COE Volumes: Genesis

Disclaimer: I do not own Green Lantern or Doctor Who. Green Lantern and associated characters belong to DC Comics. Doctor Who belongs to the BBC.

The Zeo Knight

The Power was a vast current of raw energy directed through a dimension separate from the rest of reality to protect the other dimensions from its effects. While some energy leaked from the Morphin Grid and manifested as magic, psychic and spiritual energy, the other more powerful forms of energy were mostly restrained. It was not an easy thing to connect pure Grid Energy in a safe and predictable fashion. And despite appearances to the contrary, neither the Time Lords of Gallifrey, not the Guardians of Oa unlocked the secret.

The earliest beings in the higher dimensions had managed to do so by trapping the energy under extreme pressure and condensing it into the form they desired, but the ability to touch and control such forces was beyond the population of the lower planes. Instead, they had shown the ingenuity that the lower races would become known for and cheated. Instead of trapping energy inside objects, they instead trapped the energy inside dimensional pockets and placed the dimension inside the object – for it seemed that dimensional engineering was far easier than creating such objects.

In the early days following the departure of the First Ones, such methods were not available as the Time Lords and their peers had yet to arise. It was a period when the continued existence of those mortals they left behind was not a certainty. The seals holding back the beings within the higher dimensions from simply conquering the lowest level of existence allowed the young races to come together and change the laws of nature within their dimensional plane to something that suited them. But before that occurred, before the Time Lords and the Maltusians, and the other races that formed the first alliance could gather, there had been other threats.

The First Ones had been charged with the task of overseeing the creation of the universe and priming it with the early forms of life. It was a task that they had fulfilled. To accomplish such a feat they had considered as many factors as their limited minds would allow – for despite their intelligence they were designed to favour hard logic over imagination. They had attempted to create a balanced existence where they believed life would have the greatest chance of survival. They had failed to notice that despite their best efforts some denizens of the higher planes of existences remained, hidden in the dark places. And some of those beings had been servants of the Dark One.

When the First Ones departed they unknowingly allowed a powerful demon to remain behind, unrestrained by their edicts. The demon was a being of unmatched power that took the shape of a multi-headed dragon. It was known as Vitara, but like most of its kind that was only a name it had chosen to present to the cosmos – for like many demons the knowledge of its true name was a dangerous first step towards vanquishing it. It had bided its time, hiding away as the First Ones had worked, awaiting their departure before feasting upon the defenceless stars. For the dimension the First Ones had left behind had no means to protect itself from a being such as Vitara, a demon that consumed the life force of worlds and transformed it into a chaotic mass of destructive energy. With nothing to stop its rampage, the beast's power grew ever stronger.

World after world was drained of life as the demon crossed the many galaxies. It not only destroyed the primitive beings that had emerged on a few select planets, but it also stole the power that the First Ones had placed within each world to support and encourage life. As the demon soared through the cosmos, it left behind a trail of dead worlds.

Fortunately, the First Ones' need to have a balanced universe had created safeguards in case such a threat should arise. It was not a simple balance of creating a equal counter to the threat. Instead it sought a champion that would eventually defeat the demon and then with time allow the universe to heal.

While the First Ones had sealed the mortal realm to allow it to evolve before allowing the higher dimensions to interact with it, there were dimensions they could not seal. Some dimensions had been created before the First Ones had been sent out on their mission. Such dimensions were connected to focal points within the young reality. And while the First Ones could access such dimensions and manipulate the forces inside, they were unable to strengthen the barriers between them and other dimensions.

Within existence there were many types of energy: magical energy, psychic energy and spiritual energy were the most common. In the same way that a healthy human required a mixture of fat, carbohydrate and protein to function properly, so the three forms of energy helped to maintain the functioning of reality’s ecosystem. And then there were the more potent forms of energy, those the First Ones had been wary of. Raw Grid Energy was something that even the builders of existence treated with caution it seemed.

Grid Energy was highly disruptive, more so than magic. But left alone, Grid Energy was altered when outside of the Morphin Grid. Over time the energy slowed down and slowly transmuted into something resembling matter. That matter had been found in places across the universe as small fragments of crystal; the First Ones had even used some of those fragments as a means of enhancing the connection to the Morphin Grid by implanting them in the cores of planets.

The world of Zeo was different than most planets because it had been formed backwards as part of an experiment to see if planets constructed in such a fashion would prove more successful. Instead of creating the planet and then implanting a fragment of crystal, the First Ones had instead located a crystal and built a planet around it, trapping the crystal at its core. The results had been promising, but had been stopped when the First Ones discovered that the crystals had continued to grow in size after the planets were formed, meaning that they were still connected to the Morphin Grid.

Life did not emerge on Zeo for a long time although over time the energy leaking through caused the lifeless planet to evolve into a primitive life-form. It did not possess thoughts of its own but had been shaped by the collective thoughts and feelings of the living beings on the worlds around it. And while it could not truly think, it was capable of responding to a threat… or a plea for assistance.

But how does a planet, even one connected to a massive pool of energy respond to a cry for help? The energy needed a conduit through which to work. And so the limited intelligence that had evolved within the dimension reached out to find a suitable avatar for its power. On a primitive world it found a young knight defending a family from bandits. The energy somehow decided that his actions made him worth to be their avatar.

The young man was drawn to Zeo and shown the danger Vitara represented. Although the power could not speak, it conveyed its wishes and from his response, confirmed his

agreement to become its vessel. And so his body was infused with the raw power of the Morphin Grid, changing him from flesh and blood into a being of light and energy. He became the first champion of the mortal plane,

starting a legacy that would continue far into the future and inspire many stories of the heroes fighting demons.

The noble warrior and the demon met in combat and though the knight was powerful due to the power he had been granted, the demon was older, more experienced and had access to the energy it had stolen from millions of worlds. Their battle seemed endless as they moved across the universe

and the knight became aware that his time was growing short – for the energy he had been granted was more than his body, mind and soul could withstand for such a long time without burning out. It was

only as he realised his end was near that the knight’s prayers were answered and he saw an opening. The knight took the opportunity, sacrificing everything that remained of the person he had once been

to destroy the demon, ending its evil rampage.

But while the demon thrashed about in its death throes, the knight realised that his work was far from over. Vitara had caused unimaginable damage to millions of worlds. The energy it had stolen was the raw power of creation, which once corrupted by the demon became chaotic and destructive. As the demon was torn apart from the fatal blow it had received, the energies it contained were unleashed. The untainted power of creation left behind by the First Ones was absorbed into the body of the knight where it mixed with the other energies that now dominated his being. The corrupted energies leaked into space where they solidified into a green crystal sparking with dark energy; when the demon's body exploded the Chaos Crystal was blown far away.

With Vitara seemingly gone, it fell to the knight to try and repair the damage the demon had caused. The knight travelled from dead world to dead world, replacing the energy Vitara had stolen with his own life force. Unable to separate the energy he had absorbed from the magic that

now formed the majority of his essence, he ended up pouring a piece of himself into every world he visited. And as he travelled and reversed the damage the demon had caused, he gave more and more of himself, until very little remained.

In the end, it had taken almost all of the spiritual energy The knight possessed to complete the monumental task. Much of the energy the demon had stolen had been corrupted, and the knight had been forced to replace it with his own while using even more to purge the corruption. The worlds he had visited would recover in time and he expected them to bring forth life as the First Ones had intended. But it was likely that any life that emerged would be tainted by the nobility of

the knight’s sacrifice.

With his task complete, The knight returned to his Zeo to die, but the power that had supported him in his quest refused to let him pass. Vitara had proven there were dangers in the fledging universe that threatened its existence. It needed a defender until it was strong enough to protect itself. The power chose

the knight to fulfil that role as protector. However, he had used up much of his life force restoring the worlds Vitara had savaged. His original body had long burned away and he was no longer able to control the potent

energies he had absorbed. The energies leaked into the world around him, solidifying within its crystal core.

What little remained of the knight’s essence was transferred into the Morphin Grid and soon became a part of the dimension's growing consciousness. Beyond the boundaries of that dimension, his connection to the world that he had left behind upon his supposed death remained. And as the power of the Morphin Grid

continued to flow, so a part of it fed into the crystal core of Zeo and throughout the millions of years that followed, the energy within the crystal increased and the crystal expanded to contain such power.

But it was not just the crystal that was connected to the potent life-giving energies of the knight's new home. The planets he had healed remained connected to his life energy and through it the dimension he now resided. Just like the crystal, those worlds would continue to receive energy, causing them to evolve and attract life. And all of them had been connected to a single dimension filled with power. The evolution that the First Ones had been wishing to see would now begin.

Many years would pass before the planet Zeo was rediscovered. By that time its core had grown so powerful that its existence could no longer escape the notice of those seeking power. Wars were fought to

possess it and unlock its secrets. The violence grew until a wise leader came to understand that as long as the planet remained accessible, the fighting would never end. And so an

alliance as formed and the planet was placed into another dimension where it would remain until its power could be tempered and the people of the universe grew wise enough to understand its real

value. When the task was complete the alliance would return with only a small fragment of the crystal core. It would be presented to an order of monks in the M-51 Galaxy and would start a legacy all of its own. But that is another story.

And far away in another part of the cosmos the dark remnants of Vitara’s power had condensed to form another crystal. Unlike the one created by the knight, this crystal pulsed with the corrupted energy of a fallen demon. Its power could best be described as chaotic. And over time it too had grown larger. From time to time its unstable structure would fracture, ejecting a fragment of crystal into space where it would fall into the hands of an unsuspecting victim and unleash chaos and destruction in the name of evil. For existence had been crafted in a way that would ensure that it remained balanced regardless of the dangers such balance posed.

End of Part

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers, they belong to their respective copyright owners and are used here without permission. No money is being made from this fic.

Authors Note: This is an alternate universe with an alternate time line.

Guardians, Lords and Masters

The dark age of magic and ignorance was coming to an end. The Dark Times as they would often be referred to in the future were a period during which many of the events taking place within the cosmos were hidden from the general population. A new race had emerged and attempted to hold itself up as a shining example for the rest of the cosmos to aspire to. A race dedicated to the pursuit of science and knowledge, that appalled the use of magic and was rumoured to have taken steps to wipe out those that failed to adhere to a more logical, rational, and scientific view.

Their public deeds were well recorded and a matter of highly vocalised record as they had moved to make all around them aware of their triumphs. But behind the cheering and support there were many that questioned the rumours and stories of other activities that had taken place. There were stories of planets disappearing and races ceasing to exist. Some galaxies had mysteriously changed shape and outspoken opposition had either vanished or completely changed their minds.

There were even some stories that this new race, the Time Lords as they preferred to be called, had had some involvement in the rise of the Age of Chaos as well as its end. There were many who suspected the Time Lords and their leaders had used the chaos as an opportunity to remove opposition and sabotage those that might oppose them in future. Their jealously guarded secrets made many wary of their true intentions and so despite the great service they had done for the universe, the Time Lord would be revered and but never truly followed.

One of the biggest things to hold the Time Lords back was the knowledge of the things they had had to do to reach their place at the top of the cosmic power struggle. They knew of the crimes they had committed, the secrets they had buried along the way. The Time Lords knew how dirty and corrupt they had been, and it caused them to believe that other races were just as calculating and underhanded. They refused to commit to cooperation out of fear that their competitors might take their interaction as an opportunity to strike against them.

And so instead of claiming the leadership they so desired at a time when it was freely given, the Time Lords instead chose to grow more and more isolated, sending out edicts that were often ignored with their influence slipping away.

The truth was a little more complex where the Time Lords were concerned. The Shobogan race had been one of those selected by the First Ones during the fixing of the laws of reality. They had in fact been one of the most dedicated parties to the process, urging their peers to go further and truly nail down the rules of physics to make it impossible for there to be anything but logic and order.

When the First Ones had sent their recruits back to their worlds, the Shobogans had been one of the few to make complex written records of everything they had learned during their time away. And even though they realised that they would never achieve the feats that they had managed again during their lifetime, they hoped that their descendants would once again unlock the secrets.

It took many generations and much of the knowledge was forgotten. The Shobogan had to start from almost nothing and build themselves up. In time they mastered space flight and then later unlocked part of the secrets to immortality. It was not true immortality for they were bound to eventually die, but it gave them the longevity to learn and evolve. But it was when they mastered time travel that they saw the true possibilities the First Ones had unlocked. Using time travel they were able to remove the chaotic elements of the cosmos. They waged war on beings that used magic and took steps to prevent extra-dimensional energy from seeping in. They claimed they made the universe safer. Most argued they had managed to make the universe dull.

The Shobogan manipulated history, making themselves a central part of its history. The set fixed events in time that led to their emergence as the leaders of cosmic society while recognising, but ultimately downplaying the role of others. Eventually though they adopted a position of non-interference, stating that the universe should make its own way. There were many who suspected that this stance was a ruse and that the Time Lords were really intervening in secret to keep events how they wanted them to proceed.

As the Time Lords and the Guardians of Oa rose to prominence and then faded into the background, two other races were engaged in a devastating war that prevented them from stepping forward as leaders. The ancestors of the Kree and the Skrull had been among those the First Ones had selected. Unlike the Shobogans and the Maltusians, they did not retain the same level of knowledge when they returned to their own people.

The Skrull had been the first to advance, building a society that elevated neighbouring worlds and encouraging the growth and evolutions of societies. The Kree on the other hand were war like and violent, unable to show the dedication needed to reach the same heights as their former allies.

And so, the Kree attacked the Skrull, seeking to take from them everything they had developed. Worse, they used their ability to convince others of their own righteousness to make the Skrull appear as the infiltrating villains seeking to conquer worlds by aiding them. The Kree turned those the Skrull had formed their alliances with against them, breaking apart the Skrull society. The Skrull retaliated by declaring war on the Kree. It was a war that would never end and robbed both races of any influence in how the universe would progress.

As the Age of Chaos ended and the universe emerged from the dark times, the races that had been chosen to guide the lower dimensions through their evolution had faded. What emerged was not the ordered and logical society that so many had wished for. The universe had emerged broken, but it had endured. And even without the guidance of those that had been expected to take up the reins of leadership, the cosmos still clung to hope.

And from the darkness, new light emerged.

The Guardians had frowned upon the use of magic. The Time Lords had gone even further, attempting to obliterate all traces of magic and magical creatures from the cosmos while actively hunting those that sought to use such destructive power. Despite the efforts of both races though magic could not be completely vanquished because it was a fundamental part of existence and had been woven into the fabric of reality since before the universe had formed. So, while they managed to hide magic away and pretend it did not exist, vast dimensions of untapped magical energy remained waiting for those skilled enough to break the seals and call upon the power that waited for them.

It was one of those pockets of magical energy that had caught the attention of a new alliance of interested parties. Some were scientists, others considered themselves monks and philosophers. They had identified a particular source of magical energy, unique due to the presence of spiritual and psychic energy in peaceful coexistence. It had a limited number of frequencies and wavelengths, from so far as they could tell it in some way linked to every particle of matter and all living beings.

They called it the Morphin Grid due to the amazing transformations it could cause. Unlike other forms of magic, the Morphin Grid was considered to be alive, the individual energies that filled the dimension taking on the forms of living beings. And so instead of fearing it, they chose to study it, to understand it and to master its gifts. They became known as the Morphin Masters.

Inadvertently, the Morphin Masters became the leaders that others had tried to be. They didn’t preach how the population should live but led by their own examples of duty. Their teachings brought in students seeking to learn their ways. They built colleges where ideas could be exchanged and temples where the spiritual side of the Morphin Grid and its living entities could be carefully considered.

Their lives passed with learning and insight, growing beyond the limitations of the universe. They created new and advanced technologies guided by the Morphin Grid as the psychic energy within unified their consciousness. They created new technology, weapons, protections, and machines that could use the power of the Morphin Grid to heal. Through experimentation that lasted millions of years they gained an understanding of dimensional engineering and developed their own ways to move beyond the boundaries of a single plane in a single universe, first using technology and later the power of the Morphin Grid itself.

Eventually they reached the point in their studies where they felt that there was little more that they could uncover about the Morphin Grid from the outside. To unlock its greater secrets, they needed to venture beyond their dimension and into the Morphin Grid itself. And so, they gathered at the Transdimensional Gateway they had constructed for the purposes of exploration and after locating a point of entry, left their reality behind, vowing they would return to share their knowledge.

The machinery they used to leave shut down following their departure and nobody seemed capable of reactivating it. It remained silent for a long time as it awaited instructions from the other side. The Master Arch as some chose to name it was eventually abandoned as the Morphin Masters were believed gone forever.

More time passed and the universe continued to grow and evolve. The Morphin Masters became beings of legend. Much of their knowledge and teachings had been gathered in the years following their disappearance and was hoarded in places where scholars studied to try and recovered the wisdom that had seemingly left alongside the Morphin Masters. Their creations were either added to personal collections and hidden away in places others could not steal them or handed out to warriors to fight in the names of the Morphin Masters and what society felt were their beliefs.

As the centuries progressed more and more of the discoveries made by the Morphin Masters were forgotten. The weapons and protective garments they had created to aid them in their exploration of the universe remained as strong as they day they were created, but the art of making more had been lost. It was possible to duplicate the material, but the properties that had enhanced those items beyond the mundane were lost.

And so those left behind did the only thing they could: they hoarded everything they could find out of fear that somebody else might do the same. Those with the greatest resources located the best items available and made their own forms of armour using a mix of the clothing available to them. They held themselves up as champions following in the ways of the Morphin Masters, claiming the title of Grid Rangers. Meanwhile governments fortunate enough to secure a supply of weapons and clothing created their own Grid Troopers: small armies protected by Morphin Master technology. Although some chose to place their faith in a smaller number of individuals with more armament than a typical soldier. They called them: Grid Warriors.

As for the families that the Morphin Masters had left behind: they were widely ignored and treated as outcasts by a cosmos that no longer recognised their worth. Displaced from their homes as those seeking relics of the Morphin Masters gathered anything they could, the descendants set out on their own journey. As they spread out among the stars, they created new places where knowledge and understanding could be found by those seeking it for the right reasons. They also took it upon themselves to secure and hide some of the Morphin Masters’ greatest and most dangerous discoveries.

Through history those descendants spread out, hiding their heritage to preserve the secrets they kept on behalf of their ancestors. They would be responsible for the founding of organisations that would one day spread across the cosmos bringing hope in the growing darkness. And members of their tribe would gain fame as heroic warriors in the fight against evil who would go on to train some of the universe’s greatest warriors. Others would use their name, but when the records were reviewed long after the original Morphin Masters departed, their descendants would be the ones spoken about as legends.

Finally, the First Ones split the universe, creating multiple universes and a massive scar where they universes had once been joined together. Over countless millions of years the wound had shrunk as gravity had drawn the broken space inward. It was then that the First Ones had returned to fill what was left of the void they had formed. With a cosmic sleight of hand, they merged a swirling mass of gas and dust, igniting the gases to form a new solar body around which they rested thirteen planetary bodies. In a short amount of time, perhaps accelerated by the will of the First Ones, the planets formed out of the dust, bringing forth the beginnings of the Sol System with a planet that would one name become known as Earth sitting upon the centre of the almost completely healed tear in space and time.

The Earth was the key to the new structure of the multiple universes. Through the Earth it was possible to shift between universes. Although a small and unassuming world, which had been devastated in its early life by a collision with another planet, the Earth was one of the central hubs around which existence thrived. From the moment it had formed it had drawn the attention of those that could sense the truth of its potential. At the moment of the collision, it had been elevated from a mere curiosity into an enigma. And as the first of many races appeared, ready to treat the Earth as a cosmic dumping ground, there were some who knew that one day this place would have a pivotal role in the fate of all existence.

Long ago, before the universe descended and then emerged from a period of anarchy and chaos, the First Ones had places barriers between the higher dimensions and their final realm. It had been done so that the lower realm had time to grow and evolve before being confronted by those that lurked in the less physically restrictive planes. Now though the seals were starting to break down and the battles that raged in the upper planes of existence would soon find their way to the mortal realm as some of the higher dimensions once again gained access to the planes below.

Now the war between Good and Evil would start anew even as the fight between Chaos and Order stressed the universe to its breaking point. The First Ones had completed their task, their creations would record the results. And then they would have their answer… if they could remember the question.

End of Part

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers, they belong to their respective copyright owners and are used here without permission. No money is being made from this fic.

Authors Note: This is an alternate universe with an alternate time line.

Under New Management

In the many years it had taken the First Ones to complete their transition of power, the races they had previously tested had started to evolve into something resembling those the First Ones had gathered to bring structure to the cosmos. Except that now that guidance was no longer needed as reality had retained most of the rules they had set in place.

Unfortunately, while they all felt they were destined for something great – for the First Ones had allowed them to keep a racial memory of the time their many worlds had been gathered-, the exact details had faded. That they had an important destiny in a cosmos they could see needed guidance brought them to the conclusion that they were destined to be the dominant race in the universe to which all others should defer.

The problem with that view was that the First Ones had collected specimens from hundreds of worlds and treated them as equals. The First Ones had not had favourites and had implanted the memories in such a way that they could not be ignored when triggered. This inevitably set those same races at odds with each other as they all believed their own race to be the rightful rulers of universe.

Tensions rose as some races started to take direct action to slow the development of their competitors, going so far as to alter their rival’s genetic data so that they lost the traits that had made them of interest to the First Ones in the first place. Accidents that completely wiped-out colonies were common, as was the strategic sowing of discontent to cause civil wars that distracted from innovation.

Despite not being a regular participant in the underhanded games that had come to dominate the cosmos, the Maltusians were the first race to emerge as a dominant force although they had been forced into the background by the actions of others. They even named themselves the Guardians of the Universe and moved themselves to Oa, a world near it centre to give the illusion of importance. Tall with blue skin and white hair, the Guardians promoted a message of order and lawfulness. But before they could turn their attention to matters such as crime, they first tried to restrict the use of extra-dimensional energy.

Extra-dimensional energy as the lower races called it was the same energy that had seeped into the universe since its formation. It was the same energy that had been unleashed to create the building blocks of the cosmos, which the Celestials had later refined. It was the raw energy that The One devoted his every waking moment to keeping under control. In the first days of existence the energy had been forced into a dimension that flowed throughout the universe, touching every part of creation. But along the way despite the best efforts of The One’s creations to maintain the barriers, some energy seeped through.

The Maltusians did not fully understand it and did not wish to understand it. While they found that in some forms it could be a useful tool, for the most part they considered it unpredictable and destructive. Because they chose not to try and understand the workings of the energy, they were unable to find the means to prevent it from entering their dimensional plane. Instead, after successfully removing it from their own world by trapping it inside a large crystal, their only option was to repeat the process wherever the energy was found to be seeping in and contain it in vast vessels. What they did with those containers was unclear, but the risk of such volatile energy being left unchecked would likely cause problems in the future.

It took generations to drain some masses of energy and by that time they had given up trying to get the people of the universe to acknowledge them as Guardians of the Universe. For the Guardians of Oa was the best they were ever going to achieve. They had also decided to try to learn more about the energy that was causing them so many problems to speed up the cleansing process.

The result was that many of Oa’s greatest scientists had come to believe that the energies the made up the spectrum of  energies was just a fraction of a previously unclassified force of nature. They labelled it as The Power and were able to describe the properties of the types of energy they encountered.. With further study aided by their constantly advancing science they learnt to separate and then sub-divide the various energies, bringing an understanding to a force that had previously defied explanation. And eventually they were able to divide the energies that made up The Power into three classifications they called: Spiritual energy, Psychic energy, and Magical energy.

Spiritual energy was the energy generated by the existence of the universe. It flowed through living beings but could be found in almost all matter in some form or other. It was also almost impossible to channel using inorganic technology. By its nature it required living bodies to act as a conduit through which it could flow. And while energy created by those in the lower planes could be easily utilised with the correct training, the energy from the higher levels had proven less useful. Spiritual energy could be polarised to either positive or negative and sub-divided according to its original and whether it was flowing or pooled. After some study, the Guardians classified it as posing only a small threat and moved on.

Psychic energy on the other hand seemed to be made up of a single flow of energy. There were few identifiable variations and although it could be used positively and negatively, there was no obvious difference in the energy used for either purpose. It was just a vast pool of energy that flowed its way through reality and if directed properly, it could be used. Thoughts and emotions were an important part of directing Psychic energy. Combined with the shear willpower and concentration needed to sustain it once set in motion. As if Spiritual energy it was classified as being of little concern if it was handled carefully.

Then there was Magical energy. Magic was the least controllable and most potent of the raw energies of the universe. It didn’t have a single source. It was the natural background energy that had been dispersed at the creation of the universe. It was part of the powers the Celestials had wielded. It was the life energy that sustained the gods of the higher dimensions and the creatures lurked in the more insidious dimensions. Magic ranged from being raw and near uncontrollable to being refined and easily commanded. It could be polarised between positive and negative or completely neutral. It could be contained, grown, reused, dispersed, and gathered. Unlike Psychic energy it could sustain its effects without the need of a conscious mind.

Magic was a force of change. It could alter the structure of its surroundings and change, create and even destroy matter. It could cause mutations in living cells and in high quantities act like a dose of radiation. When forced to obey the laws of science it could be stored, channelled, and insulated against. Once tapped correctly with the right method of control, magic could be used as an effective tool.

However, some magic could not be controlled safely. Some magic was too potent to be restrain, some was simply too destructive to attempt to control and some was almost sentient and fought back when attempts were made to call upon it. Some magic required extra precautions, some required offerings to be made through ritual ceremonies before it would conform. In later times the reasons for such varying behaviours would be better understood, but for now the Guardians tried to remove the more volatile magic from where it could cause harm.

Unlike Psychic energy and Spiritual energy, Magical energy did not simply have one point of origin. Some magic had existed before the universe, some had been unleashed at the moment of creation or shortly thereafter and some was residual power used by the First Ones during the building of the early cosmos. Some magic was the natural background energy and spiritual energy of the beings found within the high planes, seeping down through the barriers, and interacting with an alien environment. Some was the result of a build-up of energy when the barriers between planes of existence were sealed. Unable to move the energy had simply accumulated and then leaked through.

Perhaps some of the most dangerous forms of magical energy though were those that came from beings trapped inside their own dimensions following the First One’s acts to protect the lower dimensions. These were beings filled with vast amounts of energy unable to move beyond their own dimensions that desperately sought release. They were willing to share their power with those on the other side of the barrier if they were willing to offer enough Spiritual energy in return.

For that was one of the most useful qualities of Spiritual energy. Because it was found in all living beings it could be offered as an exchange for access to one of the other forms of energy. It was the key to unlocking one side of the seal the First Ones had placed between dimensions, requiring only somebody on the other side to provide a similar offering from their side, often in the form of Magical energy.

This was the nature that the Guardians of Oa had come to understand. The use of Magical, Spiritual and Psychic energy required an exchange. Energy for energy, thought for energy, emotion for energy, something for energy. Even the powers that they had evolved required that they offered up vast amounts of willpower in return for being able to transmute energy into matter.

It was only when their long period of study and their campaign to eradicate the most dangerous forms of magic and contain those that would dare unleash such dangers upon the universe, that the Guardians returned to their previous goal of bring order and lawfulness to what they considered a cosmos running out of control.

They attempted to resolve the problem by creating machines to carry their laws to the farthest reaches of the universe. And when that failed, they tried to replace machines with living beings to do the same. But for some reason their plans failed often in disastrous ways that undermined their reputation and caused splintering within the Maltusian race. Their people drifted apart with many leaving to pursue other goals. The time of the Guardians of Oa as the leaders of the universe had come to an end. Some jopined the Morphin Masters in their quest to make sense of the extra-dimensional energy, realising that perhaps working with others was the better way to achieve their goals. The rest retreated from public view and were seldom heard from as the Universe moved on.

And despite all that they had done, it seemed that nothing could stop the universe as it slowly descended into disorder as the dark age of magic came upon them.

End of Part

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers, they belong to their respective copyright owners and are used here without permission. No money is being made from this fic.

Authors Note: This is an alternate universe with an alternate time line.

Change in the Celestial Guard

In the Beginning, there had been The One. And it was from The One that the Universe had been born. It had been a random event that had triggered the explosion of energy that formed the foundation of existence. In the wake of the energy The One created The First Ones, celestial beings that were charged with the task of following the energy and bringing some sort of order to the chaos of creation.

The First Ones, often just called Celestials did as they were bidden, using their incredible powers to nudge the formation of the Universe to follow some sort of logic. To start with they tinkered just enough that beings like themselves could find the environment comfortable. Their work passed at an uncontrolled rate. Sometimes they would spend years performing a task that required only minutes while at other times they would complete complex transformations that should have required centuries in a matter of seconds. Time had no real meaning to them allowing them to rapidly catch up with the expanding universe.

The history of the Universe was defined as ages. With each age that passed there came change. The Celestials worked tirelessly as each age passed, rarely allowing themselves to be distracted by the events playing out around them. As they descended through the dimensional planes that had formed naturally in the wake of the explosion, they gave shape and structure to each layer. As they moved onward, the changes they made were bigger in order to make those spaces habitable for what they sensed were increasingly inferior beings; the further they moved away from the origin of the Universe the less advanced the life forms seemed to be.

And then The One sealed himself away from the rest of the Universe, blocking access to his domain with a dimension filled with energy. The wall spread throughout the Universe, following the path the Celestials had travelled, preventing access to The One from any point in creation. While the most advanced beings took a heavy shock from the sudden lack of The One’s presence, the less advanced races showed hardly any evidence they were aware of the change.

As time passed the higher beings gradually followed The One’s example, closing the walls between their dimensional plane and the ones below. They created dimensional buffers containing vast amounts of random energy to keep those beneath them from breaching their dominions. Although no barrier could keep the Celestials from entering any part of the universe they had helped create.

As each plane of reality locked itself away from those beneath, the Celestials found that the life forms they encountered were growing even more primitive and that the work they needed to created living worlds was increasingly more involved. The newer dimensions required more matter and less energy to sustain growth, which was fortunate because they could sense that the energy available to them was diminishing as a result of the higher dimensions blocking the flow.

And so, the Celestials reached a point after which they would stop descending through the dimensions and would instead concentrate their efforts on crafting a physical universe. They created stars, planets and even shaped the first races of the cosmos. They made the first races as close to those in the higher dimensions as they could. And then gave them the tools to partially shape and change the cosmos to their own vision. And the first thing the newly formed races agreed they would do with their combined knowledge and resources was to make their Universe a more logical place.

The Celestials took samples of the races that emerged on the planets that they had created. They accelerated their evolution, seeking those that showed signs of potential. And when they found those they believed capable, they recruited more of their kind and brought them together to work with representatives of other worlds. They gifted their chosen the knowledge to control and modify the universe around them and the technology to make those changes possible. With a combined efforts the Celestials’ chosen tools they were able to rewrite reality and define a baseline of rules from which the Universe would function. Through the application of those laws of physics they made the forces that control existence constant and predictable.

And once their collective work was completed, the individuals were returned to their worlds where they would change their societies to reach the potential the Celestials had found. Although lacking the lacking the technology they had been given for the completion of their task, they retained the knowledge of how to recreate such works that would be passed down until their race reached a level of technology capable of building such tools. The Celestials saw it as a contest to determine which of their chosen worlds would be first to unlock the potential they had shown, and which would be lost along the way.

At the beginning of the universe, the Celestials had been created to nurture the fledgling universe into something that would be able to grow and sustain itself. Over countless years they had moved down through the planes of existence crafting each dimensional level as they did so. They had used their powers to nudge the various energies and elements at hand to shape each level into an environment that could sustain the beings they wished to thrive there. And as time passed, they found that many of those that had been birthed in such environments required little intervention once they were established.

That changed when The One cut himself off from the rest of the universe and then the higher levels decided to close themselves off from the younger planes that the Celestials had yet to shape. Life within the lower dimensions needed more structure than those that stood above them. And it seemed that there were so many barriers between them and The One that their longevity was considerably shortened.

In order to give the life forms in the lower dimension an environment in which they could survive, the Celestials were forced to limit their creativity. They made the structures of the universe simpler, which had the side effect of limiting its growth. To get around that problem the Celestials created a pattern of worlds, stars and galaxies, which they then repeated over and over again.

They had not anticipated any problems with their solution, but they soon found that when left to its own devices, the cosmos tried to shrink back into itself with the pattern merging back into a single copy. Unwilling to see their work go to waste, the Celestials agreed to break the universe apart, separating each repetition of their pattern with and placing a void between them to act as a cushion. Walls similar to those raised by the beings of the upper dimensions were placed around each of the duplicate patterns. But before they closed the barriers, the Celestials realised that they would need to make changes to the way they performed their task.

A new generation of celestial beings were required to monitor and guide the many copies of the First Ones’ grand design. So, they created them. First came the Watchers or "The Eyes of the One" as the Celestial preferred to call them. They were given the task to simply observe and investigate but not intervene with events. And while they memorised everything they saw; they enjoyed a link with The One that allowed him to see his servants at work through their eyes.

Next the Monitors, each charged with guarding their own little copy of the pattern and making certain the barriers between them remained intact. The Monitors were not supposed to intervene in events even when alerted to danger by the Watchers. They were there to summon the First Ones should matter require intervention.

And finally, they created the Builders or the "Hands of the One" as the Celestials preferred to think of them. The Builders were charged with taking over the First One’s original duties of growing their own part of the universe and making it as unique and wondrous as the parts that had been created before the higher planes had sealed themselves away.

The Builders subdivided their labour, creating new workers to carry out the many tasks required to build a universe. And as they got to work, the Celestials of old realised that their purpose was almost at an end. They were obsolete, which led to the question of what to do next?

Some chose to remain in their role, overseeing the creatures they had created to perform their duty. Others chose to return to their creator. While some retired from their life’s work and decided instead to study what had become of their creations. In some cases, they even attempted to make improvements or when confronted with something they believed had gone completely wrong: destroyed it.

And then there were those that simply accepted that their time of usefulness was at an end and sought ways to fill the void in the existence before the inevitable end. Some left the lower dimension and set up their own territory, although returning to play with their previous creations was not unusual. Others preferred to wander the void space created when they had split the universe. There they played their own games to quell their boredom.

Existence had changed and the single universe had become multiple universes. But as long as those living inside the barriers never noticed, then no harm was done. The final act of the First Ones was to make certain that those residing in the higher dimensions could not invade the physical universe. Since the so-called higher beings had closed themselves off from the lower realms, so the First Ones placed a similar lock on the over side of the barrier. This meant that to move between the levels of existence required the agreement of someone on both sides of the barrier. It was an action that many would come to regret.

End of Part

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers, they belong to their respective copyright owners and are used here without permission. No money is being made from this fic.

Authors Note: This is an alternate universe with an alternate time line.

Shift in Power

With The Dark One and his most powerful followers gone the Dark Gods had started to position themselves to establish their place as his rightful successor. Holding the belief that there could be only one ultimate being of evil within their ranks and that all others had to bow before that being, they refused to share power or negotiate. The dark forces were divided by infighting as the struggled to claim the title of The Dark One and the power it promised. Eventually through conquest and alliances three of the Dark Gods emerged to claim their place as hiss successor.

The most powerful was Jeng’garr, the self-proclaimed Source of Evil. While to those that would come later all of the Dark Gods were immortal, they were capable of killing each other. Jeng’garr it seemed was immune from harm by either mortal or non-mortal means. Jeng’garr existed as dark energy possessing a lesser host. When the host was destroyed Jeng’garr would simply find a new host and without a host it was immune to harm. Jeng’garr was believed by many to have been one of those spawned by the Dark One himself. Currently inhabiting the body of a female, she was seductive, manipulative and vicious. She had drawn many an opponent in with her acts of supposed weakness only to strike the moment they fell for her deception. Jeng’garr led an army of those representing what some would consider the sinful evils.

Mallerok was considered second only to Jeng’garr, and many felt that was only because the two had never fought without interruption. While Jeng’garr sought the ordered corruption and subjugation of existence, Mallerok was wanted chaos and destruction. Mallerok corrupted all that followed it. Mallerok’s influence could be felt throughout existence and while it lacked Jeng’garr’s immortality, it was simply too vast to slay. In opposition to Jeng’garr taking on a female host, Mallerok was male. He was an unorthodox tactician, as skilled in planning as he was in combat. His schemes were designed to spread discord and chaos. He grew stronger as the universe around him burned.

Finally there was Sinn’narr. Compared to Jeng’garr and Mallerok, Sinn’narr was considered weak. He Sinn’narr lacked Jeng’garr’s immortal form and Mallerok’s ability to spread chaos wherever he went; he was magically and physically weaker than either of his rivals, but was ambitious and willing to do anything to get ahead. Sinn’narr emulated Mallerok, feeding off the energy of the Universe around him.

The last of Dark One’s most likely successors had yet to emerge as Sinn’narr, Mallerok and Jeng’garr fought. It was clear that Sinn’narr was outmatched, likely only considered a contender because reality seemed to favour the underdog.

The infighting spanned for countless ages. It was impossible for the combatants to eliminate their opposition when they had to protect themselves on two fronts. Sinn’narr proved to be a frustrating foe since his actions often prevented the other two from finishing their battles. Eventually Jeng’garr and Mallerok joined forces, just long enough to strike against Sinn’narr, easily disabling their weaker foe. By mutual agreement they did not finish him, deciding that the victor of their confrontation would do so as a sign that they had triumphed.

Sinn’narr didn’t know what became of the others. When he had regained awareness, he had sought them out but could find no trace of them. He hoped that they had destroyed each other although witnesses had suggested that Mallerok had somehow tricked Jeng’garr into a battle she could not win before he too found himself in a losing battle and that both had somehow been imprisoned far away. Regardless of where they had gone, Sinn’narr had emerged as the unlikely victor, only to discover that his efforts had been for nought; in his absence other Dark Gods had emerged to claim the throne and with the continuous infighting, the idea of there being one absolute force of evil had been dismissed.

The alleged throne of The Dark One – for there were many who claimed that he had never sat upon it and would never have settled for any throne other than that of his father – lay empty for a long time. While those that considered themselves the natural successors of The Dark One and Mortilus fought each other for dominance, there were others waiting in the shadows, watching for an opportunity to snatch power. And when those fighting for dominance suddenly vanished, the Dark Gods that had held back, emerged to stake their claims.

Since claiming the throne was seen as counter productive to their aims, the idea of there being one absolute force of evil had been dismissed. Instead of opposing each other they agreed to share power until a clear leader emerged. The evil Satan, the prideful Lucifer, the devious Mephisto, the mighty Poneros, the invincible Oligar, and the twisted Haz’tur; the disfigured Javius and the machine goddess Hysteria, along with their lesser siblings Nore, Gorg, Mu, and finally Ramon. Each claimed their own territory As they were joined by others that not been slaughtered in the previous fighting.

The followers of Mortilus snatched up the territories that had not been claimed. They considered themselves first class demons or devils as they preferred. The titles had little importance other than bolstering their egos. Those that were left were simply regarded as demons and developed their own caste system always with the intention of making themselves seem more important than those around them.

And with the question of who would lead settled by a mutual agreement to fight it out at a later date, the Dark Gods were able to turn their attention back to their real enemies. Before the infighting it had been discovered that there were ways to escape their prison.

Both sides boasted powerful entities capable of manipulating mortals on a mental, physical and magical level. Only the soul was immune to these influences since the only way a soul could be controlled was if the individual wished it to be controlled.

However, as the realms grew larger, so the cost of intervention in the world of mortals became ever greater, making such an act physically impossible. A demon could not set foot in the mortal world and use his great power to subjugate the population; angels also found it increasingly difficult to carry out pointless campaigns for the greater good. At least, not without significant cost. After one demon escaped Hell only to become trapped in a pocket dimension, the true cost was clear for all to see.

Saints and angels could freely enter the mortal realms by sacrificing their greater powers and descending to near-mortal levels. That meant they could take on an almost normal appearance. Those who existed in a spiritual form had to find a host. Dead bodies, plants and even rocks were acceptable hosts. Some spirits even managed to manipulate technology and inhabit everyday objects.

The main problem was that once they entered the mortal realm directly, their bodies were prone to damage. Spawning was the favoured solution to this problem since most minor demons were capable of creating an exact likeness of themselves, duplicating both physical and mental attributes. When their old body tired or was destroyed, they simply transferred their consciousness to the replacement form.

The other alternative was to transcend the realms through indirect means. By allowing themselves to be summoned, they retained most of their powers and providing they were strong willed, they were free to act. In some cases though they were bound to act as the slaves of those that summoned them. It was the mortals that devised the ceremonies that in effect created a binding contract between the demon and the mortal. The spells required a focus that if destroyed, would send the demon back to Hell. Some demons chose to simply use the access granted by such spells to intervene on behalf of a mortal in return for a soul, they could enjoy devouring, most often a child. The Dark God Lokar wreaked havoc on many worlds before he was vanquished.

The problems with being summoned were eventually nullified when it was discovered that they could inhabit the body of a willing mortal. All that mortal had to do was accept the offer of power and riches in return for their soul. Many demons used these rituals as ways to access the mortal realms and spread their influence. Since they could provide a way to channel the power of the universal energy, few hosts ever rejected them.

For saints and devils alike, there was no such need for ceremony. On the rare occasion that either side entered the mortal realms, they did so in mortal form. Should they desire to remain there they needed only to mate with a mortal. The saints of course had moral objections to such acts, but over time their intervention in the affairs of lesser beings dwindled.

Devils however mated whenever they wished, selecting their partners carefully for physical traits. Consensual sex was preferred since in that moment of passion their lover failed to realise the true face of their lover. However, a virgin sacrificed in their name was just as acceptable. Either way, the soul belonged to the devil involved.

If the devil in question was female though, the offspring had the potential to become even more powerful. It could be born in either realm, but was stuck there following birth. However, if born in the mortal realms it would retain the powers of its mother while looking perfectly normal. Such vile offspring could change at will into a demonic form, which allowed them to use the power of the universal energy field.

For most demons existence was a complex society of politics and treachery. Raw power alone was never enough to guarantee superiority and no position within the ranks of evil could be considered truly safe. By splitting into multiple entities, the evil force ensured its survival, but it also created infighting between the factions. And through all this, Sinn’narr tried to regain the position he had once held in a universe where he was now a nonentity, pushed aside by the creature known as the Adversary to do so.

The Adversary created the High Clan as part of his domain. Although it was an elite band of evil beings, its power and influence came mostly through trickery. The names were mostly creatures from mythology on human worlds; they’d never been seen together. That was because in truth the High Clan’s more dominant personalities were actually one-entity. Each had their own area of the Adversary’s kingdom to control, where they indulged in their own sinister hobbies. In all it added to the illusion of the Adversary’s strength and added to his reputation.

The battle that had started between creatures that were a part of the fabric of existence was rapidly becoming a fight fought by the least powerful creatures with outcomes that not only challenged who would control the universe, but whether said universe would even survive the war. Eventually the fighting grew so intense that a truce was made limiting how the forces of both sides could conduct their battle. That truce was to remain until the end of days.

In times to come scientists and experts would estimate the time that it had taken to reach this point. They would never be able to truly calculate such a thing. Despite the supposed passing of billions of years, time was not constant enough to accurately record how long had passed between each of the key events that had led to the birth of the cosmos. However, some bards would speak the truth when they told of how things had changed throughout the ages…

"Before the beginning, all existence was united in the darkness of the void. For there was nothing else.
In the First Age, there came The One and through him the universe was made.
In the Second Age, the universe grew and evolved. Life emerged and the struggle between Good and Evil began.
In the Third Age, The One chose to withdrawal himself from his creation, leaving agents to work on his behalf. In the Fourth, the higher beings of creation chose to isolate themselves from those they viewed as inferior; the universe was given to an alliance of races to watch over it. It was their duty to protect it and nurture its people as they developed.
At the end of the Fourth Age, those members of the First Alliance stood proudly as they congratulated themselves on a job well done before setting out to explore their work.
And at the coming of the Fifth Age as they turned away from their duties in favour of gaining the upper hand in directing how things should be… the universe broke apart."

End of the Beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers, they belong to their respective copyright owners and are used here without permission. No money is being made from this fic.

Authors Note: This is an alternate universe with an alternate time line.

Enter The New Gods

The Universe
Sometime between the Second and Third Age

The first conflict between the forces of Good and Evil had ended when The One had personally intervened to stop the Dark One before he could make a move against the throne. The Dark One had been subdued with ease and offered the option of being stripped of his power and being left to wander the cosmos, or to retain his powers but remain imprisoned in a place of The One’s choosing. The Dark One had selected the latter option and had been placed within a multidimensional prison far beyond the reach of any of his remaining followers.

Meanwhile Paladin, the leader of the Army of Light, had survived his grievous wounds due to The One’s intervention. However he was no longer the being that led the Covenant of Light into battle. His spirit had been tainted by his experiences. And so The One had released him from his duties, granting him a new existences as Shadow. Shadow was no longer bound in the war between Good and Evil. Instead he was free to use his powers to bring whatever balance he felt was needed.

With both sides lacking any form of leadership and the armies dispatched to where they had been recruited, peace reigned for a time.

Before the creation of Paladin and the Dark One, the cosmos had reacted to the Creator’s need for his work to be finished while he concentrated on controlling the wayward energy that swept through existence. It had created a race of servants to finish the construction of the universe, using what The One had provided as the raw material. They had been named the Celestials and while Paladin and the Dark One had led their little armies, they had carried on with their task of creating worlds throughout the many dimensional planes and seeding them with life. As they worked their way down through the dimensions and further away from The One’s sight, the worlds they created grew less impressive and the life forms that evolved upon them held less potential.

Each dimensional plane had different physical laws and this along with the lack of creativity by the Celestials limited the growth of some beings. Some made great progress while others never seemed to evolve beyond simple albeit powerful beasts. It did not help that in the war between Paladin and the Dark One, the lesser beings had been recruited and altered to serve as soldiers.

As the Celestials reached the point at which they planned to turn back and inspect the progress of their creations, the Celestials put the finishing touches to their work. Here they created a realm that allowed its people to grow and evolve without limitation. It was a place where the energies emitted by The One barely reached, where the majority of its population would have a limited life span. It was the realm of mortals.

As they finished seeding the worlds that would serve as homes for the universe’s lowest denizens, the Celestials allowed themselves to indulge their curiosity for once, tapping into the vast energy of existence and sending forth a wave of energy that would allow some of those it encountered to become more than they were. Some would be able to ascend beyond the limitations to occupy the higher dimensions where the environment would make them more than simple mortals. But that would not occur for a long time.

Unbound from his previous role, Shadow had discovered that he was still able to create children of his own, allowing him to rebalance the cosmos.

Shadow had realised during those moments he had been on the verge of death, that the universe needed a struggle to survive. When at peace for too long the universe stagnated and shrank, while the struggle between the opposing forces kept the universe growing. Those he created were released into the cosmos and allowed to fall through the dimensions from the highest planes close to where The One and those he had created had stood, down to those that the Celestials had created resided.

They became the beings that would one day be regarded as the gods of the newly formed reality. They were divided between the good, the evil, the chaotic, the lawful, the creators and the destroyers, and those that represented various states of balance and neutrality. Groups formed among the many dimensions, creating the cosmic pantheons that would be worshipped by the lesser beings. Some chose forms that the mind could comprehend while others chose to resemble beasts.

Some of those gods tried to keep others from their domain. They erected boundaries to the planes and realms they occupied in the belief that the conflict would then be something they could escape when they wanted to. But such efforts only led to divisions within the pantheons as their memberships divided along the old lines of light and dark. It seemed that while balance and neutrality were acceptable, existence had no tolerance for peace.

The Cosmic Gods soon grew weary of the constant fighting between good and evil. Being formed from Shadow’s essence they did not have the strict black-and-white view that their predecessors held. Even the most noble of their kind was flawed in some way and even the most wicked possessed a small redeeming feature. One thing they did enjoy was playing with the new races that had started to worship them. The Mortal Realms were filled with those they could influence and torment without fear of reprisals. They allowed the flawed little people to battle on their behalf, often throwing obstacles in their path for fun.

But while they amused themselves by believing that they controlled the events in the Mortal Realm, they failed to understand how they had been rendered unimportant by the weaker but by no means inferior creatures.

While the newly created cosmic gods were settling into their new existence, the former followers of Paladin and the Dark One were coming to terms with their own circumstances. The intervention of The One had been a terrifying turn of events for many of them. Both sides had lost their figureheads, their generals and a large number of their forces. The aftermath had obliterated large numbers of Dark One’s followers and trapped those fortunate enough to survive in empty or inhospitable realms. Those realms had been sealed to prevent escape, effectively separating the two sides.

The remnants of the Dark One's army were made up of the twisted races, malignant spirits and astral parasites that longed to fight on and take revenge for their defeat.

Despite being little more than puppets while the Dark One had been in command, some of his creations had gained freedom to act on their own in his absence. They believed themselves to be his rightful successors and vaguely aware of what had transpired in the universe beyond their prisons, started to call themselves Dark Gods. The survivors of Mortilus’ tribe held themselves above the normal servants of the Dark One although the followers of his fellow traitors were swift to point out that aside from a lucky strike, there was nothing to set Mortilus apart. Still they thought of themselves as first class warriors of darkness and the others as lesser soldiers.

The remainder of Paladin’s army had found a new home. Many of the realms they had occupied during the war had been devastated by the Dark One’s forces. Instead of rebuilding they had found a dimension that could accommodate the remaining tribes. They established new territories there.

Each side evenutally turned their attention back to the opposing side. It seemed that in their efforts they had failed to notice the distance and obstacles to a direct attack upon the opposing side. There were new dimensions in the way that would need to be claimed before that could happen. Or perhaps for now the glory of claiming those dimensions would serve as sufficient reward for their ongoing battle.

For the next age was fast approaching and with it would come even more change

End of Part

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers; they belong to their respective copyright owners and are used here without permission. No money is being made from this fic.
Author’s Note: This is an alternate universe with an alternate timeline.

Beginning Anew

Good had won. Evil had been conquered and all was well with the universe, or what remained of it… for a painfully short amount of time. No sooner had the victory been decided than the point of final collapse had been reached. By that time the darkness had consumed so much that not even the sudden burst of light that accompanied the bellow of victory from the Champion could prevent a total blackout. Already the temperature had dropped to a point where life of any sort could no longer function and as the darkness stretched, consuming the last atoms, it left behind only emptiness.

The end had come and passed, and left nothing behind. Where once there had been something in the darkness, now there was true emptiness, an absolute void inside of which nothing could physically exist and outside of which nothing was known to exist. And the inside and the outside were the same for there was seemingly nothing to divide them. And there was no time to measure how long the void remained the same and no change to mark a point from which time could be measured. For an eternal stretch or the briefest moment, everything was perfect. Everything was nothing.

Temporal Location: After the end, before the beginning.
Universe Reference: None
Reality: Non-existent

The old reality was gone, the last star had been extinguished and the universe had turned dark. If there was anything left it didn’t matter, for it was no longer relevant. The final battle had been won, the evil had been prevented from claiming a victory and bringing about the final end on its terms. For the victors the cost of victory had been high, but the reward would seem incredible: they had earned the right to start again, to face all the trials and tests once more in the hope that next time Good would triumph without losing everything.

Of course some might have argued that the battle was still there to be won by either side as the large vessels designed to survive in the non-space between realities had passed through a rift that had opened above the fading planet, escaping the total collapse. Despite knowing that there was no guarantee that they would find something on the far side and that in all likelihood there was nothing on the far side of the rift they have bravely chosen to continue rather than accept defeat.

Those on board continued their journey in the hope that perhaps some higher power would intervene and they would find a new home. Well some of them did. At this point very few believed that there were any higher powers remaining that they could appeal to. And since many of those on board were frozen in a state of near-sleep to help them survive for however long it took to complete their long journey, they were not able to truly ponder the presence of surviving deities; they could at least dream of salvation. The brave crews that had volunteered to pilot the ships through the maddening eternity of their passage through the emptiness, prayers for salvation of some kind was an almost daily event. They were prayers that would sadly go unanswered for a long time.

At some point, some of the vessels would leave the rift and discover what lay on the other side. Whether or not they would wish that they had never started their journey was as yet unknown and not a part of this tale. Their destination however, was an essential part of things to come. Just as they had left the old existence behind to seek out what lay beyond, so the focus of the war between Good and Evil shifted to a new location, a fresh void inside of which all things could start again. The old existence was gone, supposedly for ever, and its replacement would soon appear.

Time: Unknown period before something happened.
Universe: 0
Reality: 0

At first glance the new existence appeared to be exactly the same as the previous location: a space devoid of everything except darkness, which it had in abundance. But all was not as peaceful as it first appeared.

There was a saying that no good deed went unrewarded. Some claimed that in reality no good deed went unpunished. Those with sufficient sense realised that both sayings were equally valid. While those that escaped the destruction of their reality had had no real right to complain, and the dark forces had forfeited any grounds to complain when they had lost the war, and those that had sacrificed themselves for the victory, including the Champion of Light, had done so in full knowledge and acceptance that they would not be amongst those saved… existence did not approve.

Somehow in its final moment the old reality had gained sufficient awareness to hold such an opinion and the power to act upon it. Whether it was a reward or a punishment, the Guardian was not allowed to simply vanish into obscurity. His role was not yet complete – for in victory he had been chosen to become the template for the vessel through which existence would be restored.

One moment – which could have lasted less than a nanosecond of longer than a million years – there was calm, stillness and nothing else. The next moment, there was a stirring. The previously dead space was suddenly filled with raw energy that swirled in the darkness, shooting sparks of light into the pitch black night. And then the incredible surge of power shrank back, condensing and concentrating as some unseen force compacted it and forced it into a container the size of a small planetoid.

And it took a moment for existence to register that in order for the energy to become trapped within a planetoid, a planetoid must have appeared from nowhere. It did not form or merge from specks of dust because the void was a perfect void. There was no conversion energy to matter because there was no method for such a transformation to take place. Nor was there dark matter to become visible. But for those that looked closely, the planetoid had been forged to resemble the remains of the world upon which the final battle had been fought and came complete with an empty throne. The perfect void was no longer a perfect void even though the planet was but a tiny drop of grey pigment in an ocean of black.

And upon the planet there appeared creatures of great size and all manner of shape. Unbound by the laws dictating things such as biology, physics and logic, the creatures evolved without the limitations of form and structure. These were imaginary beings crafted by a mind that didn’t yet know it existed, they were creatures too strange to define; complex and yet overly simple. They could not be described or understood, only witnessed. Their nature defied reason and would have driven a sane man crazy, had there been a sense of sanity. But there was no sense of sanity and so they roamed freely.

Before long they grew tired of the planetoid and departed, travelling into the depths of the darkness. Some even moved beyond the confines of the void never to return, although how an endless void could have confines was unclear.

Soon or not-so-soon – for without time to tell how long had passed there was no way to measure how long it had taken – the void returned to a near-perfect state of emptiness. Near perfect because despite the disappearance of the creatures, the planetoid upon which they had evolved remained and so did the unbelievable energy that now rested within its surface.

Something had changed though. Although it had once been made of rock, the planetoid’s surface had transformed into some sort of crystal. And… the planetoid was growing larger and larger as if gorging on some unknown food source; in times to come those that could see it would realise that the growth was due to the ever increasing energy it was forced to contain. Prolonged contact with that crystallised energy had changed the surface of the planetoid from rock to crystal.

Time didn’t pass – for the void was timeless-, but at some point something new appeared upon the surface of the rapidly growing planet – for the planetoid had changed to the point where planet was a much better description-, bringing light to the darkness around it. A being rose out of the crystal, made from the same hardened energy as the planet. He was a part of the planet, and he was filled with the unknown energy.

Light shone from his body, reflected and refracted in ways that lit the void with coloured light. The throne grew and altered its shape to accommodate him as he sat upon it and looked outward into the darkness as the planet which had been still until that point, slowly started to rotate.

And as the planet moved, allowing its occupant a more complete view of his surroundings, the light that shone from his being was thrown outward into the darkness and the void began to change, altered by the strange power to become more than simple nothingness. He didn’t control how the energy behaved because he had no knowledge of its nature. Instead he just sat and enjoyed the pretty show of lights.

Soon a universe was born. Large, filled with many interesting colours and flashes of light, it continued to grow for an immeasurable period. The swirling mists of colour and light would at times come together to form physical structure, only to drift away in the darkness once more, teasing anything that might be watching that there was a possibility of something more.

Eventually, everything came together in just the right way and a star ignited in the darkness far from the now planet-sized planetoid, but clearly visible due to it being the only other light in the darkness. The void was illuminated with the true light of a radiant fire, bringing an end to the void and the beginnings of a cosmos. More time passed, more stars formed and then, a planet formed in orbit around one of the stars. Other worlds followed and as they moved around the six stars that now illuminated the darkness there came a way to measure the passing of time.

Had he wanted to the crystal being could have preserved his creations, but he was as fascinated by the beauty of the collapsing galaxies as he had been by their formation. The six stars collapsed and the worlds around them vanished, but even then: something remained. The first six stars in existence compacted until they were merely the size of stones, which he recalled to his side so that he might study them.

But with the stars gone the cosmos was empty and boring. And for the first time he felt that he wanted something to happen to change that. His demand was answered as a new world appeared, closer to the crystal planet than the others had been. It did not have a star of its own, its warmth and light coming from the only other source available: the Creator himself.

Soon, life emerged and the first forms of intelligent species appeared, building "by their standards" a peaceful society. For millions of years they developed, growing more intelligent by the day. They developed an understanding for the universe around them and used that to master the science of their reality. They grew powerful and considered themselves to be the masters of their new domain. Some even referred to themselves as gods although they in turn worshipped the Creator who watched over them from his planet of crystal.

Although they had been peaceful, like many a society there came unrest and then arguing and finally war. For such a powerful race to fight amongst themselves was especially dangerous. They had evolved to the point where they were almost immune to harm and their fighting angered their creator. In a moment of anger he pushed their planet away, sending it floating through the darkness until it was no longer in his sight.

One day the planet would return to its original location only to find that their creator was no longer visible to them. But the fighting would continue and while they were nigh indestructible, their planet was not impervious to harm. One day the planet would succumb to the damage its occupants caused and break apart. For now though it endured.

Meanwhile the small galaxy that had formed far from the source continued to grow, space surrounding the crystal planetoid returned to it previous state as an empty void watched over by a lone being made of crystal who stood staring out into the darkness.

When the next change occurred was unknown – for the destruction of the stars meant that there was no longer the means to measure the passage of Time. The crystal being had aged and matured a little. And as he had grown he had started to understand that he could manipulate the energy that pulsed from his body. And so he experimented, using the energy to create and destroy, like a child with its first set of building blocks.

Some of his creations remained even when he had grown tired of them. Simple life-forms evolved in the darkness, learning to use the energy surrounding the crystal planetoid to survive. Although the power was raw and uncontrollable, the primitive creatures evolved to a point where they could safely handle it. Some even developed the natural ability to alter the volatile energy, breaking it down into a less powerful but safer form. For the first time since the destruction of the nearest planet, there was once again life in the universe.

But the energy was not there to be changed or controlled by anyone save the lone crystal being. And it was never intended to just make pretty lights. It was a destructive force of nature, intended to obliterate the old while preparing for the new. It had been building and building since the planetoid had first appeared and even as the planetoid had grown into a much larger planet, the energy had changed those capable of drawing its power. But, as time passed, it grew more and more unstable.

Finally, something happened; whether it was one of the creatures drawing too much energy or a build-up of pressure would never be known. A reaction took place, a spark ignited, a gas expanded and driven by the immense force of power, an explosion tore through the darkness. This was the raw power of destruction and rebirth.

Infinite energy lit up the darkness, pushing outward, forcing existence to expand, and leaving only the small planet untouched, although now it was simply rock and not the massive crystal it had previously been. The creatures that had inhabited the planet were thrown through the growing cosmos. Such an event could not be ignored and for the first time since emerging, the lone being realised the danger of the energy he was manipulating.

Full awareness followed, bringing with it understanding and rationalisation of its surroundings. Even in the chaos of creation, it tried to apply some form of logic and order to the events it observed. It reached out and directed the energy, giving it purpose. It was a struggle that required his full attention, as just a momentary slip would allow the volatile energy to run amok.

The now sentient being fed upon the energy around him, using it as an animal would food. And as its body processed the parts that it needed and could use, other forms of energy were released, along with the building blocks of matter. And they were all expelled into the almost empty void and were carried along by the torrent of energy.

At some point the other occupants of the new universe became aware of their surroundings. With that awareness came sentience and then true consciousness. The creatures that had existed on the planet after the death of the earlier universe evolved further, gaining limited abilities to think and decide for themselves. By now the small life forms had grown into massive beasts of incredible power; creatures of fire and lights, and power that were both beautiful and frightening, and impossible for the mind to truly appreciate.

The entity that had emerged from the planet to take his place as the Creator and Source of all existence had also evolved. Although appearing in some moments as a male, a change in aspect caused it to look distinctly female. Too complex for gender it was both and neither. Its body was covered with the same bacteria and viruses and parasitic creatures that had evolved on the planet's surface. As time passed they too evolved until they were carried away by the still rushing force of the explosion. Some would become useful in the new universe while others would become a nuisance. Regardless, they were soon forgotten.

The thoughts and desires of the entity shaped the nature of the new universe, creating layers of realms and dimensions. The newly formed creatures chose some of the early realms as their dominion, placing themselves outside of the universe and looking down on those that would come to dwell within its boundaries. The mind of the Creator was unbelievably powerful. His mere desire for something to exist was seemingly enough for that thing to appear. Thus from his dreams came areas filled with light, warmth, calm and beauty. His infrequent nightmares were used to produce landscapes of darkness, fear, pain and suffering.

As the cosmos grew and the rushing energy increased, so the Creator’s awareness of his surroundings diminished. Controlling so much power took all of his concentration. An instinctive need for survival and to be protected against threat led him to become locked within a realm of his own, protected from the rest of the universe and yet somehow guiding its formation; his mind had grown beyond the limitations of existence.

He would forever be a presence in the new existence, his voice, his will, his judgement and eventually the very power that placed him above all other would be exercised on his behalf. But in the end he would also be the one that sat above all others, safely resting upon his throne on a planet of crystal at the origin of creation.

Elsewhere

As the One struggled to consciously guide the power he had unleashed and to use it constructively, the cosmos reacted to his needs and desires. He needed a way to control or contain the raw power so that it could be directed properly.

The universe responded by creating a dimension through which the energy could surge without affecting the space around it. A massive ocean filled with power lay just above or beneath the rest of creation, touching every point of the ever expanding universe.

In order to expand alongside the ever growing energy, the walls of the new dimension had to be thin. And it was in the places where the walls were stretched to capacity that some energy started to seep back in. Except in the process of passing through the walls the energy was no longer as volatile as it had once been and in most cases did not draw the attention of the One as he focussed his efforts elsewhere.

However there was much left to do. The One had formed the building blocks of existence, but was not able to focus in one place long enough to finish anything. The cosmos responded to his needs with creation of servants to travel through creation, finishing the work that He had started.

They were capable of drawing and directing the power stored in the dimensional space and used it complete their tasks as they planted the seeds of life throughout the realms, nudging matter with bursts of Cosmic Energy to form creatures capable of existing within the habitats they had created.

Through their efforts emerged the first truly living beings, creatures very different from those that would eventually emerge. Shaped by the needs of their territory, they were creatures of matter, spirit, thought and energy; beings of fire, water, earth, air and other elements, some simple and other complex combinations.

The servants worked tirelessly in the name of their creator, crafting existence to how he would want it. Their task was one that would never be completed as the expanding universe offered them an increasing amount of work to perform. But in Her name they laboured, bringing glory to their creator with every act. And never did they think about themselves or their own need… well only once in a while.

End

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers or any other series. This is a fan work and not for profit. I would also point out at this time this story could be a fanfiction of any series.

The End

Temporal Location: 0.0.0.0
Universal Reference: 0.0.0.0
Reality: 0-0
Time: Very Little Remaining to Zero

It was the end. There had been a long battle from the dawn of time until this moment, as the battle between good and evil had slowly escalated to the point where the very fate of what remained rested on a single battle. For there was very little left, the universe and all its various dimensions having burnt away during the battle. And beyond the universe, the countless realities that existed along side it had faded leaving only one point that would determine the future of this reality and indeed all existence.

Time was almost exhausted, just a few vital hours that could seem like days as the rules of the universe broke down. Upon a tiny world at the far corner of the universe a battle was about to be fought. For one side victory would mean an opportunity for salvation and for the other triumph would unlock new possibilities for conquest. For the losers and those that did not survive the battle, there would be nothing. There was aftermath as a consolation prize for those that valiantly sacrificed themselves for the greater good or their devotion to their master. The realms of Heaven and Hell had been consumed by the growing void that had consumed so much of the universe.

After all the fighting, the wars and the devastating loses, it all came down to a simple task of capturing or defending an old fortress. Whoever won the fortress at the battle’s end would win and the opposing side would be vanquished. All it required was a clear victory, the absolute defeat of one side or the other and the fortress would bestow its gift upon the leaders of the winning side. That was the promise, the prophecy that had been embedded in the secret code of existence since the beginning. It was the prize that has encouraged those on both sides to reach this point.

A voice called out, ordering the assault to begin. It was met with an answering call as warriors on both sides charged into slaughter. On the dark side the demons had gathered. Grey skinned, muscle and sinew with sharp claws and deadly teeth the foot-soldiers were the most primitive of creatures, yet they were obedient to their masters and dedicated to the cause of victory. Behind them game the giants and the monsters, the flying dragons breathing deadly black flames, the sea monsters and the terrifying beasts that existed only in the scariest of dreams. And in opposition the soldiers had gathered, gathered from the survivors of all possible worlds they stood together armed with swords and shields, axes and spears, clubs and energy weapons. Behind them came the more powerful warriors, those with the special powers or the immense size that would threat the largest demon. They drove tanks and flying craft against their opponents, taking down wave after wave of dark creature before they could get close to the prize.

Two giants collided, one a hero the other a beast. They punched and kicked and tried to impale each other with their weapons. Have you ever seen a giant die? It is not a pretty sight. For a giant is very very big and holds a lot of blood and other fluids. And when such a creature loses its head there is a moment where its evil heart continues to beat before it realises it should be dead. And in those few seconds or even minutes, the fluids that had been contained by the severed head are pushed out, covering the battlefield in toxic chemicals that consume and poison all around them. And as more of the giant demons fell, so more and more of those beneath them were lost in a tidal wave of blood and gore.

The dark army pressed forward and the heroic defenders pushed back. Although outnumbered the heroes held their ground cutting down foe after foe in a desperate bid for victory. Swords were thrust into leathery skin as lasers sliced multiple creatures into pieces. Ropes and chains bound the dark beasts allowing others to execute them with spears or behead them with axes. At some point the heroes that possessed superhuman strength joined the battle, taking down even more of the dark army and boosting morale.

But in the end it was a matter of time and of numbers. The dark side had the superior numbers and the defenders had very little time. Lives on both sides dwindled, causing their leaders to call in more powerful forces they had held in reserve. High above the battle a dragon was sliced in two by a noble knight that then plummeted into the path of a throng of demons. Even as he struggled to take some of those he faced with him, the brave warrior could only accept his fate when he was finally overwhelmed. Moments later a burst of white fire eviscerated everything that stood in the area.

The magic users moved to the front of the battleground, casting spells and weaving shields to buy more time. Their actions were wide ranging and bought their side a little time as the sorcerers on the opposing side rallied to counter their efforts. The throwaway demons had been replaced with more competent combatants, those capable of turning the tide. The leaders moved out from their command areas, realising that time grew shorter and that for victory they would need to take to the battlefield.

A destructive spell of dark flame swept across the surface of the planet, obliterating all within its path regardless of whether they were friend or foe. The wizards that had raised the shields tried to fend back the attack only to be consumed by it along with the sorcerers they had been fighting. For the moment was approaching, the stakes were increasing moment by moment and for the leader of the dark forces there was no alternative but to take things into his own hands.

His dark fire had cleared the way for him to march toward his goal hindered by neither the enemy nor his own underlings. The heroes might have planned to share the opportunity that victory presented, but he intended to take the prize for himself. This was the end game where victory could be snatched or lost and he had waited too long to lose.

The last heroes in the cosmos realised that the moment was coming as they took their stand against the forces of darkness. The sky had grown completely black and only the fires burning across the planet allowed most of them to see. The fire had destroyed most of their army, but it had completely decimated the dark forces. Unfortunately that meant that those they faced now were the most powerful servants of evil, each aware of the need for victory and intelligent enough to allow their own greed to fuel their efforts.

A battle cry was heard, a desperate call for those heroes that survived to rally their efforts and fight to the last. And then their champion emerged, dressed in the most powerful armour that he possessed. Though armed with only a sword, his appearance caused the enemy to take a step back. He was the last line of defence, the one they would need to take down to secure victory. And he had no intention of allowing them an easy fight.

Behind him his warriors responded with a cheer, their courage and determination bolstered by his presence. When he moved, they followed him into the carnage that would come. The leader of the dark forces responded with his own command as his most valuable pawns were committed to the fight. Swords against swords, magic against magic, might against might; minutes turned into hours as more and more fell to one side or the other.

In the end it all came down to a battle of ideals and morals as the two leaders clashed in open combat. The Champion of Darkness, now ascended by his own words to the position of Supreme Darkness, with his black armour with tarnished silver highlights bared his clawed fingers against the Champion of Light, whose thick golden armour glowed from the light of his large sword. Dark magic was was thrown aside by a faithful shield, a powerful sword blow blocked by a summoned barrier. They threw everything they could muster against each other, the dark energy blasts from the Supreme Darkness bouncing off the golden shoulder panels of the Light Champion’s armour.

Their fighting carried them inside the walls of the fortress. So determined to defeat each other, they failed to notice that outside the boundaries of the crystal walls, the planet had crumbled to dust. This was now the only battleground and they were seemingly all that remained of the combatants. The void closed in as they fought their way into the fortress itself, ignoring how the drawbridge lowered upon their approach. Each step they took into the inside, more and more of the area outside vanished. Soon the outer walls were gone, then the massive empty moat and finally the walls of the fortress itself. The chambers and hallways followed as the combatants descended into the depths where the promised prize awaited them.

From the outside perspective, all that remained of the planet was a huge chunk of crystal and the golden throne that had once been the seat of the creator. Time had expired and existence was frozen on the instant between a fraction before the end and the absolute end of everything. And still the two beings clashed. The Champion of the Light was sent crashing back by a bolt of lightning. He stood with a growl and charged, knocking his dark nemesis to the ground, narrowly avoiding a blast from the villain’s eyes in the process.

As they struggled to gain the advantage, the gold-clad warrior had to admit to himself that his chances of success were diminishing by the moment. The Supreme Darkness was the embodiment of evil created by the forced merger of the Champion of Darkness with his forces. The Champion of Light, the Guardian as they had called him, had been summoned by the prayers and wishes of those that opposed the darkness. He was the combination of their minds, bodies and souls and was by his own admission… imperfect as he possessed both their strengths and their weaknesses. While the Supreme Darkness lacked any redeeming features, the Champion of Light had to admit that there was perhaps a little darkness within himself that only helped to strengthen his foe.

The Supreme Darkness summoned an axe crackling with dark energy. With each moment he grew more powerful. And now, so close to the moment of destruction, he was nigh unstoppable. The axe tore into the Guardian’s armour, penetrating the gold and silver layers to draw blood. He replaced the axe with two wicked black claws that sliced into the Guardian with ease. One strike caught him across the neck, causing the gold armoured warrior to stagger backwards.

The Guardian knew that his time was limited as blood oozed from his many wounds. The loss of blood weakened him and unlike his opponent who had transcended beyond such petty things as mortality, he was still capable of bleeding to death. The protective magic that the sacrifice that had summoned him had granted early in the battle had faded after the first few exchanges and now it appeared that the weapons his opponent had chosen could eat away his armour. There was so little time left to snatch victory and yet so much depended upon it. All those that had lost their lives would have done so in vain if he could not claim victory for the ones that could survive. But it was getting more and more difficult to fight back. And the longer he waited the weaker he became and the harder it was to find the strength to fight.

He desperately tried to control the pain, drawing upon his residual strength and directing everything he could manage into a single strike. He knew that it would not be enough to destroy the Supreme Darkness, but if done correctly it could at least stop him long enough to be declared the winner. He struck outward with a single strike, hoping that it would be enough to turn the tide against the enemy. Just as those that had created him had poured themselves into his creation, so he channelled everything he had into his sword. He threw his entire being into the strike, fuelling it with the dreams and emotions of those that had created him. The sword glowed brightly, empowered by the purity of the sacrifice he had made, multiplied by the sacrifice of those that had come before.

And then he stepped forward, thrusting the sword with a determined strike. The sword broke through the black armour, lifting his opponent from his feet. He stepped forward two steps and changed the angle of the blade, driving it down into the crystal ground. The blade buried itself into the rock and sunk through the enemy until only the handle could be seen.

As expected, the blow had not been enough to end the foul creature, whose dark essence was already attempting to counter the wound inflicted, though with little success.

"Is that it?" the Supreme Darkness mocked as the pain he suffered seemed to disappear. "One final blow with everything you could muster and that is all you could manage. Pathetic."

Dark hands reached for the handle of the sword, planning to pull it free and turn it upon its master. But instead of a cry of victory, there was a howl of agony as the blade burnt its wicked fingers. Smoke poured from its limbs as the purifying energy of the blade destroyed the evil that had tried to touch it.

"I think it worked perfectly," came the reply as the weakened hero stumbled to his feet. His armour dropped away, too severely damaged to be of further help and now a hindrance. The wounds he had suffered during their frantic exchange bled freely, dripping down upon the ruined castle floors. "I could never defeat you. You are the embodiment of all the evil contained in this universe, bound to exist so long as there is darkness. Even the darkness within me. There was no way you could be destroyed and to try and do so would accomplish little. But... I can contain you; I can hold you here until the end of the universe."

"Which won’t be that long now. This universe is doomed. All you’ve done is delayed my triumph," the enemy warned.

The Guardian shook his head. The destruction and end of existence had long been a matter of fact. Once the universe had reached a certain point of decline there had been no way to reverse it. No, this was not about whether the universe died. It was how it died that mattered and there was no way that the beings that had given him life would allow evil to claim that it had triumphed, especially since their were so many depending upon his victory.

"You’re defeated," he told the struggling thing, marvelling at how even now in the last moments of existence, the purity of the blade had eaten away at the darkness, exposing the evil for the pitiful creature it truly was. "The universe will die, but it will die on its terms, not lost in the darkness and ruled by the likes of you. And you forget that victory goes to the side that holds the fortress at the last moment." He sat upon the throne and smile as his opponent realised that there was no way he could take it for himself. "Good wins!"

The Supreme Darkness tried to respond but its words were reduced to growls of anger as it struggled against the power of light. It squirmed in place and tried to slink away as the hero moved toward the sword. As the blade was pulled free, the darkness broke apart, scattered by the light from the sword. Before it was drawn back into the surviving warrior. Just as energy could not be created or destroyed, so evil could not be obliterated evil by light. But it could be chased away and it could be contained within a righteous heart. The Guardian’s heart was pure enough to handle the task, his willingness to hold the Champion of Darkness inside himself long enough for others to take action guaranteed his success. The crystal rock that had been their battleground shook as the universe closed in around it. Evil had been conquered in that it had not triumphed, but there was nothing that could save existence.

As the universe grew smaller, so the light from the sword, reflected by the crystal rock into which it had been embedded, shone ever brighter and the dark creature seemed to shrink in size. Soon all that remained was a lone figure stood upon the crystal rock, looking out into the void, ready to welcome the end of all things.

"I still win," the Supreme Darkness whispered. "The end has come and you have not been offered salvation. I shall settle for stalemate."

Existence had shrunk to the point where the material universe was the Champion, the ground upon which he stood, the discarded armour from his battle and the atmosphere around him. Soon the planet of crystal faded into the darkness taking with it the lone survivor of the battle between Good and Evil. Good had triumphed this time and Evil had been conquered.

The last moments of the old existence had finally passed but in those last moments the Guardian of Light saw a glow on the horizon and smiled. Then he laughed, sensing his enemy’s confusion.

"The problem with evil is that you are so selfish that you assume everybody else to be the same. This was never about us, it was never about our armies or this war. It was about them…"

It had never been about the soldiers on the battlefield. Those fighting had known that they would never make it beyond the end point. But the promise that victory would bring the opportunity to survive had pushed them to fight until the end. And their efforts had created a champion that had defeated the darkness and gained his side the promised prize.

For the warriors on the battlefield had never expected to leave it alive. They had not been the ones that would gain the opportunity to survive beyond the end. No, they had given their lives willingly so that others could survive. Not warriors and knights sullied by war, but families and loved ones; scientists, artists, teachers and children… the future of a society. They were the ones that would claim the prize, opening a rift through which they could escape the all-consuming-darkness by plunging into the unknown void that surrounded what remained of their reality and kept it isolated from whatever came next.. What lay beyond was unknown and for many it would be a journey spent in a state of near sleep while their brave pilots sacrificed themselves to carry their precious cargo to safety.

Would they succeed or would they be lost along the way? It didn’t matter – for the opportunity was enough to bring hope and against the darkness hope was a powerful weapon. And so they had seized the moment, set their course and silently prayed that there was something beyond the rift for them to travel to. The howl of despair as the Supreme Darkness noticed the distant glow warmed the Guardian’s heart in his last moment. Whether he had won or lost, evil had been conquered. And just moments later….

THE END