Disclaimer: I acknowledge that all characters, locations and events belong solely to Saban Entertainment. Their use in this document is not authorised and exists purely for entertainment, so please don't sue me Mr. Saban! (Wow, what a blast from the past, exactly what I wrote on my very first disclaimer – oh the memories!)

Author Note: Shinobi Rangers, Shinobi Zords, Samurai Rangers, Samurai Zords, Dark Rangers, Dark Zords, Armageddon, Ultima, Kraegor, Crush, Garrison, Jandra, Mecha-Zen, Striker, Photon, I think that's it (well not quite, but close enough), were all created by me. I hope they don't bear any similarities to anybody else's characters. If they do, I promise it is accidental. If anyone ever wishes to use any of the things included in the saga, let me know. I like to hear new ideas from anyone. Thank you and 'May the Power Protect Us (from ourselves :o)'

Time Scale: This starts off the morning after 'Part Twelve – Dark Intentions'. I said before not many more parts to go, well this is it! (Sort of!)

Falling Numbers
By Matt

Adam looked to the East. The Sun was just rising, he'd hardly noticed it setting last night, let alone the hours that had passed since he went out there. He hadn't moved from his seat outside the entrance to the Power Chamber. Not a single person had come out to see him. He tried to make excuses – they couldn't find him, they didn't know what to say, they were giving him time alone, but he knew the truth. None of them trusted him, he wasn't the same person now, neither were they, and things could never be how they were before.

Just as the Sun cleared the horizon, he heard people coming out. He didn't look round, unfortunately he didn't need to – he recognized the voices, Tommy, Kat and Rocky. He remembered back to their first few days there, some mornings, the five of them would go for a walk outside HQ. them three, himself, and Tanya. Tanya – would he ever see her again, could they ever be together again, he had chosen good where she had chosen evil. Now it was just them three walking. He hoped they would just ask him to join them, but he knew it wouldn't happen.

They fell silent as they saw Adam sitting there and carried on walking, not even looking back at him as he stared at them. Rocky was the only one who even responded to him. He stopped and the others looked at him.

"I'll catch up with you later!" Rocky said.

Adam was expecting some comment like 'watch your back' from Tommy or Kat, but it never came, they just smiled at Rocky, said okay, and carried on walking.

They both watched them walk away, the turned back to each other. "Morning." Rocky said quietly.

Adam just croaked. He had gone so long without even moving his mouth that it had gone dry. He swallowed quickly and said, "Morning!"

"Did you spend all night out here?" Rocky asked, sitting down at his friends side.

"Yeah, looks like I did!" Adam replied.

"Are you okay? I was waiting most the night for you to come back in, but I fell asleep at about two o'clock!" Rocky commented.

"Why would you wait for me?" Adam asked angrily.

"I wanted to talk to you!" Rocky replied. "I know this can't be easy for you."

"Yeah right! I'm supposed to get some sympathy for betraying you all to our enemy, then betraying him, too. Sorry, but I don't think it works like that." Adam said, annoyed by his own actions.

"Look, you made a mistake, you joined him, but in a way you didn't betray us!" Adam looked at him, confused. "You didn't join him, you joined Tanya, and the you made the right choice to come back to us!"

"If I'm so innocent, why can't I morph?" Adam asked, actually trying to prove his own guilt.

"I can't answer that!" Rocky said simply. "But you're back with us now. We're all your friends although it may take some of them a bit longer to realize it than I did! Things will be alright."

———- X ———-

"I heard the Dark Rangers lost again, and this time, they lost the Dark Zords," Rita said quietly to the others gathered before her – Zedd, Goldar, Gasket, Archerina, Mecha-Zen, Porto, Striker and Photon.

"What, you mean you couldn't hear Armageddon shouting about it yesterday when they got back. I could hear him from my lab!" Porto replied.

"Yeah, he was fuming. I sure wouldn't like to be a Dark Ranger right now." Striker added.

"AND, I heard that one of the Dark Rangers, Adam I think, never came back to him. He betrayed him and stayed with the Rangers!" Rita commented.

"He'd better stay hidden in their base if he wants to live. I hate to think what he'd do Armageddon ever got his hands on him." Photon said.

"Well I think he was stupid ever using Rangers. They're always nothing but trouble!" Zedd sneered.

"You should be glad he's got the Dark Rangers. Without them, we wouldn't have a chance against both them teams of Rangers." Gasket said confidently.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that!" Porto said. "With the extra Power Armageddon has given us all, and the technology I have created, we may be more of a match for them Rangers than anyone may think!"

"THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" Armageddon shouted at the group gathered before him – Crush, Tommy, Tanya, Kim, Jason, Zack, Carlos, Ashley, Corcus and Tideus. "Between us, we are the most powerful force this planet has ever seen, but still we are constantly defeated by those Power Rangers!"

"Sir, I don't think we've been making full making of the advantage we have over them!" Crush suggested.

"Explain!" he snapped back.

"Well the Rangers are restricted to their code of honor. Zordon may have allowed them to stretch the rules while they rescued the Samurai's, but when it comes down to a fight, they're all held back by one thing," she explained. he looked at her, waiting for her to finish. "If challenged to a 'fair' fight, they will stick to it. they will not allow anyone else to interfere for risk of losing their honor!"

"How does that help us? We probably can't win in a fair fight against them!" Tommy said, risking interfering with their conversation.

"Yes, you're right, you can't! So what we have to do, is make it not quite so fair for them, but make it still look like a fair fight!" Armageddon said, intrigued.

"Exactly what I had in mind!" Crush agreed.

———- X ———-

"SHINOBI RANGER POWER!"

"Shinobi Thunder!"

"Shinobi Ice!"

"Shinobi Wind!"

"Shinobi Sun!"

"Shinobi Water!"

"Shinobi Lightning!"

"Shinobi Earth!"

"Shinobi Star!"

"Shinobi Fire!"

"Shinobi Destruction!"

The Shinobi Gems glowed with power. A white mist laced with the color of the Gem swirled down and swallowed up the Rangers. Their armor appeared on them as the energy mist was absorbed into them. As their helmets finally appeared on them, the Gems disappeared, completely absorbed into their bodies.

They stood in two lines facing each other. Without warning, both groups charged forward, greeting the other with an onslaught of punches, kicks, leg sweeps, laser blasts. The battle was furious, none of the Rangers would be satisfied with defeat, even from one of their own and even if it was only a practice. One by one they brought out their Shinobi Blades to work in conjunction with the Plasma rifles. Swords clashed and sparks flew as powerful plasma bolts struck impenetrable armor. Of course they were evenly matched – they all had the same powers – but they all had different styles of fighting. The three ex-Aquitian Rangers had their smooth, flowing, graceful style, Rocky with his plain, straight forward, brawl-for-all tactics, then Tommy with his hard-hitting martial art strokes blended perfectly with fantastic use of the weapons at his disposal.

Everyone, friend or enemy, had to marvel at Tommy's fighting skills. He truly was one of the greatest fighters of all time. He had fought off attacks from every force that had ever faced the Earth, he had fought off the control of evil over his mind and he had done what no other human had ever done. He had defeated Goldar, no powers, no weapons, just his own skill and wit. He had won them all, none had ever posed a real challenge, until now. He thought about Armageddon. Was he too powerful to defeat, was Justin still inside, could they rescue him, could he even be rescued from such monumental power? Then he thought of the Dark Rangers, the antithesis of everything he stood for as a Ranger. Not only were they on the side of Darkness, but they had been on the side of light, most of them for many years. He knew they had to be stopped, especially their leader – his clone.

It had been his own idea to bring his clone to that time, to give him the White Ranger Powers, but it hadn't been quite such a good idea. When his clone was created, he hadn't really been a Ranger long himself. In his time before that, he had been controlled by evil so much, and his clone was a copy of him up until that moment. The clone had not had Tommy's additional years of fighting the evil within himself, he was weak, not trained, and it was that weakness that made him join Armageddon. Maybe a few years ago, he himself would have done the same thing, he would never know.

Tommy was suddenly knocked to the ground. As he had let his mind wander, he had let his guard down. It would have been a fatal mistake in battle, but fortunately this wasn't serious. Rocky helped him up to his feet.

"Are you okay, man. You just seemed to stop fighting then!" Rocky commented.

"Yeah, I've just got a lot on my mind!" Tommy replied.

"Hey, I know that feeling!" Rocky sympathized. he jumped back suddenly and shouted, "Hey, what's going on?"

The air around Tommy started to distort and twist, as if the very fabric of its existence was changing.

"Guys, quick!" Rocky called out. The other Shinobi's stopped practicing and ran to his side, they saw the problem straight away. Tommy let out a moan and collapsed to the floor, but none of them could get to him in case whatever it was, effected them, too.

"Oh man, this isn't good!" Billy called out he spoke into the communicator. "Zordon, it's happening, teleport us back straight away!"

———- X ———-

The Dark Rangers were just about to leave Armageddon's main chamber, when he stopped them.

"What is it?" Jason asked.

"I sense a disruption!" Armageddon replied. As he said it, the air around the Black Dark Ranger swirled and contorted, as if being twisted by some unknown force. Tommy's clone fell to the floor in a heap.

"Tommy!" Kim called out. She ran to help him, but the others held her back. Whatever was happening around the Black Ranger, they didn't want her running into it.

"What the hell's that?" Tanya asked, not seeming to care what tone she took with their Dark Master now.

"Exactly what I've been expecting!" Armageddon replied.

———- X ———-

Tommy lay on a bio-bed, everything around him still distorting, now almost beyond recognition. The others all stood around, worried for their leader. Alpha Six, Alpha Five, Billy and Cestro were rushing around trying to find some way to help him.

"What can we do?" Cassie asked.

"At the moment, nothing!" Zordon replied.

"Zordon, do you know what's happening to him?" Trini asked, worried for one of her oldest friends.

"I'm afraid so!" Zordon replied, that got their attention. they all looked at him as he answered. "It's the effects of Tommy and his clone existing in the same time for an extended period. The very being of space and time is changing around him, trying to pull him back into his own time!"

"But why?" Cassie asked.

"The Space/Time Continuum is a very sensitive thing. It can withstand so much interruption, but after a certain point, it will attempt to repair itself. That is what it is doing now. Tommy is damaging it, so it is trying to get rid of him, back to where he belongs!" Zordon explained.

"So is the same thing happening to his clone?" Rocky asked.

"Yes, as powerful as Armageddon is, there is no way he can fight the power of the continuum. There is no way he can help his Tommy any more than we can help ours!" Zordon said.

"So that's it, he's gonna disappear?" Kat asked, dismayed.

"No, this is just the early signs of it. It could take anything up to a couple of days for him to actually go back." Zordon said.

Suddenly, Tommy sat up and looked around.

"Hey, what's going on? How'd I get in here?" he asked, confused. He apparently didn't remember the effects of his damage to the timeline.

They all gathered round him to fill him in on what was going on.

———- X ———-

There was nothing the Dark Rangers could do to help Tommy, and Armageddon hardly even seemed to care. Eventually the area around him returned to normal. He sat up and looked round, no memory of what was happening.

They all looked to Armageddon for answers.

He had only one comment for them. "We must destroy the Shinobi Rangers, today!"

———- X ———-

The Shinobi's had filled in Tommy on what had happened, but some details he wanted to clear up with Zordon, himself.

"So how long?" he asked.

"A couple of days at the most!" Zordon said bluntly.

"And there's no way to stop it?" he asked again.

"There are only two ways." Zordon replied. Tommy looked at him, waiting to hear his options. "Either send him back to his own time, which we can not do with him under Armageddon's protection, or…" he stopped.

"Or what?" Tommy insisted.

"Or if he is killed. Dead, he will have no effect on the space/time continuum, and neither will you, allowing you to remain." Zordon answered, hating having to tell Tommy that.

"That may be our only option. With one less Ranger, the odds could go back in Armageddon's favor!" Tommy replied. "He has to die!"

Adam sat in his room, alone once again. There was a buzz at the door, but Adam wasn't in the mood to see anyone and he ignored it. It buzzed again. He ignored it.

He was expecting a third buzz, but instead, the door slid open and he stood up. Kat was standing there, grinning. "Louise showed me how to override the locking mechanism, hope I'm not interrupting anything!" she said softly.

"Erm… no. No, I wasn't doing anything!" Adam stuttered. He had no idea what she wanted, why had she broken in? Did she want to have a go at him for what he had done?

She walked over and hugged him. He was shocked, but he held onto her as much as she did onto him. "I'm glad you're back!"

She let go and he stared at her, happy, but confused. "Wh… why?" Adam stuttered again.

"I know we didn't exactly give you a warm welcome, but now I've had time to think about it. I've realized I just can't hold a grudge against you. We've been friends for years now, and I can' let one little mistake come between us now." Kat explained.

"Is this just you, or are they all…" Adam said quietly.

"No, after that thing happened to Tommy…" Kat started to explain before he butted in.

"TOMMY? Is he okay?" he asked with urgency.

"Yeah, don't worry, he's fine!" Kat answered, then continued. "As I was saying. After the thing with Tommy, we were all talking about it and we know you're not to blame for it. Sure, what you did was wrong, we know that and I bet you know it too."

"You can count on that!" Adam agreed.

"But we know you made the right decision in the end, and you're still our friend." Kat said, Adam smiled as he heard it, maybe now he could start forgiving himself. "Now why don't you come along to the rec. room, they're all waiting for you."

Adam agreed and the two of them headed down the their latest hangout.

As they walked in, everyone said hi. They acted like they didn't even remember what he'd done. He sat down with them all and they started talking. It was just like before it all happened. Adam was so happy he could have cried.

"Hey Adam. I know you probably don't want to talk about this, but why did you tell us Tommy, Corcus and Tideus were dead?" Sean called out over the racket, which soon died down as they all heard the question.

"Well," he said, uncomfortable with all the Rangers watching him. Even the three Aquitians were there for almost the first time. "It was for quite simple reason. they would have given his plan away. Tommy would have been able to tell the other Tommy was faking, just because he knows him so well. The Aquitians communicate psychically. Delphine would have been able to see through the masquerade in seconds if the others had come back. You know, most of them didn't know what they were doing here. They really thought they had come back, they didn't know it was a part of his plan!" Adam explained, revealing the truth behind the second betrayal.

"What, so the things they said to us when we brought them back were true? They really were glad to be back?" Trini asked.

"Yeah!" Adam said quietly. They all had to think about that for a moment. They'd had their friends back, but they hadn't trusted them enough to leave them alone in HQ. That was how Armageddon had planned it, and they had followed it exactly to the letter.

They returned to normal conversation and soon the whole thing was forgotten.

———- X ———-

Ultima lay on his bed in his quarters. Normally he would hate the dark, simple room, but not now. Now he had something in there that radiated warmth and beauty to all around. Something that made him feel like he had not for quite a long time – happy! Her name was Divatox and she was his lover. She lay there with him, her head resting gently on his chest, mask removed, and an arm draped carefully over his body and holding onto his shoulder.

He lay there, watching her sleep. With the mask on, she was a true vision of beauty, but without it, she was truly fantastic. A stunning vision of total perfection. He could hardly believe he was with her. He was young himself. Unlike most the villains throughout the Universe who looked to be in their early life, he actually was. Most people had thought he was much older than he appeared, maybe due to his incredible knowledge and power. That was not true. His powers came from within himself, and his knowledge from his training by the Zordlings, and then Ultima (thought to be an older version of himself).

But he was young, not much older than the Rangers themselves and he had not much experience with the opposite sex. Of course there had been some. He had been the leader of a world, a destroyer of worlds, so he undoubtedly needed some form of emotional outlet. His was sex, but Divatox was about more than just sex. This was… dare he say it…. was it even possible… love!

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. She knew he had been watching her sleep, but she liked it. As she felt his strong arm around her body, and her head on the rising and sinking chest, she never wanted to move. From the way he held her tighter and started to stroke a hand through her hair, she could tell the feeling was mutual.

Then why did he suddenly sit up, not caring that he pushed her away into a very uncomfortable position. He stared straight ahead, a completely blank look on his face.

Divatox sat up and looked at him. "Ultima, ULTIMA!" she said, shaking him the second time, but he didn't respond. She rushed round in front of him and looked into his eyes, nothing. "What the hell's going on?" she asked herself.

Ultima found himself pulled completely into his own psyche. His spirit form floated freely, released from the restrictions of a corporeal body. He looked to try and get his bearings. He was doubtlessly on the Astral Plane, a level of existence accessible to only the highest order of psychics. himself being one of them, he had been there many times before, but never unintentionally. He knew it wasn't accidental on his own part, so someone had drawn him there. who could do that though? He was one of the most powerful psychics known to exist. Only the Morphing masters themselves were more powerful, them and….

He realized who at the same time as he saw him. "ARMAGEDDON!" he called out, seeing the being who now used that name sitting in a throne ahead of him. "Why have you brought me here?"

"Quite simply, for privacy!" Armageddon said. "I wanted to talk to you alone. I have an offer for you."

"If it's anything like the last offer you made to us, you know where you can stick it!" Ultima replied.

"Oh dear. Not only are you allying yourselves with the Power Rangers, but you're even loyal to them!" Armageddon sneered.

"I am loyal to myself! At the moment, you are the common enemy, a threat to our very existence. We know me must stop you, and you know we will succeed!" Ultima assured him.

"At least listen to my offer!" Armageddon suggested.

"Why not, I could do with a good laugh!" Ultima said lightly.

"Well it's not so much an offer, as a condition. Help me destroy the Shinobi and Samurai Rangers and I will allow you to live. Refuse me and I will destroy you with them. I may even destroy you right here!"

"Oh dear!" Ultima said, mocking Armageddon's own words. "What a pathetic and amateurish threat. Now apart from the fact I would never ally myself with one who threatens the very Universe, why should I. I am more powerful than you! I don't believe you could destroy me here. I don't even think you have half the Power we think you do. If you were that powerful, you would have destroyed every one of us within seconds!"

"You must be joking!" Armageddon replied, denying the allegations.

"Yes! Now I see. I see right through you 'Armageddon'! You're not even who we think you are!" Ultima fired a psychic bolt of energy that struck Armageddon and engulfed him. When it disappeared, the armor was gone. In his place, sat Justin.

"You are just a child. You have no power and I can defeat you!" Ultima swore.

"No!" Justin screamed. "I am powerful. And I have power enough to end this right here!" He stood up and changed back into Armageddon. He fired an energy bolt at Ultima.

It jolted him back to reality. He blinked his eyes and his body relaxed. He fell back, but Divatox caught him.

"Are you alright What the hell happened?" she asked him.

He looked round at her and said, "We have to talk to the others!"

———- X ———-

"So Justin's still inside Armageddon?" Tommy asked desperately.

"Yes, but I'm not sure if he can be rescued. Armageddon's power may not be as strong as we first thought, but he is still dangerous." Ultima said. He had gathered everyone together to tell them what had happened on the Astral Plane.

"Sounds to me like he's getting desperate!" Kane commented.

"Yes. I expect he knows the cause of his Tommy's problem, too. He knows with one less Dark Ranger, our advantage would be greater." Zordon commented.

"So I guess we can expect an attack at any moment then!" Kat said expectantly.

A voice came in reply from the view screen. "Not an attack, so much as a challenge!" They swung round to see Armageddon on the viewer.

"What do you want, Justin?" Tommy asked, seeing if he would respond to the name.

"Sorry, did you say Justin? That's a good one, it's like me calling you, Green Ranger – they're both ancient history. Anyway, enough of that. I'm here to issue you a challenge!" Armageddon replied.

"Let's hear it then!" Kane commented.

"Keep out of this, Samurai. This challenge is to the Shinobi's. I'm challenging them to a battle against my Dark Rangers. No Zords, no interference, just a Ranger versus Ranger fair fight!" Armageddon issued.

"You, a fair fight, I don't think so!" Cassie sneered.

"We accept!" Tommy said abruptly, much to the suprise of everyone but Armageddon.

"What?" most of them exclaimed.

"Very good. We'll arrange a place and time later!" Armageddon said, vanishing from the screen.

"What the hell are you doing? He'll never give you a fair fight!" Kane said to Tommy, questioning his judgment for the first time since they met.

"You know we have to end this soon. I'm running out of time and this is a perfect chance. Anyway, there's only nine of them and ten of us!" Tommy explained his decision.

"Zordon?" Kane asked, hoping the Morphing Master would provide some better argument for talking him out of it.

"I'm afraid Tommy is right." Zordon simply said.

"Well if you're going to do this, I have some things that may help!" Mondo said.

———- X ———-

Later that day, the Shinobi Rangers and the Samurai Rangers all teleported onto a large grassy plain. There were rocky outcrops all over the place. Perfect hiding places for ambushers, Tommy thought. They looked round for a minute, but they were the first to arrive. Although the Shinobi Rangers had been told to come alone, Kane had insisted they let the Samurai's come with them. If Armageddon didn't keep it to a fair fight, they wanted to be there as back-up.

"Well we're here, what now?" Rocky asked.

"I suppose we should morph!" Tommy said.

"LET'S SAMURIZE!" the Samurai Rangers called out.

"SAMURAI BLACK!"

"SAMURAI WHITE!"

"SAMURAI PINK!"

"SAMURAI YELLOW!"

"SAMURAI BLUE!"

"SAMURAI PURPLE!"

"SAMURAI GREEN!"

"SAMURAI RED!"

"SAMURAI SILVER!"

"SAMURAI GOLD!"

"SHINOBI RANGER POWER!" the Shinobi Rangers shouted in unison.

"SHINOBI THUNDER!"

"SHINOBI ICE!"

"SHINOBI WIND!"

"SHINOBI SUN!"

"SHINOBI WATER!"

"SHINOBI LIGHTNING!"

"SHINOBI EARTH!"

"SHINOBI FIRE!"

"SHINOBI STAR!"

"SHINOBI DESTRUCTION!"

They transformed into the Power rangers and did all they could for now – wait!

"Man, where are they?" Billy said impatiently.

"Maybe it was some kind of trick to get us away from HQ or something!" Chad suggested.

"I doubt it, they don't even know where it is!" Tommy replied. "We just have to be patient. They'll be here!"

———- X ———-

"Shouldn't we be going?" the Black Dark Ranger asked his master on behalf of the other nine Dark Rangers.

"What's the hurry?" Armageddon said calmly.

"Well they might leave. We could lose out chance to beat them!" Tommy replied.

"They're not going anywhere! They're desperate to finish this soon, but I'm not particularly bothered. We will have this fight, but it will be completely on my terms, with my conditions!" Armageddon said confidently.

Striker walked into the room, looking slightly nervous! He walked up to Armageddon, bowed and said, "Sir, we've scanned the battle site. The Shinobi Rangers are there, but…"

"But what?" Armageddon insisted.

"But so are the Samurai Rangers!" Striker finished.

"WHAT!" Armageddon screamed out. "They're meant to go alone. This won't work with them there! We have to rethink our plan!"

"Maybe not!" Tommy said, cautiously, knowing that annoying Armageddon when he was in a bad temper could be very bad for your health.

"What was that?" Armageddon asked sharply.

"Well we may be able to keep to the plan!" Tommy said. "We've already been keeping them waiting for a while. If I was in Tommy's shoes and we hadn't shown up, I'd guess there was a proper reason for it, maybe something like the fact the Samurai's are there. When we don't turn up, he'll send them away. That's when we strike!"

"Hmm, brains and brawn. I am very impressed Tommy." Armageddon said pleased.

Tommy was relieved to finally be in his good books, he felt a lot safer that way.

"So we wait. as soon as the Samurai's are gone, we strike!" Armageddon said vindictively.

———- X ———-

The Shinobi and Samurai Rangers were still stood around waiting. It had been nearly ninety minutes now.

"Come on Tommy. Give it up, they're not coming!" Kane said to the veteran Ranger.

"No. They will come, there's just something wrong. You guys go. We'll wait here!" Tommy said.

"Come on guys, time to go!" Kane called out to his Samurai companions.

They gathered together and teleported away.

Less than ten seconds after they had left, the sky clouded over and a column of black fire flew from the sky. Armageddon appeared, after him came the Dark Rangers. The Shinobi's thought that would be it, but then more appeared – Rita, Zedd, Gasket, Archerina, Goldar, Mecha-Zen, Striker, Photon and Crush. As far as the Rangers knew, this was the whole of Armageddon's army, and they were all there, ready to fight!

Tommy reacted with lightning speed, speaking into his communicator. "Guys, come back, we were right!" But he was too late, the signal never got through the force barrier that appeared over the whole area. It glowed an eerie purple, blocking any signals, and unfortunately for the Rangers, and teleports, too.

"I thought this was meant to be a fair fight!" Tommy called out.

Armageddon looked round at the second group, waiting behind the Dark Rangers. "Oh them. No, they're just plan B. You will have a fair fight!" he said.

"Then what's with the force field?" Billy asked.

"Don't worry, that's just to stop your Samurai friends from interfering. I know what you Rangers can be like!" Armageddon said, implying the Rangers would allow the Samurai's to interfere.

"Hey, who's that?" Rocky asked, noticing the Green Dark Ranger. "Adam's still back in HQ."

"Oh yes My new Green Ranger." Armageddon said, walking over to the newest member of the team. "I believe it's someone you know!"

The Green Ranger removed their helmet, and it revealed a very familiar face to some of the Shinobi Rangers!

"AISHA!" they exclaimed together.

"Hi Rangers!" Aisha commented.

"Yes, well I had to find an ex-Ranger to be one of my Dark Rangers, and as you didn't seem to be using her, I thought I would." Armageddon said.

"Aisha, why?" Kat asked. They had been really good friends before she stayed in Africa.

"At least Armageddon wants me!" she said sharply. "Zordon brought you all here and gave you back your powers. What about me?"

"There were no more powers to give you. We don't know why he didn't bring you here!" Kat replied.

"It doesn't matter. I have Power now and I'm going to use it to destroy you all. I can't believe you ever had the nerve to call yourselves friends!" she said, putting her helmet back on.

"But Aisha…" Kat pleaded.

"Don't bother Kat. It won't do any good. There's only one thing we can do now!" Tommy stated.

"Yeah, defeat the traitorous scum!" Cassie called out. She sounded really mean, she had been really hurt by her ex-friends and she was going to use that very anger to stop them. They were all with her.

For the first time, the Shinobi Rangers were first to attack. They charged at the Dark Rangers, drawing their Shinobi Blades. they burst into a frenzy of sword swipes, body punches and roundhouse kicks. The Dark Rangers were caught off guard and needed to fall back for a moment before they could retaliate. The Shinobi Rangers had decided to take on the Dark Ranger of their own color. That meant Tommy would not have to face his clone. That was bad news for Billy, the Black samurai who had to face the evil version of his leader.

Billy wasn't letting up on the Black Dark Ranger for a moment. He knew as soon as he did that, Tommy would take advantage of it. Letting Tommy control the pace of the battle would spell victory for him. The Blade was doing no good against the armor of the Dark ranger, so Billy sheathed it and continued his barrage of assault. A left to the chest, right to the stomach, left to head and another right to the stomach. He immediately followed through with a kick from the left foot to Tommy's side, a right foot into the stomach, knocking him away, then he finished with a jumping roundhouse kick to the head. Tommy stumbled to the floor. He had exactly the same memories as the other Tommy up to the moment of his creation, so he remembered all the times he had trained with Billy back in the Youth Center. he had certainly changed a lot from the weak, pathetic nerd he had been back then. Now he was as almost as formidable a warrior as Tommy.

Kat flew through the air, her foot heading straight for Kim's chest. After the beating she had already taken at the hands of the Pink Shinobi Ranger, the hit would probably knock her down and keep her down. She stood to the side just in time, Kat passed harmlessly at her side. as she was in the air next to Kim, the Dark Ranger grabbed her, spun her round and slammed her down into the ground. Kat looked up at her enemy, dazed. She stood over her, holding her own Shinobi Blade, preparing to slice it straight into her neck.

"Oh no you don't!" Kat said. Normally, she was not such a vicious fighter, but all the anger, the pain, everything she had felt about the betrayal came to the surface and took over. She took hold of Kim's ankles and pulled. The Dark Ranger fell to the ground as Kat stood up, still keeping her grip on Kim's ankles. She started to move round, Kim floating into the air as the centrifugal force of Kat's circular movement pulled her outwards. Kat got faster and faster until she reached her top speed. Kim was expecting her to let go and let her fly to the ground, but she wasn't to be that lucky. Kat stopped suddenly, Kim's momentum keeping her moving round. Kat let her go another half turn until she was holding the Dark Ranger's ankles above her head, her body out behind her, the momentum still keeping her in motion. In an incredibly powerful move, Kat swung Kim over her head and down onto the ground. The Pink Dark Ranger slammed onto the ground extraordinarily hard, the force of her own movement added to by Kat's strength. As she impacted, her armor cracked and her helmet completely shattered away, it was that hard.

"You are not deserving to wear that color!" Cestro said sharply to his ex colleague, Tideus, the Blue Dark Ranger.

"You are weak, pathetic and I will destroy you!" Tideus said.

"Hydro-Hog said that and we defeated him, the Hydro-Contaminators said that and we defeated them, now you say it. You will defeated!" Cestro answered.

"We'll see!" Tideus answered. He ran at Cestro and punched him in the chest. Cestro span round onto the floor, but responded immediately with a leg sweep before he had even got back to his feet. Tideus tried to do the same to Cestro as he started to get up, but the Shinobi Ranger back flipped away. He pulled out his Shinobi Blade and ran back the distance he had jumped, striking the sword across the Dark Rangers' abdomen. Another two quick slashes to the body from Cestro's sword and Tideus was down. While he was down, Cestro gave him a very uncharacteristic kick to the chest, not his usual sort of thing, but it hurt Tideus.

Armageddon looked round and he could clearly see hid Dark Rangers weren't exactly winning. He had anticipated that, it was why he had brought the others and put up the force field.

"Forget this!" Armageddon snapped, seeing the Red Dark Ranger land at his feet after a strong hit from the Red Shinobi. "Time for Plan B!"

The others had been waiting for the command and rushed in to help the Dark Rangers. They all had new equipment. Rita's staff had been fixed, Zedd's had been upgraded, Gasket's sword and Archerina's bow were both much bigger and mean-looking. Goldar's sword looked much the same, but he also held a second sword, similar in design to his first. Mecha-Zen's built-in weaponry had been improved and fully charged. Striker carried some powerful looking laser weapons and Photon had been equipped with an additional power pack. His electricity controlling powers could not really be altered, but the strength of the electricity could be increased. Crush had no weapons and looked no different, but Armageddon had given her more Power than Ultima ever had.

"Is this what you call a fair fight?" Tommy called out to Armageddon, who hadn't yet got involved in the fight, himself.

"No Tommy. This is what I call winning!" Armageddon replied.

The new fighters split up and joined the Dark Rangers against the Shinobi each of them was facing. Photon had joined Jason to fight Tommy. The two Rangers were caught up in close combat when Photon arrived. He held his hand up into the air and lightning struck it. He absorbed the power and pointed his hand toward Tommy. The Lightning bolt flew from his finger tips and struck the Red Shinobi. The resulting explosion pushed Jason away, but didn't hurt him – Tommy wasn't quite so lucky. The blast threw him back to the ground, a chance Jason had been waiting for. He jumped over to the Shinobi Ranger and knelt down to him. He put his hands around Tommy's neck and started to choke him. Photon fired another shot at Tommy. It took a lot of skill to make sure the energy hit only the Red Shinobi, and not Jason, but he did it. He maintained the flow of energy, electrocuting Tommy whilst he was being throttled.

Rocky was finding it hard to fight the Green Dark Ranger. He had tried talking to her and he knew she wasn't really herself, but she had been one of his best friends for almost as long as Adam had – they had grown up together, moved to Angel Grove together, then become Rangers together. But he knew he had to fight her, it was more like he had to defend himself from her, she was fighting with a vengeance. He was only just handling her, but when Archerina joined her, the tables soon turned.

A few well placed shots from Archerina's new bow and Rocky was down. She continued firing and Aisha joined in with her Plasma cannon. The constant volley of fire kept Rocky incapacitated. For now there was nothing he could do.

Trini was an honorable fighter, she would always fight fair, be as generous and forgiving as she could, but that didn't matter now. She only had honor for honorable people, which in her opinion, Tanya definitely was not! She was being quite ferocious. A quick flurry of kicks and punches got the Yellow Dark Ranger down to the ground. Once she was down, Trini jumped onto her and hacked at her neck with the Shinobi Blade. It had already bee established that their necks were the weakest part of the armor, and Trini was making the most of that. She had already cut through to the skin on both sides, and now she was trying on the front of the Dark Ranger's neck.

Just as she cut through the final part of the armor and was about to strike, a shot hit her. It sent her spinning a few feet away, allowing Tanya to get back to her feet. Blood trickled down her shoulders from the cuts in her neck, the blood showing up strongly on the black armor. As Trini got back to her feet, she saw the Yellow Dark Ranger standing side-by-side with Rita Repulsa. Adrenaline rushed through Trini's body as fury filled her mind. It was bad enough facing a traitorous Ranger, but having her fight alongside Rita, the first villain Trini had faced as a Ranger, made it even worse. She pulled out her Plasma rifle and opened fire on t he two females.

Not a single shot struck them, instead, a green shimmering wall blocked their path. Some kind of force field projected from the crystal atop Rita's staff. Trini set the rifle to full power and built up the energy as she held back the trigger. As the weapon reached its maximum possible strength, the Yellow Shinobi released the trigger. The monumental blast of energy struck the force field, which shook violently for a moment, then shattered.

Seeing her chance, Trini opened fire again with the weaker shots, they were much quicker than the powerful shots. Rita jumped out of the way and the plasma bolts struck the tough armor of the Dark Ranger. They had little effect. Before the Shinobi could release another round of shots, Rita fired an energy blast at her. She stumbled backwards as the energy wrapped around her, tying her arms down to her sides. Rita maintained the flow of energy and Trini remained trapped. Tanya made the most of it, releasing a few shots from her own plasma weapon.

Tommy kicked Jason away into Photon. The beam of electricity started flowing into Jason as the two stumbled to the floor. As the power passed from Jason, back into Photon, his energy pack fused and exploded.

Tommy stood up and looked round at the others. "Everyone, regroup!" he called out to them. One by one they started to escape their assailants and joined Tommy. The Dark Rangers took the opportunity as well, they gathered together, as did Rita and Zedd's group.

"Is it time?" Delphine asked the Red Shinobi.

"Yeah!" Tommy replied. They had all been waiting for his command. Before they went into battle, Mondo had provided them with the upgrades. They couldn't wait to try them out. Their powers were still new, but getting more power always seemed to be somewhat of a thrill to them.

"SHINOBI RANGERS, BATTLE MODE!" they called in unison. Their armor started to change, Morphing into much stronger, more impressive looking armor than their standard armor. The armor changed from white with areas of their color, to just their own color. In their left hands, shields appeared. Each one the same color as their armor and emblazoned with the symbol of their element. In their other hands, the regular Shinobi Blades were replaced with long swords, each one's hilt ornately carved with their symbol and other decoration.

Armageddon and his warriors all stared in amazement, they had never seen the likes of that before. They just hoped they weren't as powerful as they looked.

The Black Ranger was actually scared for a moment. He knew that whenever Rangers did something like that, it usually meant big trouble for their enemies. Despite that, he shouted over to them, ignoring the bad feeling inside him. "Well don't you look pretty. Nice of you to get dressed up for your own funerals!"

His original didn't even reply, maybe he felt he didn't need to dignify it with a response. He commanded the next move. "Use your shields!" he called out.

"Ooh, scary! What are you gonna do? Throw them at us!" Zedd mocked.

"Not quite!" Billy replied, smiling wryly inside his armored helmet.

"LIGHTNING!" Cassie called out. A bolt of purple lightning shot from her shield and struck the group of Dark Rangers. It struck Carlos, Corcus, Aisha and Kim. They flew backwards as the lightning caused explosions all around them.

"Hey Rocky!" Kat called out. He instinctively knew what she had in mind.

"WIND!" Kat called out. An energy beam shot from her shield and formed a tornado in front of them.

"EARTH!" Rocky shouted, pointing his shield at the ground. Energy shot from his shield into the ground. There was a sudden eruption beneath the tornado, throwing rocks and dirt up into it. The strong swirling wind sucked them up and flew into the remaining Dark Rangers. Some of them were struck with the flying debris, others were just caught in the wind, but they all ended up thrown to the floor with the first four.

"FIRE!" Trey commanded.

"ICE!" Delphine ordered.

Together, their shields released their power. A flume of golden fire shot from Trey's shield into Rita and Zedd's group. Delphine's fired a shower of ice shards, spearing into the collection of monsters and machines.

Next, Tommy turned to Armageddon himself. The Red Shinobi was grinning with the thought of what he was about to do, and Armageddon could tell.

"DESTRUCTION!" Tommy commanded. He knew he controlled the most dangerous power. If used incorrectly, it could threaten himself, the other Rangers, and indeed, the entire world.

A beam of ruby red energy appeared from Tommy's shield. It shot towards Armageddon and engulfed him. He let out a sound of pain, for the first time that anyone could remember.

"I'm getting out of here!" Armageddon managed to say as the destruction beam continued to flow into him.

"We're with you!" Gasket called out. The nine monsters teleported away.

"What about us?" Dark Tommy asked, avoiding a shot from the Shinobi's.

"You're staying here. Either find a way to finish them, or don't bother coming back. I've already had enough of your failure!" Armageddon said, before he vanished, too. the red beam from Tommy fired off into the distance with no target, so he stopped firing.

"What's wrong?" Tommy asked his clone. "Been deserted?"

"No, he just trusts us to finish you off!" Tommy's clone replied.

"Okay guys. Stop firing!" Tommy said. The Shinobi's stopped firing from their shields and stood facing the Dark Rangers.

Suddenly, both Tommy's were engulfed in a similar phenomenon as they had been that morning. They all knew what it was, and they knew they didn't have long.

It didn't last as long that time, after a few moments, the twisting of space time stopped and all returned to normal.

"RANGERS, ATTACK!" both Tommy's called out. The two teams of Rangers charged into each other, swords striking and fists flying. There were Rangers flying everywhere as they all got involved in the fray. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was long enough for both teams to realize the same thing, neither of them were inflicting any damage upon their enemies. They separated again and stood back in two groups.

"DARK BLAST!" the Black Dark Ranger shouted. The ten Dark Rangers fired energy bolts at the Shinobi's, but they had no effect again. The Shinobi's raised their shields and blocked every shot.

"Well that hardly worked!" Kim said sarcastically to the Dark leader.

"Okay, let's try this, Rangers!" Dark Tommy said. "ARMAGEDDON BLAST!"

"Why don't I like the sound of that!" Rocky said quietly to Kat.

The Dark Rangers to either side of Tommy reached out and put their hands onto his shoulders, they carried on along the line until all ten were connected. The two Rangers at the end started to glow for a second, then the energy flowed through their arms into the next Rangers. They began to glow even brighter and the energy moved again. It carried on from either end until the two Rangers to either side of Tommy passed on the energy to him. As the glow of the two charges of energy was increased by his own. He could hardly even be seen through it.

He raised his arms above his head, then thrust them forward together. The energy shot through them into the collection of Shinobi Rangers. It struck them all with incredible power. They flew all over the place as the explosion struck them and destroyed the ground beneath them. Some of them landed in the crater created by the blast, the rest landing randomly around it.

The Shinobi's had been hit quite hard, but they weren't going to let that stop them. They got back to their feet, and those in the crater slowly clambered out. The stood back together facing their assailants.

"Tommy, what are we going to do? That was our best shot!" Jason commented quietly to the Dark leader.

"Let's get out of here!" Tommy answered.

They tried to teleport, but nothing happened.

"The force field is blocking our teleportation, too!" Corcus said to them all.

"Will with the option of retreat gone, you have only one left!" Tommy called out to his Dark counterpart.

"Yeah, what's that?" Dark Tommy asked.

"You get destroyed!" Tommy said. "Let's do it!"

The Shinobi Rangers formed a circle. They held their swords in the middle so the ten tips were touching. They all started to glow as unknown energy built within them. A ball of energy started to form in the middle, just touching where the swords met. Next, the shields fired their energy into it. The ten different colored energy beams added to the power and it got larger. They stood for a moment, letting the power grow, and grow, and grow.

"I'm sorry, Dark Rangers, but this is the end for you! I wish it didn't have to be like this, but it's the only choice we have!" Tommy said to his ex-friends. "FIRE!"

The energy expanded into the sky. It arced into the sky and down onto the assembly of Dark Rangers, the different colored streams of energy forming a fantastic rainbow. The energy struck the Dark Rangers and engulfed them. As the energy attacked them, their armor started to dissolve away. Within a few moments, the Dark Ranger uniforms were completely gone. A few seconds later, the energy stopped flowing and the Dark Rangers collapsed to the ground. The force field disappeared.

The Shinobi Rangers started to run over to them, but had to stop suddenly. They stumbled for a moment, then their armor disappeared. They didn't even think about why it had happened, they just continued over to their friends, because no matter what happened, they were still their friends!

The spread out and each checked on one.

"He's dead!" Cestro said, looking at the body of Tideus.

"Jason too!" Billy said, tears forming in his eyes.

They went through, checking. Tideus, Jason, Aisha, Carlos, Corcus and Zack were all dead already. The others didn't look too good.

Adam and the Samurai Rangers teleported in. Adam immediately ran to Tanya's side. The Samurai's went to check on the others.

Tommy was having real problems. His own clone and his first love lay there, dying.

"Guys, what can I do?" Tommy asked desperately.

"Nothing, Tommy. You did what you had to do. You know I would have done exactly the same thing in your position!" Tommy's clone said weakly.

"Come on, we can help you!" Tommy said, pleading with them to try.

"No!" Kim said. "This is our fate And we deserve it for what we did!"

"I can't just let you die. you both know me too well!" Tommy said, tears rolling down his face.

"Yeah, we do… we do know you too well!" his clone struggled to say. "That's why we're asking, begging, that you do nothing for us. we know it's hard, but please…"

Tommy tried to say something but nothing came out.

"Fighting for him was living hell. We didn't want to, we couldn't help it…" Kim winced and let out a quiet moan of pain. "But this is the only way we can be free of it!"

Tommy knelt there with them, waiting for the inevitable.

Ashley was barely conscious, in fact she was barely alive. Cassie was sat down at her side, crying desperately as her last turbo ally lay there, dying.

Ashley only had enough life left in her to make one comment. "We're sorry… we hurt you. We never meant to and you'll… always be with us in memory. We love you, Pink Turbo Ranger!"

"NOOOO!" Cassie screamed out as the life drained from her friend's body.

Tanya was in the best condition of the lot.

"Tanya, are you alright?" Adam asked desperately.

"Yeah. I can already feel his power healing me!" Tanya said, a slight smile on her face as she lay there looking into the eyes of her love.

"You're gonna be okay, then!" he said, relieved.

"No, Adam. If I get better, I'll be back in his control, I can't let that happen!" Tanya said.

"We won't. we'll keep you safe!" Adam said.

"You can't. His darkness is within me, and it's growing! He'll control me before I can even think of fighting him! You had the strength to oppose him, I didn't!" Tanya cried, knowing what was going to happen, even if Adam didn't yet.

"No, we'll fight it. I can help you!" Adam said, tearfully.

"It's too late Adam. Please, I don't want to serve him again. Don't make me!" Tanya begged.

"What can I do?" Adam asked.

"Kill me!" she cried out to him.

"I can't!" Adam replied.

"If you love me, you'll do it!" she ordered. "The darkness has me. If I'm alive, I'll never be free of it. Please Adam. I need you!"

"But I…" he stuttered, hardly able to see through the tears.

"You have to. Adam, I love you and I never want to leave you, but this has to happen it's the only way!" Tanya instructed calmly, considering.

Adam leant down and embraced her tightly. They held there for a few minutes.

"Let go, Adam!" she eventually said.

He knew she didn't just mean end the embrace. She meant for hi to let go of her and let her die. it was what she wanted and he knew she was right about it.

Adam stood up and turned to one of the Samurai's. They knew what he wanted and handed him a laser weapon. he turned to look down at Tanya and almost couldn't do it.

"I love, Adam. I always have and I always will!" Tanya said – her final words.

"I love you too!" Adam said, and he fired. the shot killed her instantly and he just broke down, his mind and emotions in incredible turmoil.

"It's time!" Tommy's clone said.

"I can't…" Tommy started.

"You can, and you have to!" Kim said gently. "I loved you once, I guess I still do. Remember that!" Kim said. Her eyes slowly closed and her body went limp.

Both Tommy's weren't even trying to hold back the tears. Tommy looked down at the dying clone, knowing he only had seconds left.

"You always were the stronger one, I let you down!" the clone said.

"You didn't let me down, and I was never stronger than you. we're are one in the same!" Tommy said.

"And I will live on in you!" the clone said. he reached out and Tommy took his hand. He waited a moment and his duplicate died. he kept hold for a minute before putting the hand back to his side.

"Good bye my friends. We're truly sorry it had to end like this. Just know we will always remember you all, we will always love you all, and we will make Armageddon pay for this!" Tommy said quietly to his deceased allies.

The Samurai's slowly gathered the others together. Sara and Michelle hardly knew the Rangers who had just died, but they were still crying. The rest of them were having trouble holding back tears. They could all hardly bare to look at the dead Rangers. Adam wouldn't even respond to anyone, he just sat holding Tanya and crying desperately. As soon as he had released the shot, he wished he hadn't. He knew he had to do it, and that it was what she wanted, but that didn't make it any easier.

"Zordon. Bring us home!" Kane said quietly into his communicator.

The two teams of Rangers, Adam and all the deceased teleported away.

———- X ———-

The Rangers took a week before they could even begin to talk about what had happened. They didn't know what was worse, the fact their friends were dead, or the fact it had been them who killed them. The all had their own feelings to contend with, and none of them were taking it at all well. Even the Aquitians, not the most emotional people at the best of times, were greatly upset. No Aquitian Ranger had ever died. Since the discovery of the Eternal Falls, not many Aquitians had died at all. The death of Tideus and Corcus would be remembered as a most tragic day in their worlds history (or future as the case may be!)

Trey was having some trouble with it all, too. He had not had many friends among the Rangers, he had always fought alone, but the Zeo Rangers were quite important to him.Tanya had been one of the few people he could have called a friend. The same with the Aquitians. He had helped them as many times as they had helped him, and they were close to him.

Zordon himself was also upset. He'd always had some teams of Rangers who lost to the Dark Forces, but the Rangers of Earth had always been the crown jewel of his collection. They had lost their fair share of battles, but they always bounced back, stronger and more determined than before. But none of them would be coming back now. Ten of his Rangers were dead, it was a devastating blow to him.

Alpha Five had almost short-circuited. He had been a close friend to most of them, and he was a very emotional little creature. Zack had been one of his favorites – the social skills, the modern language, the dancing! Zack had taught him them all. Then there was Kim, her grace, her beauty. Jason, strong, brave, leader. Although he would never admit it, the original team from their generation had always been his favorites. He had been closer to them than any other.

About ten days after the incident, Zordon gathered the all Rangers together. They had not talked about the whole thing together, but now it was time. They'd had a memorial service for the ten deceased friends, but now there were important things to talk about.

"It's time for you to go home!" Zordon said. They had all waited the many weeks to hear those words, but now they had so little meaning. They didn't want to go home yet, there were still battles to fight.

"But what about Armageddon?" Tommy asked.

"The Samurai Rangers will have to face them alone." Zordon said.

"What about our powers, do we keep them?" Kat asked.

"Your powers are gone!" Zordon said.

"What? But how?" Tommy called out. None of them had needed to use their powers in the last ten days, Armageddon had not attacked at all.

"As we told you when you received them, they were linked to the Dark Rangers. Your link was a lot like TJ's link to Cortez." Zordon said.

"So when they lost their powers, we lost ours!" Billy concluded.

"Then why didn't we die. If they died, shouldn't we have?" Rocky asked.

"That is because of Adam!" Zordon said. They all looked round at him and he looked up at Zordon.

"What?" he asked.

"Adam is still a Dark Ranger. He lost his powers when he stayed with us. If he had kept them, you would still have yours." Zordon explained.

Billy assumed the end of the explanation and said, "So because he didn't die, we didn't. It only needed one Dark Ranger alive to keep us alive!"

"Indeed!" Zordon complied.

"Then I guess it really is time to go home!" Tommy said finally.

"Hold on!" Trini said. She held out her hand and the Yellow Shinobi Gem appeared. "How come I still have this if the Power is gone?"

"Yeah, and the Zords are still in the holding bay!" Lee said.

"The Gems still exist, but they can not power a Ranger. They are used to gain access to the Shinobi Zords." Zordon explained. "The Zords were created manually. They were not a part of the Power, so they still exist."

"Well if we're going then, we don't need these!" Tommy said, bringing out his own Gem. He spoke to the Samurai's. "You should have these. The Shinobi Zords are yours. Use them well, and remember us when you do!"

The Shinobi Rangers handed over their Shinobi Gems to the Samurai Rangers. Each one giving their Gem to the Samurai the same color as the Gem. They took them and held them up, looking into them. they could almost feel the Power they must have given the Rangers, although it was gone.

"What about out old Zords?" Billy asked.

"You will not need them in your time." Zordon said. "There is no longer anyone to threaten Earth. They will be of more use here to the Samurai Rangers."

Tommy walked over to Kane. "I guess this is good bye!" he said to the Samurai leader. Then he lowered his voice, "And don't worry, you're a good leader!"

"I think I speak for us all when I say thank you. You have helped us and our world more than you can imagine. We're very sorry for