Location: The Hollow Grid — 13 hours after Mission Gamma-717
Silence had weight in the Hollow Grid.
It wasn't peace. It was pressure — the kind that settled on the chest like a stone you forgot you were carrying. No alarms. No voices. Just the soft, ever-present hum of a dying cosmos stitched together with wires and memory.
Kael sat on a damaged catwalk above the War Table, his helmet beside him. The red of his armor was dulled now, chipped from battle. He hadn't spoken much since they returned.
Below him, Mira patched her cracked gauntlet in silence. Thorne sharpened his blade against a sparking steel panel. Ayla lay spread out on a stack of faded Ranger banners, arms behind her head, chewing her last piece of gum.
And Rin… wasn't there.
Not yet.
Scene 1: Post-Mission Disassembly
Mira finally broke the silence. "We did good."
Kael didn't respond.
Thorne raised a brow. "Define 'good.' We fought corrupted Rangers, nearly died, and left them in stasis for the timeline to collapse around them."
"We stopped the core," Mira said. "It would've destroyed three more sectors. That's a win."
Ayla rolled onto her side. "Kinda hollow, though. Like… yay us, now let's go let more ex-Rangers rot in some time hole."
"That's what we are," Thorne muttered. "Clean-up crew for the sins of the Grid."
Kael finally spoke. "They weren't sins. Not until we started treating Rangers like gods."
Everyone paused.
Ayla blinked. "Whoa. You okay up there, Mr. Doom-n-Grit?"
Kael didn't answer. He stood up slowly and turned his back to the group. His voice dropped to a quieter tone — one that carried grief under the steel.
"They were my friends once. Nova. Shade. The Quantum Rangers trained with my unit. I knew them. Laughed with them. I even… lost a teammate to them in a training exercise."
Mira looked up sharply. "Wait—one of the Quantum Rangers was—?"
Kael nodded. "Mara. My Yellow."
The silence turned heavier.
"I watched her die on a loop the night our team fell," Kael said. "And today, I watched her move again. Not her soul. Just a puppet of her body. Controlled by a monster I should have stopped."
Thorne looked away.
Mira's hands paused mid-repair.
Ayla's gum popped softly in her mouth.
"You know," she said, "I used to think losing people made you quieter."
Kael turned to her.
"But I've been loud my whole life. No matter who died." She gave him a tilted smirk — not mocking, just… real. "Doesn't mean I don't carry the weight. I just don't let it strangle me."
Kael stared at her.
And for once, said nothing.
Scene 2: Rin's Vision
Rin knelt in the Meditation Chamber — or what passed for one in this broken place. It was built from shattered Ranger relics, floating stone tiles, and faint echoes of Morph energy. Time didn't move here, either — just pulsed like a slow heartbeat.
He closed his eyes.
And then…
The vision came.
A crack in the black.
A flash of Elios, unmasked — hair matted, eyes glowing with voidlight. He stood before a ruined version of the Grid Cradle, hands dripping with red energy.
Behind him… a figure.
Cloaked in crimson-black armor.
Holding a burning staff tipped with a fractured Red Ranger helmet.
Kael's helmet.
"You can't save him," Elios said in the vision. "He already belongs to me."
"And when the time comes, you'll choose your own silence over his screams."
Rin opened his eyes.
Sweat beaded down his neck. His breathing was shallow.
He didn't blink.
Because he had recognized the figure beside Elios.
Not just the armor.
Not just the helmet.
The presence.
It was Kael.
But twisted. Consumed.
Or worse… willing.
Scene 3: The Rift Between
Back at the War Table, the team gathered again.
Zara's AI shimmered into view — more glitched than ever.
"New mission detected. Timeline R-993. Echo-Angel Grove."
"Ranger HQ is being consumed by a creature forged from corrupted Zord parts. The Eclipse Knight is using memory as a weapon."
"But be warned: Someone in this mission is… tethered."
"What does that mean?" Mira asked.
"One of you is linked to this timeline. If you go… your past may try to rewrite your present."
Rin stepped forward. His voice was cool but deliberate.
"I need to speak to Kael. Alone."
The others hesitated, but Kael nodded.
They walked to a quieter part of the station, near a broken observation deck, where stars no longer moved.
Rin turned to him.
"I saw something."
Kael tensed. "What kind of something?"
Rin stared directly into his eyes.
"You. Beside Elios. Wearing his colors. Holding your own broken helmet."
Kael went still.
"Say it."
"I think… in some future, you fall," Rin said quietly. "And not because he breaks you. Because you follow him willingly."
Kael's jaw tightened. "That's not possible."
"I don't know if it's truth," Rin replied. "Or a warning. But you need to ask yourself — if killing him means becoming like him… what will you choose?"
Kael didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
Scene 4: Rift Detected
Suddenly, alarms blared across the Hollow Grid.
The War Table flickered erratically.
A new rift had opened — not a mission.
But a breach.
Zara's voice trembled.
"Unknown presence entering the Hollow Grid… this is not from a timeline…"
It's from outside.
A bolt of crimson energy crashed into the War Table.
The team spun, weapons drawn.
A shadow stepped through the breach.
She wore armor forged of fire and fractured crystal. A Ranger design — but twisted, corrupted, royal.
Her visor shimmered like lava.
And she laughed.
"Miss me, Kael?"
His blood ran cold.
"Mara…?"
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