A/N: This story will cover the final arc of the current season of Megaforce. Note that I'm going to be seriously changing up Metal Alice's character, and a lot of the details surrounding the robot section of the war. Hope you all enjoy it.

Legal: I do not own Power Rangers or the associated names, places, characters, events etc. Anything not covered by the above rights should be considered to be purely the creation of the author.

Rating: T-Will contain mild adult themes and language.

Gia just continued to stare, unable to believe what Emma had done. It was one of the first things all of the Rangers had been told after their first battle. Knowledge of their true identities was a dangerous thing to have. While the Space Rangers, most of whom had been forced to live underground, or flee the world altogether after their tenure were a somewhat extreme version of a cautionary tale, they had already experienced some of the pitfalls of people finding out who they were.

Ernie had put his life on the line to save Gia from Spider's bomb before he let her know that he knew who she was. Cat had been targeted before, and then there was Spider...a guy that through virtue of knowing who they were had not only been turned into a monster, but because he threatened to expose their identities if he wasn't set free, had been subjected to...well...they still didn't know what Gosei had done to him, but since he was now in a psychiatric secure unit within the prison, under regular sedation to keep him under control, they weren't certain they wanted to know.

Now, Jordan's dad, General Edwards, had been murdered by Metal Alice, likely for no other reason than he was connected to the Rangers, even if he didn't actually know who they were.

Eric and Louise...to say they were speechless, the word would have had to be redefined. In one afternoon, they had seen General Edwards being buried, found out Wayne was leaving town, and now as they were trying to discuss whether or not there was some way they could raise the capitol to buy out Wayne's shares in Cerberus, Emma had come into the room, announced she had something to tell them, and before anyone could stop her had morphed into the Pink Ranger before their very eyes. After a pause that seemed to last for hours, Emma took off her helmet, looking down at her father and his girlfriend.

"Um...I should probably tell Cat to call back." Gia told them, heading back upstairs. Emma just remained, waiting for her dad or Louise to say something, anything at all about the revelation.

"You're...you're the Pink Ranger?" Eric finally asked her. Emma just nodded wordlessly. It had weighed heavily on her heart keeping this from him for all those months. Since she'd lost her mother, she and her dad had been inseparable. There was nothing they didn't tell each other, nothing they couldn't share. Emma had even told him about Gia's sexuality, and the fact that she had been in love with her before she asked him if it would be alright if she moved in. The thing she hated more than anything else was the lies she had to tell her father so that he wouldn't find out. She had gone along with what everyone told her that it was for her own good, but now after all this time, after he and Louise had already been kidnapped once, and General Edwards had ended up dead, she had finally had enough. How could keeping him in the dark keep him safe now? How could he defend himself if he didn't even know what he was defending himself from? "How?...When?"

"I've been the Pink Ranger since the Rangers first showed up." She told him, tears beginning to run down her face. "I've...I've been the Pink Ranger all this time."

"And Gia knew..." Louise started to say, before it finally clicked. Of course Gia knew...all those injuries, the sudden interest in improving her Martial Arts...all those bruises and injuries she suffered in training with Troy... "Giana Ciara Moran! Come down here right now!"

"How though?" Eric asked, still completely confused as to what was going on. "All those weapons...the powers..."

"We were given our powers by an alien called Gosei." She started to explain as Gia got down the stairs, looking a little sheepish. Even at 17, she knew she was in deep trouble when her mom middle-named her. "He...he's the son of the one that gave the first Ranger team their powers 20 years ago. He picked us to become the latest team of Rangers to battle the Warstar."

"Really?" Louise asked, throwing up her hands. "So out of all 7 billion people in the world, when there are trained soldiers, marines, police, Government Agents...he chose two seventeen year old girls?"

"Sixteen." Emma murmured. "We...um...we were still 16 when we were chosen."

"Oh, that is just perfect!" Louise responded sharply. "Wait...that group you hang around with...you're not telling me...?"

Emma just nodded. It wasn't that they had anything against them, but the fact was, before the beginning of the year, she and Gia didn't really hang around with Noah and Jake. They knew who they were, sure, but only as passing acquaintances. Troy, he was the new kid in town, and yet they had started hanging out with him almost as soon as he had arrived. Jordan was almost the same story, they seemed to take to hanging out with him with seemingly no explanation. It wasn't like Louise wasn't happy to see them expanding their social circles beyond each other, but now it all just seemed to make sense.

"Oh, great, that's just..."

"Louise, try to calm down." Eric told her.

"They're KIDS Eric!" Louise yelled at him. "This Gosei has taken KIDS and thrown them into a freaking war! People have died!"

"I'm not happy about it either." Eric stated, stroking her shoulders, trying to calm her down. He looked to Emma. "Um...can you...you know...change back or whatever you call it?"

Emma activated the command to de-morph, continuing to look down at Eric's feet as he approached her. She couldn't bear to look at him, knowing that he had to be disappointed in her, that she had lied to him all this time. He put a hand under her chin, lifting her head up to look at him.

"Why didn't you come to me?" He asked her.

"I wanted to." She told him honestly, wiping her tears from her eyes. "I wanted to so many times, but Gosei...he kept telling us that it was for the best that people didn't know. We were made to swear right from the start that we wouldn't tell anyone...it was one of the rules..."

"Rules?" Louise asked them. "This alien press-ganged you into a war, then gives you rules to make you lie to your parents about it?"

"It's not exactly like that." Gia explained. "We're not allowed to use our powers for personal gain. If we do, we'll lose them."

"We're not allowed to escalate a battle. We can only respond with necessary force." Emma continued.

"I guess that explains why you don't just bring out those giant robot things..."

"Zords." Emma told him. "Um...they were named after Zordon, Gosei's dad."

"Why you don't just call your Zords and stomp the monsters flat from the get go." He corrected himself. "But that Robo Knight guy...?"

"Yeah...we had a few teething problems with Jordan." Gia stated. "It's a long story."

"And we were told that for the safety of the people we care about, we weren't meant to tell anyone our identities." Emma concluded. "We haven't been stripped of our powers when others..."

"Wait...others?" Louise asked. "Other people know about this?"

"Former Rangers mostly." Gia explained. "We have...kind of an understanding it's alright if other Rangers know, as long as no one starts revealing the identities of anyone that's not been revealed."

"I really didn't want to keep this from you for so long." Emma told them, her voice cracking a little under the strain. "I know I've lied, and I know I've kept stuff from you, but I thought I was doing the right thing. Now though, after everything, after General Edwards...I just...I can't do it anymore. How can you stay safe if you don't know you're in danger?"

Eric looked into Emma's eyes and all he could see was his little girl, completely breaking her heart. He had never kept much from her, but he knew all too well that sometimes there were things he just couldn't tell her. He had only reluctantly told her about some of the things he had to do in the course of his work after she found out about how he saved Gia from her father...thinking about it now, he realised that she hadn't found out at all. The Pink Ranger had been there. Emma had seen it with her own eyes when Eric had turned a gun on Mr Moran.

"I'm really sorry dad." She whimpered. Eric just pulled her in, hugging her tightly.

"I understand." He told her. "Thank you for finally telling us."

As Gia looked to her mom, Louise just sighed and shrugged.

"Well, I guess I'm not happy about all the lies." She told her daughter. "But...I guess it's better late than never."

"If it means anything, I can see why this...Gosei...has chosen you both." Eric assured Emma. "That said, I think it's probably for the best if we don't exactly go letting everyone know. Not everyone is exactly friendly to the Rangers."

"Don't we know it?" Gia groaned, rolling her eyes. "But I guess, I am kind of glad we don't have to lie to the two of you about this anymore."

"Wait...you're not seriously thinking about...you're really going to keep doing this do you?" Louise asked.

"I don't really think we have a choice in the matter." Gia answered. "It's kind of our duty now."

"I guess I can understand that." Eric replied. "Alright, it's um...it's been a big day. I think it's for the best we all just get some rest."

"Dad..."

"Emma, please, I've just had kind of a lot of information for one day." He told her. "I really just need some time to process it all."

Emma just nodded, before she and Gia headed upstairs to their room. Eric just sat on the couch, running his hands through his hair as Louise came to his side.

"I guess a lot of things make a lot more sense now." He replied as he took a small drink from his glass.

"Eric, what are we going to do about this?" She asked him.

"What can we do?" He asked her. "I guess we do what any parents do. We just sit at home, and hope that everything we've taught them lets them make the right choices."

"In the meantime, we just have to go out of our minds with worry, hoping that they actually come home each night?" She shrieked. He just nodded.

"I guess so." He answered as he held her closely.

In her underwater base, Metal Alice was working on some computers when Vrak appeared on the viewing screen.

"My Lord!" she greeted him.

"Admiral Malkor's transformation is underway. There is no way I can guarantee how long he will be in his cocoon." He told her. "Are things progressing down there?"

"The systems in the base are running at eighty five percent efficiency." She informed him.

"Eighty Five percent?" He asked in response. "Time is of the essence. The Rangers will not be left reeling from the General's assassination for long, and Malkor is getting closer to hatching from his cocoon each day. How long until we can send...?"

"Anything over twenty percent efficiency should be enough to destroy a city." She told him. "I already have a preliminary design in the process of being created."

Punching in a few commands, there was a massive cloud of smoke from the corner of the room, before a door opened. She stood aside to let Vrak see the robot stepping out of the machine.

"I'd like you to meet Rotox." She introduced him. "The next generation in robotic technology, and the one that will make all the creatures in Malkor's army obsolete."

"I see you've been busy." He commented. "What exactly can this robot do?"

"I'll give you a demonstration." She stated, converting her tablet into sword mode, before rushing towards Rotox. She hammered into the machine a couple of times, before he swung a hand, smashing her across the room. Her left leg was ripped completely from her body, exposing wiring and circuitry. She called Rotox off, before retrieving her tablet, and pulling herself to her one remaining leg on the console.

"As you know, you created me as your most powerful weapons system." Metal Alice reminded him as her severed leg returned to her, re-attaching itself and activating the self-repair system. "Nothing the Rangers possess will be a match for his strength."

"You are as cunning as you are indestructible." He replied, sounding impressed. "How long until he is ready for battle?"

"He is already complete." Metal Alice told him.

"Then have him powered up and sent out immediately." Vrak instructed her. "Take advantage of the Rangers' fractured state of mind."

"My Lord, if I may make a recommendation, the human body operates at its least efficient early in the morning, shortly after waking up." She told him. "It would be tactically prudent to wait for now and attack in the early hours at first light."

"That is quite cunning." He complimented her.

"I do not possess cunning." She corrected him. "That would be a human trait. I possess merely the ability to process probability and strategic analysis."

"Whatever, just send Rotox to battle them when you see fit." He told her. As the screen went dark, Metal Alice approached Rotox, inspecting him thoughtfully.

"This test will be a tremendous opportunity to gather data." She stated. "And dare I say...more than a little fun."

Early the next morning, Troy was having breakfast with his parents when Jordan came into the room. He was dressed in sports gear, and carrying a soccer ball.

"So, when are we heading to the park?" Jordan asked him. Mr Burrows just looked to him sympathetically.

"Jordan, are you sure about this?" He asked. "No one expects you to just shrug this off."

"Staying in my room isn't going to help either." Jordan stated. "I'm going back to school on Monday, and the Stone Canyon game's been re-scheduled. I need to figure out tactics with Jake."

"Look, no one wants to see you feeling better than I do." Troy assured him. "But, there is such a thing as rushing it. The funeral was only yesterday."

"Yeah, so now that's been dealt with." Jordan answered. Troy was more than a little troubled by his answer, and by the looks of things, his parents were a little troubled by it too. By now, they knew that Jordan had found out that General Edwards wasn't really his father. They knew it had been a shock, and that his relationship with the General had been strained at best, but since the funeral, it was like he was trying to shut the whole thing out. He was acting as though the fact General Edwards wasn't his biological father should mean that his death was meaningless to him.

"Jordan..."

"I said I'm fine." Jordan told them. "Now, the sooner I can get back to normal, the better."

This was kind of a difficult thing to hear. Indeed, they did want him to get to as close to a normal life as possible. He was going to have to get back to a routine at some point or another, but it didn't seem healthy the way he was trying to just pretend that General Edward's passing meant nothing to him. No matter how difficult their relationship had been, no matter what the truth of their lack of a blood relationship was, it had to have had at least some impact on him.

"I've already called the others." Troy informed Jordan, as much to assure his parents that Jordan wouldn't be alone as anything else. "They're going to meet us out there."

"Well, it is a nice day out." Mr Burrows told them as Jordan started to load up his plate with toast. "Give me a call later and I can pick you up."

Jordan just nodded as he started on his breakfast. He didn't really want to talk, he didn't really want to think much about anything. Time to think was precisely the last thing he needed. Right now, he needed to be doing something, anything at all to keep his mind occupied. Vrak hadn't been kind enough to send anything for him to destroy lately, likely for exactly this reason. Until he had something to beat into submission, he guessed a game of soccer with his friends was going to have to suffice.