Carter stood off to the side and watched Ryan flip Chad over his back and into Kelsey and Joel, knocking them all to the floor. Carter gave a small smile. It was amazing how much things could change in only three days. Kelsey laughed as Dana helped the guys detangle themselves from her and then held her hand up to Ryan. Ryan blinked at the hand and seemed to lean back away from it. Kelsey, still smiling, shrugged it off and got to her feet.

This was Ryan's second day helping them train and they were still trying to adjust to each other. Everyone was unsure the first day but today the rangers were in good spirits. It helped to be able to finally catch up on their sleep. What Carter found interesting was Ryan's reaction to their moods. He really didn't seem to know how to handle it. When anyone laughed and joked around, his brow would furrow for a second, as if trying to figure out what they were up to, and in some cases he actually stepped away from them. Not too obviously. Carter guessed that Ryan wasn't even aware that he did it.

When they had returned from destroying the demon, the base had been buzzing with whispers, and curious looks followed them as they made their way toward the command center for their post battle briefing. They were surprised to be met by Capt. Mitchell's assistant in the hallway.

"The briefing has been postponed, on the captain's orders. But I do have your paperwork…" he said, handing out folders.

Joel groaned.

"If you could -"

Carter had stopped listening. The briefing was postponed. Whenever that happened the captain was either gone or the rangers were sent to rest first. But they were given paperwork to do, so that meant Capt. Mitchell wasn't around. He glanced at Dana and could tell she was worried. He also noticed that the captain's assistant wouldn't look any of them in the eye. At least Carter knew who to go to if the rangers thought they were being lied to, this guy wasn't even lying, he just wasn't telling them something and he look as guilty as a first time shoplifter.

It had taken very little to get him to talk. Some crossed arms and silent stares and he began to crack.

"Mitchell." Dana asked, pleading in her voice. That had surprised Carter, not the fact that she had called him by name, because he had known it as well… hadn't he? It was how she said his name, with such familiarity, not that he was bothered by that, it was just surprising. It was also kind of weird that Capt. Mitchell's assistant was named Mitchell but Carter quickly moved passed that.

Ryan had been attacked by the demons right after the rangers had destroyed the demon in the city and they were only now taking him to the medical bay.

A quiet frustrated sigh escaped Carter's lips. They didn't know anymore than that; or, at least, he didn't know anymore. He didn't like being kept in the dark about his team. Carter frowned at that thought as the rangers moved into a circle, this time around Chad, who was supposed to re-enact what Ryan had done. Was Ryan part of their team now? When the captain had briefed Carter on the current situation he had made it clear that Ryan wasn't a ranger, but he couldn't help but wonder if that would be permanent. Ryan seemed to be the only person who could use the Titanium morpher. Would Lightspeed simply lock it away and never use it now? The captain seemed so confident that Ryan would never go back to the demons, and Carter, once again wondered what had happened.

Ryan appeared fine, physically, so part of himself rationalized that he didn't need to know, but something significant had to have happened for Ryan to be on their side now. Or, at least, no longer on the demon's side.

Yesterday Ryan had observed some of their regular training then had lectured them about the three purposes of Batlings in a battle. The 3 D's they were calling them now. Distraction, Destruction and energy Depletion.

"You'll need to get through them as quickly and efficiently as possible. For the most part they are not very skilled fighters, they rely mainly on their larger numbers to overpower you. Use their attacks against them. If one takes a swing, use the momentum and divert it to another attacker."

"Shouldn't we focus on skills to fight the stronger demons?" Chad asked.

"It won't matter how powerful the other demon is, if you waste time on the Batlings, they may be able to complete their objective or you won't have the energy to defeat it. Besides, in battle it's obvious your training has focused on working as a team to defeat an enemy. In your group training over the next couple days you're going to switch off fighting the rest of your team. Once we pinpoint strengths and weaknesses we will be able to set up individual sessions to go over technique and effectiveness against the demons."

Joel was the first to attack again and Chad flipped him over his back, aiming for Dana, but she rolled out of way as he came down on the mat. Ryan nodded but didn't say anything. He seemed to be taking in and analyzing all of their movements. He blinked and glanced over at Carter, then back to the others.

Carter was glad Ryan had understood about him only wanting to watch the group training today. It wasn't necessarily that he didn't trust him but he wanted time to observe Ryan and his interactions with the team.

Soon everyone had had a chance to be in the middle for the exercise, and Ryan dismissed the rest of the rangers and turned his attention to Carter, who was going to be the first to start the individual lessons.

As he and Ryan began sparring Carter resisted the urge to shake his head when he noticed others had decided to stick around to watch.

Noticing too late that he had let his focus wander, Carter found himself being flipped over Ryan in the same move that had caught Chad. In the second before he went flying he grabbed a fistful of Ryan's grey tank. The anchor allowed him to shift his body and land on his feet, at the same time pulling Ryan off balance, or so he thought. Ryan used the momentum to spin behind Carter, forcing him release his grip as his arm was snapped back. Not a second later he was face down on the mat.

"Ow."

To his surprise Ryan was the one to help him up. He could, however, hear some soft laughter coming from his friends on the sidelines.

"Is your arm alright?" Ryan asked.

He rubbed his arm, feeling some ach in the shoulder muscles and his elbow joint. "Yeah, no it's fine. That was a great move."

"You caught me off guard," Ryan admitted. "My instincts took over."

"Those are some great instincts," Carter laughed.

"Do something long enough and you don't think, you just do." Ryan said absently, looking over his shoulder at his now torn tank top.

"Hey, sorry about that."

Ryan shrugged. "Don't get used to it, you won't be able to get a grip like that on a Batling." Ryan pulled off the torn shirt and tossed it aside.

There was a sudden choking sound from the other end of the room and everyone turned to see Kelsey holding her water bottle and coughing violently.

"Kels, you ok?" Chad asked, moving beside her.

"Yeah," Kelsey croaked, covering her mouth.

"You sure? You're turning red."

"Yeah, sure," she said, with a quick glance over at Ryan and Carter. "Just down the wrong pipe." She grabbed Chad's arm. "Come on, I need to stretch."

"We all need to stretch," Dana said, pushing Joel towards the door. "Come on, we can use one of the other rooms, Carter doesn't need any witnesses while Ryan wipes the floor with him," she smiled, looking back, "literally."

Carter offered a grim smile. "Yeah, thanks Dana."

The rest of the training/sparring session was uneventful compared to the start. He wasn't surprised when he couldn't catch Ryan off guard again, his fighting style was impossible to pin down, which made sense since he had learned to fight from demons.

"That was a good training today," Carter said, winded, as he rolled back to his feet and they began to circle each other again. "And yesterday. We appreciate the pointers."

"This is the first time I've tried to instruct anyone like this," Ryan admitted, "I've always been the one trying to catch up."

"We'll you did a great job, kept them focused. When it's just us in here it can be difficult to reign them in sometimes."

Ryan paused his movements giving Carter a considering look, "And this doesn't bother you?"

"Bother me?" he asked, confused, "What?"

"That I'm training your team. You are their leader and it was only days ago that we were enemies, ready to kill each other in battle."

Carter almost stepped back in surprise at the blunt statement. Yes, that was true, but…

"You're Capt. Mitchell's son," Carter began, but was clearly the wrong thing to say going by the way Ryan's lips twitched downward, but he continued, "He's the leader of this base. I respect him and his judgment and while that in itself is enough for me to at least give you a chance, I also know it would foolish of us to pass up the opportunity to peacefully learn more about the demons that are attacking us, let alone dismiss someone as skilled and knowledgeable as you are, refusing to let you train our only clear line of defence because of events that you initially had no say in."

He could see approval in Ryan's eyes. "No wonder my father chose you to be the leader, you're a lot like him."

Carter sent him a questioning look.

"You're a good man."

"Thanks," Carter said, surprised. He hadn't expected that answer. Nor had he expected Ryan's obvious approval of his own assessment or the hint of sadness that had crept into his eyes as he had said it.

Ryan nodded as he picked up his towel from the bench and began drying himself off, then asked, "But can you make the hard decisions?"

"Like?"

"My father stopped you from trying to kill me, he," Ryan frowned , "he has a soft spot for me. And because of that you were going to just let me keep attacking the city."

"We weren't going to 'just let' you do anything. " He couldn't help but notice that Ryan had said 'trying' to kill him. "We came to stop you."

"How? Because you didn't come to fight me." Ryan said. "If you had, you would have fired at me when you saw me with Dana, instead you yelled at me to stop."

Carter's jaw tightened as he tried not to remember the scene he and the others had run into as they had turned the corner. Seeing Dana hurt, unmorphed and helpless in the hands of someone who could kill her in an instant. "You stopped. So it sounds like it worked."

"You were lucky."

"I hope you give us a little more credit. So far the demons haven't destroyed us or the city. I'd say whatever we're doing is working."

"So far. But what if you had to choose between a group of people or the entire city, could you make that choice?"

Carter thought of the boy in the hospital. Even after he realised that he had made the right decision following the captain's orders to put out the fire first, the guilt over the boy's injuries had still pressed on his mind. He had been lucky so far as a firefighter; he hadn't lost anyone to a fire yet. He had always been able to save them. He knew that wouldn't last. He also knew that there were casualties in the fight against the demons. They couldn't be everywhere at once. But to consciously choose not to help someone?

"If it came down to that, no other alternative, I may not like it, but there would be little choice."

"What about between the city and saving one of your teammates."

"Look, I'm not going to do this. Every situation it different and I'm not going to make the decision beforehand to let them die." He looked Ryan in the eye. "We're not demons. You'll need to get use to that. We're not going to act the same way. We're not the same."

Realizing that they probably weren't going to be doing anymore training, Carter decided to continue. "Ryan, why are you here?"

"I agreed to help train your team."

"But why? Do feel sorry about attacking the city?"

"I don't know how to be sorry about that. I was following to complete the mission."

How could Ryan be so emotionless about these things? "We've had to destroy a lot of demons that were just trying to "complete the mission". Do the others mourn them; or do they call them failures and move on?"

Ryan actually flinched a little at that. "If you're not strong enough, you're destroyed."

"That's pretty callus."

"That's how it is. How do you think I've survived this long, Carter? I wasn't coddled."

"No one thinks that you were, Ryan. I just... you don't have to think like them anymore."

Ryan blinked. "What do you mean?"

"You may have grown up around the demons, but you're a human. You can act like a human now. No one's going to tell you that it's wrong."

Ryan frowned and looked away.

"Most of the time when we go up against a demon, they're laughing. Laughing about the destruction, the pain that they're causing. When you showed up you acted the part, laughed, gloated; but you didn't mean it."

"You don't-"

"I know this because you only acted that way when a demon was there or if there were civilians around. It was a show."

Ryan remained silent, still not looking at him, so Carter continued.

"We don't enjoy killing the demons. We do it to protect this world, so it needs to be done; but any loss will not become acceptable to me. Because as soon as it does; that's when we will begin not to care, when we don't give our all, when we start to let people die".

"When you called me a good man, it wasn't meant as a compliment, was it?"

"It was," Ryan said, finally looking at him. "But in my experience the good man doesn't survive."

Carter thought it over. "I'm not going to change who I am for a better chance to win."

"No, you won't. Like I said, you're very much like my father."

"So it was a compliment; you just don't believe I have a chance to win the way I am." Realization started to dawn, and Carter looked at Ryan, surprised. "You don't think we're strong enough, do you? You still think the demons are going to win."

Now, Ryan looked him straight in the eyes, and Carter saw the confirmation. His stomach clenched.

"Hope is a difficult thing to give up. No matter how inevitable the defeat." Ryan said, before moving to leave the room.

Carter reached out to grab Ryan's arm but missed as Ryan whirled, ready to attack, warning in his eyes.

Instincts. Right.

Carter held up his hands. "We're going to have to disagree about inevitable defeat. But, whatever you think about the demons or us, you need to understand this. You believe the demons are going to win, and you joined us anyway." He paused. "Good men do that."

Ryan's features froze for a moment, then he nodded as a sad smile formed. "Not 'very much', you're exactly like him," he murmured, then turned and left the room.