Valley of Darkness Intro: First Steps

Disclaimer: This story is absolutely, positively, NOT FOR CHILDREN. I don’t care how mature you think you are, this has very, very little to do with the real show. This story and this series features graphic sexual descriptions and mature situations, and has an actual plot, the kind that would air closer to Millennium than the Fox Kid’s Afternoon, if you catch my drift.
Oh, and I don’t own most of these characters, let alone the concept of the Rangers. I’m just borrowing them for a little storytelling. They are owned by The Powers That Be at Toei, Fox, Renaissance, and Saban, all of whom have two things in common: they have lots of money and wouldn’t have anything to do with this little series. I have no money, and I happen to really like the idea behind this series. So, while we’re not too far apart, I hope we stay that way. Send comments to the address above.

How the Alterregnum Fell

There once was a time when all the known world was peaceful and civilized. The banner of the Six Kingdoms was known throughout the multiverse, a symbol of harmony and prosperity, and was defended by the incorruptible and invincible Knights of the Alterregnum. But the true power of the Alterregnum was not the Knights, but the power behind them: the Masters of Magic, the koldynyi, who could bend science and magic to their will.
Then came the darkness, pouring out of the Eastern Sky, with weapons that destroyed not the power armor that protected the Knights, but the Knights themselves. The barbarians from the East brought with them a terrible blight, created by their koldynyi, called ta’tati in their own tongue. What they destroyed in battle never regrew; women sickened and died in childbirth; fields lay barren under the bodies of the dead; and the people of the Six Kingdoms watched their banner rot and fall.

The city of Larshova had fallen, as had all the cities before it, to the might of the Eastern army. But this day was more terrible than that; this day brought a Dragon to the city of Larshova. Here, as everywhere in the path of this Dragon’s rampage, the footsoldiers of the East raced through the street, slaughtering all who stood against them.

In the center of the city, however, the footsoldiers stood baffled at the sight of a hundred scholars kneeling at their feet, surrounding the stairs of the Great Library. A runner was sent, to report this startling submission to the leaders of the army.

But no one expected the Dragon himself to appear.

He was tall, with long hair so dark it almost seemed to drink in the dying sunlight of Larshova. His eyes were a brilliant green, the color of magic and life. His form could almost be called human, but his aura screamed out with the unnatural powers that he controlled, and the lives that he had destroyed. He gazed down calmly at the kneeling scholars, and walked unerringly to their leader, although no one had pointed her out.

He stared down at her, head tilted in curiosity, and waited.

She swallowed, and finally found the courage to speak. “I am Gwyenhefer, First Scholar and Keeper of the Library.” She kept her eyes focused on the paving stones before her, remembering the first time she had ridden over these pale, worn stones as a child coming to the Library to be tested for literacy.

The cool hand on her cheek was a surprise, dry but soft. The Dragon tilted her head up so that their eyes could meet.

Warm brown eyes, perfect for the deep blue robes she wore, locked with the green, icy eyes of the entity called the Dragon. “So you would surrender the Great Library to me?” he whispered. His voice, too, was a surprise. Gentle, rich, and strong. Gwyenhefer felt an unfamiliar tingle in her heart and her loins at it, and was ashamed to find herself so eager to hear it again.

“It is my duty to protect the gathered knowledge of the centuries,” she replied. The words were from the plaque in her study, where countless First Scholars must have made similar decisions over the centuries - she hoped. “I will do whatever is necessary to preserve it.”

The Dragon laughed, warmly, as a grown man does at a child, and Gwyenhefer knew her face had turned red with embarrassment. “I am not sure I can believe that, but I accept your surrender.” He smiled, and pulled his hand slowly away from her face. “The Library will not be harmed.”

How Rytta Stole the Green Powers and Corrupted Them

     Rising above the terror that accompanied the destruction of the Golden Age of the Six Kingdoms was a koldynyi named Xordon. He was a powerful sorcerer and a gifted scientist, and through his plans and efforts, one last remnant of the Six Kingdoms remains: their Powers.
     Xordon worked tirelessly, with the help of the remaining koldynyi, to control the Powers, binding them in six coins, and colored them after the Six fallen Kingdoms. Red for the Power of Fire and the people of Remego; pink for the Power of Sound and the people of Katma; yellow for the Power of Air and the people of Eirye; green for the Power of Life and the people of T’Dacce; blue for the Power of Water and the people of Naiada; and black for the Power of Earth and the people of Zavros. Each coin would give the bearer the collected Powers of these forgotten peoples, and enable the bearer to defend what was left of the Alterregnum, before the barbarians from the East destroyed everything that was good and beautiful in the mutiverse.
     The koldynyi recreated the power armor, keeping the system of colors that Xordon had created, and adding more Powers from their own stock, including healing, and, in the fashion of the oldest Knights of the Alterregnum, binding the armor to the bearer’s maat, so that the inherent goodness of the bearer’s heart would be reflected in their actions. Additionally, the armor could transform into what would come to be called after the savior of the Alterregnum: a Xord, a mighty beast of magic, science, and steel, that was more than a match for the mutated beasts that the Eastern ta’tati created to fight their battles for them. And when used together, the six coins could form a huge MegaXord, in the shape of a gargantuan humanoid, that could call on any and all of the six Powers within it.
     One of the koldynyi working with Xordon was a good-hearted woman named Tev’wan, who is notable only for the fact that she died, and no one noticed. They did not notice because an Eastern ta’tati named Rytta, who had mastery of the magic of shapechanging, took her place. Just before the six coins were complete, she succeeded in stealing the most powerful coin, the Green coin that controlled the powers of Life.
     Even after Rytta stole the Green coin, Xordon refused to give up hope. He quickly reconfigured the remaining coins to work without it, and succeeded in barring most of the Powers of the T’Dacce from Rytta’s grasp. However, Rytta had never intended to use the Powers of the T’Dacce. Instead, Rytta used the coin to bind one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse. She used it to trap a Dragon. As the old Knights of the Alterregnum and the new Power Rangers, as Xordon called them, killed off the race of Dragons one by one, the Dragon trapped in Rytta’s coin grew ever more powerful, but Xordon’s binding still held, and the Green coin became permanently corrupted.

Gwyenhefer arched into the Dragon’s thrust, taking him in deeper. “Oh gods,” she cried, and heard him moan in answer. He tightened his grip on her hand, and she began clawing at his back with her other hand as he continued pounding into her. “Please,” she whispered, “oh, please...”

He gasped as the first ripples of her pleasure washed through her. Gwyenhefer dug her nails into his skin, and sank her teeth into his shoulder to keep from screaming. He slowed his movements a little, shifting his weight so that he could turn enough to whisper into her ear without dislodging her mouth. “Tómas,” he breathed into her ear. “My name is Tómas.” She threw her head back, and moaned in pleasure as he filled her again. “Say it, please.”

“Tómas,” she murmured in absolute pleasure. “My love, Tómas, more, please,” she begged, raising her hips to him. “Oh, please.”

The Dragon growled, and snapped his hips, driving himself into her a bit harder than he had intended. She screamed, and pulled him closer, and when he realized she was screaming his name, he shuddered, and filled the woman beneath him with his seed. Their mingled juices soaked the small bed beneath them, and not for the first time, they spent the rest of the night on the floor beneath the window.

How Xordon trapped Rytta and She Later Escaped

But Xordon never forgave Rytta for her treachery, or for the death of Tev’wan. He hunted her mercilessly, and their war became legendary. At last, he succeeded in containing her and her chief minions within a magic-draining ova from which she could not escape. But in doing so, Xordon sacrificed most of his life-energy. He withdrew to a parallel dimension where he could keep watch on her prison with only one robot for a companion, and barred all of his former companions from entering, except the Power Rangers. It seemed that the days of the Alterregnum and the Power Rangers were over. Without Rytta and the Green coin, the barbarians from the East lost their stomach to fight the Power Rangers. Planet by planet, and plane by plane, the Alterregnum splintered and disintegrated. The blight of the Eastern ta’tati faded, and eventually, the worlds of the multiverse began to grow again.
The barren rock where Xordon had trapped Rytta grew, flourished, and died again, and still she remained trapped in her ova. But the world that it circled grew more slowly. The people of that planet discovered space, and began to explore the other satellites in their system. And Xordon watched in horror, unwilling to harm the fledgling race, as the explorers broke the seal on Rytta’s prison, and set her free.

“If only I knew its name,” snarled Xordon. “I can hold it, but I cannot defeat it unless we have the name.”

The captive smiled tightly. “It is the way of Dragons,” he said. In the outer circle of baffled Knights and angry koldynyi, he could see her, shrinking away from the carnage that had once been the Council of Larshova. She had forgotten what she loved: a monster from the East, a killer, a thing out of nightmares. A Dragon. And had she forgotten too that he loved her? That Dragons mate once, and that is for life?

“What shall we do with it?” asked one of the Knights. She looked warily at the myriad webs of magic restraining the Dragon.

“It’s safe enough here for the time being. Let us leave it until we have finished the creation of the new Knights of the Alterregnum: the Power Rangers.”

A ragged cheer rose from the crowd at that, and Xordon turned away from the bound Dragon and let the entourage of koldynyi back to the Tower of Creation. Most of them risked a quick glance at the Dragon, and he could read the fear and pride mixed on their faces. But most of all, he could see the faith they had in Xordon. All except one, a tall, stunning woman near the end, who smiled openly at the Dragon as she walked away. She had the wicked eyes of the East, and then she was gone; so quickly that he would have thought he dreamt her. He didn’t see Gwyenhefer leave.

How Xordon Found His New Rangers

     And so Xordon was forced to emerge from his seclusion. Eons had passed since the Power Rangers had fought for the Alterregnum, and the coins had long ago been returned to Xordon for safekeeping. Most of the koldynyi who had helped Xordon so long ago were now dead and forgotten, and those that remained were too weak to aid Xordon in recapturing Rytta. So Xordon looked to the planet whose explorers had freed her, and found there five souls whose spirit of friendship and passion for life so closely mirrored the ideals of the Six Kingdoms that Xordon felt they would be worthy replacements for the lost Knights of the Alterregnum.
     He brought the teenagers to his dimension, and gave them the power coins, and when Rytta unleashed her first beast upon the unsuspecting blue planet, it was met and destroyed by the fledgling Rangers.
     The war began anew.

How Tommy Came to Angel Grove

     Bethany dove behind a parked car, and waited for the burst of machine-gun fire to pause before running for the alley. Behind her, she could hear the British soldier swear as he saw her run out, still unharmed.
     “Mama! Mama!” Was that Tommy? Her little boy? Bethany risked a quick glance, in time to see Ethan pull his little brother up the wall, out of the way of the charging soldiers. Tommy was wailing, and calling for her. Bethany felt her heart break.
     Tommy hadn’t said a word in two years, starting from the day that he had disappeared from the playground. A strange woman had dropped off her son, battered and bloodied in all the wrong places, staring quietly at the walls and clutching a brightly polished antique coin. He wouldn’t let go of it, even now. Finally Bethany had sewn the coin onto a belt for him, and waited day after agonizing day to hear her pretty son’s voice again. But he’d never said a word - until today. And today was probably the last time she would ever see her children.
     Gunfire erupted again, reminding Bethany of where she was, and she raced down the alley. She needed to get to the sewers, but she also had to make sure that the men behind her stayed focused on catching her, rather than her sons.
     As if on cue, the leader shouted, “You two! Go after the brats!”
     Bethany brought up her pistol, and fired out into the street. The soldier chasing her ducked, but he needn’t have. Bethany was aiming for the car. She hit the gas tank dead on, and the quick explosion set off the gelignite that she’d left there. The soldier who had chosen to duck lost his life for it; he was too close to the blast, and the shrapnel that had once been a car left only a bloody stain on the dark Irish street. Bethany grinned. “That’ll keep ‘em on me, if nothin’ else will.” She pulled up the manhole cover, and gave a harsh laugh as she heard the familiar sound of army boots pounding down the alley.
     Over the crackle of the fire, she heard a boy’s voice singing out: “I’ve got a bloody message for/ your orphaned sons and daughters; ‘England out of Ireland, NOW!’/ cries Bethany-O’er-the-Waters!” The voice grew fainter, and she knew her ‘brother’ had taken the boys away. Bethany dropped into the sewers, humming the song under her breath.
     Luton Airport would never be the same. A chartered plane carrying two returning British diplomats and their families had been destroyed, setting off a pressure bomb set on the chartered runway. Forty people had been killed, and over a hundred more wounded when the damaged plane had slammed into the terminal.
     Realizing immediately why the Ceallach branch - or indeed, any - of the IRA hadn’t shown up for the protest had brought swift and immediate retribution to the doors of known Ceallach, like Bethany and her sons. But the Ceallach were ready, and most of them had already started running when the gunmen came to their doors. But someone had to get rid of the remaining evidence, and Bethany had offered to stay if someone else would make sure that her sons made it to her sister in America.
     So Bethany-O’er-the-Waters, one of the finest demolitions experts in the Ceallach, was running to be caught. Or killed, if she were lucky. But only after the remaining timers were conveniently lost or otherwise destroyed.
     “Oh, my little Tómas - be safe, my son,” she prayed to herself. And then kept running.

Tune in tomorrow for: Valley of Darkness I: Mother’s Child