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Disclaimer: The Power Rangers at the time of writing are the property of Saban Brands and will soon be the property of Hasbro. This is a fan work and no profit is being sought or made.

Author's Note: This chapter revisits the beginning of the ID War Crisis of Faith. Feel free to pop back and take a look at that storyline, it will be relevant.

Aftershock: The Tide Turns by The Q-Team

The universe was at peace, but far from being out of danger. While the UAE and other evil factions had been hunted down and wiped out, the darkness that had granted them their power remained. The grand armies of darkness may have been devastated, but evil that had fuelled them continued to grow. The obvious threat, but the greater peril loomed ready to strike back at the forces of light.

Long ago there had been a greater understanding about the nature of evil. A great being had foreseen the darkness that would one day gather to strike at the light and had taken steps to prepare for it. Deep within the small and unassuming planet known as Earth he had altered the planet's sturcture to serve his plan, creating a weapon that when the time was right would burn away the darkness, restoring balance to the universe - for in order to eradicate such dark power a large amount of light energy would be required.

The weapon had remained hidden for millions of years, safely separated from the rest of the planet in a dimensional fold. A powerful alien artefact had slowly poured a continuous stream of purifying energy into the complex machinery where it could be focussed and directed. But something had gone wrong and the fold had failed to remain hidden. Part of the vast complex had been discovered and the power source had been removed, leaving the process so close to completion unable to reach its critical phase.

The chamber had been filled with generators and storage vessels that took advantage of the lines of natural energy that ran across the planet to reduce the risk of so much energy in one place. The great warrior had used those pathways to create storage facilities deep within the surface. The background leakage of those transit lines had been responsible for drawing evil to the planet and nullifying the evil within those that tried to conquer the small world.

Without the power source the capacitors never reached their peak load and before long the ancient equipment had started to leak more and more energy into the Ley Lines, drawing in greater threats.

Fortunately there had been a backup plan, a mental afterimage left for a brave man he knew would one day take the role of guardian of the Earth. Although it took millions of years, Zordon eventually arrived and set up his Command Center. Doing so allowed the mental imprint to nudge the powerful sage to take steps to complete the work even though it failed to prevent the White Master from allowing the power source to be removed.

Zordon had unknowingly prepared for the day when the forces of darkness would overwhelm the light. In place of the power source he had tied his own life energy into the process realising that while it would not have the same impact, it would but the armies of light another fifty centuries. It would have been long enough for his students and their successors to find another way to beat back the darkness when that time had passed.

Sadly Zordon never got to complete his plan. The dark forces corrupted one of his students and assassinated the White Master. Without Zordon there was no purifying energy to cancel out the darkness. And with each villain the Rangers went on to vanquish that dark energy grew more concentrated as it pushed its way through the cosmos as a wave of darkness seeking a new avatar.

And that was when Minion returned.

<post_date>2017-11-24 12:00:01</post_date><post_modified>2020-01-11 10:09:12</post_modified>