When she saw her friend, she felt a smidgen of happiness that she quickly crushed. "Elissa!" The werewolf stopped, yelping in fright. "Sorry. Didn't mean to frighten you. I should've known better."

Elissa whispered, "It's okay."

Evanthe went over to her. "How's the back?"

"Still can't feel it if that's what you want to know."

"You will."

The Rose Ranger shrugged. "Yeah, right."

The two of them sat in uncomfortable silence for a few moments, until Evanthe spoke. "I've been thinking about something ever since I woke up from that coma."

"What?"

"How much do you really know about me, Elissa?" Evanthe asked quietly.

"Not much." Evanthe had always kept her past a deep secret, though she had let a few hints loose. But specific events, she never spoke of.

Evanthe nodded. "I know. And Billy knows even less and I'm married to him. I've been thinking of telling everyone everything."

Elissa shrugged. "If you want to."

"It's not as easy as it sounds." Evanthe had kept a lot inside of her for a reason, and she wasn't certain if she trusted these people. She'd only known them for a few years, after all. And in those few years, they showed me more kindness and acceptance than I've seen in the rest of my life.

Elissa just nodded. "I know."

Her friend looked at her. "If I tell my history, will you be there?"

"I'll try." Elissa whispered. She hadn't spoken above that all week. "I won't promise anything more."

Evanthe sighed. "I'll let you know if I do decide to tell." She glanced down as Elissa nodded quietly. "I'm surprised not see Adam near you."

"I snuck away while he was reading to Gwen."

The Purple Ranger nodded, then frowned. "What's on your mind, Elissa? I know you're thinking about something."

"Nothing."

Evanthe wasn't going to give up. "Elissa, I know something is on your mind."

"I'd rather not talk about it." Elissa spoke the last three words quietly. "Just do it."

Evanthe looked sharply at her. "Elissa."

"What?"

"Tell me what you're thinking about." There was no hint of denial in her voice at all, she would know this!

Elissa sighed. "You'll only get upset if I do."

"Let me be the judge of that."

Elissa looked down at the ground. "I was thinking of ending it again."

"Why!?"

The Rose Ranger glared up at her friend, fury lighting her entire face up. "I knew it! I knew it!" she started to back away from her.

"Elissa, please!"

The werewolf shook her head. "Leave me alone!"

"Elissa, please don't do this!" Evanthe had never known Elissa to quit, and she wasn't going to let her start now. A vampire knew too well how precious life was, it should never be wasted or thrown away.

"Why can't you just let me die in peace? I want to so badly!"

Evanthe glared at her. "No! You're going to be abandoning everything that's made you Elissa since I've known you if you do that! You won't even be her, just some shell that has her name!"

"I already am."

Evanthe quite literally glared daggers at her. "No, you're not. You're just too scared to be her anymore, you don't want to be her. You're doing something I never thought I'd see you do: give up."

"What else am I supposed to do Evanthe? What else is there for me?" Elissa flared back at her. Evanthe had an answer, though.

"Live! Your life didn't end just because you can't walk!" Evanthe had been through things worse than not walking, and she knew Elissa could survive this too. Her legs and back were healing, even if Elissa didn't want to admit it, and the day would come when she would walk again: if she'd just stop going around whining that she couldn't.

"I don't know how anymore." Elissa admitted.

Evanthe tossed her head. "Yes, you do. .you just don't want to remember anymore."

"I'm scared to."

Evanthe's voice dropped down to such a level of tenderness it almost scared Elissa in itself. It reminded her of all that Evanthe had done for her, and would continue to do for her. That she wasn't alone, no matter how much she tried or wanted to be. That there was always someone there for her. "Scared you'll get hurt again." All the werewolf could do was just nod. Evanthe took her hand quietly. "You won't know unless you try." She said words that someone had said to her long ago, when she had needed help, and now, she gave that help to someone else.

Elissa smiled softly. "You have to try, Elissa, because if you don't.." her eyes were dark and distant just for a moment, then she came back to reality with Elissa's scream of fright. Goldar had arrived.

Evanthe reacted at once, leaping in front of Elissa. "Get away from here, Goldar!" she might be scared of him, but he wasn't going to touch her friend.

"I want your friend, not you!" Evanthe felt a small spike of joy at that, merely at the notion that he didn't want her. She had long since had enough of his attentions. She had an answer for him, though.

"You're not getting either of us!" She reached for her communicator, only to get backhanded severely into a tree. He couldn't quite knock her out, and she seized the communicator on her way.

Elissa backed away, rolling as best she could. "Leave me alone!"

"Master Vile and Finster want you!" Goldar chuckled darkly, reaching for her. Evanthe was shouting for help into her communicator, and Elissa saw her reaching for her Power Coin as she felt herself backing into something. As the chair toppled over, Goldar seized her quickly.

"You'd better put my wife down!" Adam, as Black Ranger, shouted, appearing with the others, including Evanthe, there. Elissa tried struggling, but Goldar only grinned and vanished, just as Evanthe's whip went through the space they'd been only moments before.

She turned to the others quickly. "Someone find a way to get me up there before I have to walk to the SpaceSkull to get her back!"

"What happened?" No one seemed surprised to see Christopher Foster showing up. When Evanthe explained, he growled out, "I'm going to kill my father!"

"Goldar's all mine." Evanthe quite literally purred the words out, but there was no hint of anything but murder in the sound of her voice.

Adam nodded. "The sooner the three of us get up there...the better!"

Evanthe looked at her husband, and he saw a life in her that had been missing for nine months. "How fast can we get there?"

A quick teleport to the Command Center gave out one single answer. "Soon."

"It can't be fast enough."

"I obeyed your commands, my lord." Goldar bowed his head.

"I see." Vile smiled. "Maybe I will let you have a little fun with her before Finster does."

Goldar smiled evilly. "May I, please, sire?"

"Be my guest." Vile said expansively. Elissa cried as Goldar started to touch her in places he had no business touching. Then he glanced up to his master.

"The other Rangers are going to be coming." he reminded him. Vile just laughed.

"I will take care of them." he promised. "Now go have your fun."

Goldar threw Elissa to the floor and started doing more of what he loved the best. Elissa cried out in pain and mental anguish. "Kill me, someone, please, just kill me!"

"Nope!" Goldar laughed. "You get to live with Finster!" he told her, enjoying the fresh bursts of tears. She looked up at him through her tears.

"I hate you."

He laughed. "So!?"

Both of them paused when a low, deep, evil growl cut the air in half. Standing not far away were three figures: Evanthe, Adam, and Christopher, the latter armed with a laser pistol. Evanthe wasn't morphed, neither was Adam, and both looked mad enough to tear steel in half.

"This is it." Evanthe said softly, the growl still evident in her voice. "You are all going to die."

A soft, silken voice spoke suddenly. "Hear my words and obey them.. ." Evanthe turned, intending to turn whatever was speaking into so much spacedust. The creature's eyes captivated hers on contact, however, and the three of them stood there, in an almost instant hypnotic trance.

"What do you wish of me, master?" Evanthe said. The creature, Hypner, laughed.

"Go to Goldar and make him happy."

Evanthe headed over there, not noticing the sudden flash of rose light as Elissa morphed for the first time in months. With a blast from her Bladeblaster and Power Crossbow combined, Hypner was very quickly turned into a rather nasty memory. Elissa could no longer stand on her feet, however, and collapsed, demorphed, to be seized by Tengas, the temporary adrenaline burst gone.

Goldar looked at Elissa, who was being carried away by Tengas, then to Evanthe, who stood beside him with rage in her eyes. Adam and Chris were chasing after Elissa, and he knew Vile had some nasty surprises waiting for them. He looked back at his pet.

"Time to have some fun."

"No, Goldar." Her voice was calm and patient. "Not anymore. Not ever again."

"Like you have much choice!" he laughed, reaching for her. Evanthe slapped his hand aside as she would a bad dog's.

"I do. And I choose death for you."

"You couldn't kill me."

He didn't like the smile she smiled. "Who wants to take a bet?" they both dropped into fighting stances. "You've had this coming for about. . .oh, I'd say six hundred years now."

The duel that erupted was one that many people would have paid a great deal of money to watch. The two of them let loose with an elemental brutality that had formed from his desire for her and her hatred for him. She was unarmed; he carried his sword. He was tens of thousands of years old, with experience in a multitude of combat forms. Evanthe was only six centuries old, and knew a few forms of martial arts. He was in fighting form and she had given birth less than two weeks earlier.

Goldar never stood a chance.

She glanced at his removed head for a moment, then tossed it onto his body. With a kick to the corpse and a wad of spit, she ran off to find her best friend.

"Well, well, well, my little lab dog has come home!" he laughed. She tried backing away as she cried, but there was nowhere for her to go. "So nice to have you back!"

He reached for her, about to do something foul, when a tap came to his shoulder. Finster looked around to see Adam there: and to see the fist that knocked him across the room. Adam calmly walked across to him, kicking him until he woke up.

"This is for the hell you put her through." Adam said calmly. In defense of his wife and the people he loved, Adam Park, the Black Ranger, killed Finster, formerly a gentle sculptor, warped by the eons of evil into a monster as dread as any he had made himself.

Adam went over to Elissa, unstrapping her and holding her gently. "Come on." he said quietly. It's over. You're safe now."

She held onto him, crying as hard as she could. It was to that Evanthe entered. She dismissed Finster's corpse with a casual glance, then looked to Adam. "How is she?"

"Not good."

Elissa cried into his shoulder, then slowly looked up. "Evanthe?"

"What is it, Elissa?"

"Why did it happen to me again?" she murmured, holding onto Adam tightly. Evanthe sighed.

"It won't ever happen again. To either of us. They're both dead now."

Her friend nodded weakly, then her eyes went wide when she saw something behind Evanthe. "Elissa, it's over." Evanthe said, leaning against the doorway.

"Vile!"

The Purple Ranger jumped up at once. "Where!?"

"Behind you!" Evanthe just had time to turn before Vile's arms seized onto her, tightly.

"You're coming with me!" he hissed evilly, placing a laser pistol of his own to her head. Even a vampire couldn't survive a point blank blast to the head, and they all knew it.

"Let her go, Vile!" Adam shouted.

Vile shook his head. "Never! She's coming with me!" he dragged her out of the room kicking and screaming. Adam looked after him, then turned back to Elissa. She was more important right now to him.

"Hello, Father!" Vile turned to see his son behind him, with his own pistol raised.

"Son, stay away or she's dead!"

Christopher shook his head. "You have harmed my daughter enough, and don't you ever call me son again!"

Vile glared at him. "But you are my son." He started to back towards an opening. "And if you step near us, I'll blow her brains out. Not even a vampire can survive that!"

His son growled, but said nothing nor did he move as Vile dragged her away to a waiting spacecraft. "Father!" Evanthe shouted, struggling as hard as she could.

"I'll get you back!" he promised, then turned to go back to the others.

Adam had Elissa in his arms. "I'll take her back to the Command Center. You need to take care of family business."

Christopher nodded, then set off after his father and daughter. It was going to be a family reunion from hell.

Elissa looked up at him. "Over?"

"Finster and Goldar are gone," Adam told her, and the rest of the Rangers. "Chris is going to get rid of Vile."

Billy looked up. "Where is Evanthe?"

"Vile has her. But Chris is going after them." at Billy's growl, Adam reassured him, "Chris will bring her back."

"He'd better."

"He will."

Elissa leaned into Adam, holding him tightly. Why? Why? why?

Shh. .You'll be all right.

Twice. First Goldar, then Finster.

They're both dead.

Elissa closed her eyes, but it was no use. She could see them mocking her, hurting her still. Adam held her close. Shhh...

Rocky touched her shoulder. "It's going to be all right." She flinched away, and he sighed. There was still a long way to go with her.

Vile shook his head. "Stay away, Christopher, or I'll kill her! You know I'll do it!"

"Do, and you die with her."

Vile laughed. "But she'll still be dead." he dragged her towards the ship he had ready, and Chris pointed the gun at him. Vile jerked her in front of him, in such a position that if Chris fired, he would definitely hit her, but not him.

"You're a coward, Vile!"

"Maybe so!" the sorcerer laughed as he pulled Evanthe inside. "But I'm a live one!" the ship blasted off moments later. Chris stared for a moment, then headed for the other ship on the launch pad.

Inside Vile's ship, he chained his granddaughter to a pole. "You'll enjoy your new home." he told her. "I've got lots of guards who would love to make your acquaintance."

"Let me go!" she growled, pulling at the thick chains. "I don't want to go anywhere with you!"

"You don't have much of a choice!" Vile told her. "You're my hostage!"

Evanthe smiled nastily. "A hostage who killed your best fighter."

"Saved me from doing it." Vile shrugged as he headed over to the controls.

"My father is going to kill you." Evanthe told him. Vile snorted.

"He does, you die!"

She gazed at him. "Funny, all this time you try and turn me to evil. But when things go wrong for you, the first thing you can think of is just 'kill her'."

Vile laughed. "You understand very little!"

"Then explain it, oh, great and wise and evil grandfather!" she mocked him easily. It was in her blood, after all. Vile slapped her hard, and she spit at him. "You think you're so great. You're nothing but a pathetic loser!"

They both looked up as Christopher teleported in, using the devices aboard the other ship. "Time to die. . .Vile."

"So, you want to see her die?" the sorcerer asked, raising his wand. Chris aimed quietly.

"No."

He squeezed off almost as many shots as the pistol had in it, and Master Vile, lord of the M-51 Galaxy, fell to the hand of his only son. Chris smiled, then shot the manacles off Evanthe. "Let's go home."

"It's over with." Evanthe said quietly, putting a hand on Christopher's shoulder. "Vile is dead." Elissa smiled briefly, just as Evanthe almost fell. It had been one very trying day for them all.

Zordon spoke quietly. "Rangers, it is time for the Power Transfer." Rocky, Tommy, Kim, and Aisha had all chosen to move on. Evanthe and Elissa could not as yet pass their powers to anyone else, and Billy and Adam were staying to be with them. The four replacements had been chosen already.

Tommy took a deep breath. "Well, it was great while it lasted, but I guess it's time for us to move on."

"For some of us." Rocky smiled at the four remaining Rangers. "It's not over."

Evanthe smiled. "It was great knowing you all. You've really made us feel like we were part of the team. And don't you dare get out of touch, or I'll come visiting you."

Tommy laughed. "We won't forget!"

Adam looked at the new people and nodded. "Welcome."

Carlos Alvarez took the Red Power Coin from Rocky and the Red armor formed around him. "This is too weird."

Cassie Chan nodded as she took on the Yellow powers from Aisha. "Yeah!"

"Who would have thought that this would happen to me?" Kat Hillard mused. The only thing weirder would be if my cousin Justin got Ranger powers. . .She took the Pink Coin from Kimberly.

"Or to me?" T.J. Clark wondered as Tommy handed over the White powers. Adam smiled.

"I know that feeling."

Evanthe cleared her throat. "Before anyone goes anywhere," she glanced around. "I have a very long story that needs telling." the new team had been informed of the nature of their senior members already. No one seemed to be scared, and that was a good thing.

Elissa looked up, a little scared, hoping that Evanthe didn't say anything of the last century. Evanthe spoke softly. "The first five centuries of my life." She glanced at Elissa. "The last hundred, I would never tell without my best friend's permission."

The Rose Ranger smiled, and Evanthe looked to Billy. She took a deep breath, then smiled as she hadn't in nearly a year. With a kiss, she told him words that hadn't been said for some time. "I love you, Billy."

"I love you, too, Evanthe."

She looked around. 'Everyone get comfortable. This is a long story." Once everyone was comfortable, she considered for a moment. She'd been thinking about this for a week now. "Everything began for me, in the year 1421, long before anyone knew there was an America. I was born in the spring. .." slowly she told her tale, of growing up, of her parents and her sister and brothers, of becoming a vampire and spending two hundred years as a slave to Girard and Sophie, until she had managed to escape, and had wandered from place to place for three more centuries, never staying in any one place too long, running forever in fear, until she had met Elissa.

As she stopped, the Rangers stared at her, not knowing quite what to say. Evanthe drank a little cup of water, then looked at them. "You guys already know how I met Elissa, and what happened after that just isn't my story to tell." She leaned against Billy for a few moments, then cried. It had taken more out of her than she had thought to tell all her secrets.

"I think we should get you home, and get some rest." Billy said. Evanthe nodded.

"I want to see. ..my children." she smiled a little.

"I missed that." he said honestly.

Evanthe nodded. "And I missed saying it. But until Vile died, I didn't feel I had the right to be happy, because it could be taken from me so easily." Elissa looked at her, and Evanthe went over. "Elissa, is that how you feel?"

"Sort of."

The Purple Ranger touched her shoulder. "It's over with now, forever." Elissa made no movements, and Evanthe sighed.

Want to go home? Adam asked his wife.

Yes.

"We're going home." Adam said, and the two of them vanished. Tommy looked at their space.

"I hope they're going to be all right."

Evanthe smiled. "I think they will be." She yawned deeply and Billy picked her up.

"Let's get you home now!" he smiled. Evanthe nodded, then turned to look at the new team members.

"Welcome aboard."