Setting: Phantom Atlas – Command Deck
Time since Cipher's rise: 4 days
Scene: Fracture Team Reunited
The room hummed with power, but none of it felt stable.
The Phantom Atlas, once a war relic, now hovered across fragmented timelines like a lifeboat in a storm. Its newly upgraded Gridcore flickered sporadically—like it was trying to remember how to exist.
Kael stood at the window, jaw clenched.
A thousand shattered timelines rippled outside. They looked like stained glass spiraling into nothingness.
Behind him, the others watched in tense silence.
"They're versions of us," Kael said, low.
"Not just random monsters. Cipher's using our pasts… to break us."
Mira folded her arms. "Null Kael wasn't a perfect copy. He knew things I've never told anyone. Tactical vulnerabilities. Emotional triggers."
Ayla sat cross-legged on the floor, unusually quiet. "Mine laughed like me. Moved like me. But there was nothing behind it. Like I was just a joke… someone already punched the line out of."
Rin stayed by the shadows, arms wrapped loosely around himself. His blade rested against his shoulder.
"Cipher's not just erasing timelines," he said softly.
"He's building a new one… made of what never was."
Thorne paced, one gloved hand flexing, black veins of morph energy flaring.
"Then let's stop whining about ghosts and start slicing.
These things bleed, right?"
Zara Vey finally stepped forward. Her silver hair was tied back. Her body clearly worn. But her presence—undeniable.
"They bleed," she confirmed.
"But their wounds don't always stay."
The room stilled.
Zara continued, her voice quieter now.
"They're parasitic echoes. Born from erased realities, fueled by leftover Morph energy that should have faded into the void. Cipher found a way to… anchor them. With you."
"You are their tether points. Their memories. Their flaws."
"If you die, they die.
If you break, they strengthen."
Silence.
Then Ayla broke it.
"So basically, we're walking Wi-Fi signals for murder ghosts.
Awesome."
Mira muttered, "You joke when you're scared."
Ayla grinned thinly. "And you overanalyze when you're helpless."
Kael held up a hand. "Enough. We've beaten worse than shadows."
But Rin whispered under his breath:
"No… we haven't."
Scene: Memory Echo – Kael's Nightmare
Later that night. Kael's Quarters.
He sat on his bunk, staring at his morpher. It was cracked. Scratched. But still pulsed faintly.
The room around him was dim, cold.
He didn't notice the faint static crawling across the ceiling.
Not until it spoke.
"You said you'd protect them."
Kael's breath hitched.
He turned slowly—and saw them.
His old team. Red, Blue, Pink, Green, Black. All standing in their original poses. Suits pristine. Visors gleaming.
But their heads were tilted.
And their helmets were cracked.
"You hesitated," one whispered.
"You chose wrong," said another.
"You ran," said the third.
Kael stood, fists clenched. "This isn't real."
"Neither are we," they said together.
And they burned.
One by one, their suits disintegrated into white-hot static. Screams echoed. Not from pain—but from erasure. Like their existence was being rewritten out loud.
Kael dropped to his knees.
"I'm not running this time," he whispered.
"You will," said Cipher's voice.
"Because deep down… you know you weren't built to lead."
Then silence.
Then blackness.
Scene: Elsewhere – Cipher's Throne of Nothing
Far beyond time, Cipher sat on a floating dais of shattered Grid crystals.
Dozens of Null Rangers knelt before him. Unmoving. Waiting.
He reached toward a flickering screen—a projection of the Fracture Team still alive.
"Still clinging to destiny.
Still pretending their choices matter."
He held up one gloved hand. In it shimmered a broken coin: the original Red Ranger's power coin, cracked in half.
"This universe was designed for symmetry. For color. For balance.
Let's make it… honest."
He crushed the coin.
Scene: Phantom Atlas Briefing Room (Later that Night)
The team gathered again—this time around a hologram of a spiraling dimension:
Reality ZK-09.
A city frozen mid-explosion.
Time stopped. Skies cracked like porcelain. A battleground preserved like a grave.
Zara tapped the display.
"Our next stop. Cipher's been feeding on this reality's timeline stasis.
It's where he tested his first Null conversion."
Rin narrowed his eyes. "Who was converted?"
Zara looked at Kael. Quiet. Careful.
"The original Red Ranger of this timeline. He never died.
He was rewritten. Folded into Cipher's code. Now he's something else."
Kael's hand twitched. "Let me lead the mission."
Zara: "No backup?"
Kael: "No mercy."
Thorne slammed a fist into his open palm. "Now you're speaking my language."
Ayla looked uncertain. "If we're walking into our own graves, can I at least wear something fun?"
Mira, sighing: "I'll prep the anchor beacon."
Rin didn't speak.
He just watched the screen.
At the edge of the projection, almost out of sight, was a ghost-white silhouette in a tattered ranger suit—its helmet shattered in half.
And somehow… it was watching him.
_____