The Sun Goes Down
by Peregrine

Fire and a child of fire mingled. There was no danger here, only the joyous light and the epitome of the fantastic energy that had so characterised Jason's life. The Red Lion Ninjetti existed as fire, his Zord a living flame within fire, given shape by his will and barely resisting the glory around him, calling his innermost spirit to join with this greatest of fires. The Sun had a presence to him now, a wonderful presence filling him with welcome and an ecstasy he could not describe or compare with anything he had ever experienced before. It was only Dulcea, Dulcea in danger that kept him from releasing his shape and bleeding into the heart of the Sun. The thought of her a moment from death, crushed in the jaws of a Dragon that could tear apart moons.

Flame to flame, his spirit communed with the Sun and sensed, like a pearl of coolness, the shape of the orb swirling in plasma solar fire. He sought it, and stretched, the LionZord shape of flame seizing the precious irritant in jaws of fire and turned away from the warmth and life to the absolute coldness of space.

Riding a solar flare Jason rose up, bounding up through that arc and leaping outwards away from the light, the fire cooling to solidity once more... to normal senses - and to a black shape coming straight at him and a desperate clamouring voice in his ears and mind!

"Take it back in! Take it back in! We got her free, the others are fighting the Dragon! Take it back in!" Billy yelled again under heavy fire, the WolfZord at bay. They were losing, and losing badly. The Darkness Visible's higher-powered craft was kicking them all over space, and he had the distinct impression he was just passing time before the main event.

"Billy?" Jason was momentarily stunned as he saw the battered WolfZord literally cannoned out of the way by the black craft and he tried to turn, though his protection from the sun was gone. With no need to bargain, he had to right the problem he had caused even if it meant not surviving himself. At least the fire would welcome him.

But he was too late. An impact to his Zord tossed him out into space and he turned and found himself grappled by the Darkness Visible, tendrils of invisible force drawing him in inexorably.

Jason fought, clawed, fired everything he had to get free, but his Power levels were low and for all the damage he inflicted, the LionZord received double for all of Billy and Skye's desperate assistance.

"Can't... can't shake him!" Jason called out, systems going critical around him as he strove to wrest the Orb still secure in LionZord's jaws away from this danger.

"You've got to." Billy attacked again, realising with a sinking feeling he might have to invoke Skye now and reached for the Glyph again, looking across at Skye with a desperate apology in his eyes—and then they were clipped hard enough to throw them around like beans in a tin. Billy hit the console and slid momentarily unconscious to the floor, leaving Skye barely able to help themselves, let alone Jason.

"Jason! You've got to get free. Billy's out of it and ... LOOK OUT!" Skye babbled, wrenching at the fried controls.

A deflected world destroyer blast from the other battle raging behind them in space, spread and hurtled towards them as they all tried to jet clear in a clumsy scramble. A bit further... a bit further ... but the grappling Zords were caught in the very edge of the energy, and all Skye heard was a cry from Jason as they were tossed around by the tidal wave of plasma force.

~*~

The Ninjetti MegaZord Warrior fought the Dragon Avatar with all its might in a bizarre, star- strewn enactment of the legend of St George. There were no superlatives that were meaningful enough to describe the immensity of the construct, or the forces that were involved every time it swung a sword that seemed it could slice the moon, or in the immense spirit Power it wielded.

Still though, the Dragon Avatar was bigger, stronger and vicious with the imperative imposed upon it by the Darkness Visible.

It was strange how the mind of this Ninjetti warrior worked, knowing and sensing as if by instinct the conclusion from the individual minds adding to a whole. It battled, seeing the tell-tale arc of energy rise up the spine of the Dragon and powered up the sword with the Ninjetti Spirit Power that was the only effective weapon against this monster.

The head whipped forward and the sword, in a flash of light sheared the blast AWAY from Earth towards the more distant sun, which would not be harmed.

The dragon roared in frustration, whipping its tail around in a thunderous arc to strike the Ninjetti warrior from its defensive stance. It hit the Zord's side and individual Ninjetti were crushed in the attack, but the whole remained intact. Again and again they battled, loss of individual lives in each strike causing pain and destruction in this cataclysmic struggle, seemingly going nowhere until from somewhere in the united consciousness a thought rose and gathered strength.

When the dragon roared, there had been no force field around the mouth, where they had freed Dulcea.

And someone—Trini, deeply buried in the subconscious of the Megazord—realised the implications of the thought, connected the observation with a possibility she had witnessed in the Prophecy on Triforia:

"In that Darkness no Light exists, but it is swallowed by Darkness. Yea, even that of the Shahin Tara Zed"

Swallow did not mean defeated! It meant literally what it said! The clue had been there all along! The way to finish the Dragon was to fire the Shahin Tara Zed, Tommy, the Arrowhead that was his glyph shape, down its very throat!

The thought percolated, developed and exploded into the Warrior's consciousness and so Tommy found himself detached long enough to invoke the power within him. The Master Power was fuelled by that implicit belief that if it came down to it, the fate of the world, of everything, was down to him. That tortured part of him, grown from the guilt of being responsible for his deeds as the evil Green Ranger, was now showing its positive side. If he could believe he was responsible for nearly destroying the world, he had the capacity for believing he could likewise SAVE his home.

The words were spoken to release his Master Power, and that fierce falcon energy; the force of air and fire, passion and intensity forged himself and his Zord into an arrowhead of White Power. Pure, dazzling and deadly he became the arrowhead as the Ninjetti Warrior Zord carved an arc of energy through space and nocked their final arrow to a bow of starlight.

Sensing the culmination of events the Avatar of the Darkness Visible, Serpentera Reborn, feeding on the lives of Nid-hi wielders of the spirit power, coiled around the void, drawing plasma lightning up its dark serpent spine. Crackling up its throat, lighting the cavernous maw with the energy more akin to the heart of a star, the planet-destroying creature roared, and as it opened its gaping maw the might of the Shahin Tara Zed was loosed from the Warriors bow, channelling the hopes of the weary defenders into the killing point.

Into the fire, into the heart of darkness, hard, resolute energy focused in Tommy's will, diamond hard, piercing and unstoppable. Into the jaws of Darkness itself, Tommy yelled a ringing battle cry that resounded through the Ninjetti collective. He could NOT be stopped! He would NOT be stopped! He was a singing flame through space, a thunderbolt of justice cast by a protective deity and he would destroy those that threatened his love, his friends, his family, and his home.

And the Arrow, the Shahin Tara Zed, plunged into the mouth of their adversary, as it was about to loose the killing shot that would destroy them.

Part of the energy did escape, enough to blow the overstrained Ninjetti warrior apart into damaged component Zords, a scattering of spinning motes of metal against the battlefield of space.

The Star Striking Falcon ripped down the inside of the monstrous construct, segments rupturing and bleeding white fire as it writhed in an agony of mortal injury and defeat. The explosions slowed as if the deadly missile had become lodged in its metallic gut and tore it apart from the inside out.

A ragged, almost disbelieving babble of triumph gathered pace, though to Rocky's ears they were drowned out by the desperate yearning cry from Kim calling Tommy's name over and over.

"He's... still there somewhere," he managed when he remembered how to think. "Still there." Had they just won? He ... couldn't think. Had they? Where was Kat?

But as the wounded, damaged Ninjetti watched the death throes of the dragon-thing, dizzy from their experience and scarcely comprehending their situation, it was a cruel time for them to turn and realise their perceived victory was going to be completely worthless in the light of what was happening closer to the sun.

~*~

The Red LionZord was crippled and the Darkness Visible seized the Orb of Order, glorying in its possession. It was so small to contain such power, but he knew the size he saw was a perceptual illusion.

The being's form fluctuated with pure pleasure. "It is mine! Once more it is mine and I shall control it with its opposite. Chaos shall awaken Order; Order shall govern Chaos under my direction. There will be no law that cannot be broken or rewritten, the universe shall conform to my Will!"

Surely it could be permitted this exultation. After so long, millions of years, he was so close to unlocking the secret. All that time in exile, he had sought other dimensions, found the unfindable and then returned, knowing he could unlock the Power that had eluded him. A power born of the spirit; why, that first Ninjetti Master had been able to wake it to his touch where he had not. But he had learnt the way and created his own version of the Great Power, using the Nid-hi and was more than a Master. He was the origin of the religion, after all. There would be no limits to what he could do, create, destroy with the merest effort. Each Orb was a solidified representation of multi-dimensional forces of reality. Even dormant, the natural swirling of reality around it created miracles of nature. These humans for example, they had been lucky and resilient beyond belief. But then after he found the Orb of Chaos he had been similarly blessed. It had been worth the trials even if it didn't respond to his will then without eating away at him—but it would submit to his mind when its twin lay within his grasp. Where Chaos consumed, Order would replenish, and where Order consumed, Chaos would replenish. Balance and Power beyond imagining. He smiled and drew the precious object inside his craft, assuming a physical form to do this final act.

~*~

Skye knelt beside Billy, pale with panic and fear. "For God's sake, wake up! Stop him! I can't DO anything like this." An immense dread had reached inside of him and curdled his insides into ice that burned. "Jason?! JASON! Please... please, I can't do anything until Billy is awake!"

There was only the barest hint of a presence there. ... trying ... A mind presence saturated in pain and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth in a horrifying echo of Jason's condition.

Skye reached and drew back, assessing what would be the most help at this point. Jason could not help him, not like that. Well, he may not have access to full power, but he could use what had naturally been his. Concentrating, and hoping it would be soon enough, he drew the healing energy and poured it into Billy to bring him round and able to act. It worked swiftly enough, but he did not dare commit too much energy to the healing for fear he might need it soon for other things.

Billy stirred and sat up groaning, warm blood trickling down his face. "What ..." He didn't get to finish his question before he leapt to the console of the stricken WolfZord. "He got it? Oh God." The Blue Wolf Ninjetti swallowed, blond hair stained dark with blood. "Oh God, no ..."

This was it, they had failed. Full circle back to where they started this path; to when he was a failure, nothing but a fixer who was broken himself. He tried to rally himself, having to face the real possibility he had doomed them all.

"There are two Orbs there," Skye said in a quiet, sickened voice. "They awaken. The Darkness Visible has no idea what it is doing ... no idea!" His voice rose again as the panic seeped out once more.

The dissonance grew in him, that source of the echoes that had reached into the past to warn them that there was more at stake than a world or even a galaxy.

"Billy?! it's wrong ... so ... terribly wrong, I feel it ..." Skye had his hands clasped over the embedded Star Crystal in his forehead which was sending dizzying, alarming waves through him as if reality around them had started to spiral and melt.

Billy looked at his Reality Node finder with growing horror, deducing what was happening. The Darkness Visible was not going to control these forces. To his experienced eye the patterns of Power resembled a black hole singularity and a supernova linking in an infinite loop of expansion. They weren't BALANCING, they were growing! He opened the communications channel, fumbling desperately to hail the Darkness Visible. "Take them apart... separate them! I beg you, just take them apart!" he pleaded. Pride had no place here and now. He could sacrifice that along with everything else. "Don't you see what is happening? They are FEEDING off of each other!"

"And your point is?" The Darkness Visible stared down at the two orbs floating in suspension fields as he drew them closer together. Oh, they were beautiful, so beautiful in a way that was hard to quantify. How could you explain that one as it wakened was full of the brightness of universes born, star-children joyfully setting forth on their bright journeys through time and space, and the other full of the glories of universes dying, the sweeping power of entropy and the blazing fires of hope in the darkness.

It was like seeing the eyes of God and viewing the Soul Of All Things through that visionary portal—and all that brought forth in the Darkness Visible was a need to control, to own and possess that Soul and call it his own.

"My point is that they are drawing energy from other dimensions, they are not limited by physics HERE. " Billy shouted as if volume would convey the urgency of his message.

"I know." So beautiful, they were singing to each other, yearning to their opposite. The Blue Wolf Ninjetti could not touch him now. No Prophecy could defeat him, all that time of planning and plotting and manipulating coming together in a perfect moment of culmination.

"You KNOW? But when they get enough power, reality will rip! Rip across dimensions!" Billy was yelling now. "For God's SAKE! What good will that do anyone?"

"I shall control it, I shall step outside the rip into the Outside and become the Source," the Darkness Visible said in a hushed tone.

Billy was momentarily flabbergasted by the arrogance of the entity. How could he think so much of himself as to believe that he could control such Power? To Billy, who constantly found evidence of failure in his own self, the actual rather major flaw in this plan was glaringly and frighteningly obvious. It all relied on the Darkness Visible actually being able to hand the Orbs and that was VERY unlikely.

"You think it will be a small thing? It will drop through the reality thresholds like a lead weight through tissue paper and they will all fold in on top of it!" Billy was desperate now. Why was it that NONE of his weapons worked?

There was a sudden shift and a disorientating sensation as if existence had lurched sideways and Billy turned to look at Skye with a cold, cold feeling inside. The end had begun.

~*~

The Zha'kha-rhee'aa had never had occasion to think that on any level he might be mortal. He was a being of very little matter and a high proportion of energy; physical danger was in practicality non-existent until he had crossed the paths of the Ninjetti. They fought with energy, and for the first time all those aeons ago he had realised he could be hurt. And to a being that was out to dominate and control, discovering a weakness in himself was crushing. He had thought himself a god, and to some worlds, to many worlds before his defeat, he had been omnipotent. So his ambition had been to become truly invulnerable, to achieve the level of power that would make him ultimately untouchable and ensure immortality. Even so, it never occurred to him there might be a Power involved that he could not handle. Why should he think of that? He'd never yet found a situation in which he had not triumphed.

So it was with an arrogance and hubris born of ignorance that he had disregarded the chattering worries of the child Ninjetti. Who would know better? One who had existed longer than their planet had had sentient life forms, or a mere stripling of the Ninjetti?

He was betting on his own experience and knowledge. After all, he had outwitted and out-manoeuvred their entire council of the Wise. Resolutely he moved the two orbs close... and they sang. Energies flowed in a brightening vortex from one to the other and back again in an infinity loop and he experienced a soaring exultation as he stepped closer. There was a strange disorientation as if instead of the Orbs being small it was himself who was immense and about to touch two self-contained universes.

If he had listened with his instincts and his heart, he would have felt the terrible outcry of wrongness that resonated through their reality and touched the spirits of those attuned in a wordless cry of desperation. He did not listen, he saw only what he wanted to see and as the rip began, a slow rending of the flesh of space, he moved forward to claim his bright destiny.

If it were that easy it would have been done before. There were more powerful beings in the universe than the Darkness Visible who could have followed the same quest and taken that power if it were just a matter of finding the Orb and laying hands upon them. If the Zha'kha-rhee'aa had considered itself anything less than the most superior being in existence, he might have reached that conclusion, but instead he ignored the worried promptings of his own mind and reached for the Orbs.

Tingling, strange tingling, no, a burning and pulling at the touch. He extended his will over the two Orbs, expecting them to fall under his sway with little resistance. A bad mistake. The Powers lunged at the connection, hungry and bright.

Chaos tore at his mind, a ravening beast with claws of entropy that slashed at his most private self; Order sent prison bars of boundaries into him, through him, impaling even the energy self so there was no escape.

All the while the Abyss opened before him, a hungry maw that would consume everything, filled with... filled with horror beyond his imaginings. It seemed a strange thing to say of a creature that had existed for millions of years, but in the grand scheme of things he was young, and naïve, and had not considered that there would be things beyond his comprehension and his imagination.

He was torn apart molecule by molecule, bleeding slowly into the infinite realities that gaped before him and tossed his agonised atoms across myriad streams of time and space.

He could not stop the screams; of pain and of shock as his body form dissolved with a hideous deliberation, his energy flesh melting into component subatomic energies as his thought form skeleton was forcibly preserved by the influence of the Orb of Order.

"Help me! HELP ME!" The cries were curiously insubstantial as if the Zha'Kha-rhee'aa's golden voice was being eaten away with the rest of his being. "Too strong, the abyss..."

That last was in a whisper of such consuming horror that chilled the listener's blood.

Billy stared at the dissolving Nid-hi craft, melting as if acid burnt inside each atom. Inexorably they were being drawn in themselves, and he was powerless to prevent it or to do anything about this! And still the Darkness Visible filled the void with screams as his final 'bones' sundered and smashed into non-existence; a final if unmerciful end to the one willing to tear apart the universe so he could control it.

How do I fight this?

Billy looked up, possibly the only one who realised the import of this event, how this tiniest hole would unravel everything into it, growing exponentially until it collapsed everything, literally everything. The Earth, this Solar system or even galaxy would be an acceptable loss if it could be stopped. Unbidden the warning that had come with the last Prophecy surfaced.

" The threat is more than that which threatens the Light alone - All is threatened in the Fall of Darkness."

Like everything else now it seemed so perfectly clear with all shade of ambiguity removed by the light of hindsight.

"Get away from here, everyone get away..." He yelled out across the link—he needed time and they were already within the event horizon, able to see the two orbs dancing together in an ever-increasing frenzy, and the reality distortion as space was stretched and drawn into the abyss at their heart.

Think Billy, think, what could they do about this? He reached into the recesses of his mind, considered the options fantastic and outrageous, but the conclusion was inescapable, no matter how hard he tried to avoid it. And he had no more time for denial. He looked up at Skye, knowing he had no choice now and it seemed that some sort of force aligned around them, thickening the atmosphere so the words were clumsy and thick with emotion sticking in his throat and mouth.

"Skye ..."

"it's okay, Billy, I know." Skye didn't make him say any more. Or make him ask for permission—it was best that the agreement was unspoken, or else one or other of them would break. "It has to happen, we are all dead anyway, and I do not know if even this can hope to succeed, but we have to try ... don't we?"

"But what can we do?" Billy asked rhetorically. The enemy was gone, how did they fight a disaster like this?

"Look to your strengths," his wolf spirit advised, the fear even in its voice. "Remember the lessons of the Master Power Quest."

The lessons? He remembered the symbolism of the quest Ý it seemed strange, but it had almost forecast some of what had occurred, Justin dead, Zack poisoned, Jason passing into fire. Which meant the final scene over the chasm, Skye sacrificing them both into the abyss... No...

He moved away from that. What was it Ninjor had said? That the true depth of their Power came from their instincts and their choices. What had he been doing? Not fighting at the last, but solving an intricate puzzle, aligning a key. He glanced up suddenly and terribly alert as inspiration flashed. There was no one left to fight, which left them, only the pair of them left... not to fight, but to mend and heal. When had Skye ever been a weapon? He fought to defend only, not to attack ... he was no warrior, he was... a healer.

And what was he himself? The old memories of bitter recrimination came back to him, but this time without the emotion. Nothing but a fixer.

How easily was a blade mistaken for a sword when it could just as easily be a scalpel. Damn, he had been right all along! They were not meant to fight anything, all along they had been chosen and trained to heal and fix. That was their purpose, and if they could be said to have a Destiny to fulfill, it would be that.

Billy looked at Skye again and nodded his agreement. With a trembling hand over his Blue diamond glyph, he stared at the reason and justification for this death sentence he was about to pronounce. There was no other way, and his trembling fingers touched the sparkling gem on his chest.

"I am the Will of the Phoenix, and I invoke the Great Power in full measure and summon the Star Phoenix to heal this rift, no matter what the cost." It was said in a dull, defeated tone as if the battle had already been lost somehow. To Billy, this was a personal failure as he had vowed privately that this would NOT happen. And yet, when all was said and done, even in view of the doubts of the mentors, he did have the courage to make the hard and lonely decisions. Once again not because necessarily the other would not do so, but because they would not realise the danger. Skye had said that, not long after they had first met . Not out of lack of courage, but through lack of knowledge, the sort of knowledge that was a curse because you could not comprehend it without having to take action. At least in some ways it answered that constant questioning in his heart and mind of why him, here and now, taking this most terrible step. He was glad in some ways that he was sure he would be with his friend and would share his fate, though his spirit reached to Trini. He could not abandon Skye now, not in these end moments.

The embedded Star Crystal blazed in the artist's forehead and Skye felt the fierce bright light fill him with a dizzying power that grew in him and pushed outwards as the now named Spirit enveloped him. He felt a strange dual sensation of being Skye the individual and also Phoenix immense, Powerful beyond belief, and he seemed a mere fragment in that being, a convenient channel for the Spirit to manifest. When he looked he could see through the eyes of the Phoenix and simultaneously through his own, seeing Billy staring at him and looking down at his hands that filled and burned with stars as if the universe had inverted and pushed all of itself into the fragile human form. The liberated Phoenix essence spread ghost wings of flame and engulfed the battered WolfZord and Billy into its body.

"Your Will?" came the question from the Phoenix resonating in the young Ninjetti's mind.

"We have to fix this rip in realities," Billy commanded, still staring at the figure translucent with light that was his friend. "That must be done at all costs."

The Phoenix voice seemed uncertain, the light flickering and dimming. "The forces are great, even for Phoenix-kind to deal with. But the command has been issued."

It was strange to hear the echoes of Skye's voice within that sound. Billy could barely see his physical form through the spirit flames and swirling universe stars, but managed to move himself over as they plunged towards the heart of the disturbance.

Immense, the rift yawned open like a predator's jaw as the Orbs danced their endless infinite waltz together into that Abyss, compelling all things to follow in their wake in a spiral to eventual destruction.

The Phoenix fire streamed towards it, feathers of light torn into streams of energy as it flew close. There was pain. Somewhere in that light Billy dropped to his knees, sweat beading his forehead as agony started clenching its fist in his insides. Twisting pain as physical integrity was tested and became unconvinced of its ability to exist here, though the Phoenix renewed itself moment to moment, allowing the death of molecules to occur, drawing strength from the spirit of its host.

Every passing second the rip grew exponentially, deadly in its greed. Those that had not been able to flee were now sucked in, torn and consumed through the heart of the two Orbs. It took much of the strength of the Phoenix to fight the irresistible pull of this reality singularity.

They needed to fix the fabric of their universe, but that meant they had to extract the cause, stop the cause before they could patch the hole.

"Wolf-chosen, I would use your mind through mine, for you have a great knowledge of the grids of Power and how to manipulate them," the Phoenix requested as it struggled fruitlessly to do both at the same time.

Billy had not considered he might be an active part of this process, and not having any reason not to commit himself further he agreed, letting himself be drawn into the mind of the Phoenix and opening his eyes to 'see' through Phoenix eyes.

He could see the Universe patterns, the grids of Power, so many different types it was hard to comprehend. It was as if someone had taken an immensely complicated three-dimensional tapestry and shot a hole through it, and the weave was unravelling at an alarming rate as it was pulled from the other side. Not just here, but everywhere in the multiverse. God, that was a burden so large Billy couldn't even comprehend how to deal with it. Suddenly, only being responsible for a galactic war was tolerable and much more preferable.

But he found he could take those threads and see the way to mend them; if he concentrated, if he felt the pattern, he could mend them and hold the pattern ready if the Orbs were defeated. But it would be like designing a perfectly shaped plug for a hole that had a large obstruction in it, and each moment that the obstruction was there it changed the shape of the hole. He kept pace as Skye as the Phoenix struggled to separate the Orbs.

Phoenix battled with the orbs as they wrought their terrible destruction. Wings of spirit flame struggled to keep pace in the maelstrom of energies as similar effects occurred to that which had happened to the Darkness Visible. Energies ripped him asunder and locked him in place and all the time, the small internal voice that was the individual of Skye blessed Billy's choice that had made him Phoenix, a creature of Paradox that could fight that internally. Being a creature of destruction and creation, life and death, chaos and order itself.

However, the strategy of trying to tear the Orbs apart was not succeeding. He did not have the strength for all the Command forced him to try long beyond the endurance of pain he had as a human. He was failing, and the command laid whips to his soul to not accept that as a final answer. Its greatest strength and cruellest manifestation; the refusal to let him die before his task was accomplished.

~*~

Out in space itself, with more than half the surviving Ninjetti injured and most of them floating all but powerless, the survivors could only watch as companions and enemies were sucked in towards their destruction in that anomaly that had all their Spirit Animals sounding great alarm and panic.

"What is happening there?" Kim asked Rocky who was with great weariness trying to re-establish communications, though his Master Power was fading in itself now. "Billy?! Can you reach him? Or Skye?"

Rocky shook his head. Agony if he tried, and he was totally drained from being in the DragonSlayer Megazord. "I can't, Kim, I can't ..."

"Trini?" Kim fought her own weariness and anxiety by trying to organise what was happening.

There was a muffled sensation of grief. "They've gone in there, they... don't know if it can be fixed, but Billy and Skye—there is only the Phoenix now."

She should have known that Billy would not be able to let Skye do it alone, she had felt him reach out privately at the last through everything, she had tried so hard to go after him, but her TigerZord was dead in space and then it was too late. Let the universe die. It would hold nothing more for her.

"it's not over yet." Kim was also facing the fact that she may have lost Tommy, for all Rocky said he was barely alive, but she was going to fight this all the way. "Would they want us to give up? No. We can't, or everything they do now is for nothing!"

"What resources do we have? Who has not used their Master Power yet?" Adam asked, determined to save Tanya from disappearing into that chasm. The Yellow OryxZord tumbled slowly towards that monstrous thing.

It was Kim and Trini who responded to that out of them all, the only two who had not invoked their Master Power. The Master Powers of Protection and of Warp.

"But, what is it we can do?" Trini asked, her cheeks tear-stained and streaked with blood already. "Nothing is worth anything if they fail... and..." She couldn't say it aloud, but it was becoming blatantly obvious that at this moment they were not succeeding.

"Billy and Skye would want us to save everyone we can," Adam asserted with a surety that could not be shaken. "You know how important his friends and family are to him. If ... no, when he succeeds, you want him to find lives were lost because we waited to try and save them in case nothing would?"

"Trini... Trini can warp them to safety, " Rocky said in inspiration, clutching at his ribs as he shifted, revealing the possibility that it was not just the ApeZord that had taken damage. "You can, can't you?"

"I guess so, if there is somewhere safe to send them?" Trini wondered to herself whether she could save Billy and Skye, too. Warping people to safety had not been something that she considered. She would try. She had to try.

"Well, Kim is Protection, right?" Kat chimed in, coughing a little as she did so. "She could protect the Earth and them?" She was feeling a little dizzy now and couldn't remember why, only that she was so very tired. "Shield home, and us. Shield" The words tasted metallic in her mouth for some reason.

"Rocky, link to everyone so I can find them," Trini said resolutely, her experession set and determined. "And I will do this. I can do this!"

~*~

Phoenix flame flickered and guttered in invisible storms of energy.

"I can't DO this! I can't!" That was Skye's despair, echoing the failing strength of the final, greatest creation of the Ninjetti. Command or not, death was claiming them. It was in that echo of the despair he had felt on their journey to seek new Ninjetti, when they were with the Chi'iten, that he remembered the Voice that told him to learn to exist in Paradox. What could be more paradoxical than two opposites existing in harmony? If they could not be separated, then maybe they could be fused. With a binding glue of Paradox. With the very essence of the Phoenix.

The decision was made, the individual self of Skye was a mote of dust in the forces involved, but even so he reached for Billy's mind and a last final comfort conveying the course of action to him with a wistful farewell implicit in his words.

"If I ... Phoenix succeeds, you know what will happen?" Skye asked in his mind

"A backlash of the surplus energy, like a supernova." Billy responded his mind, flashing thoughts that strained his comprehension, trying to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of the universe. "It will destroy Earth."

Skye gave a slight smile, that strange resonance with Kim that had existed from his healing of the Crane Ninjetti all that time ago bypassing the thwarted communication of words. He knew not in words but in feelings she was getting ready to protect Earth, and their friends as best as she could. "Kim is going to try and stop that. I will try and reach her in warning. Are you ready, Billy?" He asked, gentle now at the last.

The Wolf Ninjetti's eyes glistened in the brilliant light that surrounded them. "It is what has to be done. Forgive me?"

Skye opened his mind to Billy in those last moments so he could feel everything, that there was truly nothing to forgive. That he had truly discovered to regard this as a gift rather than a tragedy. He had been given his life back and knew he had a purpose, and it had been sweet, wonderful to find such friends and experience such love. As the Star Phoenix began to force the two Orbs together, pouring its essence into the resulting single object, Skye's life began to fade along with that of the Phoenix.

The Phoenix energy was healing the rift, drawing too much raw energy from everywhere. More energy than any physical being could hold and bear, they both knew that, trapped in the heart of the Phoenix itself. Skye was dying... and so was Billy as that same protection faded, as all their powers, all the accelerated parts of his mind began to unravel when Phoenix impossibly merged the two forces together.

Now was the moment and everything, including time itself, slowed and shuddered as Order and Chaos met in the ever-changing being of the Phoenix.

Skye reached for Kim and Trini in that instant, empathically sending an irresistible urge to invoke their Master Powers immediately with what strength he had left.

Scarcely without comprehending, two separate invoking cries sprang forth and with the reach of her mind, Trini, the Gold Tiger Ninjetti, gathered all who were left and her mind could touch and shimmered them through space to the battered sanctuary of Earth with a mighty effort fuelled by her need to live up to her love's expectations. At the last she reached for the two within the furious boiling light and darkness that swirled in the void before them as the power turned to take her to safety as well. Tried SO hard to reach him, to hold him just one more time, one last time, to say she loved him again, to say she needed him...

But he was lost to her. They both were in the midst of fire and any mental probe she made burned away instantly. "Remember your promise!" she called out fruitlessly as she warped herself away, exhausted finally and weeping unashamedly now she could see no hope at all.

Kim reached after that tendril of presence, that warmth and resonance she associated with Skye beiginning to fade away completely, its threatened absence bringing a chill to her. "No... don't go... please ... don't ... I can't hold this alone."

The responses were not words, but impressions, flickers of images. He was trying so hard to reach her.

~Mustmustmustprotectfindstrength~ Ý it was an insistent surge of emotion. Enhanced as he was by his spirit form, he could sense that subtle alteration in body energy and with his last effort sent, ~mothernowprotectunbornearthmotherprotect~ before the presence faded completely.

What? Had he been trying to say what she thought he had been trying to say? Was it what she thought?

Kim, unable to stop herself, looked down at her stomach and rested a hand there as if trying to sense something different. She looked back up with a fierce expression on her face. This could be the only thing she had left; she had to protect it. She could be pregnant, she could be a mother and Skye had never lied to her, never and he had been connected to her at such a deep level after her healing that surely he would know. A maternal spark fuelled her determination as she created a shield between that strange tormented anomaly of space, which was drawing in on itself in an ominous fashion, and her family, friends and their home. Last line of defence and she would hold. She had good reason to.

~*~

As the Orbs became one, the energy poured in and Billy let the pattern he had fixed, using a speed of thought and calculation he would never have dreamed possible, loose into the Phoenix to patch that hole in reality.

The energies wavered unstable and then, as if taking deep breath, paused, drew in before announcing the birth of a new single power in an explosion of coruscating light.

Billy screamed silently into the brightness as he felt that tearing away, as the rebirth energies of the phoenix as he had hoped, as he had prayed when he had chosen the spirit form for his friend on Phaedos, gathered around the dying remnants of what was Skye.

The Wolf Ninjetti closed his eyes to say a last farewell, only to feel something move around him, like a friend's last embrace, as the rebirth energies were pushed to take him instead.

A final split second. Face to face in a thought as realities swirled around them.

"My last choice." Skye gave a faint, wistful smile. Anger, and self-pity had passed into an unnatural peace. "My only choice. For the ones I love."

"It was meant for you," Billy replied hopelessly, in their touch of thoughts and emotions.

Skye held his hand a moment, half turning to leave him. "You've already given me a life, Billy... it's the one I've been living. All your life, Billy, you have sacrificed for others. Now you must receive, and sometimes that is a harder thing to do. Take my gift, Billy. it's the only thing I have left for you both, and I'm not even sure if I am strong enough to make it a proper one, but I have to try."

"But Skye, I... I can't ..." He couldn't leave a friend behind, but he had no choice.

"You can... you will. For Trini's sake." An expression of pain crossed his face as he finally let go of Billy's hand, withdrew from his friend to stand alone. "Goodbye Billy, no regrets. Never any regrets. Remember that and remember me."

The energy seemed to imprison him, crystallising around him and Billy felt his wolf spirit, his own spirit lift its voice in a silent wolfsong of farewell as it engulfed him entirely. Before the light faded, he could feel the warmth of Skye's touch over his heart and maybe half caught words half seen... half heard of 'Remember me'... and maybe another word before Skye's unwanted gift claimed him as its own.

The old Phoenix, its life short in duration, bright in glory and great in purpose, passed away, all of it thrown into the balancing of the forces of Chaos and Order. It had succeeded, and the sudden birth cry of the new Orb fountained energy throughout the levels of reality, exploding out with the power of a supernova. Fragments hurtled out ahead of the light wave, shooting off at incredible speed and Kim cried out as the meteor show ricocheted off of her shield.

She would hold, she would protect the Earth, without her it would all be for nothing here and now. She had to shield them, shield Tommy and... their child? Their child! It was a mantra recited over and over, fanning the Master Power into a blazing barrier over the Earth as the deadly result of their final triumph sought to obliterate friend and foe.

A final flare of defiance strengthened the shield a last critical bit as the shockwave slammed against it, pushing her back though Kim yelled in protest, pushing back, pushing back ... HOLDING... as the world was washed over by the fire of collapsing stars and all things burned with light.

And then it was gone.

The silent starfield of space settled once more, rendered whole again by a miracle of the Great Power and there could be no greater memorial to the sacrifice of all the Ninjetti than the continued existence of the universe they strove to protect no matter the cost. For once again the War had left nothing but the shattered remains of a noble army of warriors and a group of survivors who were silent in the aftermath.

Strangely it was Rocky who spoke the first words after that terrible cataclysm, he whose Master Power had been communication lived up to that instinct with a surprising whispered quote from his religious upbringing. "Your Sun shall no more go Down, or your moon withdraw itself ..."

Prophets everywhere, even on Earth, had given the warning and now that it was over their tasks turned to dealing with the consequences of survival.

Epilogue

It was perhaps typical that it happened the way it did. The mysterious large ovoid of night-dark crystal had been guarded night and day for nearly two months and yet when someone needed to be there, there was no one on watch.

Adam, who had taken to flying long sweeps alone as a way of dealing with his private loss for his friends had discovered the sizeable object tumbling on its way out of the solar system at escape velocity. Trajectory plotting eventually showed that it had come directly from the reality rip vicinity, which meant it could be something to do with Billy, Skye, the Darkness Visible or something from some unknown reality. Either way, it seemed that it couldn't be allowed to wander aimlessly through space, though there were many who had raised objections when the Black Frog Ninjetti had stirred himself from depression and caught the object with FrogZord's tongue to bring it back to Earth.

Its arrival caused a great debate but, when it came down to it, no one could deny Trini that slim impossible hope she was clinging to that allowed her to function in these aftermath days; that the crystalline object would somehow provide some connection to Billy, or a way to bring him back. So it had been allowed in to the Power Chamber, to a secure area and placed under constant guard and studied to see if it were dangerous or a mere lifeless chunk of fused crystal.

Strangely the prison for the bizarre dark object formed a rare place of solitude and peace in the bustling Power Chamber. The place had expanded into practically a miniature city as the Zeebeedees had adapted their functions and turned to delving and excavating, rebuilding and constructing, so that the Ninjetti had a home of sorts. For many of them, there was nowhere else now that they could turn to, though Dulcea planned to take many of them back to Phaedos to try and start afresh there. As she had said, there was no further purpose in Phaedos being a legendary planet anymore. It was time it once more lived and breathed, and the Ninjetti whose homeworlds had been ravaged, who were too injured in body and mind to return to the past, could begin there to make a fresh future. Grand plans indeed. Many Ninjetti would return home given time, but right now they felt a debt to the planet that had become a battlefield and wished to assist in its recovery if they could.

It was patently obvious, however, that there were not that many of the original force left. Scarcely a hundred thousand out of the original two million spirit warriors had survived, and a frightening quantity of them had been injured. Of the Ninjetti Masters and warriors of Earth, they had lost Justin, Zack, Delphine in the final battle, and of course Vy-Ru before that. The Drakin Ninjetti Master, J'shaar, had died of his injuries three days after the end of the war, having lost the will to live when he discovered his beloved Sisthaa had been killed in the DragonSlayer Megazord. They had fought to save Aisha from a similar fate, knowing that the strength of the Master Ninjetti could also be their undoing when that true love departed. Aisha, true to her spirit animal, found an inner strength to bear that burden, finding comfort in the possibility that she could choose to have Zack's children one day if she wished. With a foresight that had stemmed from a bleak realistic view of the way things could turn out even if they were victorious, Billy had insisted on a program to collect appropriate reproductive specimens from them all prior to the conflict and put them into storage. It had seemed cold and clinical at the time and they had shied away from the suggestion, but it seemed their unassuming friend had realised and faced the future they had not.

Adam had been contemplating the past few months whilst he stood watch over the strange item, something he did frequently for the solitude and peace it seemed to give him. He found it easier to think alone; others might need other people as sounding boards, but he was of the type that had to clear things in his own mind before discussing them, now more than ever.

He knew he had been lucky in that he had suffered little more than superficial cuts and bruises at the last - though even now he tired very easily as if he had suffered a debilitating illness. That apparently was down to the unbelievable amount of energy they had expended invoking their full Powers. They had to be careful as the Master Ninjetti, even those relatively unhurt, were in such a weakened state that they were prone to illness and had to be stopped from trying to assuage their survivors' guilt in overwork.

The Black Frog Ninjetti studied his hand a moment, watching the fingers quaver slightly in proof of that assessment. Well, it was an improvement. His father, sporting a broken arm from the attack on the Power Chamber, had been furious with him when he nearly collapsed after going out scouting on long missions deep into the far reaches of their solar system and beyond. Even now he found it hard to express what he was looking for out there. Some final answer, maybe, as to what had happened in those last moments with Billy, Skye and the Darkness Visible.

Startling and unbidden tears welled up in his eyes and now he didn't even fight them; the slightest trigger, a thought, a memory could have this effect and was part of the reason he preferred to be alone. It was difficult enough to deal with people when your emotions were under control, let alone when they could surprise you by being so close to the surface. Answers would help. Jason's father had said that, that one of the reason he looked so hard for answers and solve the crime cases he was assigned was that they enabled him to control his emotions by defining what he could feel. That was what he needed, some form to give his responses. Should he be feeling guilt? Anger? Loss? At the moment those emotions and a myriad more merged and blended into an uncontrollable mass. But what answers could he get? Rocky had been unable to connect to them there, and the story they had pieced together was sketchy and unsatisfying. They had heard Kim and Trini's story and had witnessed the Phoenix fly in after the Darkness Visible, but ... he didn't know what drove him, but he was obsessed with knowing what had happened in there as if somehow that would allow his restless emotions to settle and not disturb his sleep by padding through his dreams.

Maybe that was why he had brought this crystal in, seeking to solve one mystery through another. Thank God, Tanya seemed to understand this relapse into silence and solitude; it was unfair on her, but she was going to the other extreme of drawing people together, rebuilding and organising, coping in her own fashion. He was so proud of her for doing what he knew he could not, and it was her face that millions were coming to love all over the world for her optimism and drive.

Rocky, though still ready with a smile and a quip, seemed to have a shadow across his eyes if caught unguarded. Adam knew, with all the history between them, that Rocky did not have quite the bullet-proof optimism he portrayed and that gnawing away inside was that personal guilt about ordering Zack to what became his death. He would have talk to him about that, as it was easier to comfort others than yourself and he knew that Rocky needed to make his peace with Aisha. He had seen that haunted look on his friend's face when he looked at his one-time closest female friend. It was time it was pointed out to the Red Ape Ninjetti what a phenomenal job he had done holding the Power connected all that time and that it wasn't his fault, that Zack in the end had chosen that path to save Earth. Kat was helping him, but she had suffered some internal injuries so as yet did not have the strength to force him to see sense, and Rocky could be very, very stubborn about certain things. His depression over his back was a case in point and it was possible he thought Kat HAD to say those things because she loved him. What a mess. The frog Ninjetti sighed; tomorrow. He would talk to him tomorrow.

It was not all so easy, though; Cestro, well, they were convinced Cestro was mentally disturbed by the shock of Delphine's death as there could be no other explanation for his rather peculiar reaction. Instead of being grief-stricken, he had come round smiling, seeming perfectly happy and denying that she was dead. Nothing they had been able to say had convinced him and in the end no one had the strength or will to contradict someone so obviously happy and at peace with himself. It was a rare enough sight for it to be treasured, not destroyed. Adam suspected that Trini's insistence that there might yet be hope, albeit a thin tenuous possibility, stemmed from a similar denial. The Council of the Wise mourned Billy and Skye as dead along with the other fallen warriors and it was hard to see how they could be wrong. It was Zordon who had explained, when he had deduced the absolute danger that had been faced by them all rather than just the invasion they had initially thought to be their priority.

"I have never been more proud of Billy than in the moment I realised why he defied our judgement in favour of his own," the Eltarian had said.

Adam had to agree. That must have been unbearably hard for his genius friend, who needed approval so badly, to make all those decisions; he would have hated it. It made him cold just thinking about it, cold and lonely, so the impact on Billy would have been profound. He so wanted to be able to gently tease his friend about it, to let him know how proud he was in that quiet truthful way the pair of them had shared between them that he missed so much. Again the burning sensation in his eyes as tears threatened, but he didn't care.

Skye, too. With him it was a case that an aching painful absence made him realise how much his presence had meant, and had been taken for granted. All too clearly now, he realised that just before the battle, when the artist had had a short poignant conversation with him and then strangely, taken his hand as he said goodbye, looking directly into his own dark eyes, how much of a true farewell that had been. Then he had thought it strange and made his excuses and left... and now so wished he hadn't. Skye had known then he would die, he realised that too late for it to be meaningful.

He sighed. His thoughts were rambling, his focus shot to pieces. Tommy and Jason would be horrified - if they weren't battling for their life and restored health.

Tommy had indeed been alive, barely, when Trini's last massive effort had saved the Ninjetti from complete loss. Kim had hardly left his side in all the time since he surfaced from his coma, despite the fact he was unable to walk. But he had that unstoppable look in his eye ever since Kim had confirmed to him that the revelation that had given her the extra strength she needed to protect the earth had indeed been true. She was indeed pregnant and it had been a definite miracle that the strain of using her Master Power had not resulted in a miscarriage. Tommy or Kim junior, in Kim's own words, had just reached the point where she could feel it doing miniature "Sie-Kyuh!" punches and kicks inside her womb and that seemed to have filled Tommy with a determination to get well that had to be seen to be believed. He had fought his way back from the brink of death so that his child would have a father and his love would have a husband and he most definitely turned his focus forward rather than back.

If he'd had to have predicted beforehand who would most likely be the one to brood and lapse into depression over the War, Adam would have immediately thought of Tommy. Instead... it was Jason. Jason had been badly injured, not as badly as Tommy, but the effects seemed to have been more profound for all of Dulcea's reassurances. He had internalised all the guilt for the deaths of their fellow Ninjetti, for the innocent civilian casualties that had occurred all around the world, and in particular for the deaths of Billy and Skye.

It didn't matter how often he was told it wasn't his fault, he could not let go of the fact he had played a significant part in the near end of all things, and that it had taken the sacrifice of two of his closest friends to fix the situation he had caused. It was as if he did not believe he deserved to recover, and he rebuffed all attempts to absolve him of that guilt. He didn't want to be told Billy and Skye's death were all right, and Adam could understand that. He wanted there to be someone to blame as well, but it was not Jason who deserved that burden. Jason had been placed under intense pressure and as Zordon had rightly said, the Darkness Visible would have found another way to destroy Earth whilst he was about it.

That was no real comfort to the Red Lion Ninjetti, Adam could tell that. He looked as if he had lost all confidence in himself and who he was, for all of his friends' and Dulcea's support. At Justin's funeral he had been barely conscious, but insisted on being there nonetheless. They had all been grim that day, but none more so than Jason, his dark eyes filled with pain both physical and emotional. Why hadn't anyone said that winning would be such hard work? Why was it the warriors seemed to punish themselves so; there was little heart for the glory right now, it was too soon after the war and wounds were still fresh.

Musing darkly to himself, Adam examined the man-sized ovoid crystal intently to distract his mind from sombre thoughts. It was obsidian black; the light seemed to slide into it. There was something about it that focused the eye and mind. He stared and then for the first time laid his hand on the surface, touching it. It was cold, very cold. It seemed to suck the warmth from his hand immediately and he took it away again, shaking heat back into his fingers. Why had be done that? Maybe there was something strange about it. Was that a flicker of light where he had put his hand? He bent closer to stare just as someone skid in behind him, startling him.

"Adam!" Rocky called out, steadying himself on the door. "Quick, Tommy's WALKING!"

Adam blinked. "You are kidding me?"

"No, seriously." The Red Ape Ninjetti was aglow with the miracle. "He is! Only a few steps, but he's really doing it ... you've got to see!"

Adam briefly forgot his duty and ran up to witness this astounding achievement for himself, leaving his charge momentarily unattended.

And so it was that when someone should have been there as a witness to another miracle, no one was.

The heat from Adam's hand had been enough to wake the egg. Light glimmered from the palm shape, liquid starlight crawling across the ebony surface, streaking it with light. It was as if it had been waiting for privacy before it released its secret, and this was the only time it had been alone in warmth and safety and without someone standing guard. The rough edges sheared off, polished and smoothed by the light, so the shape became a smooth crystal Egg. There could be no more doubt to what it was; only to what lay inside it. Midnight black from one direction, another with the light shining behind it gave the impression of seeing through smoky translucent crystal to a curled foetal human form inside; a moving figure at that.

A crack echoed in the empty room, then another. Filigree of light spread over the smooth black crystal surface of the shell, pieces dropping to the floor and tinkling like glass on the hard surface. A crash then as a large chunk broke loose as if kicked forcibly and the cohesion of the egg began to fail just as Adam, belatedly realising his abandoned duty, reached the doorway to see the Egg shaking , light streaming out from holes and cracks and an silhouette of an arm reaching out.

With commendable speed he yelled up the corridor to where all the others were still congratulating Tommy on his first few steps.

"Bloody ... Guys?! Guys! Back up! The Crystal Room! Now!" He yelled, waiting until he had some backup before even going far enough in the room to set off the general alert.

From peace and quiet to chaos and noise, the Ninjetti who got there first entered the room cautiously. Jason and Rocky took the fore as Trini joined them with Kim and Dulcea, stalking carefully forward.

"What is it?" Rocky whispered, looking to Dulcea for answers.

The First Warrior of Phaedos shrugged. "It is nothing spoken of in the Marai Sphere or any of the Prophecies - I do not know, Rocky." She glanced across at Trini whose face was a mixture of fierce hope and bitter despair.

In the next few moments either she would have to abandon hope or embrace it; either outcome meant accepting loss of some description. She knew what Trini hoped it was. Another glance to Jason showed the possibility it might mark the return of the evil they had fought; it was hard to accept that a people could be so emotionally flexible in their responses. She readied herself just in case.

The Egg shape shattered, making them yelp as tiny shards flew everywhere and they shielded themselves instinctively from the hazard.

When they turned back there was a figure lying there, in the remnants of the shell, covered with glistening liquid in a way that stirred memories of the original Ninjetti timeline before the warping of time in the Zeo era. Only it was not Zordon who lay still and unmoving in a nest of shimmering crystal.

Unable to stop himself Adam looked automatically to the hair ... looking to see if it were a splash of bright vivid white or ...

Dark blond.

He closed his eyes a moment at the upsurge of emotion, but Trini was already ahead of them all and there, pulling Billy up into her arms, tears running down her face as all the emotions of the last few months she had kept in check released at once.

He was close enough to hear her whisper. "I knew it... I knew it ..." over and over, and then more mysteriously, "He'd never break a promise," as she held a barely conscious form to her heart, not showing any signs that she was going to let go as she bent to kiss the stirring ninjetti.

It was a turning point, it seemed, for them all. Adam could see a revelation in the wonder that spread around the room as they tried to grasp the hows and whys of this latest event. It was particularly evident in the contrast of the emotion that was on Jason's face, which recently had become so fixed in expressions of despair. The Red Lion Ninjetti looked like someone who had believed the light had gone forever and he was lost in darkness, only to have someone unexpectedly gift him a lighted candle to find his way back out to daylight. That was what had happened here, not just the return of a beloved friend; and the wetness on his own cheeks stood testament to the truth of that, but something more meaningful for all of them.

All the time, all the way through they had GIVEN for others, and now it seemed in the return of Billy to them there was a promise that this had not gone unnoticed. And that, in some ways, was all that they needed to carry on. Some recognition that it had been worth it from the universe, the world, from someone, and that all their suffering had been worthwhile.

And right now, in this moment, they had been given hope that it was.

~*~

Billy stood alone, looking out over the rebuilding of Angel Grove on the top pinnacle of the Power Chamber in the evening air. He had rarely been alone since his 'rebirth' and he just needed a little time to think, or to feel. It seemed that he had woken back into awareness with the dream threads slipping away from him, all the knowledge in the universe, all the answers to every question he had ever asked pouring away. He felt empty, deprived of some intimate connection, and though he knew that would fade as here and now became more real to him, the feeling lingered like the ghost echo of a dream.

He was happy to be alive; he was grateful beyond words to be back with everyone he knew and loved. Gratified in some ways to see how much of an impact his loss appeared to have had, though he was secretly a little guilty at that feeling he still recognised it as a human frailty. So much to catch up on and absorb. The others were two months ahead of him working through the process. To him... it had been moments before when he had last looked into Skye's eyes and he had made one final choice and given him the Phoenix Spirit's rebirth. How could he explain that to anyone else? No one else had shared that moment. No one else could ever know.

He didn't know if it made it worse or easier to find a letter, written to him in his friends hand, propped neatly on the pillow of his friends one time room as if he had known he would be drawn there.

A letter that said all the things that people always wanted to hear or have absolution for after someone had died. And he cursed his friend for being so damn sure, and blessed him silently for that foresight of forgiveness that so neatly took each building block of guilt and crumbled them into dust with words.

Each time he read it, he wept. He suspected he would until his dying day.

A slight scuff of a foot behind him made him glance over his shoulder. Jason. The Red Lion Ninjetti moved carefully, he noticed, and he still had fresh memories of what he had said, ordered to be done ... and wondered if his old friend could forgive him that.

"Just wanted to see if you were okay up here, bro," Jason said a little awkwardly, not trying to make it sound like he had struggled his way up here, pushing his recovery to the limits to do so.

Billy glanced at him, the letter in his hand. "I'm fine, Jase." He looked up at his longtime friend, and then at the letter again. If there was one thing this letter contained, it was the knowledge that there was nothing that could not be forgiven. Such a simple and powerful thing.

"Jase ...? About ... when I said they should stop you?" he began awkwardly, not knowing how to broach the topic. "I... had to ... I had to tell them to try and destroy you. I didn't want to... I ..." It had hurt more than any physical injury he had received; it had felt like he had ripped out some vital part of himself.

Jason looked surprised. That was the last thing he had expected. "I was the one who nearly screwed EVERYTHING up, Billy. What you did was totally right. God, if it had been someone else, I would have given the order myself. I wasn't strong enough not to give in to him."

Billy laughed in a short, tight parody of humour. "Jason, no one could stand that pressure, don't you understand that yet? The very nature of who we are and the strength that having a true love partner gave us could be made into a vulnerable point. You were stronger than I would have been if it had been Trini. Maybe nobody has told you, but the Darkness Visible KNEW all our weaknesses and all our moves by the end. He just lacked the final location. When it was betrayed to him, well... he threw all his resources at you and Dulcea, there was no way you could do anything but what you did."

Jason shook his head. "I nearly enabled him to destroy everything, Billy. Everything!"

Billy shook his head in response to that assertion. "You were not responsible for that. Not even the Darkness Visible knew what would be let loose then, he was totally taken by surprise; the only one who might have suspected was ... Skye." He fell into silence then, fingers smoothing over the paper in his hand.

"If it weren't for me ..." Jason began and then stopped himself, seeing suddenly that that was the wrong thing to say.

"No, Jason. That's one burden of guilt you will never have to carry." Billy said with complete certainty. "And if Skye had his way, no one would have to take responsibility. He gave me ... everything, Jase, when it came down to it. I thought because of Trini, because I knew that he loved her. The rapport that we held, and the things that we went through, made it impossible not to know, though for some reason we did not talk about it." He looked out into the sunset, where the first bright stars were making a brave appearance even before darkness fell. "It came as a shock to discover the truth. That in the end, it was for me."

Jason could not think of anything immediate to reply to that. What could you say? It was a gift and a curse rolled into one, a gift that you never wanted but were forced to accept nonetheless. "You would have done the same for him." He said by way of an answer.

"Yes, I would have, and I nearly did," Billy replied. "I had hoped, all the way along, that the choice of the Phoenix as his spirit animal would give him that chance. It had been obvious for a long time that he did not expect to survive, and I did everything I could to defy that assumption in the Prophecy. Jase, he was told he would die, win or lose, and I do not know how he stood that. It was hard enough for me, knowing the odds were incredibly slim, but having that secret hope that somehow, somewhere there might be a way." The words were tumbling out, the usually quiet Ninjetti feeling the need to unburden himself for once and being unable to stop.

"And to have to order him to that death? I saw that as a more personal version of what I was doing to everyone else... including you, Jase." Billy gazed at him again, looking for forgiveness there as well. "And as Trini said, one person can only accept so much responsibility before it consumes them. The worst thing is that I can see a perfect symmetry to everything, a perfect pattern. When I woke from the Egg, Jase, it was if I had been woken from a state in which I had ALL the answers, everything was explained and I was content and at peace, and then... I woke up and it drained away."

Jason heard the loss in his friend's voice and was amazed at its depth. "You have us, Trini, your family..." he offered, wishing he had become more skilled with words.

Billy nodded, acknowledging that point. "Yes, and that is what is keeping me here, that and Skye's last message and the fact that everything in our lives tested us, it seems, trained us for this encounter. It seems damned unfair that was the way it had to be, and yet ..."

There was a long silence before Jason prompted him, "And yet what, bro?"

"And yet it seems our purpose is not fulfilled," Billy whispered as a dusk breeze made them shiver.

"How do you work that out?" Jason asked quizzically.

"We are still alive," Billy replied simply.

Jason couldn't argue with that, either. It was a rather effective argument and the truth was, he was very tired right now and more challenges seemed unfair if not cruel. "Maybe it is our time for our happily ever after?" he suggested with a glimmer of hope.

Billy smiled a little, looking more like his real age rather than someone who has seen things it would take lifetimes to come to terms with. "It would be nice to think that. But I do feel guilty for ... just being alive right now. And dammit, he even knew that!" He half laughed as tears started to fill his eyes again.

"Skye?" Jason confirmed before he mused, "We lost good friends, Billy, it's natural to feel survivors' guilt. It hurts now to think of Zack and Skye and the others, but I can promise you that it will get better."

Strange, but it was if the familiarity of roles was feeding his confidence back into him. He could face his own pain to help someone through theirs, even though Billy knew all he was telling him better than most. He shot Billy a sharp glance, seeing a clear understanding of what was happening. "You are doing this on purpose, aren't you?" he said in mild accusation, seeing his long-time friend nod slowly.

"It doesn't mean I do not need this any less. I can't talk about Skye to Trini yet," Billy replied. "She is convinced that it was because of her. Zack, Delphine, Justin, the others, I can share their loss with her, but not about him; and out of us all there were not that many who knew him that well. He was an outsider to the group and though he worked his way in, he didn't have that special closeness which all groups that grow up together achieve. There will be a tendency to grieve for the others, but not to think of him. And he doesn't deserve that from me, he doesn't deserve to go unremembered." He swallowed again as if he had spoken aloud a very private oath.

Jason struggled trying to find something that was not a cliché to comfort his friend. "He had more of an impact than you would think, Billy. He connected with all of us one way or another and he will be remembered by all of us even though he's gone."

Billy remained still, staring as the sun glimmered brightly on the horizon, bleeding light in vivid colours across the sky. "I don't feel him gone, Jase. I... I can't. it's like, in my mind he's absent, but I can't seem to convince myself he is gone. My mind tells me he is, but ..."

Jason rested a comforting arm on the Wolf Ninjetti's shoulder. "That's natural, bro, really. I find myself doing the same with Zack. I keep expecting him to come in through the door, laughing and joking like usual," he said compassionately.

Billy didn't answer that. How could he explain the difference when he was not sure himself? It was most likely denial because he was so involved—and yet at night he found himself listening in the darkness for that familiar mind touch as a wolf listens to the wind for the answering howl of the Pack. He sighed as the last glimmers of light faded. "The Sun goes Down ..." he murmured. "But they said nothing in any Prophecy about what the next day would bring."

"Maybe they were not sure there would be a next day," Jason replied and shivered at the chill. Now that was a sobering thought.

"Just because we fixed the universe, does that mean we are responsible for looking after it all?" Billy asked half-seriously.

Jason twitched a smile. "Pretty much."

"Damn, well best get an early night, then. That's going to take a LOT of work." Billy said, sounding more like his old self, though Jason was sure there would be many solitary trips away from everyone before he could come to terms with the changes these last few years had wrought on his life.

"After you," Jason gestured, wondering if he was ever going to be able to express to his friend how proud he was of what Billy had accomplished. Too much sympathy now might break him, and he was going to have so much to deal with. All of them were. This was no mere battle that had no loose ends, this had left its scars on the very fabric of space itself; as well as physically and mentally on the warriors involved.

Billy seemed too young to have bourne such a heavy load of responsibility as he disappeared inside; but then so had they all and they HAD done everything that had been asked of them—and more. It was going to be hard to accept, but soon, maybe when they opened themselves to the outside world, they were going to realise that they had actually WON. It was a fact that had somehow vanished under the grieving. They had literally saved the universe and perhaps it did owe them a happy ever after.

The world would know what they owed his friends, Jason would make sure of that, and so would the rebuilding worlds of the Alliance of Light. Billy was right, there was a lot to be done, but at least they had the opportunity to try and do it right!

As he followed his blond teammate back into the Power Chamber complex, he noticed a sheet of paper fluttering as if Billy had just dropped it and he hastily snatched it up before the twilight breezes whisked it away.

He couldn't help himself, he glanced down and was immediately captivated by the clear, graceful handwritten words of the poem Skye had copied out to summarise his message to Billy.

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more, day by day
You tell me of the future that you planned;
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve;
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than you should remember and be sad.
—Christina Rossetti

The words stopped him in his tracks and the Red Lion Ninjetti found himself overwhelmed by memories of the young artist who of them all was the most gentle and yet had a strength to contain so much inside of him. Forget and smile? No. He would learn to remember and be happy, and he would help Billy do so too, that he silently promised.

Billy was waiting for him inside and Jason wordlessly handed the letter page over; his expression must have spoken volumes. Billy looked at him with an understanding expression. "I know, Jase. And the others would have wanted that, too. Sometimes, when you move on you don't have to leave everything behind.You get to choose what you want to take along."

"I understand." Jason nodded. "And in time I think the others will, too, round about the time they realise we actually won this war."

Billy nearly laughed. "We won? What an amazing thing!" he said, appreciating the reminder.

Jason nodded. "Yes we did, all of us. it's taken me a little time to realise it myself, but we did win. We made it through the darkness and the night, and I am going to make sure everyone remembers the sacrifices made... and takes the opportunities this new start brings."

He sounded so serious, as if he truly could make this happen; Billy gave another slight half-smile. Had not this whole conflict been a measure of the fact that an individual could change everything? >From start to finish, if one of them had faltered then all of them would have been lost. It was not that anyone had been significantly more important than the other, because levels of Power were nothing if you never reached the point to use them.

Right from the start they had fought to preserve those who were needed to act, even before they knew how important their contribution could be. If anyone had said that this could have happened, he would have thought them mad, and yet somehow he had ended up with everything resting on his words and his choices. A frightening thought, and yet as he followed Jason inside, Billy realised there was nothing right now that he could actually have done any differently—even with the benefit of hindsight. That was something at least to be grateful for, even if the winning had involved sacrifice.

He looked down at the letter one more time before carefully folding it and tucking the precious words away.

They had indeed made it through the sunset and the nearly endless night; and now, who knew what the new day would bring?

The End

Author's note: Well, it's finally over! I would appreciate feedback, though I started this for my own pleasure and it has ended that way, too! My thanks to Daggy for beta-ing for me, and to both her and Mele for plot discussions and random threats to get it done! It's been an interesting way of charting how my writing has developed, and at least part of the reason why it took so long is that I wanted to do the ending justice. I have certainly tried to do so, and thank you for bearing with me to the very end.

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