Author Note: Okay, all the stuff in here that you don't recognize from the TV show was created by me. If you ever want to us the characters/events in any way, please e-mail me.

Time Scale: This carries on the day after 'Misplaced Ranger or Misplaced Trust.'

The White Insomniac
By Matt

It was early in the morning and the whole of Ranger HQ was quiet. There was no sign of life yet except for in one place - the medical lab. Matt Elling, the White Samurai Ranger sat watching his two leaders, Kane Mortan, the Black Samurai leader, and Louise Kline, Red Samurai second in command. They both lay there, still. Were it not for the visual and audio displays of their life signs, they could have been dead. The previous day they had been attacked by Armageddon and although neither had been seriously harmed and faced no real threats now, the severe attack had worn them down to complete exhaustion.

Nobody knew how long they would actually be out of action, but Matt, for one, hoped it wouldn't be too much longer.

"Well it looks like I'm doing a really great job, guys. One day at the helm and I've already lost one of us. Sean's gone. I don't know where, and I don't know for how long, but he is gone and it's my fault. If I had handled the whole spy thing better after we found you two unconscious, maybe he wouldn't have left!" Matt said quietly to them. "You guys had better wake up soon or there won't be any Rangers left for you to lead. Well I gotta go now. I'm gonna try to start scanning for where Sean's gone to check he's okay. I'll see ya later."

Samurai White stood up and slowly walked out. Once he was inside the Power Chamber, he went straight to the scanner controls. All the Rangers knew how to control everything in the Power Chamber, but they usually left it to Alpha as he was always that much faster. Sean's biorhythms were already on the computer, so it was now just a case of scanning for them, but a worldwide search for something like that could take quite a while.

"Why? You'd just say 'soon'." Crush sneered back. She was still just looking at the back of his throne.

"I wouldn't count on it." he said, with a clearly sadistic tone to his voice.

"Okay then. When?" Crush asked, starting to cheer up at the thought of a battle at last.

"Today." he said back. "When the Gold Ranger challenged me yesterday, it allowed me to put the Red and Black Samurai's out of action. Two less means less resistance, but eight of them is still too much. As a team, they are much too strong, but take them on one at a time and we can defeat them easily."

"What do you plan to do?" she asked him.

"Vartri, come forth!" he commanded. Beside his throne, a large knight appeared. It wore green body armor, but no helmet. His green-tinted skin seemed to ooze some kind of strange substance and his shoulder length black hair was matted with the stuff. His mouth was lined with large sharp teeth that looked like they still had half his last meal stuck over them. Sheathed at his left side was a large sword.

"Yes sir." he said to his master.

"Go now, lure out the Rangers, you know what you have to do." Armageddon said. With that, the repulsive knight disappeared.

"What have you sent him to do?" Crush asked.

"You will see." he answered evilly.

He wasn't doing anything yet He didn't need to. The scanners had been programmed to alert the Rangers as soon as anything to do with Armageddon even appeared.

"Finally, some action." Matt said quietly. "Samurai White!" As the morpheme's energy transformed him into the White Samurai Ranger, he hit the control on it to make himself teleport away. The computer had set the coordinates of the monster into the teleporter control before Matt had even raised his morpher, so he was on his way.

"One Ranger's all it's gonna take to stop you!" Matt said, facing the monster.

"We'll see about that." Vartri grinned, showing off his rancid teeth.

"Ah, man You never heard of a toothbrush?" Matt said, repulsed at the sight of them.

"Hey, no need to get personal!" Vartri said, unsheathing his sword which was completely clean, unlike everything else on him. The blade of the sword was spotless and polished to a brilliant sheen.

"Oh, you wanna duel? That's okay, but...." Matt started as he brought out his massive Surfer Blade, "my sword's bigger than yours!" he finished the sentence.

"It's not how big it is, it's what you do with it that counts!" Vartri snapped.

"Well you should see what I can do with this then!" Matt grinned. He charged forward and swung the blade towards, who brought up his own sword to block it. The two attacked at each other rapidly, both managing to block most of the attacks, although every now and then, one of them managed to get a hit on the other.

Vartri suddenly managed to pull away slightly and turned round, bringing his sword round fast. It struck into Matt's upper arm, cut straight through the protective suit and right into his flesh. He flinched slightly, but didn't let it bother him. Instead he just moved away, getting out of the knight's reach.

"I got it!" he called out. He held up the sword which now had Matt's blood trickling down one side of it. It teleported away, but Vartri stayed.

"Hey, you damaged the costume! You're gonna pay for that" Samurai White shouted. He held up the Surfer Blade which began glowing bright white. He swiped it twice, making an X shape, each swipe slung a bolt of energy towards Vartri. They struck him and stayed there, glowing. Next, the White Ranger threw the sword hard. It flew towards the monster and the tip stuck into him, right in the center of the X. Just then, all the energy was released. The 'X' of energy seemed to cut through him as the Blade put more energy into it, and Vartri blew apart.

"And you wanted to face the whole team!" Matt laughed as the Surfer Blade flew back into his hand. "Wonder what was with that sword disappearing? Oh well, I'm outta here." He hit the button on his morpher and teleported in a flash of white.

"On the contrary. It worked exactly as planned." Armageddon replied.

"But Vartri was destroyed and the Ranger still lives." she said, confused.

"Maybe so, but we got this." Armageddon said, and a small vial appeared in her hand. It contained a small amount of red liquid.

"What is it?" she asked.

"That, is the blood of the White Ranger." he answered.

"What are we going to do with it?" she asked, having no idea what this whole plan was about.

"I think I can answer that." a voice came from behind her. She turned round to see a strange looking warrior. He looked human, but was dressed similar to the way Jandra did. Like her, he had several weapons over himself and looked more than capable of using them.

"Jaxir, what are you doing here?" Crush asked, they had met before obviously.

"Armageddon gave me an offer I couldn't refuse!" Jaxir answered.

"I understand now. The blood is for your monsters. That's a great idea." Crush said, realizing why Jaxir was there and why they had the Ranger's blood.

"Indeed. With his DNA, my monsters can target him specifically. Now give me the blood, it takes some time for them to adapt to it." Jaxir said, taking the vial from Crush and leaving the room.

"So you see, things worked perfectly! And the fact that it is the White Ranger's blood makes things even better. With Red and Black out of the picture, that leaves him in charge. Once he is out of the way, the Samurais will be without a leader." Armageddon said almost cheerfully. "And it would appear I have just won another battle also!"

"What do you mean?" Crush asked, unsure of what other battles he had just fought. In reply, he just laughed.

Matt was last to arrive for breakfast. "Morning everyone." he called out as he entered. They all said good morning back and he headed over to the Synthetron to get his food.

"Hey, what happened to you?" Lucy asked him.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"That." she said, pointing to his arm. The sleeve of the T-shirt was ripped and covered in blood. There was also an obvious injury underneath it. The Power had started to heal it and get rid of the pain before Matt even got back to the Power Chamber so he had forgotten about it completely.

"Oh, it's nothing, I just had a little accident." he said innocently.

"Gee, that's quite a serious nothing. Shouldn't you let Alpha take a look at it!" Lucy suggested.

"What good will looking at it do?" Matt grinned.

"Oh you're a funny guy. You know what I mean, that looks a nasty cut." Lucy insisted.

"It's fine Lucy, don't worry about it." Matt said back just as insistently. Lucy didn't say anything more about it, the two just went and sat down to eat their breakfast.

"Ultima, are you in there?" she shouted through the thick door, hoping he could hear her. When she got no answer again, she touched the communicator control on one of the wall panels. "Power Chamber. This is Divatox, open the door to Ultima's quarters."

"Right away." Alpha said back. Seconds later, the door slid aside. She walked inside and looked around. The room was undamaged, no sign of any struggle at all, but Ultima lay in the middle of the room, looking severely injured as if he had just been in a fight. Divatox immediately ran back to the communicator on the wall and shouted, "Medical emergency. Get Ultima to the infirmary, NOW!" She looked back into the room as he teleported away, then started running towards the Medical lab.

Going down the corridor, she ran into Lucy. They both tumbled to the ground. Lucy looked at her and saw the distress on her face. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Divatox just stuttered, "It... It's Ultima!" Then she carried on running to the med lab. Lucy watched her for a minute, then ran after her. She caught up quickly and the two arrived in the Power Chamber seconds later. Together, they ran through into the med lab. Zordon had transferred to the medical bay's ion tube and was supervising as Alpha tended to the Dark Lord. Divatox and the Yellow Ranger looked over at the monitors that showed his life signs - they were almost nonexistent.

"What happened to him?" Zordon asked.

"I've got no idea. He didn't turn up for something so I went to his quarters and found him like this. The door was locked from the inside and there was no sign of a struggle in there!" Divatox explained.

"The sensor logs show no sign of any intruders in any part of Ranger HQ and there has been no teleport signals from his quarters either. I cannot explain how this could have happened!" Zordon said.

"How is he?" Lucy asked.

"Ay-yi-yi. He's not good. He's taken some serious hits. His condition is critical." Alpha said.

"Please Alpha, do everything you can. I.... I love him!" Divatox said, showing her true emotions.

"We can help him, we just need to concentrate!" the Morphin Master said. He glanced over at Lucy and she immediately got the idea. She put her arm round Divatox's back and led her out. Normally it would have seemed quite weird, acting like that with an enemy, but she was no longer the enemy and she no longer looked like the Divatox they used to know. Her old costume and mask she now only wore when she fought. Now she was just like any other human woman.

The two young women walked out of the med lab, through the Power Chamber and outside. The Sun was just peeking over the top of the mountain opposite and flooding the City below with its bright light. The new City in the morning light was a truly spectacular sight as they both noticed.

"It's beautiful!" Divatox said. Lucy looked round at her. She didn't really know the villainess, but from what Kat and Tanya had told her, that was not the sort of comment you would expect from her. "I never do that any more, just stop and look at a beautiful sight, or smell a new flower."

Lucy continued to look at her, confused by her new attitude. "I know what you're thinking." Divatox said, seeing the girl looking at her, "I'm the bad guy, I'm not meant to say or think things like that. I suppose you're right. I never really do any more, but I wasn't always like this. I used to be just the same as everyone else. All I wanted was to be happy and I thought possessions and power could make me happy. But it never made me happy, it just made me want more. The more I had, the more I wanted. Eventually, wanting more became an obsession and I became the person the Turbo Rangers knew. But I'm not that person any more. I've finally found something that makes me happy and the power and conquest doesn't seem quite so tempting. I love Ultima and I know he feels the same, but now I might lose him, I might lose the only thing that has ever made me truly happy."

"You're not gonna lose him!" Lucy said, speaking at last. "Alpha and Zordon are the best at what they do, let them do their job and Ultima will be fine."

"I'm glad you're so sure." Divatox said.

"Well I have every reason to be. I've known Zordon for a while now, Alpha also, and if they say they can help him, they can. You have to learn to trust!" Lucy commented.

"Trust! Now there's something I haven't done for a while." Divatox commented. They stood silently for a moment watching the fantastic view, but eventually, Lucy spoke. "Do you mind if I ask something?"

"Go ahead." Divatox said, not turning from the view.

"Well, when we defeat Armageddon, that's assuming we actually do, what are you gonna do?" the Yellow Ranger asked.

"You know, I've never really thought about it," Divatox said, "but I don't really know. I guess I'll do whatever Ultima does. Wherever he goes, I'll go too."

Lucy grinned. "What?" Divatox asked.

"You were just talking about what Ultima's going to be doing after this is all over. You obviously do believe he's gonna be okay." Lucy smiled.

Divatox laughed slightly. "Yeah, I guess you're right!"

They both stood there a little longer, taking in the view.

There was no sign of him yet. He hadn't expected there to be, but he just had to check up on his way to the med lab. He left the scan running again and went through to the infirmary. He was suprised when he saw a lot of people in there. For a minute, he thought they were just all there to see Kane and Louise, but it didn't take long for him to see Ultima lying on one of the other bio-beds. He walked over to Zordon and asked,

"What's going on?"

"Ultima was attacked." Zordon said briefly.

"Attacked? By who?" Matt asked.

"We do not know." Zordon said.

"How is he?" Matt asked.

"Alpha has managed to stabilize him, but he is still in danger." Zordon commented.

"Had Divatox not found him when she did, he wouldn't have survived at all."

Matt walked over to Kane and Louise who were still asleep. "I'm really screwing things up here, guys. Sean's gone, Ultima's been beaten nearly to death, who's next?"

"You are, White Ranger!" he heard a voice say. Matt looked around, but saw nobody.

"That was weird!" Matt said to himself. "I could have sworn...." he stopped. "Man, I am losing it!"

Afternoon and evening passed, the night fell. Some of the Rangers stayed up late just talking or mucking about, but by midnight, everyone had retired to their quarters. Most of them considered the day they had just had. To most of them, it had been pretty straight forward and boring, but Matt had a different opinion. Between scanning for Sean, fighting Vartri, staying with his leaders as they slept and trying to sort out the whole Armageddon thing, he was wiped. He couldn't wait to get to bed. He was falling asleep almost before he lay down.

He was just drifting off to sleep, when he heard someone say, "Come on White Ranger, we're waiting for you!" He sat up quickly and checked his communicator, it hadn't been activated and there was nobody else in the room. He was confused, especially as it sounded like the same voice he had heard that morning in the med lab.

"Alpha, this is Matt." he said into his communicator.

"Ay-yi-yi," the answer eventually came from Alpha, "What's wrong Matt? Why are you up this late?"

"Has anyone tried to contact us?" he asked.

"No, the communicator logs show no sign of activity since this morning." Alpha replied quickly. "Is there a problem?"

"No, I must have been dreaming. Sorry to bother you." Samurai White said, cutting the comm. signal. He took one more look round, the lay back down and closed his eyes. Mere seconds later he heard it again. "Come to us!" He shot up in his bed and looked round again.

"Who are you?" he asked, not knowing if whatever it was could hear him.

"You will find out soon enough, but you must come to us." the voice answered.

He thought for a moment, then stood up and said, "I'm on my way!" He morphed and teleported away. Teleporting yourself without knowing your destination was risky, you could end up anywhere, but the White Ranger trusted that whoever it was speaking to him, would send him the right way.

"Who are we? We're your worst nightmare!" one voice called out.

"Are you sure you want us to show ourselves?" another voice asked.

"Of course!" Matt called back.

"Very well, so be it!" a third voice called, this one was the same voice Matt had heard before. Suddenly, from some unknown source, the whole area was illuminated. Matt looked to where he had heard the voices and saw them. One tall, human looking man in vague armor, bearing an array of weapons. The second was a suit of armor, well part of it. It was the main body, waist, arms and head, but no legs. It just floated there holding a classic broad sword in his hand. The third looked like some kind of werewolf. It was covered in gray fur and held its clawed hands out in front of itself. Its snout was lined with glistening, razor sharp white teeth.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Matt asked, as if he didn't already know.

"I am Jaxir, this is Lupine," he said, pointing first to himself and the to the werewolf. Next he pointed to the third person, "and this is Phantasm. We want only one thing. And that's you...... dead!".

"And what makes you so sure you can succeed where so many others have failed?" Matt asked.

All three just laughed back at him. "You'll see!" Jaxir said confidently.

"Stop talking and start fighting!" Matt snapped, eager to finish them and get back to HQ.

"Very well. Lupine, attack." Jaxir ordered. In a split second, the wolf creature had pounced forward and landed next to the White Samurai. He slashed his claws across Matt's chest, knocking him down to his knees. He looked up at the monster who was about to strike again and acted on impulse. He swept his leg round and knocked Lupine to the ground, then back flipped away.

"Man, I can't be bothered with this right now. SURFER BLADE!" Matt called out and his primary weapon appeared. Immediately charging it up to full power, he ran towards the werewolf and thrust it through his chest. The creature howled in agony, then fell to the ground dead, slowly sliding off the sword.

"One down, two to go!" Matt grinned as he looked over at the other two. "Who's next?"

"Phantasm, go!" Jaxir said quite calmly, not even seeming bothered by the defeat of Lupine. The armored ghost flew towards, its sword held ready to strike.

Matt saw it coming and shouted, "SAMURAI ARMOR!" His white armor appeared mere fractions of a second before Phantasm struck at him. Instead of slicing into him as it would have done before, it just sparked across his armor and made him stumble backward slightly. "Big mistake, buddy!" he growled. He struck the Surfer Blade against the Phantom armor, but it had little effect. He tried again and caused very little damage. Phantasm lashed out at the White Ranger, first a hard punch, followed through with a shoulder swipe from the sword. Matt fell but wasn't down. Normally in that situation, he would retaliate with a leg sweep to give him time to recover, but as Phantasm had no legs, that was impossible. He rolled to the side, then backwards onto his feet and jumped away. He thrust his hands out in front of him, the palms pointing at the ghost warrior. Together, they both fired bolts of energy that struck Phantasm hard. The armor fell to the ground, disassembled and unmoving.

"So much for them two!" Matt called out, looking over at Jaxir.

"Now don't speak too soon!" Jaxir smiled cruelly.

"Wha...." Matt started, but he was struck from behind before he could even finish the word. He fell to the ground and instantly rolled over, looking up at his assailant. It was Phantasm. He had been reassembled.

"It takes more that that to defeat me!" Phantasm said, his ghostly voice echoing about inside the armor.

"Really?" Matt asked. "Well I got plenty more to give. Let's see if you can take it! CHARGE ATTACK!" At the White Samurai's command, he levitated off the ground as his servo-jets kicked in and a blade emerged from the armor on his right lower arm. He charged toward Phantasm, slicing at him, then turned and came back, attacking him again. Over and over he flew past, causing more and more damage to the ghostly warrior. Finally, Matt stopped. He turned to face Phantasm, who was weakened, but not defeated.

"ARTILLERY MODE!" he shouted. His armor transformed, becoming more like a weapon installation than a suit of armor. He was covered from head to toe in weapons, and now only one further thing remained to be done. "FIRE!" The large arsenal released its power, concentrated purely on Phantasm. As the dozens of energy bolts, missiles and other weapons struck him and exploded, they melted his armor away. Within seconds it became no more than a discolored pile of slag on the ground.

It seemed that without the armor to sustain him, Phantasm was defeated for no further attacks came. "Okay, just you and me now!" Matt said energetically, despite being worn out completely.

"As much as I'd love to stay and fight you, Ranger, I have other things to do." Jaxir said, and teleported away.

"So much for those clowns!" Matt commented, before Teleporting away himself.

Reluctantly, he opened his eyes and answered. "How are you talking to me?" he asked.

"That's not important. You will come to us now!" Jaxir ordered. "Why? So you can challenge me and get your butts so severely beaten that you have to run away in sheer terror!" Matt commented.

"You have no choice Ranger. Either you come to us, or we'll come to you!" Jaxir said.

"I'd like to see you try." Matt laughed. "You don't even know where here is!"

"We may not know where it is, but that doesn't mean we can't get there. Obviously a demonstration is in order!" Jaxir said. He went silent and seconds later, Jaxir appeared in front of him. He pulled out a sword and swiped it towards Matt. He jumped out of the way and the weapon sliced into a pillow, releasing a cloud of feathers.

"Okay, I'm convinced!" Matt called out. Jaxir disappeared and Matt got to his feet. "Okay, I'm coming!" He morphed and teleported to wherever Jaxir had gone.

"How did you do that?" Matt snapped at Jaxir. He was already tired from the last fight and didn't have the patience to be polite.

"That's my secret!" Jaxir smiled cruelly. "I'd like to introduce you to the Shadow Ninja's. They should present somewhat more of a challenge than Lupine or Phantasm did. NINJA'S ATTACK!"

The three black-clad warriors charged at the White Samurai. The first flew at him with punch, the second with a kick towards his head and the third followed through with a kick to the stomach. Matt blocked the punch, ducked the first kick and grabbed the last foot in his hands and spun the Ninja round. The White Ninja, whose foot Samurai White was holding, swung round in the air hitting Red and Blue to the ground. Next the Ranger let go of the White Shadow Ninja who landed between his two companions.

"Pathetic!" Matt commented, turning to their leader. "I've fought Drones who could do better than that!"

Jaxir glared at him and grinned as he saw the three Ninja's getting to their feet behind him. Instantly, Matt brought out his laser and fired two shots over one shoulder, then a third over his other. Each shot hit one of the Ninja's. "Come on. Attacking from behind. I thought they would have at least had honor!"

"Your confidence will be your undoing, Ranger!" Jaxir swore.

"Don't count on it." Matt said back. The Ninja's recovered from the shots sooner than expected, so Matt never even saw what hit him. He collapsed to the ground and felt a sharp pain in his back. He reached round and pulled something out. "AAAAARGH!" he shouted as he pulled it out. As he brought his hand round where he could see it, he saw a blood covered shuriken.

He flipped up onto his feet and looked at the Shadow Ninja's who were back on their feet. "WHO THREW THAT?" Matt screamed at them. Suprisingly, Blue and White both pointed to Red. "Right, you'll pay for that, you bastard!"

He threw the small spiked disc at the Red Shadow Ninja, but the Ninja had incredibly fast reflexes. Almost before the weapon had left Matt's hand, he had thrown two more of his own. The first struck Matt's out of the air, while the second cut into his chest. 'Man, how are these things getting through my suit?' he thought to himself, ignoring the pain as he revmoved the shuriken.

"SAMURAI ARMOR!" Samurai White called out. 'Hopefully this should protect me from any more!' he thought. He flew forwards and the three Ninja's surrounded him. He let loose a round of punches and kicks onto each of them. They all stepped backwards slightly from the impact of them, but they had little effect. All three of them simultaneously held their hands out at their sides and a long thin sword appeared in each one. They swung them forward, each using both their swords to attack the Samurai Ranger's midsection.

He screamed out as they cut into his armor. He felt like he was going to be cut in half. Knowing that pausing to worry about the injury would just lead to further assault, he responded with a quick roundhouse kick, knocking all of them to the ground. They didn't take long to start getting up, but it gave Matt just enough time to bring out the Surfer Blade. He swung the large sword at the two held out in front of the Blue Ninja and at the same time, fired a shot at Red from the laser built into the hand of his armor. Shadow Blue's swords broke as the much larger weapon sliced through them. Now he was just left holding two handles with about two inches of blade left on them. White was once again temporarily knocked to the ground as Matt's lasers struck him.

"Okay, now I finish this!" Matt called out. He jumped away and the three Ninja's regrouped. the Surfer Blade disappeared as Matt called out, "ARTILLERY MODE!" The Samurai Armor transformed into the might artillery mode that had finished so many creatures before, now would be no different.

"FIRE!" the White Samurai Ranger shouted. All of his weapons fired at the three warriors, but only struck White and Blue as Red jumped out of the way. White and Blue were obliterated in the resulting energy blast, but Red was only knocked onto his back from the blast. "ARTILLERY MODE, POWER DOWN!" He transformed back into his standard armor and the Surfer Blade reappeared. Without hesitation, Matt jumped to where Red was just getting back to his feet. Whilst in midair, the Surfer Blade began to glow. Samurai White swiped his main weapon at the last remaining Shadow Ninja as he landed. He instantly fell to the ground, defeated.

Exhausted, Matt turned to face Jaxir, but he was already gone. "I'll get you Jaxir, I swear it!" Matt called out. "Okay, time to get back." He hit the teleporter controlled and teleported away in a beam of white energy.