See my first fanfic – 'Welcome to the Saga' – for disclaimer.

Divided We Fall
Chapter Four
By Peter J. Smith

Ultramarine smashed his fist down onto the roof of an apartment complex, causing the entire building to shake, every window in the top three stories to smash and great cracks to appear along the side of the building. Smiling at the destruction he was causing, he took a step back before smashing his arm into the side of the building, instantly reducing the top four stories of the building to rubble, and sending debris flying into the air away from the building. One more punch was all it took for the entire building to come crashing down.

Ultramarine stepped back over a line of shops onto Bulcock Street, crushing two cars and a truck in the process.

"This is incredible," he smiled behind his face armour, "the power at my disposal is unparalleled…"

Suddenly, the ground began to shake, and Ultramarine looked up to see a giant Parasaurolophus powering towards him. With each footstep, the mighty Parazord caused the buildings along the road to shake. Its eyes glowed red, and its shiny aqua and silver armour panels glimmered under the cloudless sky and bright yellow sun.

"Sorry, buddy," said Aaron, sitting back in the cockpit of his zord with his hands on the controls, "but you've overstayed your welcome. Parazord, online!"

Ultramarine took a step forward, clearly not intimidated. "One lone Power Ranger? This should be a piece of cake!"

Aaron piloted the Parazord forward, trying to show that he himself was not afraid of Ultramarine, even though he knew what Ultramarine was capable of. Plus, he'd never used the Parazord before in one-on-one combat, and he had no idea of what the full capabilities of the zord were.

"I wouldn't bet on it," grunted Aaron, into the external radio.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" asked Ultramarine, and he took an Earth-shattering step forward. "Let's rumble."

Ultramarine leapt forward over the burning remains of the building he'd just destroyed, immediately sending the Parazord stumbling back with an uppercut. The Parazord recovered quickly, and as Ultramarine followed his last move up with a roundhouse punch, the Parazord ducked under the blow, batted away Ultramarine's arm then smashed its fist into Ultramarine's chest armour, forcing the blue warrior back. Continuing his assault, Aaron pressed a button which read "'eye-lasers', and red laser beams shot out of the Parazord's eyes and smashed squarely into Ultramarine's stomach and chest armour, sending him crashing back in an explosion of sparks and smoke.

"Well," Ultramarine grunted as he rolled to a stop, crushing a fruit and vegetable store in the process, and got to his feet, "that went well."

The blue warrior charged back towards the Parazord, striking the zord with a double punch to the chestplate. The zord stumbled back from the attack, and Ultramarine followed it up with a kick to the zord's stomach. Wrestling with the controls, Aaron quickly got the zord back online, and now recovered, the Parazord charged forward. Ultramarine took a step back, then his shoulder cannon roared to life, saturating the entire area with laser blasts.

Amazing, the Parazord went unfazed, storming through the blasts and walking up to Ultramarine. It swung out with it's fists, but Ultramarine blocked the attack and struck out. The Parazord blocked Ultramarine's fists with one hand, and with the other went on the offensive. The battle raged then, block and attack, block and attack, with both opponents only just keeping up with the other's movements. Finally, Ultramarine changed tactics, ducking back for a second before sending the Parazord crashing with a low foot sweep.

Ultramarine, now with the advantage, pressed forward, and Aaron could distinctly hear Ultramarine's two wrist blades sliding out of their holders into place as the Parazord slowly got to its feet.

"Let's end this," grunted the blue warrior. He leapt forward and slashed his left blade through the air – the Parazord dodged the blade in the nick of time. Then, Aaron caught sight of the right blade, but he maneuvered the Parazord forward, and successfully stopped Ultramarine's wrist in mid-swing. Ultramarine quickly brought his left blade into action again, slashing it down and across the Parazord's stomach, the blade slicing right through the armour plating and completely mangling the pipes and hydraulic systems within the zord's stomach. Sparks and debris rained down from the slash as the Parazord stumbled backwards, and Ultramarine followed it up with another slash right across the zord's chestplate – the blade sliced clean through the armour plating like a hot knife through butter, and the Parazord crashed to the ground.

A shower of sparks lit up the control room as Aaron glanced desperately from one panel to the other.

"Damn it," he swore, "two minutes ago I was winning." Another shower of sparks from an exposed wire above his head forced him to duck. "Power level, dropping. C'mon Aaron, pull this together. You can do this…" And with the power level at fifty percent and falling fast, the Parazord got back to it's feet.

"Coming back for more, hey?" smirked Ultramarine.

"You got that right," grunted Aaron. "Heads up!" And he reached down and pressed the button labeled "'earth-quaker' on the panel in front – instantly, the Parazord's mouth opened, and a red energy ball blasted out of the zords mouth, hit the ground and kept travelling. It raced across the ground, and there was dead silence for a brief second. Then, the blast smashed into Ultramarine's feet and travelled up into his body. The blasted lifted him off his feet and sent him flying backwards in a catastrophic explosion. He crashed to the ground several hundred metres away, completely wiping out several buildings.

"I'm at fifty, you're at fifty," smiled Aaron through gritted teeth, as Ultramarine slowly staggered back to his feet, "now we're even."

"You dare!" cried the warrior, and enraged, he raced forward, fully aware that with one blast, Aaron had almost completely knocked him out – another blast like that, and Ultramarine was dead.

The blue warrior knocked the Parazord back with a high kick, before slashing again and again with his wrist blades. The Parazord ducked back and dodged the first several swipes, but thanks to the two previous blows, it was losing power fast, and it could not move fast. Two, three, four huge gouges appeared in the Parazord's chest and stomach plates. Thrown around wildly inside the zord's cockpit, Aaron knew what was happening, but didn't care – he had to keep Ultramarine fighting. He reached down and activated the eye lasers again. It had the desired effect – Ultramarine was blasted backwards. Despite its "'injuries', the Parazord walked forward to continue the assault, but as it raised its arm, Ultramarine leapt forward and slashed out with his wrist blade – the blade instantly cleaved right through the aqua arm, and in a small explosion, the arm was sent flying through the air, crashing to the ground several hundred metres away, and the Parazord fell to the ground.

Inside the cockpit, alarms began to sound, and Aaron glanced fearfully down at his power level – it was down to fifteen percent, and still dropping. He'd known going into battle that the zord wouldn't make it out in one piece, but he still couldn't believe that this was happening.

"C'mon," he pleaded to the zord, "just hang on a little bit more. Please…"

"Aaron!" cried Alpha's voice from the radio. "You've got to retreat! If you keep fighting you'll lose the zord! You have to come back!"

"No," he cried, "I can't leave Alpha, I just can't! If I go now, there'll be no-one left to stop Ultramarine from leveling the city and killing everyone who lives here. I have to stay fighting."

"But Aaron, one more shot and we'll lose you and the zord forever…"

"Alpha, you know that I'm right. Just keep trying to find a way to get the others back. Aaron out," and the radio fell silent.

Slowly, bravely, the Parazord somehow managed to get back to its feet and face Ultramarine. And Aaron knew, without a doubt, that it would be for the last time. There was no way the Parazord could defeat Ultramarine, no way it was going to survive this in once piece. In his head, he screamed out in rage at all the things that were spinning around him faster and faster that he had absolutely no control over. But suddenly, an idea occurred to him, a very simple idea that he knew would save everyone a lot of trouble.

"Jason!" he cried into the radio.

"Yeah?" came Jason's reply. "Aaron, if I were you I'd get out of there man. Your zord…"

"I know," replied Aaron quickly. "The Parazord can't take much more of this. But that's why I'm calling you, I've got an idea. Can you guys try and herd the putties into Minchinton Street and then get out of the way?"

"Well sure, I think so, but what do you have in mind?"

"Just trust me," and he clicked the radio switch off.

~*~

"What does he want us to do?" asked Zac, not quite believing his ears.

They'd been fighting non-stop for the last fifteen minutes, slicing and dicing putties with all the strength they could muster. And it had worked quite well – the unmoving bodies of dozens of the grey warriors lay on the ground around them. But now, it seemed as if both sides had agreed to a temporary cease-fire – the putties all gathered together back behind Goldar, and the six rangers stood in a line about twenty metres away from them, amid burning piles of rubble and debris from the incredible battle going on above.

"Herd all the putties down into Minchinton Street," replied Jason.

"Why?" asked Tommy.

Jason shook his head. "I don't know why. He just said that he had an idea."

"Well, I say we give it a try," said Trini. "Heck, it can't hurt."

Jason nodded. "All right. Blasters out…"

"What's the matter Power Rangers?" interrupted Goldar, waving his sword through the air. "Giving up so soon?"

"Hell no," replied Jason. "Fire!" Everyone aimed low with the blasters, and six multi-coloured laser blasts flew across the battleground and smashed into the ground in front of the putties, sending up a shower of sparks. The putties in the front of the huge group immediately jumped back several paces. Standing in a line, the rangers fired again, and again, and each time, Goldar and the putties all moved back.

The intersection between Minchinton Street and Bulcock Street came close, and the troop of putties moved into the shadow of Ultramarine who was standing over the City Council building, which was further down Bulcock Street.

"Billy, Tommy, you guys go round that way and make sure you aim them into Minchinton!" called Jason, and the blue and green rangers immediately ducked away. With one more laser blast, Goldar and the putties began to move back into the street. "Well, it's working, but I just hope that Aaron knows what he's doing…"

~*~

"There never was a key," I said, standing up and massaging my aching back muscles. "We've been duped. We could search all day, and even if it was here, we wouldn't find it anyway."

"You sure?" asked Teresa, coming over from where she'd been hunched over in the mist.

I nodded. "Absolutely. Rita's whole plan revolved on splitting us all up and then taking us down. And using Ultramarine to do it. Those snakes were meant to kill us, but even if we defeated them, this "'Dark Dimension' would be able to hold us and keep us away from the others. We were never meant to leave here."

"That's just fantastic," groaned Scott.

"So, onto the next question," said Brendan. "If there was never a key here for us to get through that gateway, how do we get back?"

"Quickly," I said, turning and walking over to the gateway. "Jason and the others probably have gone to Aaron's aid by now, but we still need to get back there to help them all defeat Ultramarine."

"And we do that, how?" asked Teresa.

"Simple," I answered. "Orange Ranger, power down!" And with that, my suit disappeared in a bright orange flash, and I was left standing in my street clothes.

"By using your Torlian energy to blast a hole straight through the gateway?" asked Sarah.

I shook my head, and reached down into my pocket. "No. By picking the lock." I found the small red pocketknife in my pocket, pulled it out, then went over and kneeled by the huge heavy padlock.

"A pocket-knife?" wondered Teresa. "Where did you get that?"

"It was a birthday present from a great uncle who lives in Vancouver," I replied, concentrating on the lock. "It's saved my butt so many times I can't even count "'em. And hopefully…"

"Wait a minute," began Sarah, "you're only eleven and you already know how to pick locks?"

I nodded. "Yep. And I also know how to fence like an Olympic athlete and pilot a ten kiloton robot."

"Good point."

Suddenly, a quiet "'chink' sound came from inside the lock, and the padlock opened up and then fell into the mist with a loud "'clunk'. I grabbed my pocketknife, dropped it back in my pocket, stood up and opened the door. Behind the doorway to nowhere was a swirling blue and purple vortex that illuminated the Dark Dimension with an eerie blue light.

"Nice work," said Brendan. "If I ever need to break into someone's house, I'll know just who to call."

"Next stop, Caloundra," I said with a smile, then reached around to my back pocket and grabbed my morpher. "It's morphin' time! Stegosaurus!" Orange light exploded from my morpher and surrounded me, and when the light disappeared a second later, I was fully suited up and ready to go. Then, pausing just one more second, I leaped forward into the vortex.

~*~

"What now aqua ranger?" asked Ultramarine, watching the Parazord take slow and faltering steps towards him. "Run out of steam, have we?"

Aaron, however, was not paying the slightest attention to his opponent. "C'mon," he pleaded, looking around his control room, hoping despite any common sense that his ailing zord would hear him. "One last battle all right? One more, and then it's all over." With that, he grabbed the controls, and the Parazord came to life.

With a sudden burst of speed, the Parazord raced forward, smashing Ultramarine with its remaining hand before knocking him back with a high kick. Ultramarine recovered quickly, and slashed at the zord's head with his left blade. Aaron expected the move and the zord ducked under it, before batting Ultramarine's other hand away and striking him. Ultramarine stumbled back, and Aaron grabbed the controls – with tail raised, the Parazord spun around on the spot, with every intention of knocking Ultramarine off his feet. But Ultramarine was too fast, and as the tail flew at him, he raised his right wrist blade and struck the zord with as much force as he could – the blade sliced right through the tail of the zord, and the tail section instantly flew away from the rest of the zord, spun through the air and landed with a crash.

It was all the Parazord could take. The loss of the zord's tail triggered massive explosions from the remaining stump, and the zord began to sway from side to side as metal plates and pipes were blown from the zord.

From the dawn of time, when human beings were first chosen to pilot zords into battle, the pilots always said that there was some kind of mythical connection between themselves and the huge metal beasts that they drove. They gained instinctual knowledge on piloting the zords because the zords were them, or at least, an extension of the pilot themselves. In the heat of battle, the zord and pilot acted as one because the two became connected. And right at that very minute, Aaron knew without doubt, because he could feel, that his zord was dying.

To anyone who was watching, it certainly seemed as if the Parazord was in it's death throws. Wires and cables hung loose where its arm used to be, and fire was erupting from the huge gashes on its chest and stomach. The stump from the zord's tail was on fire too, and was being by rocked by constant explosions from within the zord itself. Random fires were breaking out all over the zord, and slowly, different systems within the zord began to shut down.

Down below, heroes and villains alike watched the Parazord with awe. Goldar and the putties were frozen, unable to do anything but watch. The six Power Rangers, too, were helpless, watching the dying zord totally speechless. But inside the cockpit, the one individual who had the most reason to be hysterical and emotional was the picture of calm – he knew exactly what he had to do.

"C'mon," Aaron said, slowly manipulating the controls. He was too far forward – at least fifty metres away from Minchinton Street, and he had to get back there. And slowly but surely, the Parazord took a small step backwards, and then another. Two was all it needed. It now towered over the army of putties and the six senior rangers.

"What's he doing?" asked Kimberly quietly to Jason, who was standing next to her.

Jason looked up at the towering zord, and suddenly it hit him – he understood what Aaron was going to do. His zord was history, completely wasted and about to blow up, but despite its complete and utter destruction looming, Aaron was going to use the Parazord in one last desperate heroic move.

All became silent then, and all that was heard was the explosions coming from the zord. Suddenly, a huge explosion ripped through the zord's left ankle, reducing it to charred bits of metal. Now off-balance, the Parazord slowly leaned to one side, then gathering momentum, it began to plummet towards the ground like an out of control Tower of Pisa.

"Get out of the way!" cried Jason at the top of his lungs, and all six rangers leapt to safety. Just in time too, as no sooner had they all leapt out of the way when the Parazord crashed to the ground, shaking the entire city and instantly reducing numerous buildings nearby to rubble. But the putties weren't so lucky – they had remained standing, even as the Parazord plummeted towards them, and by the time they realised what was going to happen, it was too late – nearly every single one of them was crushed into a grey pulp by the zord, and the ones that survived were torn in two by the incredible explosion that ripped through the zord's body mere seconds after its fall, tearing the entire zord neatly in two.

~*~

The smile on Rita's face said it all. She'd never taken her eyes away from the telescope during the battle, and now, she was grinning as if she'd suddenly won the lottery. She didn't care that Ultramarine himself had sustained some pretty heavy hits during the fight, and she didn't care that what was left of her army of putties had been utterly obliterated. She remembered her words to Goldar earlier that day, and smiled all the more.

"Whatever happens now, we can't lose."

~*~

The aqua exit hatch on the side of the zord flew open, and Aaron stumbled out, heart racing and lungs pounding. He'd survived the explosion, and had luckily made it to the escape hatch, and now, he ripped off his helmet and breathed in great big lungfuls of air, thankful simply to be alive but hopeful that his efforts had not been in vain – looking around at all the crushed putties lying on the ground around him, he was sure that he'd managed to pull it off. But he did not see the shadow creeping up behind him until it was too late, until a clawed hand wrapped around his neck and lifted him up.

"You think you're so clever?" sneered Goldar, glaring at Aaron, who was waving his arms around in a desperate attempt to free himself. "You might have destroyed Rita's putty patrol, but you missed me. What a shame, for your sake." And with that, he turned and dragged the still-struggling ranger away.

~*~

We got back just in time. The vortex opened up in the park beside Caloundra's Civic Centre, which is about fifty metres from where the battle was taking place, and we all quite clearly saw the zord fall over and completely obliterate the putties. But we were stunned. And we stood there in a trance, silent and shocked, watching the zord literally fall to pieces. And we didn't hear the senior rangers' calls or see them until they were only about three metres away.

"You guys all okay?" asked Jason, as the six rangers walked up to us. Surprised, we all turned towards them.

"Yeah," replied Sarah quietly.

"Ultramarine did this, didn't he?" I immediately asked, angrily.

Kim nodded. "Yes. Although it was Aaron's idea to herd the putties into Minchinton Street and take them out with the Parazord.

"Damn it," swore Brendan. "We should have gotten back sooner."

"You can't blame yourselves," comforted Trini, "it wasn't your fault."

"Yeah, I know," replied Brendan. "I just thought that…"

"Where is Aaron?" asked Teresa suddenly.

Billy shook his head. "We don't know. We looked over the zord but he wasn't there. Maybe he teleported back…"

"Wait!" cried Scott. "There he is!" We all turned to see where he was pointing. And with gasps of horror, we all saw at the same time Goldar walking down the road away from the battleground, dragging Aaron by the scruff of his neck. Goldar had evidently just grabbed Aaron's power coin, and now holding it up, Aaron demorphed in a flash of aqua light. Then, the two of them disappeared from sight.

"We gotta go after him," I said. But suddenly, a great shadow fell upon us, and the ground began to shake as Ultramarine stepped over the downed Parazord and walked towards us.

"One down, eleven to go," he boomed evilly, shaking the ground with each footstep. "Who's next?"

"You guys can't form the Megazord without Aaron," began Billy, "so it looks like it's up to us."

"All right then," said Brendan, the unspoken plan now set, "good luck."

"Yeah," I agreed, "nuke him good for us."

"Will do," replied Jason with a dark smile.

"C'mon guys, let's go save Aaron," I finished. And with that, we all turned and ran down the road away from the six senior rangers.

"All right guys," said Jason, turning to his team-mates. "Looks like it's up to us. Let's take this freak out fast," and they all simultaneously raised their arms to the sky. "We need dinozord power, right now!"