Disclaimer: Saban Brands owns Power Rangers and all related characters; this story (apart from the lines and actions quoted from actual Power Rangers episodes) and any original characters that might come up belong to me. I owe a debt of gratitude to Phantom Rosabelle for her inspiration to start writing Power Rangers in Space stuff… hadn't tried it in a LONG time and back when I did it wasn't any good, but I'm feeling more confident now!

Continuity: This fic takes place during and after "Countdown to Destruction, part II." It is not really a part of the story about Kimberly, Katherine and Tommy as depicted in my other "Tragedies and Triumphs" stories, but it is in the same continuity in that what happened to Rita in "The Replacement" and "Personal Affairs" will be referred to here. However, that is not TOO terribly important

Mother of Us All
Prologue
by MegaSilver

"Help me, Zeddy!" screeched Rita as the bright golden energy beam inched its way ever closer. It was a force she recognized all too well—a spectral value of good energy disseminating from the Morphin' Grid. One of the difficulties she had had to overcome when keeping Tommy under her evil spell had been the presence of this spectral value within the energies conducted by his Power Coin. As the conductive property applicable to this value was intrinsic to the fabrication of any Power Coin, there was no way to deactivate it—hence the need for the Sword of Darkness to override the value's potential to normalize the Coin's bearer overtime.

And here it was again. Headed right their way and in a massive, inescapable wave. And there was a whole heck of a lot of it. Anything they had perverted through dark magic would be completely crushed.

My… my babies! My precious little creations and sycophantic cretin followers! They'll… they'll all be gone!

But whatever maternal sadness the prospect evoked in Rita was quickly countered by egotistical fear: quite probably, Rita and Zedd themselves would also be crushed.

"Don't let it get—AAAAAAAAH!"

Rita shut her eyes, terrified at the fate about to overtake her. The sensation she felt when the beam passed over was akin to a moderate electrocution, as though something had been accelerated and burned out.

But within moments the physical pain had almost entirely disappeared, and Rita felt a slightly cool sensation, that of air moving over her body. That's when she realized that she was still alive.

Her magic was gone. Everything it had created was gone. Most of her minions were gone.

And… Zedd?

But when Rita looked up, whom did she see but a handsome man. A handsome man standing in exactly the same spot where her husband had stood just moments earlier. Rita gasped. No—it wasn't, it couldn't be… could it?

But then the man looked at her with a kind of smirk that, though she had never seen it before, spoke to her. A sort of sarcastic humor, a slight mean streak that was actually just a touch of genuine affection he projected towards her.

Zeddy!

They were alive. Their magic was gone. Their minions were gone. Dark Specter's entire apparatus was probably toast. Nothing would ever be the same.

But… so what? Living in the shadow of Astronema or the Machines, cooped up in that sticky RV on the moon? Was that really what they had lived their evil lives to become?

Why in deep spaces did we WANT to rule the Earth? Where did THAT get us? Why do I care? Goldar, Baboo, Squatt, Scorpina… those idiots are all gone: now it's just me and Zeddy!

From now on, nothing but pure and simple histrionic, narcissistic, hedonistic bliss.

"Wanna dance?" her husband asked in a deep, subdued, seductive tone.

Zhane was truly sad to watch his new friends leave. He might perhaps have gone with them, if not for the fact that Karone was staying on KO-35 with Andros. Of course he didn't dare explain that to Andros, though he knew it would only be a matter of time before his best friend caught on. In any case he also had his friends within the ranks of the Kerovian militia—and his widowed father who perhaps would be returning to the colony, perhaps not—so it wasn't as though he didn't have other pretexts to mask his amorous fantasy.

My father. Zhane looked sadly at Andros. The thought of his own father reminded him of something he had been holding off telling his friend, fearing the compromising impact it might have on Andros's role as leader of the Power Rangers.

Andros felt his best friend's eyes on him and turned to meet them. There was definitely an aura of sadness in Zhane's eyes, but it was a sadness borne of pity rather than of wistfulness.

"Zhane?"

Something told Andros it wasn't at all related to their friends' departure.

"Zhane, what is it?"

"I'll tell you later."

"No—tell me now." Andros braced himself for bad news. At such a moment as this there was no way it could possibly upset him more.

Zhane left Karone's left side to cross over to Andros's right. "Your parents." Those two words in such a somber tone with that gaze of pity made it clear that what Zhane meant to say was what Andros dreaded.

Zhane began to speak again: "I looked at the militia records. They didn't make—"

Andros held up his hand to cut Zhane off and let out a long sigh. He had known for years he might someday have to confront this terrible news. But always he had clung to that one glimmer of hope that their parents might still be alive.

Now that glimmer had vanished.

Karone had been listening to the whole thing, and she clung even more tightly to her brother's arm. "Andros?" Her voice contained not sadness but fear—perfectly understandable on so many levels. "What's going to happen to us now?"

Andros had no clue, but he couldn't show that. It was all he could do not to shed tears. "We'll be okay, Karone. We have each other. We're Kerovians; we helped them; they'll help rehabilitate us." But he didn't really believe in what he was saying. Sure, the provisional government was full of kindly and appreciative people—Zhane's buddies, no less. They would be helped, no doubt.

All the same, his life—and except for Zhane and Karone, the people in it—would be drastically different from anything he had had to date.

Karone blinked a bit. "Andros, I—I haven't known you very long… I mean, known you in a proper way. But I was there watching you during the fight this whole last year." She took a pause, and the expression on her face suggested to Andros that she was struggling to evoke the expertise she had acquired in the process without anguishing too much about how she had gotten it—by hunting Andros and the other Rangers down.

She continued. "You have nothing here. You'll be all alone."

"No, Karone, it's just not true; I… we…"

Zhane put a hand to Andros's shoulder. "Karone, how can you say that? I'll help you guys! I'll be with you all the way! You guys won't have to be alone one minute, I promise!"

True words, Andros knew. He also knew that he had little motivation to try to make it work here without the family and friends he'd known. Not here. KO-35 was back in the hands of the Kerovians, but the colony would never be the one he grew up in. He and Karone had little extended family and many of his friends had perished in the first battle for the planet.

In fact, all his close friends had perished in that battle… all of his Rangers. All except one, and that one had only barely survived.

And now that he'd finally had the stomach to pass their Astro Morphers on to others—and even become friends with them—could he find it within himself to reboot everything yet again?

But there was just one thing, and if only for this one thing, he had to force himself to do whatever it took.

"But Karone, I… if I go to Earth, what about you? You have no one here!"

Karone blinked. After a few seconds, she said, "I'll go to Earth."

"But—"

"Andros, I don't know anyone except you, Zhane and the Rangers. I've never had—not in so many years, I haven't had anything like a life worth living. It won't make a difference to me where I start."

"Karone, they know you as Astronema. What if they try—"

Karone shook her head. "No, Andros! I can hide behind my name. The only people who know I was Astronema were the ones who saw me change back. I won't be in danger!"

"You might be."

"Then I'll take that risk!" Karone rested her head on Andros's shoulder. "Andros? I don't what I'll do if you don't help me right now. But I don't know what'll happen to you if you try to start all over here—and if you're down you won't be able to help me!"

Zhane piped up. He looked a little bit surprised, disappointed, even kind of hurt. "Hey, guys? Do I get a say in this?" he asked, his voice cracking a little, full of genuine concern and not humor.

Andros was still a little put off. "What do you mean, Zhane? You, you've got your dad, the militia, the—"

"But I can come back to that that whenever I want!" Zhane explained. It was true in a sense: he hadn't lost nearly so much as Andros had during that terrible battle. Plus, he was definitely more introverted than was Andros—a funny, generous and affable introvert, but an introvert all the same. He could start over and do okay, make new friends when it suited him or just be alone for a while if life necessitated it, and it wouldn't bother him too much. Maybe part of it came from not having any siblings or cousins.

In any event, the pretext that he would miss Andros too much if his buddy left just wouldn't float. Of course he would miss the Rangers—all of them—but he wasn't at all a clingy person. There was, however, one thing Zhane was not about to let slip away from him, and he certainly wasn't going to say what that was.

"I mean…" said Zhane, "after everything that's happened with you and the other Rangers, how can I just watch you guys high-tail it back to Earth and… not go myself? If I can't do some good for you guys in the provisional government, then… what's the point of staying?"

Andros immediately thought something about that seemed rather affected. He looked at his sister, whose expression was still marked by anxiety but whose eyes shone with a glimmer of hope, of flustery emotion after having heard Zhane talk about that.

Andros look back to Zhane, whose own expression was a very fake, very sanctimonious display of sympathy and concern, while his eyes betrayed his robust excitement and just hinted at concupiscence.

Excitement at the prospect of living on the same planet as Karone.

As sad and unsure of things as Andros was right now, just thinking about that made him smile just a crack. "You know what, Zhane? You are by far the least convincing actor in the history of mankind."

Zhane's eyes went wide and he quickly tried to feign innocence in his face and in his tone. "Wh-what'd I do?"

Andros couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, if you know what's good for you, nothing I wouldn't do, for sure." His eye twinkled just a bit. He turned to look back at Karone. She was rolling her eyes, grinning and blushing ever-so-slightly.

Andros stepped out from between the two—out of the way of electrical, chemical and gravitational field—and made his way toward the MegaShip. After just a few steps, he turned back around, a big grin on his face. "It is nice not to have to go back home to a lonely house." He motioned for Zhane and Karone to follow.

Squealing like kids, the two bounded over to their best friend and older brother, each on one side with an arm around him as they headed off to the ship's entrance. Once again, Andros was within the force field. But if that were the price to pay to be with these two at a moment like this… heck, he'd pay it!

TO BE CONTINUED…