Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers. They belong to whomever owns the copyright. Not profit is made from this piece of writing, it is purely a fanwork.
Fall From Grace
"The Morphin Masters discovered their knowledge of the Morphin Grid
first hand as they struggled to survive upon a world that had been ravaged by an
excess of uncontrolled Grid Energy. They were joined by others, united by their
curiosity
about the nature of the Power. Over time and and their experiences, they grew to consider each other family. They became an order dedicated to the ways of the Morphin Grid in service of the Power. When they left this dimension to seek out their answers it was believed that they were the chosen ones, the best that this dimension could offer. And when they returned, bringing with them the new knowledge they had acquired, we thought they could do no wrong... We were mistaken.
We believed that just because they were dedicated to their research, they were free from the weaknesses that came from being
mortal. We thought they were above greed and jealously, that they were beyond the pettiness that drives others to commit terrible acts. They were not.
When one of their kind gave in to temptation, the others were too blind to see what he had become and
innocents paid the price. And from that tragedy we all learned the lesson that even Morphin Masters can succumb to the darkness if given the opportunity. Now the
victims are gone, the traitor is vanquished and the Morphin Masters' legacy is
forever tarnished. In time they will be remembered favourably, but let this
failure serve as a lesson for those to come."
- Uncredited Witness
Promethean Galaxy
Long Ago
The Promethean Galaxy was located on the far side of the cosmos, well away from the place where it all began and shielded from much of the fighting that had taken place. Its boundaries marked the edge of the known universe and at one point touch the walls between the physical universe and the void that lay beyond. At other points is served as the marker between the universe that the early alliance of races had forced to obey the rules of physics and the areas where those rules were not so rigid. It was suggested that it was here that the barriers between the physical plane and the higher dimensions was at its weakest and the power of the Morphin Grid could be readily observed without the need to do more than look. For even if the boundaries between dimensions were as solid as they were elsewhere, in this place they were clearly visible. It was from here that many other realms could be accessed by conventional methods.
Pragmia was a large star system within the Promethean Galaxy. Some had even suggested that it had grown into a galaxy in its own right, but that was an issue that would be debated in the future. It had been one of the first systems to evolve following its formation and was filled with planets where mortal beings could survive. The variety of life that had emerged had been a considered a complete success by those watching over it. And Pragmia had garnered a lot of interest from outside parties. The legendary beings known as the Morphin Masters had sworn to watch over it, the then self-proclaimed Guardians of the Universe had placed it under their protection; even the Time Lords of Gallifrey had declared to be of special interest although that was most likely due to its scientific value than any regard for the people living there.
To the Morphin Masters the Pragmia Cluster was considered an example of the wonders of the Morphin Grid at work. The life giving energies of the Grid channelled through the cores of the stars and planets led to worlds filled with creatures of all kinds. There were worlds filled with lizard beings, others ruled by apes, and some where ducks were the dominant life form. There were worlds where the creatures were closer to animals and others where they had a more humanoid appearance. On some worlds they were beings filled with magic and power. It was easy to see why the Morphin Masters praised the Grid for its magnificence in the time before their ascension.
It was therefore a tragedy when those that had watched it with such interest could only watch as the Pragmia Cluster was destroyed by one of those that had sworn to protect it. And the Morphin Masters were forced to faced the terrible truth that despite their common goal to unlock the secrets of the Morphin Grid for the betterment of all, the Grid could easily corrupt the unwary. There were some amongst the Morphin Masters who wished to control the Power regardless of the consequences. There were some for whom the acquisition of power mattered more than their own society.
And of those that could be held responsible for the destruction of the Pragmia Cluster, Morgoth was perhaps the one that had fallen the furthest. Morgoth had been a part of the Illumination, the council comprised of the most senior Morphin Masters. He had been a leader and one of those that had fought to keep the Morphin Masters from withdrawing after they entered the Grid. He had argued that they had a responsibility to the rest of the cosmos and his words had helped to shap the actions of the Morphin Masters following the Ascension. But his ambitions and need to be at the centre of events had led to him failing to take precautions before acting.
When a strange structure had been discovered on a small planet, Morgoth had been the one to lead a team to explore it. There they had uncovered a collection of strange artefacts, that he confirmed were connected to the Morphin Grid had been obvious. In their eagerness to learn more about the strange objects, Morgoth and his companions had failed to take precautions. They had peered into the depths of an old mirror, and found themselves drawn into the depths of the Morphin Grid. There they had seen secrets of the Morphin Grid laid out before them, with promises of forbidden knowledge and control.
The mirror was not as innocent as it appeared. Those peering through the surface were given a glimpse of the secrets the desired, while exposing their souls to the darkness that lurked within the wicked device. With their hearts and desires exposed, they were vulnerable for the darkness to infect them, twist them to its own designs.
By the time Morgoth had withdrawn from the mirror, the man was only a shadow of the man he had once been. The darkness had burnt away his inner light, turning him into one of the first Morphin Masters to turn his back on his oath to use the Power for the benefit of all. What emerged was a man driven by greed and lacking the inhibitions that might have once prevented him from committing the atrocities that followed. He took his leave of the Illumination and took a new name: Ma'erok.
With the aid of those that had joined him, Ma'erok had turned the structure into his Dark Fortress, a massive, gothic castle floating upon a large asteroid. He had used the knowledge gleaned from the mirror to create new ways to extract the energy of the Morphin Grid without being a slave to the Power. His actions caused a backlash from his former allies after they connected him to a string of atrocities against sentient worlds. They expelled him from the Illumination and declared him unfit to call himself a Morphin Master. As more of his crimes became evident, they went so far as to sever his link to the Morphin Grid.
But they had acted too late to stop the path Ma'erok now trod. The loss of his connection did not slow him when he had found other ways to access the power. When the Celestials had shaped a planet, they had placed crystallised chunks of Morphin Energy beneath the surface, using the crystal to draw the Grid Energy into the planet. As the lines of natural energy extended across a new world, they brought with them life and magic. As Morgoth, he had appreciated the way that the Power was so closely linked to life within the cosmos; as Ma'erok he chose to steal that energy and use it for himself.
The Pragmia Cluster proved to be a prime target for Ma'erok's greed. Not only was it the closest source of energy, it promised a plentiful supply. Although Ma'erok could not extract the fragments implanted within the worlds, he had found the means to access the raw energy within each planet's core. By effectively draining each planet he encountered, Ma'erok grew in power... and hunger. The energy he fed upon was addictive, driving him to commit more and more atrocities as the Dark Fortress moved from one planet to the next, slowly driving the Pragmia Cluster to extinction.
His actions were not unopposed. The Morphin Masters had watched him closely after ejecting him from the Morphin Grid. When they had observed him continuing to slaughter world after world to fulfil his greed, they took action. Their first attempts to stop him had failed. They had not realised that as he had travelled from planet to planet, Ma'erok was no longer on his own. He had gained followers, servants and warriors willing to fight for him. He had corrupted entire races to use against those that opposed him, mutating them with his dark powers into mindless beasts.
For those that opposed him he offered no mercy, only death; Ma'erok was not about to allow anyone to stand in his way. Not even those he had once considered his brothers and sisters. Despite the fact he had left the Morphin Masters the day Ma'erok had replaced Morgoth, he considered their rejection a personal offence.
In the years that followed a war was fought between the Morphin Masters and Ma'erok. For a time he held the advantage, but eventually he was defeated by the combined might of the Morphin Masters. Despite the sheer number of creatures at his disposal, the Morphin Masters had managed to overcome his underlings. In the end Ma'erok had found himself confronted by the very council he had rejected. The Illumination had put an end to his rampage using the memory of the many comrades that had fallen in battle against him to fuel their determination. The ranks of the Morphin Masters had been decimated and the Illumination had lost most of their member, but they had emerged victorious. Ma'erok found himself bound within his own fortress, awaiting judgement by those he had once considered his peers.
It reality, the Morphin Masters' victory was not total. They had prevented him preying on more worlds, but had failed to stop the destruction he had unleashed. In a final act of defiance, he had triggered a wave of destruction that spread outward, infecting more and more worlds as it did so. In order to drain a world of its energy, Morgoth needed to poison the planet's core, causing a breakdown in the planet's structure. Like a spider he than consumed the liquefied remains. Once the poison was injected it could not be stopped except by Ma'erok's command. The planets he poisoned tore themselves apart, spreading the poison to other worlds.
In the wake of his defeat, it had taken time to realise the devastation that Ma'erok had unleashed. They had tried to stop the growing disaster, but had failed. And when they were unable to convince Ma'erok to reverse his last act of defiance, the emphasis changed from halting the disaster that had been unleashed to saving as much as they could of whatever remained. Whole populations were relocated before the destruction reached their planets... in one case a fragment of a once powerful world was salvaged and taken to a new home. Many creatures were placed on board giant ships known as Arks and sent through space to find new homes where it was hoped that given time they would recover.
It had been hard work to save as much as possible and still they knew it had not been enough. Some races had been reduced to mere dozens; some had been lost and existed only as memories given form inside the Morphin Grid. The Pragmia Cluster was a ruined mess of broken worlds, its population dead, dying or evacuated. And as time passed, the destruction increased as the poison spread outward, soon threatening to reach beyond the Pragmia Cluster and into the rest of the Promethean Galaxy.
It became evident that once the process had started there was no way that it could be stopped. The dark energies the act had unleashed had flowed through the star system like a cancer consuming all in their path. It would not be long before the few worlds that had so far escaped the fate of their neighbours succumbed to the poison that had been injected into the solar system. Before long, the stars themselves would start to die as a result. And if left unchecked then the destruction would soon reach beyond the limits of the Pragmia Cluster, out into the wider cosmos. What had become known as the Forbidden Ritual could not be halted, but there was a way to slow its progress.
The Morphin Masters hoped that one day they would forgive themselves for considering such an act, but there was little choice. The wave of destruction was growing and accelerating. They needed to slow and hopefully contain the growing void. To do so they were forced to destroy the planets and worlds upon which the ritual would feed upon in order to maintain itself. The Morphin Masters would destroy everything that the dark energies had not yet corrupted, forming a barrier between the edge of the void and the rest of the Promethean Galaxy. Like a fire break, they hoped it would weaken the ritual enough that they could use their power to stop it permanently. Sadly their actions had left the Pragmia Cluster a gaping maw.
Just beyond the limits of the Pragmia Cluster, the Morphin Masters gathered. As the inhabitants of nearby solar systems stood witness, the denizens of the Morphin Grid united to stop the spread of the darkness Ma'erok had unleashed. Together, they called forth the most potent and primitive powers of the Morphin Grid: the powers of creation. And using those energies, they forced the growing void that had once been Pragmia out of phase with the rest of the cosmos.
"Through no fault of its own and no wrongdoing by its people, the Pragmia Cluster has been corrupted by an evil we cannot purge. To protect the rest of existence we must make it inaccessible to the rest of the universe. May it remain that way until the end of everything. Then may it find peace."
It took a massive amount of power to cause the changes the Morphin Masters desired. Still the deed was done and although the crumbling remains of what would in future be called the Pragmia Void were still visible, the area was impossible to enter. Ships attempting to enter its borders found it impossible to stay on course and were soon turned around. And that was the way that the Pragmia Void would remain for billions of years as generation after generation would visit to see the expanding void and the crumbling worlds. It was a sad yet strangely beautiful sight that would entrance generations.
As for those survivors of the disaster... the relocated peoples of the Pragmia Cluster had been spread out across the cosmos. There they adapted to their new homes creating new societies. Those that resembled humanoids became part of the greater society while those that were closer to beasts found themselves at home in their new lands. And as a final gift, act of penance for their brother's actions, the Morphin Masters used their understanding of the Morphin Grid to make those new homes capable of supporting life until the end of days.
Which left the Morphin Masters to deal with Ma'erok.
====
In the interest of justice, Ma'erok had not faced trial until the destruction he had unleashed had been halted and the Morphin Masters were able to understand the full extent of his crimes. With Pragmia secured behind the barriers they had raised, the remaining members of the Illumination gathered to sentence him. He had once been a Morphin Master of the highest regard, one they had called brother, but his actions were unforgivable. That his actions had led to the deaths of many of those who had once looked up to him sealed his fate.
"You have no right to do this!" Ma'erok declared. "You have no right to judge me. Your order is beneath me. I am outside your authority."
"Perhaps we do not have the right to judge you," one of those selected to act as his judges replied. "Maybe you are correct and we should accept that you are beyond our authority. But, we shall do so anyway - your guilt is beyond question. The evidence of your crimes is plain for all to see. Your lack of remorse for what you have done could not be any clearer. You have brought about the death of countless races, destroyed untold worlds and corrupted the essence of the Morphin Grid through your acts. You have killed your brothers and sister within this order, enacted forbidden rituals and disgraced the position you once held."
"You were our brother and you betrayed us," the Red Morphin Master announced. "You killed those that tried to help you break free of whatever madness drove you to commit such heinous acts. But there was never really any madness there for you to overcome. We can see now that you have always known exactly what you were doing."
"You have broken your oath never to use our knowledge and power for personal gain," Yellow Master added. "You were aware of what would happen when you drained these planets and still you continued."
"Your actions have polluted the Pragmia Cluster with a darkness that can never be purged, only contained," Blue Master added. "Your actions have cost the lives of countless innocents. What do you say for yourself?"
"I do not need to answer to the likes of you," Ma'erok snarled. "I rejected your order and all it stood for. I will not bow to its supposed authority. You might be content to be pawns of the Power, carrying out its whims and using the power we were granted only to help others. But I will never allow myself to be a slave of the Morphin Grid. I am destined to command, not obey; I chose to bend the Power to my will. You may claim to serve the Power, but I command it. I am more now than I have ever been and more than you could ever hope to be. You cannot hope to destroy me... you are too weak to try."
"You are wrong," replied the Yellow Morphin Master, shaking her head sadly. "It seems that you fallen so far that you can't even see what you have lost. You believe you have overcome the will of the Power, but you have simple lost your ability to hear its will. Even now you deceive yourself that this twisted existence you have found is somehow greater than what you had before. You are forced to rely on servants to make up for the abilities you were given the day you became one of us and lost the day we severed you link to the Grid. Without your followers, you are nothing."
She looked down upon him, a face a mix of pity and anger.
"You have done something that can never be forgiven. Beyond the planets you destroyed and the lives you have taken... something worse than destroying the Pragmia Cluster and corrupting the Morphin Grid: you have defiled yourself. It saddens me that you have fallen so far you can no longer feel how much you have lost."
"When you rejected the will of the Power, the Morphin Grid rejected you. We stripped you of your link to the Power in the hope that you would one day see the error of your ways. We were wrong to be merciful and Pragmia paid the price. Well, no more. This time you will be removed from existence. Your fate shall be the same as Pragmia; you will be placed beyond the boundaries of the universe, forced to exist in a dimension where you will never again feel the power of the Grid.
"You chose to forsake the power of the Morphin to feed your tainted hunger," the Blue Morphin Master announced. "And now, it shall never end. And you shall have nothing."
"That shall be your punishment," Red Morphin Master commanded. "You will be left with nothing. Since you decided to reject the Morphin Grid, so the Grid will forever deny you access. Never again will you touch it power of the Morphin Grid. Never again will it answer your call. To the Morphin Grid... you do not exist. To the universe you shall be gone. So mote it be!"
"You will never leave this place, never return to the cosmos. You claimed the right to destroy Pragmia... well now you shall have whatever survives for as long as it remains," Yellow Master declared. "We banish you from the Morphin Grid, we exile you from this dimension. So mote it be!"
"You shall remain here within your Dark Fortress, trapped within within the void you created until the end arrives. And only then may you disappear," Blue Master concluded. "The name of Morgoth will be stricken from our records and forgotten. Ma'erok will be forever remembered for the crimes you committed and the price you paid; let your fate serve as a lesson to others of what awaits them if they follow your path. So mote it be!"
"So mote it be!" the others replied.
And despite his lack of connection to the Morphin Grid, Ma'erok could feel the power behind their words. The power of the Morphin Grid swept through the Dark Fortress, transforming it into energy and shifting that energy to a new location within the Pragmia Void. When it was done he felt cold, empty. But somewhere deep inside he could feel the darkness of his own power; all was not lost.
The trio of Morphin Masters appeared before him.
"And now we will leave you to your fate," Red Master announced. "Enjoy the fruits of your labour, brother. For when this hellish void you created ends, so shall you... Goodbye, brother."
There was a burst of light and they vanished, leaving Ma'erok alone within the walls of his Dark Fortress.
Morgoth had failed, but the experiment had not been a complete loss. That he had been able to reach out, corrupt and empower a being such as a Morphin Master told him that his influence was still strong despite his current state. There would be others that he would encounter in the future who would fall for his promises and act in his name. He would grant them his power and they would do his bidding. The ambitious, the greedy, those too focussed on their own limited beliefs to understand his intent; there would be many that sought to use his power for their goals only to learn that they ultimately served his desire to be free once more. The destruction of the Pragmia Cluster had provided him with some energy. It was no where near enough for him to break free from his imprisonment, but it would act like a beacon for those that would seek to use him. In time, others would hear his call and some of them would answer him. And when the time was right they would give him the means to breach the barriers and allow him to existence from those that had usurped his reign. It was just a matter of waiting... something he had mastered long ago.
End of Part
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