Prologue
"The commissioner called this morning." A curt, female voice said in the darkness one night as Dillon tried to sleep. "I told him you were out, working on official business and such, but you can't avoid him forever."
"Just watch me." Another voice, with a shaky, yet bitter edge, cut in. "If he thinks he can just storm right in and take my son, well then, I have a lesson for him. No one messes with-"
"I don't want this anymore than you do." The woman cut in, "but you can't escape reality forever. People will die if he doesn't go. Do you want that on your head forever? Because I don't! I want the best for him, but the best won't come without sacrifice."
"You don't understand, Kat! You never do!" The man's voice was desperate, "We've done enough for this city! Put our lives on the line again and again… and it's not enough! It's never enough! They have to take our most prized possession, the child we dreamed of for years, and send him to them to turn him into a hardened warrior, never knowing family or-or love or anything worth having! I don't want that! And, as much as you'd deny it or whatever, you don't either!"
"Zigs." The woman's voice cut in calmly.
"No. Think about it. Why does it have to be Skylar? Why not Alexis, the future red ranger extraordinaire? The commissioner's daughter? He's fully committed to the cause and his girl's well trained. Why does it have to be us?" The man was beginning to get hysterical. "We've already given too much. We were children."
"Oh, Ziggy." The woman's voice was softer now. "It'll be okay. I promise."
And that was it. The dream was over and Dillon found himself alone in his car again. The dreams that haunted him were so strange. They seemed to make no sense… Random pieces of a life lost loomed in his head... familiar faces forgotten... Everything confused him.
All he knew to do was drive far, far away where the compass pointed, in hopes he'd find home.