It would hurt for eternity that what he had trained her to believe in was wrong. It had not been the Rangers she hated so who were responsible for her family's destruction. Her family had not been destroyed. Her family was alive, well, and searching for her. She had been stolen by Darkonda, that sadistic scum, and given to Dark Spectre as an heir.
I had to tell her so many lies. It ached in his soul, in what he was, to have lied, to have never taken the chances he'd been given in order to tell her what had really happened. By the time she had learned all the truth, it had been too late for him to tell her anything. He had been destroyed, his body rendered into dust by the unleashed power of Zordon of Eltar.
Ecliptor sighed as he stared out at Karone, no longer Astronema. She could not see him, but he would always watch over her. He had done so when she was a child, and he would always continue to do so. Even now that she had abandoned her evil identity, she remembered the things he had taught her. He watched as every morning she woke early and trained in the ways of battle he had instructed her in. He watched as she maintained and deepened her understanding of honor, commitment, and loyalty, this time to a cause she had chosen, and knew for the true right one.
He had never been more proud of her.
The fourth was of him.
He had no idea of where she had gotten it from, but it really didn't matter all that much. She still remembered him, and she wanted to keep him in mind. He had honestly been afraid that when she discovered her true nature she would want to forget he'd even existed, after everything that he had done to her. Instead, she did everything she could in order to remember him. She even...he dared to think it...cared about him.
Several thousands of years earlier, Ecliptor, or Eradon as his name had been then, had wed the daughter of one of his neighbors. The two of them had been unbelievably happy together, and their happiness had only increased when his wife Sabrina had given birth to a beautiful baby girl they had named Celra. Celra had grown swiftly into a lovely girl of ten, a delight to both of her parents and the marvel of the surrounding cities for her beauty.
Then had come the attack of Dark Spectre. It had been masterfully timed to coincide with other attacks on other parts of the planet, including one on the palace itself. The Princess of Edenoi, the hereditary Masked Rider, had her hands full dealing with that attack, which meant only the standard troops had been available to protect the rest of the populace. They did a fine job, but in the village where Eradon, Sabrina, and Celra lived, things did not go that well.
Every person in the village had been either slaughtered or captured. Sabrina and Celra both died, while Eradon had been dragged before the dark lord himself.
I don't even remember what he said...I don't think I want to, but the next thing I knew...Eradon was dead, as dead as my love and my daughter. Ecliptor was the one who lived. The one who served Dark Spectre loyally and faithfully.
He trembled at the memory. Over the eons he had shoved the knowledge of who he was and who he had been into the back of his mind, until all he had ever imagined himself as was Ecliptor. Eradon didn't exist anymore, had never existed. Until he had first looked at the terrified little girl who was destined to become a great Queen of Evil.
Until he saw his second daughter.
If I just knew that she forgave me. That she didn't mind that I had done so many things. He knew she remembered him, and didn't blame him. But forgiveness....his soul yearned for that. He would have given up any peace he had earned so far, just for those few words from her.
Endless days passed as he watched her. Everything was going wonderfully in her life. She and Zhane were growing closer with every breath. He would never have imagined that such a little flare of emotion would multiply and enhance itself into love the way it had. He tried not to think of how he'd almost ruined things.
He had just wanted to do his job. To destroy the Rangers. And he truly had believed that was what Astronema had wanted. He had no indication that her feelings had changed towards the Rangers. Or at least one Ranger then. He'd thought she was just feeling melancholy because it had been so long since she'd talked to anyone with a brain besides him. Elgar didn't exactly qualify, nor did Darkonda.
I will always feel as if I should have known otherwise. She was just so sad all of a sudden, so distracted and out of things. If only she had told me.
Perhaps that hurt the most. That despite the bond of guardian and child they shared, she had not considered coming to him when she had lost her heart. She was so thoroughly convinced he was evil, that when she considered she herself might not be, she had avoided him. If only...
Those were the two most regretful words in the universe, he realized. If only. They covered so much that could've been and never would be. Ecliptor trembled, tears filling his non-existent eyes as they had never once assuming his crystalline form. Here in this strange afterlife, he did not have the body Karone had grown up knowing. She would not recognize him, even if she ever saw him again. He wore his old form, that of Eradon. What he barely could even consider as his true form. Just...a body he used to wear.
He couldn't believe who he was looking at. The other looked so young, so virile, quite unlike the last time they had met. "Zordon?"
"Yes. And you are looking rather well yourself. It's nice to see you again."
"Are you going to take away even the little pleasure I have of watching Karone?" He didn't think Zordon would be that cruel, but he had done some fairly nasty things. Maybe this was justice. But it would certainly hurt if it was.
Zordon slowly shook his head. "Not in the fashion you think I will. But you won't see her as you have been." Before he could protest, the ancient sage raised one hand to silence him. "You are going to see her, but it will not be as father to daughter nor guardian to student."
"What are you talking about?" Eradon trembled at the thought of never again seeing her. It didn't matter he was dead; he would go mad without that! Watching her was the only thing that kept him sane. He had to know what was going on with her.
The old one smiled tenderly at him, and Eradon felt his courage slowly returning. "You will see. But it will not happen for some time yet. In the fullness of time, you will return to her, in a way that neither you nor she can conceive of at this moment. Are you willing to have a second chance, to help undo some of what you have done to the universe as Ecliptor?"
That was something he didn't even need to think about. "Yes. I'd do anything for that."
"You need only do one thing." Zordon smiled warmly at him, and Eradon could feel a strange warm filling him from everywhere and nowhere. "You have wanted her forgiveness...but you can only gain that if you forgive yourself. Forgive yourself, and all else is yours. If you want it."
Eradon...Ecliptor...closed his eyes. The words made everything so clear to him. What he had done wasn't his fault. He hadn't been given a choice on if he wanted to be Eradon or Ecliptor. Without that choice, he hadn't had an option on what he did. All the things he had done hadn't been his fault. Eradon wouldn't have done them. Except for all the love he had lavished on Astronema. That had been his choice.
But the evil, the crimes, the villainy...those were the fault of Ecliptor, and Ecliptor was no more. Ecliptor had been a crafted being, a slave, a creature that had existed only to do as he was bid. Eradon was not. Eradon...was free.
"I forgive...myself." He whispered the words, and felt a tightness vanish that he had never known was there. Zordon smiled as he opened his eyes.
"It will be some years yet...but would you like to be a baby again? A very special baby?"
"What are we going to name him, Karone?" His father asked, looking down at the small life they had brought into the world. He could hardly believe that they had done this, that they had not only had fallen in love, but had married and were now gazing down at this creature that was the combination of them both, and yet something that had never before existed in the cosmos.
"There's a name that's been coming to me ever since I found out I was pregnant," Karone murmured. "How do you think 'Eradon' sounds?"
"Hmm." He considered the name. "Eradon Corbett. I like the sound of that."
Karone smiled as she touched Leo's face gently with one free hand. "So do I. And I love you, Leo Corbett."
"I love you, Karone Corbett."
As they kissed, little Eradon cuddled into his mother and father, and relaxed. His second chance had begun.
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