he'd made a mistake. He answered her unspoken entreaty with his own silence.

"How?" she managed to whisper.

"Justin fucking Stewart!" Fred spat out. "Karen and I found him wandering around in the mountains and I decided we should bring him to T.J. T.J. told him about the Endgame plan and right after that he turned on us. He killed Karen, killed T.J. and brought me to Ecliptor's palace in D.C. Then he went back with a legion of Quantrons and slaughtered everyone else."

"Justin would never do that!" Cassie protested, shocked by the very idea.

"Yes, he would! Cassie, Justin is the Blue Psycho Ranger! Tommy's the red one and the rest of the first Turbo team is Green, Pink and Yellow!"

The revelations were coming at her almost too fast for her to even take them in, much less process them. Their predecessors in the Power. . . were the Psycho Rangers? How could that be?

"They did the same thing to the old Turbos that they did to Astronema," Fred went on impatiently, guessing her thoughts. "And then they did it to me."

The last sentence somehow managed to slice through Cassie's burgeoning grief and despair, shifting her focus and concern to the figure standing before her.

"Then why aren't you-"

"Ripping you limb from limb?" Fred interrupted. "I knew it was coming and I concentrated as much as I could beforehand on what I believed then. The device works by altering your emotions and changing how you feel about things. It's almost impossible to hold on to your old beliefs when you feel completely differently."

"Is there anything I can do-"

Again Fred cut her off. "Don't worry about me. We're almost out of time and you've got a decision to make."

Now? He couldn't be serious! Right now it was costing her almost everything she had just to keep functioning, and the mercifully numbing shock of Fred's news hadn't even worn off yet. She was in no shape to decide anything!

"Justin sent me here to kill you. Before that, though, he had me helping out with the Megaship because I'd lived in it and I was the only person left DECA would obey. While I was there I managed to download a copy of the Endgame virus."

As he shifted the staff he was holding to his left hand Fred was abruptly engulfed in a cocoon of golden light. When the glow faded his Psycho Ranger uniform was gone. Instead he wore black jeans and a sleeveless shirt made of a shimmering, lightweight golden fabric. His face held the same grimness she was used to seeing from him during a mission, but his trademark backwards baseball cap was gone. It wouldn't have fit under his helmet in any case, but she had literally never seen him without it and its absence only increased her already overwhelming sense of disorientation.

Reaching into his right hip pocket Fred pulled out a flash drive and immediately remorphed.

The rectangular piece of technology looked so tiny sitting there in Fred's gloved hand, so insignificant. Yet it held the fruit of two years of effort and struggle, everything they'd worked and fought for since the resistance began. It was the weapon they would use to free Earth from Dark Specter's domination.

"I could let you go out this door and run," Fred stated, gesturing towards the closed loading bay door. "Afterwards I'll go up to the computer room, download this virus and then tell Justin you weren't here. He'll start searching the country for you, but you might be able to avoid being caught."

"If we play it that way, though, and he's the least bit suspicious, if he does any kind of double-checking like looking at the security camera footage or questioning the Quantrons, then we've had it. We lose our last chance. We lose everything!"

"What's else can we do?" Cassie asked plaintively. By all rights she should be the one taking charge and laying out their options, but she didn't have a plan and it was clear that Fred did.

"I could give you the flash drive and you could run straight for the computer room. I'll order the Quantrons not to touch you, tell them you're mine. I'll chase after you, but I'll let you get to the computer room first. There shouldn't be anyone in there. Download the virus into the system. Then I'll corner you there and kill you."

Cassie started, wondering if she'd heard him correctly.

"I'll take your morpher and body back to Justin. I'll tell him I let you almost download the virus and killed you right before you could, just to play with you. He'll believe that."

"You would actually kill me?" Cassie queried of her comrade and friend of almost two years, her tone heavy with disbelief.

"If you agree to it," Fred responded with bone-chilling calm. "It's the only way I can think of that we can definitely fool Justin. If I really do kill you he'll be sure I'm on the UAE's side.

"Why couldn't I defeat you and escape?"

Fred snorted mirthlessly. "Or I could tell Justin straight out that I deliberately let you go. He'd be less likely to figure things out that way than if I tried to make him believe you managed to beat me."

The disdainful contempt in Fred's voice stung her as he went on.

"You've faced the rest of the Psycho Rangers, Cassie. You know how badly they outclassed you. Well, I'm further beyond them than they were beyond you! You can't even begin to imagine the kind of power I've got now," Fred concluded darkly.

Cassie believed him.

The new Psycho Ranger drew in a deep breath and let it out. "We're out of time, Cassie. You're still the leader. What do you want to do?"

For most people the question wouldn't even need to be asked. Given a choice between certain death and life, who wouldn't choose life?

Yet she and T.J. had founded the resistance on the belief that there were things which were more important than your own life. There were ideals worth fighting and even dying for if need be, one of which was human freedom. To be a Power Ranger required being willing to sacrifice yourself for the good of others. There was no choice to be made here.

Cassie morphed into the Pink Ranger and held out her right hand. "Give me the flash drive," she ordered firmly.

Fred handed it over without a word. Cassie closed her fist around it and closed her eyes. She and T.J. had never dared talk about what they would do after the war, but that hadn't stopped her from thinking about it. She'd imagined their wedding, their honeymoon, and the entire course of their married life after the Earth had been freed.

That dream had died with T.J. and now her own life was also about to end. Knowing the man she loved was already gone made it easier to contemplate death, as did the realization that with this final act she would at last be making up for the failure of the Astro Rangers to stop the Psycho Rangers. It would take another year, but ultimately . . . Earth would be free.

Maybe that was why she and T.J. had been spared in the first place, why they'd lived on where their friends had died.

Cassie opened her eyes and regarded the Pyscho Ranger before her calmly.

"What are you going to do after I'm gone?"

"I'll play along for as long as I have to. Right now I'm thinking of turning on the Psycho Rangers the first time we're in battle. If I can take them out the Galactic League of Light's got a much better shot of beating the UAE, maybe even before the year is up."

Cassie started to voice a question, but Fred interrupted. "You have to go now, Cassie."

With a brief nod the Pink Astro Ranger turned and sprinted out of the loading bay, reaching the main floor and heading for the large set of reinforced stairs that no human was allowed to ascend.

Her appearance caused an instant reaction among the factory's workers and guards. Some people stood frozen, staring at her, while others shrieked. Still others ducked for cover and a heartbreakingly large number cheered! She could only hope no serious harm would come to that last group.

She raced past half a dozen conveyor lines, streaking for the stairs. Laser bolts began to sizzle past her.

"Don't shoot her! Don't even touch her! She's mine!"

The words were spoken in the electronic tone of a Psycho Ranger, not in Fred's normal voice, and the guards obeyed at once.

"Go ahead, run! You can't escape me, Cassie. You're already dead!"

Ignoring the taunting threat the Pink Ranger continued her sprint until she finally reached the bottom step of the staircase. She glanced back at her ally as she neared the top of the stairs. He was still standing next to southern loading bay. Then he turned into a black and gold blur which flashed across the distance between where he'd been standing and the foot of the stairs in less than three seconds.

Cassie stumbled, her foot missing the next step and had to grab at the rail.

"I'm going to have so much fun killing you!" the Gold Psycho Ranger assured her from only about twenty feet beneath her, her lead cut down to virtually nothing.

Cassie almost threw herself into the corridor at the top of the stairs, a passage which had only two doors. The one midway down led into the Quantron barracks and recharging facility which took up virtually the entire top floor. The door at the end led into the mainframe computer for the facility.

Behind her she could hear Fred mounting the stairs, though thankfully not with the super-speed he'd displayed on the ground floor. She ran down the corridor, hoping to get past the barracks door before it opened and disgorged a squad of Quantrons.

There! She was past it. Behind her, terribly close, she heard the Gold Psycho Ranger say, "It's over, bitch."

The door to the computer room slid aside at her approach and when she entered the room she stopped so abruptly that she almost fell over. Contrary to Fred's assurance, there was one figure in the small room, leaning against the mainframe that took up the back wall.

"Now what do you think you're doing?" asked the amused, noticeably deeper, but still recognizable voice of Justin Stewart from beneath the blue helmet.

Before today she would have attacked instantly, fury and hate overwhelming any rational calculation. Now even knowing that he'd killed T.J., the knowledge that it was Justin under there and that he wasn't acting of his own free will made her hesitate, long enough for Fred to catch up behind her and enter the room.

"Cassie! What are you-" he started to say, and fell silent when he noticed the third occupant.

"You really let me down, Fred. I gave you more than most people could even dream about, and this is how you repay me?!" Justin demanded, the Psycho Axe appearing in his hands.

"Sorry!" the Gold Psycho Ranger sneered sarcastically, readying his staff before him. "Get to the computer," he whispered to Cassie. Then he was past her, bringing his staff down in a blow aimed at the other Psycho Ranger's head, an assault barely blocked by his victim's axe.

Unable to help Cassie could only watch as they fought in front of the computer, Psycho Ranger against Psycho Ranger. Then Fred landed a blow to the midsection with one end of his staff and a crack over the helmet with the other. He kicked Justin to one side and the way was clear.

The entire run across the factory seemed to take less time than it did for her to cover the twenty feet between her and the computer. She nearly fumbled the flash drive as she searched frantically for the data entry port.

There! She inserted the drive and a wave of overpowering relief swept through her as the light next to the port glowed. The screen lit up with the question "Download?" and she pressed the yes key hard enough to break it. Another eternity passed before the screen said "Download complete".

Cassie slowly removed the flash drive. They'd done it! It had cost them literally everything, but they'd done it. Another year of oppression was all that the people of Earth would have to endure. Then the occupation would come to a sudden, violent end. Then humanity would be free.

She turned around and saw the Blue Psycho Ranger lying on his back, Fred kneeling over him and holding both axe and staff to Justin's throat.

"We have to kill him, Cassie," Fred insisted as she walked to his side. "Do you want to do it?"

Did she want to kill the Blue Psycho Ranger? The one who'd murdered Zhane, who'd murdered T.J.? The shy, genius kid who'd helped show her how to be a Ranger? The friend who had been turned against her against his will?

"No," Cassie murmured quietly.

"You can't win," Justin snarled from the floor. "I have something you'll never have," he swore, looking directly at Cassie.

She was so tired now, all of the energy, all of the purpose drained out of her. She had done what she needed to. She didn't really care what this mockery of her friend thought he had that they didn't, but she asked anyway.

"What's that?"

"A teammate I can trust," Justin replied smugly.

No one and nothing had ever before hit Cassie as hard as Fred did in that instant, striking with both weapons and sending her flying into and almost through the wall behind her.

She crumpled to the floor, trying to breathe with broken ribs, feeling the blood pumping out of the gaping wound in her chest. She managed to lift herself halfway up, like a person doing a push-up, amid the sound of male laughter.

"You were right, Justin," Fred's voice exulted. "Playing with them beforehand like this is fun!"

"Told you."

Slowly Cassie raised her head to see the two teenage Pyscho Rangers towering over her, each holding his respective weapon.

"Good-bye, bitch!" Fred spat out before pouncing on her.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

Sekarias was a small world with a native population well under fifteen million. Sekarians were bipeds with opposable thumbs, rubbery green skin, five eyes, no nose two arms and three legs arranged in a tripod formation. Their techonology level was well above Earth's, but below that of most advanced civilizations. Situated on the outer edge of the Milky Way, a few light years beyond the border of the UAE's territory, Sekarias had always maintained a policy of strict neutrality in the hope that doing so would ensure its continued prosperity and freedom.

Today Justin, Fred, and Tommy were crushing that futile, foolish hope.

A blindingly fast blur of black and gold smashed its way through a squad of Royal Guardsmen before resolving itself into the armored form of Fred Kelman. Even with only half of the Psychos present the storming of the Sekarian Royal Palace was proving almost too easy, Justin mused as he casually picked off a sniper on one of the balconies overlooking the cavernous reception hall.

Kat, Tanya, and Adam were busy securing Triforia against any counter-attack, so it was left to the other half of the team to perform the terror attack on Sekarias, a measure meant to frighten the world into submission.

Of course there was no reason this task couldn't have waited until after they had engaged and crushed the Robot Rangers and Aquitan Rangers. No reason except for one: the Psycho Rangers were Tommy's team, and he had been driven to fury by Dark Specter's decision to add a new member without consulting him. The fact that the addition was someone had known and trained had mitigated his rage only a little and they were here so that the Red Psycho Ranger could judge their recruit in action. If he thought their newest teammate was a liability . . .

Fortunately Fred was setting a new "gold standard" for blood-soaked skillfulness and efficiency. Thus far he had killed almost as many Sekarian soldiers as Justin and Tommy combined! Nor was his assault tempered by any hint of mercy or compassion; he brutally butchered all in his path without hesitation. The seventeen year-old used the extensive Gold Psycho Ranger abilities as expertly as if he'd been born with them.

It was enough to spark jealousy in Justin, and Tommy's appreciation of Fred's display of prowess was clearly marred by resentment at the sheer scale of the teen's raw power.

For his part Fred hadn't forgiven his former mentor for failing to make sure that Fred was chosen as a Ranger years ago. Still, it was doubtful the mutual antipathy between them would lead to Tommy attacking the Gold Psycho Ranger. By now their leader must have realized that even both he and Justin going up against Fred together would likely be a losing proposition.

And if it did come down to a fight, Justin would not be battling on Tommy's side.

That decision was not made solely for the sake of personal survival. He and Fred were the only Psycho Rangers whose neural nets provided for only moderately elevated aggression and for at least minimal empathy. It gave them a different perspective than that shared by the other Psycho Rangers.

Now that he could think clearly Justin could see why the original specifications had been programmed to induce such psychosis. For one thing it made the Rangers much easier to direct. Dark Specter or Astronmema had only to point the way, and the entire team would charge forward, eager to slake their thirst for blood. It also precluded any real unity or loyalty among the team members; each was out only for him or herself.

Fred took point again as they stormed into the passages beyond the hall, his staff smashing apart heads and pulping bodies. Tommy snarled beside him as the other two Rangers searched for victims of their own.

With Justin and Fred it was different. They could actually appreciate each other, even like each other and enjoy one another's company. It was . . . nice to have a friend again, especially since he knew he could always rely on Fred to feel friendship and loyalty towards him. That was the little extra he'd programmed into his teammate's neural net before it had been activated.

A lot like the change he'd made to the Endgame virus, really. All of the previous directives had been deleted and a single new one added. From now on all Quantrons produced from Earth's factory would obey his orders over anyone else's.

He had no immediate plans to make use of the change, but it seemed a wise precaution for the future, a subject which was coming to occupy more and more of his thoughts.

Dark Specter ruled the UAE through fear and personal power, but while that ensured compliance it did nothing to build loyalty. Would everyone remain content to serve the Emperor of Evil? Or would one or more of his underlings someday seek to betray him? And where would the Psycho Rangers stand in such a civil war?

As anticipated, the throne room was empty when they reached it. While Tommy communicated with their orbiting cruiser to see if their sensor focus had been able to detect the royal family's path of flight, Fred casually sent a surge of energy along the length of his staff which vaporized the blood and brain matter clinging to it. The fact that he kept his grip on the weapon while doing this and didn't suffer the scorched hand that even any other Psycho Ranger would have was mere grandstanding on his part.

There wasn't a single doubt in Justin's mind that their sixth Ranger would decisively tip the scales in the war against the League's Rangers, but given Fred's love of showing off his newfound superiority it was reassuring to know that the Gold Psycho Ranger would never be a threat to him, quite the opposite.

The rest of the team he could not count on. They would obey Tommy, but not him. Unfortunately Tommy was no longer the Red Ranger he had once been, his ability to plan ahead and think clearly severely compromised by his neural net. It was a pity, but there was no real solution for it. Even if he could persuade Tommy to switch to a different neural net, such a move would probably give too much away to the UAE's other luminaries. As it was no one knew that he had given Fred a cybernetic device almost identical to his own and Dark Specter had been too pleased with his success on Earth to command that he return to using his old modification.

On the other hand, if Tommy were to fall in battle . . . Not here, and not now; everyone of consequence knew why Tommy had taken him and Fred to Sekarias and to return without him would trigger terrible consequences. There were many battles yet to be fought, though, and with Fred's resentment of Tommy it probably wouldn't be too hard to persuade his friend to help. And with Tommy gone, who would be selected as the new Red Ranger? Who among them enjoyed the fullest measure of Dark Specter's favor, having prevented a galactic disaster, extinguished the insurgency, taken care of the last two Astro Rangers and brought in the prisoner who had become their mightiest Psycho Ranger?

Justin Stewart, leader of the Psycho Rangers.

He liked the sound of that.

"All this time you were pretending

so much for my happy ending"

The Happy Ending, by Arvil Lange

THE END

Afterword: My sincere thanks to all my readers for following my story! I hope none of you were too disappointed with how it turned out. I posted it in the tragedy category in the first place because I always intended for it to end like this (which is why I was extremely careful in writing the first two chapters. Look back and you'll see certain thoughts and events portrayed therein make much more sense in light of Justin's true allegiance). Here's why.

Perhaps my primary motivation for writing fanfiction is to correct what I see as story injustices, events which in my opinion should have gone differently. In this story I addressed four such errors.

The first was the identity of the original Psycho Rangers. I hoped at the time the episodes were broadcast that these new Psycho Rangers were actually the old Turbo team, which would have been a fantastic twist and much better than what we actually got.

The second error was the gang's failure to call on Justin during Countdown, when they needed all the help they could get. Yes, I understand Saban probably didn't want to shell out the money for the actor to return, but in terms of plot the decision to exclude the only other still-Powered Ranger on the planet made little sense. Here, too, the Rangers didn't bother to keep in touch with Justin, but in this universe there were consequences for that decision.

Third was the complete failure of the writers to ever have Justin turn to the side of evil, either through magic or technology. Even worse, this failure has continued into the fanfiction realm! Offhand I can only think of two stories in which Justin Stewart turns to the dark side, both of which place him in charge of the bad guys. Now I can certainly understand the temptation to do this, but I always thought Justin would function best as an in-place double agent and saboteur. Keep his turning evil a secret and the young genius is in the perfect position to disable the Zords, destroy the Power Chamber, turn Alpha Six to scrap, murder Dmitiria and finally betray the other Power Rangers in the middle of a battle! Because of his youth and innocence he is also the last one they would suspect, while being smarter and more technologically skilled than any of them. So I suppose one reason why the writers never did this in the series is because evil Justin would have won and all of the other Rangers would have been killed.

The last error was the line at the end of the first movie about Fred being "in line to be a Power Ranger yourself someday", with him playfully musing about being the Silver Ranger, or even the Gold Ranger! For Pete's sake, don't throw something like that out there unless you plan to follow up on it (Oddly, the writers for the PR SPD series confronted a very similar situation, yet pointedly avoided repeating the movie's mistake. I tip my hat to them in respect, but their competence didn't do poor Fred any good)! Instead Fred completely disappeared from the PR universe when the movie ended. Here that, too, had consequences and Fred finally got his due! Granted, not in the way he would have wanted, but this was a tragedy.

Why was I so intent on making this tale a tragedy? Three reasons. First, I'd read a funny movie recap in which writer used the line, "Yeah, like we believe the hero is going to get killed twenty minutes into the movie". For the most part you simply cannot do that in a movie, but you CAN do it in a fanfiction story. I was taken with the idea of writing a tale which appeared to be a standard "good guys coming from behind to win", only to reveal that the main hero was actually a villain and the other heroes were doomed to be killed or turned evil early on. I liked the idea of subverting the reader's expectations and smashing some of the usual clichés, like the "jerk who doesn't like the hero coming into the resistance" being absolutely RIGHT for once!

Second, I'm past the stage were I like to see the good guys win all the time. Now I enjoy watching evil triumph occasionally, especially when the villains are visibly superior to the heroes. It feels more realistic and is certainly more surprising.

Third, I'd never done a tragedy before, and I enjoyed coming up with one, not the least because the good guys were so close to winning when things went wrong! And throwing in so many twists was a lot of fun. This is definitely the most twisted tale I've ever written, in a couple of senses.

I will pen a sequel to this one someday. In spite of how it looks things aren't over yet! The Aquitan and Robot Rangers are going to get seriously mauled, yes, but Billy was always ready for something like this and he will doubtless teleport at least a few of them to safety in time. Then he'll have no choice but to play the card he's been holding in reserve, keeping for the last desperate need. I'd tell you what his strategy is, faithful reader, but I'm afraid that is another story . . . posted on this website under the title "The Ranger War".