Disclaimer: Power Rangers etc. belong to Saban. I haven't asked permission to use them so I'm probably gonna be sued. Thanks Haim!

Author note: Ranger HQ, Ultima, Kraegor and Crush, the UniRanger concept, the Samurai Rangers, their Zords and their weapons are all my own design. I apologise for any likenesses that may occur to anyone else's stories, but I promise they are all purely accidental. If for some bizarre reason, anyone wishes to use any of my characters or ideas, please contact me first. I won't refuse permission (not that I can actually stop anyone anyway) but new ideas for my plots are always appreciated. Thank You and May the Power Protect Us (from Ourselves!)

Time Scale: This part takes place during the week after 'Part Six – Sacrifices!' As usual, I'd advise reading the other bits, especially part six, something very important (and sad) happened!

The Enemy Within
By Matt

Cortez had been one of Ultima's best warriors, and as such he retained a constant psychic link with him. The moment the link had been forged between TJ and Cortez, Ultima knew of it. He also knew that Cortez had died and TJ with him. He had regarded this as a great victory. It was not much when he considered how many Rangers he himself had killed, but nobody had ever managed to kill a Ranger of Earth. The Human Spirit was all too strong and seemed able to survive anything.

Ultima's victory celebration did not last long, for if Ultima learned anything from the events of that day it was that making a Ranger mad, was dangerous. But enraging and army of Power Rangers was tantamount to suicide.

Rangers had never really been the type to let their anger control their motives, but losing one of their own created a fury within them all that could not be suppressed. They went on a rampage across the world, destroying any bases they came across, whether they were a threat or not. It all had many meanings for Ultima. First was to let him know that he would pay for the death of TJ, but also, it was to let him know that this was their world, and they would take it back.

The day after TJ's death, they attacked Mondo's main fortress in London. There had been no resistance capable of stopping them. They hit the base so hard that Mondo never even knew what was happening. The Samurai's were rescued and instead of leaving with their mission complete, they ransacked the fortress before completely obliterating it with their Zords. All that now remained of the once proud Machine Fortress was a smoking pile of debris. Mondo had only just managed to escape, his wife and son on the other hand were another story, both had been destroyed. Matt, the White Samurai, and Sara, Samurai Purple had been freed from the fortress.

The next day, the Rangers started their assaults on the prison camps across the country. The prison camps were where the humans were kept, ready to be changed into Drones at Ultima's command. Within twelve hours, the various groups of Rangers managed to destroy twenty-seven of them. They had freed approximately eighty thousand humans and destroyed a hell of a lot of Drones. They weren't going to let any more innocent lives be destroyed. It was in the prisoner camps that the other Rangers started to notice a change in Justin. He didn't seem to care about rescuing the people, he just went for all of Ultima's forces and refused to leave until every last one had died. They all shared his anger and just thought it was his way of dealing with it.

While some of the Rangers spent the next day setting up shelter for the humans within Ranger HQ's shielding range, the rest moved on to attack Ultima's supply depots. It didn't matter what they were supplying to Ultima, whether it was weapons, Drones, food or energy, they didn't care. If it was under his control, they destroyed it. They were delivering mighty blow after blow to Ultima's ranks, but he showed no sign of weakening.

Day four after TJ and the Rangers attacked Divatox in Tokyo. With Six samurai Rangers now on their side and an army of seriously pissed off rangers beside them, Divatox never stood a chance. She put up a valiant fight, more so than any of the others had to date, but through sheer force of numbers she had been defeated. They did not destroy her fortress, despite objections from some, but the anger over TJ seemed to be fading from them – well most of them anyway! During the attack on the Tokyo base, Elgar had been killed. Justin had been separated from the others and attacked by Elgar when all his pain, all his hurt, from everything that had happened just engulfed him. He de-morphed and attacked. He killed Elgar with his bare hands! They had rescued Chad and Lee from that base.

Day Five and more attacks on supply depots, this time across Asia and Africa. While there were still depots to destroy, the Rangers kept destroying and moving on. They started early on the fifth day and didn't finish until the early hours of Day Six.

In day six they didn't even stop to rest from that night's attacks, they just moved on to that day's mission. They had more prison camps to liberate. Another twenty-five thousand people freed that day. At least there were some survivors from all this horror, even if it was still less than one per cent of the population.

It was on day seven, a week after TJ's death that they slowed down and really started to think about what they were going to do next.

They gathered together in the Power Chamber for that day's briefing. The six Power Rangers, five Zeo Rangers, four Turbo Rangers, five Aquitian Rangers, Gold Ranger, Ninjor, Auric, Blue Senturion, and the eight Samurai Rangers were all there. It was starting to get quite crowded as they rescued more of the Samurai's, not that anyone was complaining, for they were powerful allies.

"Zordon, I think we're ready to attack Ultima's fortress. We've taken out enough of his supplies and we've got eight Samurai Rangers on our side. I'm sure we can do it!" Tommy suggested. Zordon had started out telling the Rangers what they were going to be doing, but since Tommy had really settled in as leader of the group, he had taken that liberty. Tommy never liked being leader, but he knew he had to do it, and well. Especially after TJ's death. The Rangers were angry, and without a constructive (or destructive as the case may be) way to channel the energy, they would descend into chaos. Only by leading them in strikes against Ultima could Tommy put their unavoidable rage to a positive use.

"I'm not completely sure Tommy. You may be a formidable force, but if Ultima himself takes up the fight against you…" Zordon started.

Tommy had always followed Zordon's commands and never questioned, but this time he had to. He interrupted with, "What else can we do! We have no way to make our forces stronger, and no way to make Ultima weaker. We've taken this as far as we can and that's the only step we have left to take!"

"Actually Tommy, I had an idea about increasing our forces, quite a few in fact!" Justin said. "Zordon?" Justin asked, requesting permission from their supreme commander to take the floor.

Zordon nodded, not that you could really tell from the way he floated there, he just looked like someone had rocked the ion tube!

Justin stepped to the front and spoke with a confidence none of them thought he had. "Who do you think wants revenge on Ultima more than us?" Justin asked to begin with.

They muttered quietly for a moment between themselves until someone shouted, "The People!"

"That's right!" Justin said. "They were taken prisoner by Ultima, their families and friends taken away, their homes defiled and their world put under the control of some maniacal tyrant. We have a force of over one hundred thousand people out there. Yes, we're strong, but there are only three dozen of us! We don't have the numbers ourselves, but I'm sure the people would be more than willing to fight!"

"Yeah, but what good would unarmed, unprotected people do, even a hundred thousand of them?" Rocky asked.

"They wouldn't be unarmed or unprotected!" Justin said. he continued before the others asked what he meant as he knew they would. "The Morphing Grid powers us all. Some of us may have the power of the Zeo Crystal, or Turbo Technology, but the base of our powers is created by the Morphing grid. For those who know how to harness it's power, such as Ninjor and Zordon, Rangers are theirs to create."

The audience gathered before Justin was silent. Some were intrigued, some in disbelief of where he was heading and some were just completely lost.

"What if we could use the Morphing Grid to power the troops?! Justin said and asked at once.

"What? Make them into Rangers?" Carlos asked, thinking he had followed what the young genius had said.

"No, not quite. Their powers wouldn't compare to our own, but it would offer some protection to them and provide some weapons." Justin explained. "They would be strong enough to take out a Tenga or a Cog for example. they'd be enough to take out the bulk of Ultima's forces while we took care of the more serious stuff."

"Sounds good to me!" Tommy said.

"What else Justin? You said you had a few ideas!" Someone shouted from the back.

"I doubt any of you have ever heard of this, but I have been researching the UniRanger concept." Justin commented. Billy and Cestro were intrigued. They were both keen scientists and they had heard of the concept.

"I've heard about that. Rangers throughout the galaxy have been looking into it, some have even tried some experiments with it!" Billy said.

"Yeah so what is it?" Some of them shouted out.

"Well, the basic idea is that one Ranger uses the powers of all his fellow Rangers!" Billy answered.

"I though we needed more forces, not less!" Kim said sharply.

"It wouldn't mean that there would just be less Rangers. For example, one of the Zeo Rangers could morph using the whole Zeo Crystal rather than just one shard. They would have the power of the complete crystal." Justin said back, just as sharply.

"So? Isn't that just the same as having all five or six Rangers fighting?" Kim snapped back, not liking being spoken to in that manner by someone so much younger.

"Of course not. There is a multiplicity effect. One Ranger using two parts would be twice as strong as two Rangers, using three parts would make them four times stronger than the three Rangers… You get the idea!" Justin answered. The whole time staring at Kim. She felt a shiver down her spine as she looked into his eyes. He had been challenged by someone and he would not accept it. There was not the same young innocence Kim had seen in him when they first met.

"Okay, we've got that idea! Anything else?" Tommy said, stepping between them. he actually got the feeling Justin was about to do something he may regret!

"Zords!" Justin said. "Ultima's monsters are much larger than Zedd's or Mondo's. The samurai Zords are able to fight them, but ours are just outclassed. Using Mondo's own technology we've managed to find out how to increase the size of our Zords. That could really help if they were needed, but most important is the new configurations I've been working on with Billy and the Alpha's. We know once we rescue the other two Samurai's, we'll have all ten Samurai Zords. They'll be able to form their two Megazords, but we've never really liked anyone having a better toy than us! We think that we can configure all the Zords to join together!"

"All of them?" Kat asked.

"Yeah. It's always been a feasible theory, but we've never been able to have all the Zords together in one place to actually try it." Justin replied.

"Alright. These are great ideas, but how do we make them happen?" Jason asked.

"First is the troops!" Justin said. "We'll need to gather them for the announcement and find out who's willing to do it!" They were all impressed with the young Ranger. If they didn't know better they would have said he was trying to take Tommy's place as leader. Whether they all thought the change in him was good or bad, they had all noticed it. He was definitely not the same person. He had hardly spoken to anyone in the last week, especially since the incident with Elgar. To be honest, some of them were scared to speak to him. They felt uneasy when he was nearby, devoid of emotion. The Zeo Rangers and Turbo Rangers were worried the most, they had all known him before this whole war started and he was not right. There wasn't time to deal with that now, they had work to do.

Justin even had the nerve to order around the likes of Zordon and Ninjor. "I want most of you to gather the people for Tommy's announcement to them. Billy, you and the two Alpha's go and start work on the Zords. We need them up to size and ready for the new configuration. Zordon, Ninjor, get to work on powering the people from the Grid!"

Kim had had enough of his bossiness. Last time she checked, Tommy was the leader and Zordon leader of all of them. "Hey, who died and made you boss?" Kim shouted over to Justin, before realizing exactly what she said.

Justin glared at her and everyone paused in their tracks. He walked slowly over to Kim and she just didn't know what to do. Fortunately for Justin, Kim was quite short. It would have been difficult for him to go and stare someone in the eye who was a foot taller than him. He took a hold of the chest of her pink jacket and pulled her down so that her nose was virtually touching his own.

He spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, but made it obvious enough he was talking directly at her. "Listen to me you stupid Pink bitch. This is a war! Someone has to take charge here. Our 'so-called leader' is just happy to follow the decisions of that dense over-inflated head. We're not gonna get anywhere following those bastards plans." Justin pushed her away and spoke to them all. "If you don't do as I say, we will lose this war. You all may be willing to accept defeat but I'm not! NOW GET TO WORK!"

They had never seen the boy act, or talk quite this bad. Most of them rushed off to do as he told, the rest stood and watched as he stormed off. As he got to the door he turned to the ones still there and shouted, "I SAID NOW YOU USELESS MORONS!" With that he left.

"What the hell was that?" Tommy asked.

"I knew recruiting someone was so young was a risk, but I had never considered he may be out into this situation. He is not capable of handling all this!" Zordon said. "We have only one choice!"

———- X ———-

Justin was sitting in his quarters working at a computer. He had not been disturbed since he got there an hour previously. He had not expected to be after seeing the others' reactions to him. He didn't know what was happening to him, but he was making no attempt to stop it. He felt better than he ever had! He felt strange inside, he couldn't explain it. There was just something – something different.

He was considering the implications of the UniRanger concept he had mentioned earlier when he was disturbed by his communicator. He pressed the button to reply and snapped, "WHAT?"

"Justin, we need you in the Power Chamber!" Tommy said. That was all, he cut the link. Justin could tell something was up, just by the tone of his voice, but he felt like going, just to see!

In a flash of dark blue, he disappeared from his seat.

He landed in the middle of the Power Chamber. He immediately noticed that the other rangers were gathered around him on all sides. "What do you want?" Justin said peremptorily.

"Justin, you must give up your Turbo Key!" Zordon said bluntly.

"What?" Justin replied, laughing and sneering at them all at once.

Tommy stepped forward. "Justin, you have to give up your powers. Hand me your key!" he said calmly.

"Oh come on! You can't do this without me!" Justin said, taunting their supposed weakness.

"Justin, give me the key!" Tommy insisted, more sternly this time.

"You're serious, aren't you?" Justin asked. Then he looked round at them, a sinister grin on his face. He started to laugh. It wasn't his usual child's laugh as they had heard so many times before this whole thing started. No, this was different. It sounded cruel, wicked. It chilled them all down to their very souls, it grated through their minds.

"Thank you, all of you!" Justin said, still chuckling to himself. "You've made me realize something….." He took out his Turbo Key and held it out to Tommy. The leader reached for it, but Justin snatched it back before he could touch it.

His morpher appeared on his wrist, he put his key into it as he said with contempt, "SHIFT INTO TURBO!"

They all stood back, waiting for him to be engulfed in the Blue energy that transformed him into the Blue Turbo Ranger, but it never came. Instead, a glow started around his morpher. you couldn't really call it a glow, it was more of an anti-glow. It was a darkness that sucked in all light around it. It spread out and engulfed his entire body. As the darkness surrounded him, they could hear his laugh again, not cruel or wicked, but pure evil!

As the dark cocoon dissipated, they all stared in shock at him. He didn't wear the blue Turbo Uniform. Instead he was covered, head to toe in black, wicked looking armor. Most of the Rangers had been scared at times, but the sight of Justin, if it was still even Justin, struck mortal dread into them. He looked truly terrifying and not one of them knew what to do.

He finally spoke, continuing what he had started before his unholy transformation. "You've made me realize, I don't need you, any of you! I am unstoppable, for I am power itself. I am the Darkness and I am beyond your worse nightmares!

"Justin, what has happened?" Zordon asked, this was beyond even his knowledge. He had never seen anything like it before in his millennia of existence.

"Justin!" he said, a hint of contempt in his voice. "Call me what you may, it matters not! This is my world and nobody else may take it!"

"So you'll fight alongside us?" Tommy asked, hoping his young friend would still listen.

There came the laugh again. Tommy shrank back into the group, he was actually terrified – of Justin! "You amuse me Red Ranger! That will be enough to save you for now. I will stop Ultima, but take heed. This is MY world. You may attempt to stop Ultima, but without me you have not the knowledge nor the power to succeed. Ultima is the greater threat to this world now, and once he is vanquished, you will be subject to my wrath!"

"You'd fight your own friends?" Cassie asked, preying she got through to him.

"Friends? FRIENDS? I have no friends. I am alone in my quest as in all other things. Your pathetic charade of friendship means nothing to me. Now I bid you farewell and I leave you with this warning – we will meet again!" he shouted. In a familiar flash of darkness, he disappeared.

They all stood there, not moving, not speaking. Shock would have been about a thousand degrees down the scale of how they were feeling. They couldn't understand what the had just seen, it couldn't have been real. They had stood and watched one of their own transform into the most horrific creature any of them had ever seen.

"Zordon!" Tommy just managed to say, gulping. "What just happened?"

"I…. I don't know!" Zordon replied. That came as almost as much of a shock to them all as the events that had just transpired.

———- X ———-

While all this was happening, there was plenty of action happening in New York, at Ultima's main base.

"The project will be complete by the end of the day!" Crush reported, standing a short distance behind Ultima. On the many screens in front of him were scenes of smoking ruins and ransacked buildings. They included the remains of Mondo's fortress. He was now with Gasket and Archerina in theirs. There had been a fight about it, but Ultima soon made them all agree.

"How has this happened?" Ultima asked, assessing the destruction he saw.

"The Rangers got lucky. As I warned, those bumbling idiots you call the best of the bad, could not be trusted to do their jobs. Because of them, the Rangers gained an advantage, but it will all count for nothing. They can not defeat you and with the project so near completion…" Crush replied. She was cut off mid-sentence.

"Aah yes! The 'Project'. And why has it taken this long to complete?" Ultima asked.

"The Rangers have disrupted our flow of supplies. The components we have needed for the final stage have been rather…. hard to come by!" Crush replied. "But now all the parts are in place and we are running the tests now!"

"Yes, those Rangers are in for quite a shock when they attack me. I am much more than they can handle, especially now!" Ultima said strongly.

"I look forward to playing my part!" Crush said, happily. The Rangers may have been causing a lot of damage to their forces, but the final victory would belong to the Dark side.

Ultima let out a slight moan as he grabbed his head and stumbled about slightly. Crush rushed to his side and helped him to gain his balance. He looked round at her and actually saw concern in her deep green eyes. He grinned.

"What is it?" Crush asked.

"A disruption in the Morphing Grid! I sense there is one less ranger now…" Ultima started, still concentrating on his link to the Grid.

"That's good then!" Crush said, still concerned.

"That's not all, there's something new, something strange, I can't lock down on it." Ultima said. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the new force within the grid. He got what he wanted, he managed to detect it properly. As he did so, the immense energy hit him. He screamed out in pain, a very unfamiliar feeling to him. This time he did not stumble for he was still held in Crush's unnaturally strong grasp.

"The power is monumental. There is someone new and his power is…" Ultima stopped, shocked by the incredible presence he had just felt. For the first time in his existence, Ultima felt weak. For compared to this new being, that's exactly what he was – weak!

"I… I don't believe it!" Ultima stuttered. Crush didn't know what to do, neither of them did. If this thing was that powerful, they both knew one thing – it meant trouble!

———- X ———-

"Alpha, can you detect him?" Tommy asked. They had all got over the initial shock and realized they had to help the young blue Ranger.

"Ay-yi-yi!" Alpha five chirped. Although a sound of distress, it actually brought comfort to some of the Rangers. It was a familiar sound, one they felt comfortable with. Zack couldn't help forgetting it was one of the first things he had ever heard Alpha say. All of the Rangers who had fought with Alpha Five on their side had missed him when they left.

"I'm not detecting him!" Alpha Six added.

"We've got to find him. Whatever has happened to him, he's in trouble and he needs our help." Tommy said, sure he was right.

"Tommy, you must remember something. Whatever this thing is, it is not the result of magic or tampering from Ultima. I would have detected that. It has all come from within him! He may not want to be helped!" Zordon said to the leader.

They all thought about it for a moment as they continued to scan for him.

"Zordon, I though nobody evil could use the Power!" Adam said, confused.

"No, the Powers can not be given to one of evil, but for one with powers to become evil, the Powers may still work. This has…. never happened before!" Zordon replied.

Again, they all waited silently for one of the Alpha units, Billy or Cestro to find something.

"Hey, has anyone thought about what we're going to do when we do find him? Kim asked.

"We bring him back here and we help him!" Tommy said.

"Oh, just bring him back? Yeah, that should be easy. It's not like he looked at all powerful or anything!" Kim snapped back sarcastically.

"He won't be that difficult, he is only one Ranger!" Tommy replied.

"I'm afraid it may not be that easy!" Zordon said to Tommy. "I can sense his presence in the Morphing Grid, and he is more powerful than the Blue Turbo ranger ever was, and his power is growing!"

"Zordon, just how powerful is he?" Kat asked, concerned for Justin's safety.

"It would seem that turning the Power to the dark side has increased its strength exponentially. I don't think I could explain his power in a way you would comprehend." Zordon replied. "But to put it a way you may understand, he is stronger than Ultima. I could not say by how much, but when he says he would destroy Ultima, I think he means it!"

"Yeah, which means he'll follow through with his threat to finish us, too!" Rocky added.

They all stared at him, he was right. Justin had changed into some unimaginable force and he had guaranteed their destruction. That had to be bad!

———- X ———-

He stood out in the middle of a large expanse of desert. He was expecting visitors, very soon. He had just allowed everyone to detect his whereabouts and he knew he had a lot of people, powerful people, looking for him. Inside his helmet, he grinned. They all thought they were coming to stop him, to save him. Little did they know that soon they would be the ones in need of being saved. His sudden rise to power had been unexpected, but it was gladly welcomed. He now had the power to do anything he desired. He was capable of anything!

Simultaneously, two groups appeared before him. In one group, a man in black clothing, a woman scantily-clad in green, a massive man wearing a chest shield and the bottom half of an impressive suit of armor, and a dozen or so creatures dressed in silver armor.

The other group appeared in an impressive rainbow of colored energy beams. There were a lot of them. Although obviously split into groups by appearance, they all shared an uncanny likeness, all color coded, Red's, yellow's, blue's, pink's, all the colors of the rainbow.

He addressed them all. "Good, now you are all here, I'll get the formalities out of the way! Power Rangers, meet Ultima, with his pathetic lackeys, Crush and Kraegor. Ultima, meet your old arch enemies, and now all of you, time to meet me. I may be known to some as Justin Stewart, but I am he no longer. I am so much more!" he said confidently. The same confidence Justin had used to address the Rangers before his change. They saw it now. They could see the parts of this creature that had shown themselves in Justin. This creature had not just happened, he had been growing within the young ranger like a cancer.

"Justin, let us help you!" Tommy called out.

The creature held it's hands together out towards the Red Zeo Ranger. "Oh yes, please Tommy, help me! Save me from this fate! Oh please, I'm no child, and I don't need your help. Why would I need anyone's help when I am so much already!" he laughed.

"What happened to you?" Tommy asked.

"What happened? You should know that Tommy! The nature of one always shows itself in the end. You were the evil Green Ranger, but your good nature wouldn't allow it and you let Jason destroy your Sword of Darkness, breaking the spell over you. Kat, you were a mere pawn to Rita, but you would not accept that. You fought her with all your strength and broke free. And then there is the greatest of all. Ultima, chosen as the Ultimate force of light to defend your universe, but that was not your destiny. You turned your back on those who cared for you, those who had taught you all you know. You turned and let the darkness embrace your soul as it was meant to be! Now it is my turn to reach out and accept that which is mine, my destiny!" he looked around at them all. Ultima was shocked that this…. human, actually knew of his past. No living creature in this reality other than himself knew anything of his history.

"I will destroy you!" Ultima swore.

"You can try you pathetic little insect!" he replied.

"Justin, if you won't let us help you, we have only one choice!" Tommy said.

"Surrender!" he suggested.

"No Justin, we must destroy you!"