The fire crackled on the hearth in the Lunar Palace’s Great Hall. Scorpina sat before it on a rug, warming herself during these cold, lunar nights. She was dressed down for once, it feeling a relief not to carry around her heavy armour all the time, and her long hair fell loosely down her back. She sighed, her knees drawn up to her chest, and lapsed into a reverie, her mind wandering miles away and her eyes losing focus to the middle distance.

“Good evening, Scorpina.”

She blinked back to herself and turned, seeing her Emperor stood there. She nodded to him in turn; “My Lord,” she replied.

He looked to the flames and clasped his hands at the small of his back, saying no more. Scorpina watched him with interest, the flames of the fire reflected in his chromium plating and dancing about all over his body.

“Does something trouble you, my Lord?” she eventually asked.

He shrugged, his line of sight dropping to the floor, “I don’t know…” he admitted, “I’m just restless. I can’t get those blasted ‘Power Rangers’ off my mind…”

He lowered himself to the floor, sitting a short distance from his subordinate, “I’ve never seen anyone or thing in the universe that utilises the Power Coins to the dynamic effect that they do… it makes no sense to me. And no matter what tactic I employ, whether I divide them, attack them as one, summon one of several beasts from the worlds beyond or summon a whole horde, they still manage to defeat me.” He put his hand to his head, “If only I had my army here…”

“You have a Power Coin, my Lord,” Scorpina reminded him.

“Yes,” he scoffed, “A Coin currently in the hands of the enemy and close to void of its powers. If I get it back then I’ll have my work cut out - restoring a Coin’s powers to it is no easy task.”

“But it’ll be worth it,” Scorpina insisted.

Zedd stared into the flames, “Will it? I’m not sure I should even bother…”

The scorpion warrior shook her head, “A Power Coin is a gift from the Gods - you should never discard one so easily.”

“Yes, a gift from the Gods!” Zedd chortled bitterly, “A gift from those beings so much greater than ourselves, another thing that they create in order to provide amusement for themselves. I’m certain the Coins are just another blasted thing with which they mean to cause chaos - what good has ever come out of the Power Coins?”

Scorpina turned to the fire as she felt Zedd’s gaze on her, unable to think of a decent reply.

“No good has come out of them…” he continued, “The Gods are treacherous beings, and they created all of us, races of beings equally treacherous, with which to fuel their own boredom and selfish curiosity.” He sat back, shaking his head, “I have no respect for the Gods.”

“Be careful what you say, Zedd, they -”

“Lord Zedd, madam,” he snapped suddenly.

Scorpina threw him a slight frown, then slowly continued, “Just be careful, Lord Zedd, for whenever you insult them, they always plot revenge.”

“I cannot forever live in fear of them - I will live freely and if that incurs their wrath, then so be it - what more can they put me through that I haven’t been put through already?”

Scorpina almost had to agree with him there - he was, physically, a wreck of the man he once was, though no less powerful or ambitious.

“Where’s your boyfriend, anyway?” he asked, leaning back upon his hand.

She shrugged, “I don’t know… off sulking somewhere.”

“Why’s that?”

She shook her head, “He’s disillusioned… aren’t you?”

They looked at each other and stared for a moment.

He nodded once the moment passed, “Yes,” he replied, “You know I am… I’m not used to this kind of constant failure… not at all.”

“Neither’s Goldar, nor am I… none of us are. These Power Rangers have the favour of the Gods.”

“You truly believe that?”

“Either that, or we’ve lost our touch…”

“I’m not so sure… I think these Rangers have just accessed the power of the Power Coins in a way that no one ever has before.”

“Then we should fight fire with fire, my Emperor… Get your Power Coin back.”

He stared at her again, “Yes… I will. Together, my Dragon and I will be more than a match for those human infants…” He got to his feet, “I shall retire for the night.”

Scorpina nodded to him, “Sleep well, my Lord.”

He bowed a little to her, “As if I could…” he muttered, walking away.

Her eyebrows arched a little as she turned and watched him leave.

Tommy stared at the basketball hoop in the park, trouncing the ball from his hand to the floor in a fast, repetitive motion. His eyes focused on the net, and nothing but the net, all else around him fading to an insignificant grey - yes, this was his goal, and he would take it, nothing could stop him…

With lightning-fast reflexes, he grasped the ball, launched it into the air, and it shot smartly down through the hoop, a throw executed with such intense accuracy that it didn’t even skim the metal rim - it just dropped straight through.

With a gentle thud, the ball fell to the floor and Tommy grinned, “Score,” he said. He’d always been great at sports - his coaches always proclaimed that never had they seen a boy who could perform so quickly and with such accuracy before. ‘It’s almost inhuman!’ was the thing his old soccer coach had constantly said.

Tommy’s smile didn’t take long to fade - sports helped him deal with things, and deal with himself, but even they couldn’t take the fact off his mind that soon his powers would be gone. His Power Coin was fast weakening, and Lord Zedd was all but taking advantage of it…

But he was using the evil Emperor’s Power Coin…

Tommy paced forward with a sigh, and reached down to get his ball; would Zedd carry on with his relentless attacks until the Coin gave way, or would he try and reclaim it? Tommy swallowed, his stomach churning - he couldn’t predict the Emperor’s movements, but he had this terrible feeling in his gut that he was going to do something awful…

* * * *

Zedd’s claws made chinking noises as they tapped against his metal grille. He stared at Earth’s blue and green orb, lost in thought - what could he do to thwart these ‘Power Rangers’ and bring him his Power Coin back again? What kind of plan would he need to bring the Rangers to their knees? What was he missing?

He activated his long-range vision and searched the home town of the Rangers for their presence - Tommy was the first one he found, the human boy made to serve Rita and use his Coin, only to, in time, turn against the sorceress and use the Coin for good. He looked depressed, low, inconsolable… well, who wouldn’t be if their precious super-powers were to be stripped from them?

The Green Ranger was weakening - he shouldn’t be too hard to take in one last battle, but still, that left five other Rangers at full strength, and him with a next to worthless Power Coin. He needed to do something to the Rangers that would hurt them, that would injure their pride and possibly weaken their team.

“Think, Zedd…” he murmured to himself.

His telescopic gaze wandered and he caught sight of the petite pink ranger, Kimberly, walking across the green toward her friend. The sunlight caught her auburn hair gloriously, and made her glow like some angelic creature of the heavens, and, suddenly, she looked familiar…

Memories of long ago flashed back into his head:

/You know who I am, don’t you?/

\Of course I know who you are…The aura your presence gives off couldn’t come from any other man, woman or beast.\

/Yes… enter the Dragon. And you know what these claws are famous for?/

\The death of your father\

/But they shan’t be your death/

“Hi, Tommy,” Kim said as she reached him by the basketball hoop.

“Hey Kim,” he replied, tossing the ball lackadaisically back at the hoop - it went straight through, anyway.

Kimberly blinked, “I don’t know how you do that, Tommy!” she said.

He shrugged, “It’s a gift, I guess…”

She smiled kindly at him, “How are you doing?”

He returned a weak smile, “I’m okay… I just hate that all this is happening and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“I know,” Kim said, “I wish there was something we could do.”

The ball rolled back to Tommy’s feet and he gave it a tremendous kick; it rebounded off the basketball post and went soaring across the park and into the branches of a tree; “Lord Zedd’s had it in for more ever since the beginning!” he growled, glaring at tree that now held his ball captive. He took a breath, “And he’s closing in.”

Kim nodded reluctantly and placed a hand on his arm, “Hang in there, Tommy.”

“I am,” he sighed, before he began to pace toward the tree.

* * * *

Goldar sharpened his sword on the grindstone in the Palace’s armoury, sparks flying from it as he pushed down on a pedal, turning the large, stone wheel, and running his blade against it.

Scorpina walked into the dark chamber, grabbing her boomerang from the wall, “I hope you’re ready for a long day,” she said.

Goldar arched his eyebrow up and stared at her, “Enlighten me,” he said.

“We’ve got a big job on - to drain the Green Ranger of his powers.”

Goldar sat back , the grinding wheel slowing to a halt; “You mean just constantly fight this green wretch until he drops lifeless?”

“Well, until his powers do, at least.”

“And how are we supposed to isolate him? His friends will be there to help him in an instant.”

“I don’t know… I’m guessing we’ll need to bring him to one of the dark dimensions.”

Goldar sighed irritably; “I hate doing those inter-dimensional spells… they drain me.”

“Well, how about you just cast the spell to send me and the Green Ranger there, and I’ll ‘entertain’ him.”

“On your own?”

She threw him a dark glare, “I can look after myself, Goldar.”

“And can you cast the spell to get out of these dimensions all right?”

“Yeah…I think so.”

“Why can’t Zedd do the casting? He’s the sorcerer around here.”

“He’s probably got something else planned. He’ll be saving his energies for that.”

“Selfish git.”

“Goldar!”

“Well, he is…”

“You’d be, too, if your people had treated you like a God since birth.”

“You’re too loyal to him, you know?”

She shook her head, sheathing her boomerang across her back, “Are you coming or not?”

“ ’Or not’ isn’t an option I fancy taking whilst the Emperor’s in charge,” he smirked, “I’m coming.”