Failure (February 12, 2017)

They had succeeded. Well, to be more accurate, Jason had. He had destroyed the Sword of Darkness. Billy was grateful; he didn't know how much longer he could've lasted against this formidable opponent. The rangers powered down and turned to Tommy expectantly, the Pink Ranger with an especially hopeful look on her face. He wasn't facing any of them. His back was turned and his head bowed to the ground, now helmetless.

Turning around he scanned their face with somber eyes, lingering on Kimberly's yearning gaze last. Throwing his head back he let out an evil laugh.

"You pathetic fools? You actually thought that would work? That I would let some tool control me? Some spell? Rita is my empress. I serve her because that is my duty and I want to."

The rangers exchanged shocked looks. Kim looked like she had been physically slapped. How could Zordon have been wrong? Billy couldn't comprehend; all of the signs and science pointed to the Sword being cursed with a spell to keep Tommy's mind under Rita Repulsa's control. Had Rita really outsmarted them and thrown them a red herring?

Tommy clucked his tongue and looked at the ground where his sword had been, shaking his head.

"Pity. I liked that sword." He pulled out the Dragon Dagger and caressed the length of the blade almost lovingly. "But this will do." With only a brief glance at his target he let the weapon fly. It didn't take long to meet it's mark.

"Consider this your only warning. Back off. You don't stand a chance against me and my empress." He disappeared in a flash of glowing green light. The green light seemed to signal something in the rangers' brains and they finally spurred into action. Kim screamed and Trini covered her mouth, barely able to stifle a gasp of horror.

Billy brought his hand away from his chest and held it before his eyes. Why was it covered in red? A numbing pain spread out from the center of his chest where Tommy's dragon dagger lay buried deep. He stumbled back and fell into his friend's arms.

Jason caught Billy before he fell and slowly lowered him to the ground. Despite the excruciating pain, Billy felt safe in his friend and leader's arms.

"It's okay buddy, we got you." Jason reached over to press the teleportation button on his communicator, making sure to keep a hold on his injured friend as they departed the scene in sparkles of bright red and faint blue. Too focused on his wounded friend he didn't even look to see if the others followed suit. It didn't take long for them to land on the Command Center floor.

"Ay yi yi!" Alpha cried when he saw Billy, propped up by Jason on the floor and painfully clutching the dagger in his chest. The robot frantically waved his arms around, not sure what to do having never encountered a situation such as this before. Jason looked up at his mentor in panic. Pink, yellow and black lights landed off to his right.

"Zordon, what do I do? I don't know what to do."

It seemed Trini had calmed somewhat during the transport. She rushed over and crouched beside her blue and red counterparts, attempting to assess the damage. Gently she wrapped her long fingers around Billy's hand that clutched the dagger.

"Billy, I'm going to pull the dagger out now. This may hurt. Zack," she turned to her other friend, knowing the sobbing Pink Ranger wouldn't be of much help to her. "I need something to hold against the wound, to stop the bleeding. A towel or something." He nodded and rushed off in search. There was a med bay off to the left of the main room that would have supplies. They hadn't had much use for the room so far in their rangering careers; they mainly suffered minor cuts and bruises. Plus, the power accelerated their bodies' healing. It didn't take him long to find a compress and he jogged back.

Jason held Billy's bloody hand in his own as Trini slowly pulled the dragon dagger out, not wanting to rush and cause Billy further damage. As soon as she dropped the dagger to the floor it disappeared in a glowing green light, presumably to return to it's master on the Moon Palace. Zack rushed forward to put pressure on the wound.

"We need to get him to a hospital," Kim finally spoke up, her sobbing reduced to sniffles and the occasional whimper.

"And say what? We need help patching up our friend after he was sliced and diced during a fight with the green ranger? There'll be questions; they'll ask what we were doing there. Why he would attack us?" Zack responded. The blood flow didn't seem to be slowing much, soaking the towel he held to Billy's chest and staining his hands a dark red.

"We can't treat him here. None of us have the medical knowledge or experience to treat a wound this severe," Trini backed up her friend.

"And when we appear in sparkling lights, how do we explain that? Huh?"

"Stop, i-it," Billy gurgled, trying to be heard but not having the energy to speak much louder than a whisper. "It doesn't ma-tter. Too late. Too much blood. J-just stay. With me."

"Oh, Billy, no." Kimberly dropped to her knees in front of her childhood friend. All of the rangers tightened their circled around their wounded comrade who lay on the floor, trying to give him some sense of comfort just by being close. It didn't take long. His labored breaths were wet with blood, and he looked to each of his friends one last time. Trini had her arm wrapped around the Pink Ranger and pulled her close. Billy could feel droplets upon his shoulder from Jason's silent tears. He wished he had more time with this amazing group of people he called friends.

"Love you a-all."

Jason bowed his head.

They had failed.