Dark Lady
by Cheryl Roberts

The Dark Lady sat in judgement on her throne, glaring imperiously at the three beings kneeling at the foot of the dais, their arms restrained with arcane shackles. These were but the latest of her would-be conquerors. Her jewel-like eyes narrowed as she focused on the creature standing flanked by his humanoid shipmates. Though a prisoner, the bulbous eyes simmered with defiance, and the leathery flesh about his snout pulled back in a fang-baring sneer. The Ullah was doubly restrained, as his two sets of limbs were completely interchangeable, though the lower were longer and stronger. He could walk with his arms as well as his legs, and he could hold a gun with his feet as well as he could with his hands. This was Captain Quigax, Conqueror of Worlds, Terror of the Spaceways, pirate scum.

"Go home, insignificant worm," the sorceress hissed at last. She rose, clutching her ornate staff with its barbed headpiece. Her obsidian robes swirled about her like a thing alive. "I am feeling merciful today. Take your lives and what's left of your ship, but the rest of your plunder is mine to recompense me for the inconvenience your pitiful assault caused me."

With a nonchalant wave of her hand, the flaxen-haired enchantress dismissed the energy manacles. Then, she turned to leave to be about the business of repairing the damage to her lunar citadel, her captives all but forgotten.

The two mates bowed and made ready to take their lives and be gone, but their captain was beside himself. The insult that he should be treated so cavalierly by a mere human—and a woman no less!—was not to be born. With a berserker howl, Quigax launched himself up the dais at the retreating figure.

The Dark Lady whirled, lowering her staff. The maneuver surprised the marauder, and he could not alter his trajectory in time. He impaled himself on the spear-tipped rod.

Dispassionately, the enchantress watched the body slide off the shaft of her staff and tumble down the stairs. Her frigid gaze turned towards her remaining prisoners, who were terrified that they would share their captain's fate.

"Begone! And take the carcass with you," she intoned ominously. "Be sure to let your new master know that the Earth and the dark powers are mine to do with as I please."

This time, her malevolent stare remained on the pirates until they were gone from her sight.

Even after her 'guests' had departed, the sorceress stared after them. Then, she descended from her throne, dispelling the bloody mess almost absently as she passed. She crossed the room to stand on the balcony and looked upon the blue bauble floating in the void beyond.

The Earth is mine to do with as I please.

Yet she did nothing with it, save defend it from those who would conquer it. And she had no idea why.

There were many things she did not know why she did them or why certain things were important to her. Like turning on Quigax... the move had been instinctive, but where or when she acquired battle-honed reflexes, she could not say.

She tried to think back sometimes but only encountered pain and confusion. The earliest memory she possessed was of a man in white, reaching out to her as he was carried away by a woman in pink. She could not see their faces. She did not know their names, but the images haunted her dreams and left her with a feeling of terrible emptiness.

The next vague recollections were of energy searing her and voices confusing her, of a great weight pressing down on her. Then, stillness, darkness and cold. Her clearest memory was of waking up and finding herself pinioned between great stone slabs. Everything around her was shaking, and the sounds of explosions filled the air. Pulling herself out of the rubble, she headed for the great gaping window of the balcony; the sight that greeted her still-bleary eyes was that of a fleet of ships raining destruction upon the barren world around her and upon the blue jewel of a world before her.

"My palace!" cried a shrill voice inside her head.

"The Earth!" echoed a softer but equally insistent voice.

"Do something!" they both chorused, and she did, lashing out blindly with the considerable power roiling within her. In those moments as the invading armada was decimated, the sorceress the galaxy would come to know as the Dark Lady was born.

With the passage of time, she had ascertained that she had been buried during an attack on her fortress and had fallen into a deep sleep. What she had yet to determine was how, during her long rest, she had absorbed the great quantities of arcane energy she commanded. The recent battle had disturbed her tomb, and she had awakened, suffused with power and her mind awash in chaos.

Word of her abilities—and neophyte status as an enchantress—quickly spread, and soon came those who thought to easily claim her magics for themselves. There was little time to make sense of the confusion raging in her head. The voices told her there'd be time for understanding later—provided she survived that long.

Survive, she did. Now, centuries later, the Dark Lady was a woman to be feared and a force to be reckoned with. Those foolish enough to challenge her were destroyed and their wealth or powers were added to her own resources.

But for what purpose? She didn't know....

"Why did you have to kill him?" came the inevitable, plaintive query from the voice she had dubbed The Wimp.'

"I didn't think you had it in you," was The Witch's' shrill counterattack.

The two voices were her constant—and only—companions. How they had become a part of her, she did not know. They knew things about her but weren't always able to impart them. It was as if they were incomplete, too. The one thing the sorceress did know, the two despised each other, and constantly traded barbs.

"Enough!" the woman shrieked aloud, clapping her hands over her ears as if to shut them out. "Would that I could be rid of you," she seethed. The pair did nothing but add to the chaos in her brain. Sometimes, she could hardly think for all their racket.

"What's the Dark Lady made of? Kitty-Kat's body, and ol' Rita's magic. Without the two of us, you wouldn't exist."

"Without me the two of you would be dead." The mage had figured out that much!

"She does have a point."

"Without us, you'd have no friends," the Witch countered.

The words struck a chord deep within the Dark Lady; it was a feeling she had learned to recognize as an indicator that something had once been of great importance. She had to confess, though, that for all their squabbling, the Witch and the Wimp were the only companions she had in her desolate citadel.

"You used to have lots of friends," the grating voice reminded her. The sorceress was suddenly all attention. Whenever the pair whispered of the past, she tried to hold on to what they said, but often, the impressions were as ephemeral as smoke, slipping elusively through her fingers.

The Wimp had once theorized that the reason she couldn't hold on to the memories was because she really didn't want to remember. But she did! More and more of late, the blank slate of her mind disturbed her, and the vague dreams of pink and white people were maddening. She had to know what it all meant!

"As nauseating as it is to admit, you never wanted power. All you ever wanted was to be with your friends and to live happily ever after with your precious Tommy."

"Tommy?" the mistress of the lunar fortress queried, frowning. The name seemed familiar somehow, and conjured up something... a memory just beyond her reach.

"Tommy. You know: tall, dark, handsome. Long, thick hair and sexy eyes... wore a lot of green, white, and red. Quite a hunk of a man."

The sorceress felt her pulse quicken as an unexpected image surged forth from the depths of her fragmented recollections, and a tide of warmth rushed through her as she experienced the emotions which accompanied it. She had never felt anything like it before—or had she?

"What are you up to?" the softer of the two voices demanded.

"Shut up! Don't you want her to remember?" the Witch hissed.

"Yes, shut up!" the Dark Lady echoed eagerly. She wanted to remember. She wanted to fix that face firmly inside her mind. "Tommy...."

"Yeah... too bad pretty lil' Kimmie had to steal him away."

"Kimmie?"

"Short, cute, gorgeous figure, wore a lot of pink, and so perky it was enough to make you puke. And always had everything you wanted."

The vision of the woman in pink dragging away the man in white returned.

"It's all Kimmie's fault that you're so lonely and miserable and completely psycho now."

"Don't listen to her!" the Wimp railed with unusual vehemence. "Kimberly was one of your best friends, and she didn't steal Tommy from you. You and Tommy tried; it just wasn't meant to be. You let him go a long time ago."

"Oh really? If you were so over Tommy, why were you falling all over yourself to cozy up to his descendant Tyler?"

"I wasn't cozying up to him; I was trying to keep you from killing him...."

"Both of you, be quiet!" the Dark Lady shouted, and momentarily, her disembodied companions fell silent. "So what if I once cared for this Tommy person? He's been dead for centuries."

Laughter, harsh and mocking, suddenly erupted in her head.

"Pathetic twit! Don't you know you can still have him if you want him? You have the power to go back in time. You can change the past. You never wanted to be the Dark Lady. You never wanted to be a mistress of evil, even the whimp here can't argue with that! All you need to do is fix it so that you end up with Tommy, and poof! No more Dark Lady, and you have your happily ever after."

There was something compelling about what the Witch had to say; however, her counterpart interrupted.

"Don't listen to her," the normally more soft-spoken presence implored impassionedly. "She has never cared about your happiness; she only cares about herself. If changing the past was as simple as she says, then why didn't she do it to defeat the Power Rangers?"

"She has a point, Witch," the sorceress murmured.

"Zeddy and I changed the past lots of times."

"And it never did you any good, did it?"

"I know your capabilities better than you do, Screw-Loose; you could do it, if you really wanted to, but if you don't want to take my word for it, you can always go look up those hooded yahoos in the time temple.

"That's it! Seek out the Overlords of the Timestream," the sharp-spoken voice purred seductively. "That is, if you think Tommy's worth it. But then again, you did endure almost three hundred years of captivity for him."

"Go away! Both of you!" the Dark Lady snapped, massaging her temples. She had had enough. Her head always hurt something fierce whenever she had an extended conversation with the voices.

The thought of altering the past was very tempting—and not just to be rid of the nagging voices in her head! She was wary of just blindly following the suggestions; however even if she did seek out the timelords, it would be for reasons of her own: they would be able to help her reclaim her past.

"No more!" the Dark Lady cried out, sitting up in her sumptuous bed, her trembling body drenched in sweat. It was another nightmare. She hated them. She despised the emptiness, loneliness, and helplessness they stirred within her. But most of all, she hated the smiling face of the woman who called her friend and yet robbed her of everything she had ever held dear.

The sorceress abandoned her bed; there would be no more sleeping this night. Instead, she cloaked herself in glamour she had adopted (a blue-haired seductress in skin-tight black) and headed down the hallways of the palatial stronghold of her host, Nortimra, renegade timelord.

The android servants who were about paid her no heed. They had become used to the sultry guest who strode through their master's home as if she ruled there. The Dark Lady took herself to the balcony that overlooked the waterfall that emptied into the lake. She liked to come here to think. The furiously churning liquid mirrored the state of her thoughts.

Fueled by her fading dreams, her mind drifted back to what had brought her to the opposite side of the galaxy from her lunar home. Ironically enough, it had been a series of dreams... imprecise snippets that hinted but never divulged, which teased but never satisfied. There was more of memory than fantasy about the images—visions of the man she now knew to be Tommy and of a woman who wore her face but wasn't quite her. The tantalizing glimpses fairly drove her mad with wanting to know more.

And throughout it all, the Witch and the Wimp had been strangely silent.

Her first step had been to consult the grimoires in Xereth's library. There had been an uncanny sense of homecoming when she had crossed the study's threshold, but she had not set foot in that room since awakening. Be that as it may, she had found plenty of spells for traveling through time as well as for altering events, but every tome recommended the intervention of a timelord for best results.

Finding one of the overlords was not an easy task. The general populace of the galaxy discounted their existence, and those who did believe otherwise, feared the timelords more than they feared her. In the end, she had managed to extract enough clues from hapless informants to locate their temple in the heart of the galaxy.

However, her less-than-subtle approach had alerted the time masters to her interest, and they did not take kindly to it. When she demanded an audience, she was refused, and neither flattery nor bribery could get her anywhere.

Where persuasion failed, she tried coercion, but the lords of the timestream simply shrugged off her arcane assaults. She however, refused to be denied. She had no idea from whence the inspiration came, but she assumed the form of an innocuous cat and slipped inside the impenetrable walls by riding on the trailing tail of an acolyte's robe.

Unfortunately, her charade was swiftly discovered, and she was forced to retreat, but not before learning a valuable piece of information.

The sorceress smiled tightly as she recalled meeting the expatriate timelord. Still garbed in the crimson robes and concealing black trappings of his former vocation, Nortimra was lost in his cups in the most wretched bar in the outer rim when she found him. For his excesses and inappropriate use of his office, the timelord had been stripped of his abilities to manipulate the timestream—but not his knowledge.

The Dark Lady had grabbed his attention by dropping a sack of fire rubies on the table before him and ordering another round. However, when his eyes met hers, she found herself revising her estimate of the man and her plan to indulge his vices. Steel gray eyes met jewel blue, and she knew at once he was no mere sot to be toyed with. This was a dangerous and cunning individual—a worthy opponent.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

Thus began a chessmatch to see who could gain the most while surrendering the least. A challenging game, to be sure, but it was beginning to lose its charm. She grew impatient, especially once she could apply her craftily won knowledge. The first thing she had done was found her past. She knew the events of her life now, but only from a distance. There was no connection... until the dreams had begun again. Now, she knew the taste of yearning, of frustrated desires, of loss, of misery....

"Oh, Lord, he's married!"

The Dark Lady's fingers tightened on the balustrade until her knuckles were white. Her luminous eyes narrowed. She didn't have all the pieces in place, but she knew enough... enough to know that the Witch was right.

And living with the exiled timelord had taught her something else. She didn't want to return to the isolation of the moon and the company of the two maddening voices in her head. She wanted the life she should have had but for that doe-eyed bitch in pink.

And I will have it!

Her dark musings were suddenly interrupted as a resounding explosion shook the remote fortress.

"What the...?" she gasped as a second blast nearly knocked her off her high-heeled boots. Looking skyward, she observed a ship raining down a lethal barrage of laser fire. Then, a hatch opened in the belly of the vessel, releasing figures garbed in spiked, silver armor.

The sorceress was not amused. Whoever was responsible for the assault would rue the day they crossed her path. She was by no means finished with the timelord; no one was going to take him—or cause him to flee—before she was done with him.

The Dark Lady returned to the fortress proper in search of her sparring partner. She moved with deceptive calm as windows burst inwards in her wake. She seemed unconcerned that the ceiling was falling down around her. Descending the ornate staircase, she continued her search for Nortimra. A ruined column crashed towards her, and she brushed it aside with a wave of her hand. However, as the dust settled, she spied the flicker of a retreating crimson robe.

"Not so fast, milord," she hissed as she followed. Her host led her on a merry chase through a maze of hidden staircases and concealed corridors to the very bowels of the citadel. By the time she caught up with him, the enchantress found herself in a grotto, at the rim of a liquid silver pond.

"A time pool," she murmured.

Nortimra spun at the sound of her soft exclamation.

"It appears you were holding out on me, milord," she claimed wryly. He had taught her to scry the past and probe the probabilities in the timestream by using a small dish of the shimmery substance, which provided her with only a partial picture and very distorted images.

The shrewd gray eyes flashed at her.

"What is going on, milord?" she demanded, giving him her most frigid, most imperiously withering glare... not that it ever had any noticeable effect on him.

"Perhaps I should be asking the same of you, milady," the hooded being retorted in his gravely voice. He had always addressed her as milady;' thus she had taken to calling him milord.'

"There's still too much I don't know for me to be bringing your castle down around your ears."

He nodded, conceding the point.

"Who—or what—are those things?" By his act of fleeing, Nortimra had revealed the depths of his fear of the invaders. The timelord had always had great faith in his defenses; to abandon them now meant this was a foe he knew he could not stand against.

"Mercytes."

She regarded him blankly; the name held no meaning for her, and her companion laughed.

"You must have come from a more desolate corner of the galaxy than this one not to have heard of the Mercytes. They are robot assassins, the deadliest killers known to sentient beings. They are virtually unstoppable. They are unaffected by most weaponry, but if one is so lucky to actually take one down.... Like a hydra, destroy one and two more take its place. And, if you possess the mastermold, you have an unlimited supply of tireless warriors loyal only to their programming—which can only be changed through the mastermold, not the individual soldiers. The question is, milady, who is their intended target: you or me? My advice is that we both make sure we are not found."

"And what of our bargain?"

"You won't get to use what you've already learned if the Mercytes get hold of you."

As if on cue, they could hear the sounds of destruction looming closer. Stalactites had shaken loose from the cavern ceiling, splashing into the mirror-bright pool.

"How do I know if the changes I have made in the past will have the effect I want? How do I make them permanent?"

"For a woman with your power, your thinking is very narrow in scope," Nortimra snorted derisively.

"That is my affair."

"And why should I tell you anything further?"

"Because I am the one with the power to get us out of here."

She knew she had made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

"The further in the past the change is made, the longer it takes for its effects to be felt in the present."

The Dark Lady barely kept from reaching out and throttling the timelord. That was naught but common sense. This was no time to be playing games. The assassins were drawing closer.

"As for the alterations being permanent.... The only thing of permanence is the timestream itself. Its course is already set; our present is someone else's past. You can divert the flow of time, creating tributaries, but those offshoots will always rejoin the main body at some point. The bigger the divergence, the longer it takes to right itself. However...."

Nortimra never got to finish his sentence. The Mercytes at last broke through the walls of the grotto, but when the armor-plated slayers stormed the cave, a tiny mouse with crimson fur and gray eyes dashed between their feet and disappeared into the winding passages. A white furred cat with sapphire blue eyes was in hot pursuit.

It was no longer a question of 'if' or 'how'; now it came down to 'when.'

The Dark Lady paced her private study, contemplating her plan—which was to change the past and reclaim her lost life. To do that, she needed to insure that she never fell under Rita Repulsa's transformation spell, and to do that, her former self had to wind up with Tommy Oliver. True, she would no longer be the Dark Lady, but she cared little for her powers now. She did, however, care a great deal about a young man with warm brown eyes and long flowing hair.

"Live happily ever after with your precious Tommy, and none of this will ever have happened," the Witch purred. "No being turned into my kitty-prisoner, no sucking up Zedd's powers... no getting bonked on the head when the castle nearly collapsed...."

"No having you in my head," the sorceress groused at the interruption.

"Nortimra was right; you do think too small. You have the power to level planets and destroy galaxies, and all you want is to shut up two disembodied voices."

"Be quiet! By the way, I haven't heard from the Wimp in a while. What's with her?"

"Oh," the Witch began knowingly, "cat's got her tongue."

The Dark Lady just snorted.

"So, how you going to do it?"

"All the naturally occurring time holes were either sealed by the last generation of Power Brats or are being closely monitored by the timelord," the mage began. "I managed to save enough of Nortimra's scrying pool to be able to create my own portal."

"That's not what I meant. How are you going to get Tommy away from Kimmie?"

"By being in the right place at the right time."

Her thought was to be in Angel Grove the night that Tommy finally wised up and let Kimmie go. Instead of him winding up dating that nobody Karen, she would be there for him. However, there was a bit of a glitch. As she scouted out the timescape, she discovered that important things had happened to her in London while Tommy was telling Kim off. She didn't want to spoil the good things that had happened to her.

What if she and Tommy hadn't broken up when she left for England? However, their relationship had cooled off considerably by that point anyway. Ever since he saw that pink pipsqueak during that business with Divatox.... If he just hadn't seen her again... hadn't been reminded... because things had been going all right up to that point.

"That's it!" she exclaimed. If Kimberly never returned to Angel Grove, she and Tommy would never get back together! All she had to do was come up with a plan to keep Kimmie away!

Laughter filled the sorceress' head, but it wasn't the shrill, mocking tones of the Witch.

"Oh, so you're still around, Wimp," the Dark Lady sneered.

"Stop calling me that. After all, I'm the woman you want to be again."

"You don't need to be so insulting," the enchantress muttered. "What's so funny?"

"You'll never get Kimberly to stay away from Angel Grove. Her home is there. Her friends are there. The man she loves is there."

"Perhaps. However, she'd do just about anything to save Tommy's life, wouldn't she?"

"What do you mean?"

"Simple. We let her know that if she returns to Tommy, if she even sets foot in Angel Grove again, he's a dead man."

"You'd never harm Tommy!"

"True, I need him, but Kimmie doesn't know that. She won't know what hit her."

"She'll go to Jason or one of the others...."

"Then I threaten her by saying that if she goes to anyone—family, friends, the authorities— Tommy dies," the woman huffed in mounting frustration. She didn't need some pathetic twit picking apart her plan!

"That won't...."

The voice's admonition was lost in a reverberating explosion.

"Don't these fools ever learn!" the Dark Lady grumbled. Wrapping her cloak about her, she transported herself to the throne room, and found herself facing a cadre of Mercytes pouring through a hole in the outer wall.

"Get out of my palace!" she shrieked, leveling her staff at the nearest technological terror.

"Target has been located; proceed as directed...."

The Dark Lady blasted the lethal robot with her magics. The force of the energy impacting against it pushed it back, but it was otherwise unscathed.

"Uh oh!"

"Shut up, Witch," the sorceress snarled as she attempted another arcane volley. The blast sent the machines flying in all directions but did them no damage.

"Well, Witch? These are your powers," she demanded as she dodged a bolt from one of the arm-mounted guns.

"Don't look at me; I've never even seen this variety of killer droid before."

"You're useless," the Dark Lady sneered as she fended off a would-be captor with sharp jabs from her staff. The butt of the shaft struck a box-like construct in the center of the chestplate, sending up a shower of sparks. Her assailant was momentarily dazed.

"Back off!" she hissed at another advancing foe. This time, her rod slammed into its neck. The barbed tip pierced the casing, and the unit staggered back, collapsing.

"Now we're getting somewhere!"

"Go for the jugular."

"Don't distract me!"

The Dark Lady dashed across the debris-littered floor in search of more maneuvering room. Finding cover was extremely difficult; the spine-armored assassins were all over the place. She dove and rolled behind her throne, avoiding a deadly shot. A moment later, her seat was reduced to rubble.

"I will not be defeated in my own home!" she fumed, trying to assess her options. Mercytes stood guard at every exit from the hall. She could use a teleportation spell, but she had the suspicion that regardless of where she hid in the castle, they'd find her.

"Duck, twit!" the Witch screamed in her head, and in spite of her ringing ears, the beleaguered mage hit the deck and made a fortuitous discovery. The beam that was meant for her struck the automaton creeping up behind her. The robot exploded like an ill-made putty. She quickly snatched up the fallen droid's weapon. Whirling, she fired on the nearest Merycte. It fell under her assault.

With long-forgotten marksmanship, the Dark Lady cut a fiery swath across the chamber, leaving smoking, ruined body in her wake. As they fell, the metallic bodies dematerialized. At long last, the killers began to retreat through the holes they had made in an attempt to regroup. Once the bulk of the assault team was clear, the sorceress cast her spell, erecting a force field around the castle.

Let them try to get through that.... "Ow!"

One of the robots she had taken out wasn't down for the count. Its shot clipped her arm. Furious, she blasted it again. This time, it stayed down, but before it could vanish like the others, she encased it in a containment spell.

"You're not going anywhere, you bucket of bolts; I want to know where you came from."

"A Mercyte! You want me to work on a Mercyte!" the spider-like creature gasped with undisguised glee. The Sk'aa were known for their affinity with computers, and V'tor was reputed to be one of the best.

"That's right, you long-legged hacker," the Dark Lady confirmed, "and if you can tell me who sent it after me, I might even let you live long enough to brag about it."

However, the multi-limbed tech was unfazed by her threats. The being was positively orgasmic over the possibilities. With a snarl, the sorceress left the Sk'aa to its work.

"Damnation!"

The expletive was followed by an ornate basin flying across the study, spilling its silvery contents everywhere.

"What does it take to tear her out of your heart!"

The Dark Lady was at her wits' end. In between assassination attempts and lack-of-progress reports, she was trying to set her plan in motion at last. However, she had not wanted to jump in blindly; the power expenditure was too great to take chances, so she was forecasting the probabilities.

Nortimra had shown her how to conjure alternate realities to examine how the timestream would be changed at a given point. Other dimensions... how could they exist if the timestream was the be-all and end-all of reality? Unfortunately, Nortimra hadn't gotten to that particular lesson.

Stupid twit, she groused at the renegade timelord. The forecasts had not been favorable. Even though she prevented Kimberly from returning home, Tommy never stopped loving her—and vice versa—no matter whom he wound up with.

"I guess the timestream isn't the only constant in the universe," the Wimp remarked snidely.

"Shut up." She was not in the mood to be trifled with, especially by a voice in her head. Lately, it seemed to be the Wimp's turn to annoy her, with the Witch being unusually silent.

"Give it up. You can't make Tommy stop loving Kim; a part of him will always love her no matter what."

The vexed sorceress was about to fire off a scathing retort, when she was interrupted by a high pitched chittering.

"M'lady, I've done it! I've cracked the Mercyte's programming!" V'tor claimed excitedly.

"It's about time," the Dark Lady huffed impatiently. "So, who sent them?"

"The program doesn't specify," the arachnid technician answered.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't crush you, bug," the mage snarled blackly. The creature before her seemed blithely unaware of her mounting rage and frustration.

"However, I did discover who had programmed the assassins," the Sk'aa continued. "I anticipated that you would want that lead traced.... I haven't had so much fun in years! I outwitted some of the most sophisticated computer systems I have ever encountered...."

"Cut to the chase. Who. Sent. The. Mercytes!"

"Quigax-Nahr of Atredies V."

"Of course, the widow," the Dark Lady sighed. It made perfect sense. According to Ullah custom, a wife was bound to avenge the murder of her husband, and should she fail, the eldest offspring was to carry on, and so through his children and siblings, until the family honor was restored. The only reason the species hadn't wiped itself out was because it was not required to avenge the death of the widow.

"It appears I'll be paying Quigax-Nahr a little visit—once my plans are set."

"They won't do you any good," the Wimp insisted. "You can't keep Kimberly away from Angel Grove indefinitely, and even if you could, a part of Tommy will always wonder and hope...."

"Then I will have to make certain that Kimmie never returns—and that Tommy knows there is no way she ever will."

"And how will you do that?"

"Kill her."

A strange quiet settled over the Dark Lady's mind. Then, she felt a mixture of horror and triumph bubbling with in her.

"Yes," she purred with satisfaction, knowing she had the answer at last. "With Kimmie dead, Tommy will be mine, and I'll be rid of this curse at last!"

And she knew just how she was going to get rid of the meddlesome Pink Power Pest.

"Rest well, husband; you are avenged," Quigax-Nahr toasted her late spouse's funeral monument, invoking the ritual ending to her mourning period. There was no way the Mercytes would fail. Now she could be about the business of finding a new consort and wresting control of Quigax's empire away from her eldest son.

However, her plans disintegrated in a shower of mortar and flying glass.

The Dark Lady strode through the destruction she had wrought. The rest of the household had already fallen to her powers. All that remained was the matriarch.

"You!" the not-so-grieving widow raged, recognizing the enchantress from the reports of her husband's former crew.

"I can either kill you and wipe the Quigax name down to the last hatchling off the face of the universe, or you can cancel your toys' "programming,"" the sorceress announced without preamble.

"Honor demands your death," Quigax-Nahr replied.

"Which means more to you: honor or profit?"

"What do you mean profit'?"

The Dark Lady grinned; she had read the woman right. "You have inconvenienced me more that even your husband, Quigax-Nahr; I do not just go hunting down everyone who wants me dead. That should be sufficient to appease your honor. As for profit... I have a mind to acquire my own cadre of Mercytes—in addition to the ones formerly under your programming...."

"And we all know how that turned out," the Dark Lady muttered blackly, her tale completed. She glowered at her captive. "One stupid, powerless ex-Power Brat and the most feared killers in the universe can't off you. If I hadn't stopped them, those idiots would have killed Tommy and ruined everything."

Kimberly had wondered who had stopped the Mercytes moments before the Turbo Rangers had sealed the time portal. She could scarcely believe everything that Katherine had endured. With all that had befallen her, how could she have kept her sanity, and with all the lies Rita had fed her, it was no wonder her friend hated her. Kim knew she had to think fast. Fortunately for her, Kat wasn't wanting her dead simply out of revenge; she wanted her dead in order to keep from becoming the Dark Lady. That gave her a glimmer of hope. The question was, could she convince her one-time friend that there was another way to prevent it from happening?

"It's taken me a long time to recoup from that fiasco," the woman who used to be Katherine Hillard continued.

So that explains the reprieve.

"And now I'm going to do what I should have done from the start —kill you myself." The sorceress laughed mockingly. "Poor Kimberly. Tommy will miss you, but I'm sure he'll get over it."

"You're not a killer, Kat," Kimberly claimed with conviction, praying that she could stay calm and focused. She hoped she could remember everything Trini had taught her, and she prayed that the old Kat was still inside the sorceress somewhere.

"Oh? 'Kat' may not be a killer, but the Dark Lady. Weren't you paying attention, Kimmie? The floor of this throne room is stained with the blood of my enemies," the sorceress asserted.

"But even the Dark Lady never killed anyone in cold blood. It was always self-defense. They attacked you first; you've never gone out and waged war on anyone out of sheer spite and greed. When you hunted folks down, it was never with the intent to murder; you always had something in mind first.

"And even if you were a killer, you care for Tommy too much to deliberately hurt him. He'd be devastated if I died now that we're back together and going to be married. Could you do that to him? Could you rip his heart out? Could you live with yourself?"

"I wouldn't have to. If Kat marries Tommy in the past, I will cease to exist."

"Not right away, you won't. Remember what Nortimra said? And I remember what Zordon told me after my trip back to the 1880s. You'd create something called a paradox. Your present won't change until the events in the past that led to it are changed. That means, until Tommy gets together with your younger self, you'll have to watch him grieve for me. Pain and grief you caused."

"It'll be worth it," the enchantress asserted, but there was the slightest of catches in her voice.

"Will it? Killing me won't banish me from Tommy's heart, you know. Your scrying proved that. He'll always have a place for me even if he marries someone else; you'll always have to share him with me, and the memory of a dead rival can be more powerful than the presence of a living one. Would you ever feel really secure in Tommy's love? Would you never worry about competing with a ghost? Would you ever wonder if the only reason Tommy was with you was because I was dead? All Rita would have to do is make you doubt your relationship with Tommy, and she'd have you just like she did before."

"But what if he never fell in love with you?" the Dark Lady challenged, her eyes gleaming with sudden inspiration, and Kim had to wonder if Rita was whispering in her ear. "I can go back and fix things so that he never even met you. Then he'd be free!"

"But would he be the Tommy you fell in love with?" Kimberly countered. "We're shaped by all the people in our lives. Sure, Tommy could have met the others and became a Ranger without me being around, but he's told me that I was one of the reasons he never got down on himself when he lost his powers, why he never gave up and kept on hoping he'd get them back some day. It wasn't easy fighting the depression, anger, hurt and envy, and if he hadn't fought, then there's a good chance Rita could have gotten her hooks into him and made him evil again.

"What if he never became the White Ranger? Would you have even met him? If you had, would you have still fallen for him. Would he still be the man you love? He'd still be cute, but he'd be a different person inside —where it really matters.

"You once said you'd really love to have a relationship like he and I had. You told me that what impressed you most was that a guy could care so much and show it openly. How could you have seen that if Tommy and I never had our relationship?

"And if not me, then he might have fallen for whoever the Pink Ranger was at the time...."

Be silent!" the Dark Lady hissed sharply, not liking the turn of the conversation, but Kim pressed home her advantage.

"Do you really love Tommy? You're not doing this for his happiness... in fact, you're trying to destroy his happiness. You're doing this for your own selfish reasons!"

The sorceress let out a shriek. Energy flew wildly from her fingertips, smashing into walls, columns and Kimberly's containment field. The trapped woman tried not to flinch as energy flared around her. Then, a wayward burst hit the platform. The field shorted out, and Kim was thrown from the base, landing hard amid the debris.

"I have to do this!" the mage screamed, on her knees, weakened by the power expenditure. However, to Kimberly's ears, her voice sounded different. It wasn't as cold and haughty as before. If she wasn't mistaken, a little bit of Kat's inflection was in her tones. She had been purposely addressing the sorceress by her name in an effort to reach the former Ranger within. Had she gotten through to her somehow?

"I don't want to be the Dark Lady," she continued to rage. "I want to be Katherine Hillard again! I want to be happy; I don't want Rita's powers to make me evil!"

"Kat, you're not evil, even if you have Rita's dark magic inside you," Kim asserted, overjoyed to see that her friend had managed to regain a tiny bit of control over her alter ego.

"If I'm not evil, then why did the Morphin' Grid reject me when I touched it? Why did you guys turn me away?" the enchantress demanded, referring to the time she'd touched the Grid while retrieving Tyler's Power Coin.

"Think, Kat. If you'd joined the Morphin' Grid at that time, what would have happened to Tyler? Who would have saved him? Who would have given him the key to defeating Malus? What would have happened to the earth and the moon if you hadn't absorbed Rita's powers? The Grid rejected you because it wasn't your time yet. You had a mission to fulfill, Pink Ranger!"

"That means I'm doomed to be the Dark Lady always!" the woman who was once Katherine sobbed.

"Not necessarily," Kimberly said quietly, coming over to embrace her devastated friend. "The timelord told you that the bigger the change in the timestream, the longer it takes to correct. Did it ever occur to you that maybe your life as the Dark Lady was the screw up? That maybe you weren't meant to be the Dark Lady and Rita messed up time again?"

The sorceress glared up at her; however, to Kim's surprise, when she spoke, the voice did not belong to the Dark Lady.

"Don't listen to her! She's desperate to save her life; she'll say anything! She's the reason Tommy doesn't love you. Kill her, and you'll have everything you ever wanted."

The Dark Lady put her hands over her ears as if to shut the voice out. "Shut up and leave me alone, Witch!"

"Rita?" the gymnast queried softly.

Her companion nodded. "If I kill you, I'll have everything I ever wanted."

"No, you won't. Kill me, and you really will become evil. You'll have killed an innocent in cold blood."

"You're no innocent, Kimmie," Rita sneered through Kat. "You did this to her!"

"So you say, but we both know who's really at fault," Kim answered her old nemesis. To Kat, she said, "Even if you believe that I am responsible for what's happened to you, my baby has done nothing."

"B-baby?"

"Yes, Kat, I'm pregnant," she sighed, praying she'd done the right thing by mentioning it.

"Y-you can't be! You're not even married... Rose isn't supposed to be born...."

"That's your past, not mine. You changed all that by sending the Mercytes. You may not give a damn about me, but can you kill Tommy's baby? After all, you cared for Tyler because he was a part of Tommy.

"Kat, if you love Tommy, don't listen to Rita. When has she ever told the truth to anyone? She's been going on about how this is all my fault, but she's the one who kidnapped you and put you under her spells. She's the one who took your life away. Why? Because she's hated Tommy ever since she lost her evil Green Ranger. This isn't about you and me, Kat. It's about Rita trying to get revenge on Tommy and using you to do it, just like she did when you first came to Angel Grove. Don't let her use you any more."

"But how? I can't...."

"Yes, you can," Kim insisted, grabbing the shaken sorceress by the shoulders and looking her squarely in the eyes. "Listen to me. You don't need me or Tommy or anyone else to defeat Rita. You have the strength inside you. You're the only Ranger who has ever thrown off Rita's control without a counter spell or something. Remember how you shook her off when I fell off the balance beam? Your goodness broke her hold on you. If you want to change what happened to you, it has to be something inside you that makes the difference —not Tommy's love or the lack thereof— otherwise Rita will be able to undermine anything you do.

"Send me home, Kat. Killing me won't make Tommy love you any more than he already does —and he does love you. You see, even though Tommy and I are going to be getting married, I still have to share him with you. With Jason. With all our friends. He has room in his heart for all of us, and you know what? I don't mind at all. If he didn't care so much about everybody, he wouldn't be Tommy."

The Dark Lady paused, considering her words. The anxious mother-to-be regarded her captor; she could almost hear their old foe railing at her host.

"If I send you back to when I took you, you won't remember any of this," the sorceress cautioned.

"That's all right. If I knew about this, I'd be tempted to do something to influence the outcome."

"But what if it doesn't work?"

"You have nothing to lose by trying it this way instead of Rita's. If it doesn't work, you have the power to try again. What could it hurt?"

She stared deep into the jewel-blue eyes. She could see the conflict raging inside her friend. Kimberly didn't want to push her luck, but she couldn't let Rita get a solid hold on Katherine again.

"Trust yourself, Kat. Believe in yourself. I do."

She didn't look away as Katherine studied her. Kim held her breath, waiting as the sorceress tried to determine the veracity of her words.

"Very well," the Dark Lady said at last.

Kim could not hold back her sigh of relief.

"Stand over by the balcony," the enchantress instructed.

Kimberly took her place and smiled encouragingly. "Don't worry, Kat; you can beat Rita. I know you can."

The Dark Lady said nothing, and with a wave of Kat's slender hand, the young woman saw her world begin to swirl about itself like a whirlpool, slowly dissolving, sweeping her away.

I'm pregnant!

Kim found a nearby bench and slowly sank into the seat, her knees feeling suddenly weak. The doctor put it at just about twelve weeks... Tommy's surprise visit at the end of February.

Now what? she wondered. What were they going to do? She was supposed to work and start school at AGU in the Fall. Tommy wouldn't be home for good until late November/early December. They weren't supposed to be married until just before Christmas!

Kim buried her face in her hands, feeling lightheaded. She was going to have a baby! The thought didn't scare her as it once would have. She and Tommy were only nineteen —pretty young to be parents— but there were times when Kim's spirit felt as old as Zordon! There was so much to consider... to do.... How was she going to tell their folks? Well, Tommy's parents wouldn't be a problem; Jan had figured out she was pregnant before she had any inkling. She had even made the doctor's appointment for the pregnancy test. Besides, his folks had been so great already; they'd do whatever they could to help out, but her mother... ooh, that was one phone call Kim wasn't looking forward to. On the one hand, her mom would be thrilled to be a grandmother; on the other, she'd be worried about how it looked for her daughter to have a child out of wedlock. Sometimes her mom could be so old fashioned....

Kim felt another wave of dizziness hit her. She shook her head, trying to clear it; that only made her nauseous.

Oh, tell me this isn't morning sickness!

Kim finally pinpointed her greatest anxiety as what to tell Tommy. He'd be thrilled, without a doubt —he'd talked often enough about having his own family. But what would knowing he was going to be a father do to his racing career? He'd want to come and be with her —watch the baby grow. He'd probably want to get married right away, but they really needed the money from his driving —now more than ever. If he gave that up, he'd never be able to start his own school. She didn't want Tommy to sacrifice his dream.

We should have been more careful.

Unable to sit still any longer, Kimberly hopped up and meandered over to the water's edge. She stooped down to pick up a couple of stones and idly tossed them into the water, watching the ripples surge then slowly melt away. There was no sense worrying about what could have been.

Tommy, I wish you were here right now. I'm so happy and scared and....

"Hey, Beautiful."

"Tommy?"

Kim's head shot up to find her fiance coming down the path towards her. How had he known where she was? She hadn't called Jan or anything upon leaving the clinic. She hurriedly dashed away the moisture that had gathered in the corners of her eyes.

"How'd you know I'd be here?" she wondered. This was almost too good to be true, and yet, here she stood, awash in his tender gaze and warm smile.

"Mom said that you had a doctor's appointment and that you'd had a lot on your mind lately. I just figured you'd eventually show up here; you and I have done some pretty heavy-duty thinking on this spot," he elaborated. Then, he became serious. "Is something wrong, Kim?"

"Not really... oh, I'm just so happy you're here!" With a joyful squeak, she threw herself into his arms, hugging him as tightly as she could.

"I didn't mean to be away so long," he apologized, tilting her head up to give her a heartfelt kiss. When their lips parted, Kim caught Tommy's hands in hers and beamed up at him, flashes of liquid silver glimmering in her eyes.

"Tommy, I've got something to tell you...."

Ice blue eyes watched as first shock, then happiness passed over Tommy's handsome features. With a whoop of joy, he picked up his fiancee and whirled her about. The parents-to-be laughed, chattering excitedly between exuberant kisses. The watchful eyes narrowed.

You'd better be right about me, Kimberly, for all our sakes.

After making her good-byes and declining the offer of a ride back to the dojo, Kat stepped onto the front porch and drew in a calming breath. Her hand shook as she grasped the railing.

This wasn't quite the homecoming she had expected.

She had wondered if Tommy might have found someone else —maybe even settled down if he wasn't still driving for his uncle, but she had hoped that he hadn't that there would be a chance for them to try again. That he and Kimberly had gotten back together (and that had been some tale!) and had a sweet little daughter was a turn of events she hadn't been prepared for. It surprised her that it hurt so much; she hadn't realized just how much the possibility of getting back together with Tommy had meant to her.

"Kat, are you okay?" David queried. Tommy's brother had joined them for dinner once he had finished with the classes at the dojo. She hadn't realized he had followed her outside.

"I'm fine."

"The mush get a little too thick for you?" he pursued knowingly. His words gave her a moment's pause; had she been that obvious? David chuckled and shook his head. "You'd think that after six months of marriage and a kid, the lovey-dovey stuff would have worn off, but noooo, they're as bad as ever."

"They've always been pretty mushy," Kat agreed with a smile.

"You will be by for breakfast, won't you?" David continued. "Hey, it's worth the price of admission to see the former leader of the Power Rangers with baby food in his hair."

This time, Kat laughed softly.

"We'll see how late I sleep in."

"Are you sure you don't want a ride back to your car?"

"I'm sure. It's only a couple of blocks, and it's such a nice evening.... A walk will do me good, but thank you."

"All right, I'll see you then."

"Bye, David."

Kat gave him a friendly peck on the cheek then headed down the drive without a backward glance. She had never felt so lonely in her entire life.

She tried to hold back her tears of disappointment as she idly kicked at the pebbles in her path while she meandered down the sidewalk. She had tried so hard not to get her hopes up, so what happened...?

It's not fair! she raged inwardly. It wasn't fair that Tommy had given Kim a second chance and hadn't even given her a first. I loved you as much as Kim did... I'd never have broken your heart....

But Kim had broken his heart to save his life. Could she have done what Kimberly had: sacrifice everything she ever loved to keep this one man alive? As a Power Ranger, she'd risked her life often enough for her teammates, but this had gone beyond the call of duty.

Could she begrudge her friends their happiness? They certainly paid a high enough price for it. When she had first reached out to Tommy in the wake of Kimberly's letter, her only intent had been to ease his pain... to make him happy again. Tommy was happier now than he had been in a very long time. She wanted to be happy for her friends —she really did. She just wished it didn't have to hurt so much.

From the first time she'd laid eyes on Tommy while under Rita's spell, she'd been attracted to him. As she watched him and the Pink Ranger together, she'd been envious of what they shared because she wanted that for herself. Once Rita's spell had worn off, she'd thought her feelings would change that they'd been brought about by the magic, but they hadn't been. They were truly hers. All she had ever wanted was a chance to be happy like that; was that so much to ask for?

Let it go. If their relationship could survive all it has, then maybe Tommy and Kim were meant to be together. They've earned their happiness; don't spoil it for them by being jealous.

Kat paused at the corner; she hadn't realized she'd come so far. She looked back at the cozy little house. David was still on the porch, watching. Did he really know how troubled she was? Kat dredged up a cheerful smile and waved. She supposed she could turn around and go back—accept their invitation to stay.

Why don't you? You came home because you were tired of being alone. Your friends opened their home and their hearts to you. They want to share their joy with you—just like they've always done. You don't have to be alone.

Katherine suddenly tossed her head back and laughed at herself. She was being ridiculous! These were her friends. She didn't need to be envious of them. They had proven time and again that she'd always have a place in their hearts, that she'd never be truly alone. She had wanted to be some place where she was loved and appreciated... she had wanted to be with someone who loved her. That place was just down the block. And that person...

They say there's someone for everyone. Tommy and Kimberly had found each other long before I came along. There's someone out there for me, too; I just haven't found him yet....

Before she realized what she was doing, Kat was striding quickly back towards the Oliver house. David came forward to meet her.

"Change your mind?" he asked, his tone hopeful.

"I'm not certain if I'm up to the day bed in the baby's room, but if that sleeper sofa is still available, I think I'll take you up on it," she said. "I'd rather spend time with my friends that sit in a motel room all by myself."

"I'm glad," David replied. "As for the sofa... it's pretty lumpy, so I'll take it and you can have my room."

"I wouldn't want to put you out...."

...or maybe I have met him and just haven't realized it.

Epilogue
"It worked! I—she—did it!" The Dark Lady gasped, momentarily fumbling over the pronouns as she watched her younger self walk back towards the Oliver house with David.

"If it worked, then why are you still here?"

"It's the turn of the 22nd century; that happened back at the turn of the 21st. It's going to take some time for the effect to catch up to us."

"And maybe nothing really changed in the past after all. Maybe it's your destiny to be the Dark Lady!"

However, instead of invoking despair, the witch's words brought a sense of calm to the fair-haired sorceress.

"Maybe you're right," the Dark Lady said at last, smiling as if she knew some secret the other woman did not. "Although, considering how much you've wanted me to change the past and not become the Dark Lady, I'm beginning to believe otherwise. However, even if I didn't change the past, I know I changed the present."

"Huh?"

"Katherine throwing off your hold in the past showed me that I don't have to be your slave< that I'm stronger than you are. I don't have to be the Dark Lady any longer."

The words were uttered with conviction, and the enchantress felt the tumult within that her statement had created, but for a change, she was not at the eye of the chaos.

"Stupid twit! As long as you hold my powers, you'll be the Dark Lady!"

But she knew better. She could feel it with each passing moment, Katherine's hold grew stronger over the fragmented personalities. However, Rita did have a point. As long as she existed in her mind, there was always a chance that she would regain control.

"Then perhaps it's time I let them go," she answered, and she winced as laughter erupted in her head.

"Without my magic, you'll die."

"I should have died a long time ago," the sorceress/Kat asserted. "I'm not afraid of dying, Rita. I know my friends are waiting for me."

"You can't let go of my powers!" the would-be empress of evil gasped, desperation settling in. She could feel her hold over her host slipping like sand through her fingers. "If you let them go, they'll destroy everything! Do you want to blow up your precious Earth?"

"As long as the magic is dormant, nothing will happen. I've had lots of time to read up on this. All I need to do is will them back to the cosmos from whence they came."

"You wouldn't... you can't... you're too much of a wimp to...."

The former Dark Lady crossed the ancient chamber to stand on the balcony. Finding a large slab of fallen debris to sit on, she faced her home planet. Closing her eyes and looking inward, she examined the arcane energies permeating her being. Most of the powers at her command were simply stored within, waiting to be called up, but some of it was tied directly to her life energy.

"Dak-tor...."

"What are you doing?" Rita shrieked.

The one-time sorceress smiled.

"Ami-ah...."

"You can't...!"

"Vo-neh... hai!"

The words were uttered, and Kat could feel the magic flowing form her like water draining from a bathtub. She could see it washing out to rejoin the fabric of the universe where it belonged.

"What have you done?" Rita raged, but her voice and presence were much fainter than before.

"I've released the powers. It will take them a long time to fully leave me, but I'll be long gone by the time the process is finished."

"What do you mean?"

"I want nothing from you. Not even my life."

In her mind's eye, Kat tore through thread after dark thread that ensnared and supported her life energy.

"I've wiped out all your spells...."

Already she felt the press of the centuries weighing down on her. She watched as her body seemed to shrivel up, her skin shrunken, wrinkled and darkened with immense age. She saw her fingers contract into gnarled knots. She felt the weight of her hair... until it became brittle, the strands snapping.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Good-bye, Rita."

Yet, for all the changes, there was no pain. The blue orb before her blurred as her vision dimmed. She closed her eyes, a sense of serenity sweeping her along. She wasn't afraid of the darkness. She wasn't afraid of the cold that seemed to have settled deep within her bones. She wasn't afraid of anything. There was something familiar about the state in which she was suspended... like she'd experienced this before. She was waiting for something....

Then came the light.

She reached out to it and found herself a part of it —a multi-hued web of energy strands. Red. Yellow. Blue. Black. Pink. Green. White. The Morphin' Grid. She herself shimmered pink, and though she knew she had no body, she yet seemed to have physical form —that of the young woman she had been the day Rita had abducted her. Overjoyed, she cast about, searching.... She felt their presences before she saw them.

"Welcome home, Kat!"

Tanya.

"About time!"

Rocky.

"It's good to see you again."

Adam.

"I've missed you all so much," Kat gushed as she felt herself surrounded by all those that she loved. Greetings poured in from all sides: Billy, Aisha, Jason, Justin, and Rangers she had never known.

"I'm sorry we had to send you away when you were here before," Tommy apologized, and Kat felt how much that refusal had cost him.

"I know; I had a job to do," she assured him with a smile.

"Thank you for what you did for Tyler... for all of us," Kimberly added, giving her old friend a warm hug.

"You'd have done the same for me," Kat said, knowing it to be the truth. She looked around at all her friends... her family. "Is Tyler here?"

"Junior's around here somewhere," someone snorted, and everyone burst into peals of merriment.

Surrounded by laughter, friendship and love, Katherine Hillard knew she was home at last.

End

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