Epilogue: Thank You For Your Service

Only the bare frame doorway to the old schoolhouse remained. Yuto and Ren helped an unconscious Miyu through the doorway, and the interior of the Temporal Fortress appeared around them regardless.

“Congratulations, mahourangers,” the castellan said, shuffling towards them.

“We need to get her to the medical pod!” Yuto said.

They rushed to the Power Infirmary and put the Snapdragon Ranger into the healing pod. The soft hum of the medical pod was the only noise in the entire fortress. Ren glanced around; quite unnervingly, the castellan had yet to warp Sakura back from her drowning mecha. They hadn’t been able to reach Haruko’s ruined mech for all the debris around town.

The Kagehime’s fortress disappeared in a shimmer as the Smalt and Kermes Rangers had retreated to the ruins of their school. One moment it was there, the next, it was not. There was a disturbing lack of people on the streets in the battle’s aftermath. But the survivors of Tenshigurobu ought not even remember the castle existed before

“Congratulations, rangers!” the castellan said to the remaining two members of the sentai squad. “The Umbral Court’s gaze has turned from this worldline.”

Yuto paced, not hearing the thing the castellan said at all. He let out a ‘tsk’ noise, clearly concerned with his cousin’s fate.

“Where are the others?” Ren asked. “What do we do now?”

The castellan stepped beside the healing pod. “The Kagehime has a fickle attention span; this will likely preserve your world for another decade or more.”

“That’s… good, right?” Ren asked.

They could rebuild the town. The average civilian would likely mistake the battle for a natural disaster due to the strange memory-altering aspects of this shadow war between the Umbral Court and the Lifestream Regulators.

“Thank you once again for saving the day!” the castellan said in a tone that made it sound like he was unsubtly saying goodbye.

“What about the others?” Ren asked. “Haruto and Sakura. Can you bring them in?”

The castellan ignored this.

“You’re all true heroes,” the castellan continued. “The Lifestream Regulators will place a plaque with your team shot in the trophy hall of the Temporal Fortress.”

“Wait. That’s it?” Yuto asked.

The castellan seemed to nod. “Good luck rebuilding, conscripts. Temporal resonance, disconnecting.”

The glowing flame between the castellan’s joints waned. Each individual joint and armor piece on their spectral butler fell to the floor in a heap. Ren stepped forward and gave the pile a curious kick.

“He’s… gone?” Ren asked nobody in particular.

The already-dim lights in the Temporal Fortress appeared to grow darker still. Like the power was shutting down. Even the healing pod stopped humming.

Ren’s mouth felt dry.

A standard, emotionless alarm echoed through the halls.

“Temporal Fortress desyncing in fifty-five seconds. Please leave the premises. All interior matter will be repurposed.”

The last two rangers standing looked at the door, then back to the healing pod. A knocking sound came from within, as if Miyu were conscious and now stuck. Ren and Yuto tried to pry the pod open to no avail.

“Fortress desyncing in forty-five seconds.”

It would take them at least twenty seconds to get this pod open.

“… desyncing in thirty-five seconds.”

It would take at least twenty-five seconds for the pair to reach the fortress door.