Hey guys! This is the last chapter! I wanted to include one more after this, but then I decided that with the way the story was unfolding that it was better to end it with this one. Besides, when I typed this part up, it came out a little more conclusively than I’d originally intended, but I liked it that way, so I decided to go ahead and let it end that way. I hope you enjoy this last segment.

Chapter 8: Fairy Tale Ending

The rangers all had to duck for cover as Califon completely lost it. He screamed in outrage and confusion, releasing a burst of magic as he did. The magic rippled through the surrounding area, shaking the earth and creating large cracks in the ground.

“What have I done?” he asked himself over and over again. “I can’t believe this. I’ve been fighting a battle for nothing.” Suddenly, he remembered the Shadow Spell and Madison’s energy slowly draining out of her and into it. In a flash of blazing clarity, he’d remembered where he’d seen her before.

“I have to get back to the hideout,” he said. “I have to talk to her before the Shadow Spell drains her completely.”

But just as he was about to run, the sound of an explosion was heard and suddenly, a cloud of darkness shot straight into the air. Within seconds, it had covered the entire sky, blocking out the sun and clouds, blanketing the entire world in shadows.

“Oh no,” muttered Califon. “That burst of energy must have given the Shadow Spell an extra boost. Oh no, the girl!”

He turned away from the rangers and cast a spell that would take him immediately to his hideout.

“Wait!” yelled Nick, but Califon was already gone. Getting to his feet, he said, “you guys go back to Rootcore and try and find out what’s going on. I’m going to follow him. With any luck, he’ll lead me straight to Maddie.”

“Be careful Nick,” said Vida, before following Chip and Xander.

“Finishio!” yelled Nick, holding up his wand. He disappeared in an instant and reappeared on the far side of the forest from Rootcore, just in time to see Califon dash into a nearby cave. Nick followed at a distance, making sure to keep his quarry in sight, but keeping far enough away to avoid detection.

But Califon wasn’t even concentrating on whether or not he was being followed. All he was concerned with was getting to Madison and asking her what he needed to ask her before the Shadow Spell finished powering and took her life along with it. He followed the cave and disappeared through one of the stone walls.

“Where did he go?” asked Nick, coming to a halt a few seconds later. He located the wall that Califon had disappeared through, took a deep breath and stepped through as well. He found himself in another tunnel, but this one was torch lit and at the end he could see the entrance to a large room. Madison was at the end of this tunnel, he just knew it. He began running again, the only thought in his mind was getting to his beloved.

Califon had already reached the main room of his lair. Madison hadn’t moved since he’d left, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he still felt a pulse in her wrist. He shook her shoulders and said, “wake up blue witch.”

It took a minute, but Maddie opened her eyes and groaned at the sight of him.

“Listen and listen well,” said Califon quickly. “I have one question to ask you and the correct answer might very well save your life.”

Maddie was so weak now that she could barely get the strength to utter one syllable. But she did manage to articulate, “f…for the l…l…last t…t...time…”

He cut her off. “No, no, that’s not it. Were you or were you not the one who cast the spell that defeated the first of the Ten Terrors? Speak!”

She remembered that battle all too well. She remembered how she had been sure that she wasn’t contributing to the team, the speech she’d made to the team, and how she had cast the spell that gave them an advantage. She took a deep breath and said, “y…yes.”

“Maddie!” yelled a voice and Califon looked up to see Nick charge into the room. “Get away from her!” he shouted. He grabbed Califon, jerking him away from Madison, and began fighting again. “Never come near her again!” said Nick, enunciating each word as he delivered a blow.

To his surprise, Califon didn’t try and fight back. “Stop it!” he yelled. “Stop it!”

“Why should I?” asked Nick. He backed off a bit, but remained in a fighting stance in case his enemy was about to try anything sneaky.

“If you want your girlfriend there to survive, then I suggest that you listen to what I say.” Nick nodded, though he wasn’t happy about the idea. Califon continued, “it’s a Shadow Spell, what’s covering the city in darkness. I can’t stop it from here now, you and your friends have to stop it together. That would include her as well,” and he gestured at Madison. “Unfortunately, I’m not sure how we can stop it at this stage, it’s too late.”

Nick was about to respond when he heard a weak voice say, “N…Nick?”

He turned around to see Madison open her eyes again and turn her head towards him. In an instant, he was by her side. He raised her head up so that she was looking straight at him, and placed his other hand on the side of her face.

“I’m right here Maddie,” he said soothingly. “Everything’s going to be fine, I promise.”

She smiled as if to say, “I knew you’d come.” She then tried to say, “I…I’m sor…”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” he interrupted. “Now don’t talk anymore, you need to save your strength.”

Califon looked at the two of them incredulously. “How could I not see it before?” he asked himself. “They really do love each other.” He slipped away from them and ran down the hall to his study. He dug through the bookshelves until he found the book he wanted, the one where’d he found out how to conjure a Shadow Spell. He ran back to the main room just in time to see Nick lift Madison up in his arms and begin to carry her back to Rootcore.

“You might need this,” he said, handing the book to Nick.

“Where are you going?” asked Nick suspiciously.

“I’m going to see if I can do my part to stop that thing as well,” replied Califon.

Nick watched him disappear down a nearby side passage, then he exited the way he came in, carrying Madison every step of the way. With the help of a little magic, he was back at Rootcore, where he found the others arguing over how to stop the Shadow Spell. Everyone instantly quieted when they saw him come in carrying Madison.

Then there was a shout of, “sis!” and Vida ran forward to see them. “Is she okay?”

“No,” said Nick simply, laying her down on the same bed Clare had been on earlier. When the rest of the group got back to Rootcore, they were all glad to see that with the help of Udonna’s potions, she had recovered enough to stand and move about on her own, much to Xander’s delight.

“Madison?” asked Udonna, placing her hand on the girl’s forehead. “She has lost much of her energy, and I am not sure any of my potions will restore it. The only way is to defeat the Shadow Spell, but I have never heard of a method of doing that. I do not think that even the Xenotome could tell us what to do.”

Vida, who had been halfway towards the pedestal where they kept the Xenotome, gave a grunt of defeat.

“This should tell us,” said Nick, handing over the book. “Califon gave it to me.”

“You trust him?” asked Leanbow, arms crossed over his chest.

“No, I don’t,” replied Nick. “But what other choice do we have?” Leanbow nodded to show that he had a point.

Udonna took the volume from Nick’s hands and flipped through the pages, looking for the bit of information she wanted. It didn’t take her long to find it.

“It says that the only way to defeat a Shadow Spell is to counter it with a Restoration Spell. It can reverse the effects of any dark spell and in this instance, will return the sun’s rays to the world.”

“I can do it,” said Daggeron. “If it involves the sun, I can do it.”

“Being the Solaris Knight does not give you an advantage Daggeron,” said Udonna, not looking up from the book. “It says that to cast the spell, the one who created the Shadow Spell must contribute part of his energy, as well as that of the one who is powering the spell.”

“And in English that means?” asked Xander, totally baffled.

“Califon kidnapped Madison because her energy would power the Shadow Spell,” explained Udonna. “You need both of them in order to defeat it.”

“How can Maddie defeat the spell? Her energy is almost gone,” said Chip.

“She will have to give the last of her energy to someone else,” said Leanbow. “That’s the only way she’ll be able to fight.”

“N…Nick,” came the weak voice again. Madison had woken again.

“Shh,” said Nick. “Save your strength Maddie.”

She tried to sit up, but he pushed her back down onto the bed, keeping a firm but gentle hand on her shoulder. She rested her hand on her wand and muttered frailly, “t…take it.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, placing his free hand above hers.

She didn’t say anything, but just looked at him, and that look told him what he needed to hear, “there’s no one else I would trust more with this task.”

“Okay,” he whispered. “I’m going to save you Maddie, I promise you.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead, before reluctantly getting up and turning to the others. “Come on you guys, let’s get to work.”

“Magical Source, Mystic Force!” yelled all the rangers except for Udonna. She and Clare stayed inside the hollowed out tree to look after Madison, while the others, in full ranger form, went to the very center of the city, where the Shadow Spell was the strongest.

Califon was already there. He’d already read the part about stopping the Shadow Spell before he gave the book to Nick. He was sending bursts of magic into it, muttering the incantation for the Restoration Spell again and again, but it wasn’t working.

“Are you going to help me or not?” he asked, when he saw them coming.

“How do we know we can trust you?” asked Chip.

“What choice do you have?” replied Califon, not backing down for a minute.

“He is reciting the incantation for the Restoration Spell,” said Daggeron.

“And he is releasing some of the most powerful magic I’ve ever seen, definitely not dark magic,” added Leanbow, looking closely at the burst of energy emanating from Califon’s hands.

“But he’s the reason Maddie’s in the condition she’s in,” argued Vida. “No way can we trust him!”

“He’s right though V,” said Xander. “We don’t have any other choice.”

“Come on then,” said Nick. “Let’s help him out.”

“Right!” they all said together.

They pulled out their magi-staffs and sent all their magic toward the Shadow Spell, which was making the area grow darker every single second. This reminded them all of the time when Imperious and the Barbarian Beasts had captured Jenji and made him grant a wish that would cover the world in darkness. Their ranger powers had been taken from them, Udonna and Clare didn’t recognize them, and Daggeron didn’t even exist. It had been awful, but they fought until the end, which culminated in them getting their Legend Power and countering the spell.

They tried for several minutes to counter the spell, but nothing they did made any difference.

“We need to put more power into it!” said Vida.

They knew what they needed to do to get stronger. Nick, Xander, Chip and Vida all shouted, “Legendary Source, Mystic Force and they were in their legend form, using the power from their stronger staffs to fight the darkness. But they still weren’t even making a dent on the Shadow Spell. They were beginning to run out of energy, but they couldn’t give up hope, not with so many people counting on them to clean up this mess.

“We’re not strong enough, not without Udonna and Madison,” said Daggeron.

“Don’t give up my friend,” said Leanbow.

“Snow Staff!” came a voice and another beam of light joined theirs. Udonna had come to help them, and though the extra power helped a bit, they still couldn’t beat the Shadow Spell.

“Nick, use Madison’s wand to finish the Restoration Spell,” said Udonna. “Do not worry, if this goes like it should, all her strength will return to her as soon the Shadow Spell is defeated. If anything happens to her, Clare will contact me.”

“All right,” said Nick, looking down at Madison’s wand, held tightly in his hand.

“You can do it Nick,” he heard inside his head, and he knew he couldn’t give up then.

“Let’s end this,” he said, and he held her wand up next to his staff and a beam of blue light joined with the one of red that was his magic. All the rangers’ magic, combined with Califon’s powers began to disperse the cloud of darkness, and one ray from the sun shone down on the city.

“That’s it, keep going!” yelled Nick, trying to keep up the team’s morale.

Califon looked over at the rangers, giving all of their magic to defeat this spell, his creation. If someone had said to him the previous day that he would be aiding them in destroying it, he would have said they were crazy, and he would never allow them to stop something he had worked so tirelessly on. But now that he realized what a foolish mistake he had made, he was trying his hardest to show them that they could trust him, and that he was ready to repent for all the things he had done.

“I’m sorry Father,” he said. “I thought avenging you was such a noble prospect, but I see now that you were nothing more than a power-hungry villain, only caring about yourself and getting more power within your grasp. You didn’t care about anything that might have stood in your way, and you sure as heck didn’t care about me enough to raise me as your son. Even if you had been there to see me grow into the person I am, I doubt you would have acknowledged me. Necrolai was right, it is time for me to find my place in this world, and I am going to accept her offer to join her family. She and Leelee are my family, and it’s about time that I put the past behind me and never thought about you again!”

These last few thoughts gave him the energy he needed to maximize the power of the Restoration Spell. The dark clouds began to disperse even further, until finally, they were all gone and the sun was shining down on Briarwood again. The rangers plus Califon all fell to their knees, powering down and breathing heavily.

“We did it,” said Xander, smiling for the first time all day.

“We did it,” Chip agreed with him, clapping a hand on his friend’s shoulder.

The sound of running footsteps reached their ears and they turned to see Necrolai and Leelee running towards them.

“Is everyone all right?” asked Leelee, looking over them.

“We’re fine,” said Vida, slowly getting to her feet.

Necrolai, however, wasn’t even looking at the rangers. She was looking at Califon, who was struggling to get back on his feet. When he finally did, he turned to look at them. Everyone, except for mother and daughter, went into a defensive position, but Necrolai and Leelee walked forward cautiously. Then, he did something that surprised them all, and opened his arms towards them. Both women smiled and threw their arms around him. He smiled, laughed and hugged them both.

“Yeah,” said Leelee. “I get the brother I never had. This is great!”

“If only Maddie were here to see this,” said Vida. But then she remembered, “oh my gosh, Maddie!”

They raced back to Rootcore, all of them, hoping against hope that Maddie was all right and had recovered her strength. But they were to be sadly disappointed. When they got there, they found Clare sitting by Madison’s bedside, with tears in her eyes. She looked up as they came in and shook her head.

There was a moment of silence, then a shout of, “no!” from Vida. She rushed to her sister’s side and shook her. “Sis, sis!” she kept shrieking, but it didn’t do any good. Madison just lay there, still, breathless, and already beginning to turn pale. Vida gave a large sob and began crying into her sister’s shoulder. She felt someone’s hands on her shoulder, trying to pull her away, but she wouldn’t budge. She felt that someone tug harder and this time, she couldn’t fight him off. She was too tired, so she only turned to look at that someone, which turned out to be Chip. He wrapped his arms around her, and let her cry into his shoulder, trying his hardest to comfort her, even though he was as upset as could be as well. They were all trying to fight back tears as they looked down at her motionless form.

Nick walked towards her in a sort of daze and sat down beside her. He took her hand in his and gasped at how cold it was. He put two fingers to her wrist, and realized with a sense of guilt welling up deep inside him, that it was true. She had no pulse.

Finally, it was Califon that broke the silence. “I don’t understand,” he said. “Her energy should have returned to her when the Shadow Spell was broken. I can’t see why it didn’t. This is my fault.”

“She was already gone when the spell was broken,” said Clare. “That’s why she isn’t recovering.” While she had been keeping an eye on Maddie, she had also been watching the rangers through the crystal ball. She had heard Madison give her last breath and seen her chest fall for the final time, just seconds before the spell was broken.

“Oh no,” she had muttered. “Poor Vida. Poor Nick.”

Nick just gazed down at her, not taking in a word that either of them had said. He just looked at her, knowing that it was as much his fault as it was Califon’s.

“I’m sorry Maddie, I’m so sorry,” he whispered to her. “I’m sorry I failed you. It was my job to protect you, to rescue you, to keep you out of this mess, and I failed. If I had kept Califon from kidnapping you, none of this would’ve happened. I wish I had gotten back sooner, I wish I had had more time to spend with you. Because you’re all I’ve thought about these last few months. I came back because I felt as if I’d explode if I spent one more minute away from you. I love you Maddie.”

And with that, he leaned down and kissed her full on the lips, knowing that it was the last chance he’d ever get to do so. But then, when he pulled away, something happened that none of them expected. Her wand, still in his pocket, began to glow a bright blue. He took it and placed it in her hand. The glow covered her hand, then began to spread up her arm and covered her entire body. It glowed blindingly bright, forcing everyone to shut their eyes against it.

When the light stopped, they opened their eyes to a sight they never thought possible. They saw Madison take a large, deep breath, and open her eyes. She blinked several times to try and get them all into focus, but when she saw who was next to her, she couldn’t have been happier.

She smiled up and said, “Nick,” her voice still a little weak from the last few hours.

“Maddie?” he asked, not daring to believe what was happening in front of him.

She nodded and said, “it’s me all right. And I’m here to stay.”

Nick smiled down at her and pulled her into the tightest hug he could, burying his face in her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around his neck, glad to have him back at last. She could feel him shaking and knew he was trying to fight the urge to cry.

He pulled back from her a bit and whispered, “I thought I’d never see you again.”

“You didn’t think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?” she asked, and he laughed. But her face became serious when she said, “I love you too Nick. I’m sorry for the way I acted earlier.”

“Don’t apologize for that,” he said. “I’m just glad you’re back.” And he leaned down and kissed her again, in front of the entire group. She smiled as she kissed him back, feeling him tighten his grip on her. He was so afraid that if he let her go for even a second that she would leave him again.

When they broke apart, he felt someone jerk him away from Maddie. That turned out to be Vida. She looked down at her sister with a mixture of anger and relief on her face.

“If you ever scare me like that again, I’ll…I’ll…” But she was at a loss for words. She was so glad to have her sister back, that all she could do was break down even more than she had a few seconds before and hug her sister even more tightly than Nick had a few seconds before.

“Vida, Vida, can’t breathe,” Maddie rasped out, and Vida relinquished her hold on her sister.

“I’m sorry, I’m just so glad to see you’re okay,” said Vida, smiling for the first time since the previous night.

Everyone crowded around Madison, breathing sighs of relief that she was all right. Califon took a tentative step forward. Madison sat up and looked at him, still without the strength to get up and walk around. She waited for him to speak and after a minute, he did.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know now that I was fighting a losing battle from the start, and that none of you were responsible for what happened to my…I’m ashamed to call him my father now.” He looked directly at Madison, and asked, “could you find it in your heart to forgive me?”

She looked into his eyes and knew that he was speaking the truth. There was a kindness and gentleness there that hadn’t been there before. She nodded her head and said, “yes.”

That was all the confirmation that the rest of the rangers needed. They muttered words of forgiveness to him, some more hesitantly than others. But that didn’t matter. What did matter was that Madison was all right, Califon had joined their side and had gained the family he never had, and the team was back together again. Everything was well.

Author’s End Note: So, what did you think of the last chapter of my first Power Ranger’s fic? I think it turned out pretty well, but that’s just my opinion. At this time, I’d like to thank everyone who read this story and reviewed it. Your comments are what kept me going these last few months. I loved reading your messages and I look forward to reading your stories in the future. Keep a lookout for more of my stories on these boards. I’ll see you all soon! Thank you so much!