DISCLAIMER: All rights to the rightful owners. I own nothing but the brain I used to write this piece (and sometimes I wonder if I'm owning even that much!)

Message from the author: Once again thank you all so much for your kind words. It's been a very busy week for me so unfortunately I haven't had the time to go through all of your comments yet. I would like to highlight an issue to all of you who are writing reviews without being logged in here at – it seems like the site does not support the traditional review management used on other sites (or maybe it's me who don't know how to do it). I can only reply to those who are logged in. I'll try to answer as many questions as I can though on my profile page (update coming soon), so keep on asking! But first, let's see how Chip found out…

Chapter 3

Episode: The Hunter

Point of view: Chip

"This guy is going down!" Vida growls behind me through gritted teeth, blocking yet another shot from the latest monster the underworld has thrown at us: Oculus the hunter.

"Keep running," Madison encourages us, as she too blocks a shot from the nasty looking one-eyed thing.

I'm running as fast as I can to get away from our pursuer. It's doesn't say much though since I'm practically dragging Nick with me every step I take. His leg is badly wounded from where Oculus shot him to - and I quote - make things interesting.

Well, interesting things have certainly become, I think bitterly to myself. We lost Xander...

The image of Xander getting hit by Oculus' blast, evaporating into thin air as he hits the ground, keeps playing over and over again in my head. I'm sure it will come back to haunt me in my dreams even when I'm old and my Ranger days are long gone. That is, of course, if I'll ever get to live that long. With Oculus on our tail, and we still haven't faced the Master himself, things are not looking too bright.

I hear Nick grunt as I readjust my grip around him. I can tell he is in deep pain and that it is getting worse by the minute. Stubborn or not, there is only so much pain a person can take and I sense that Nick is approaching his breaking point fast.

"Look out!" I suddenly hear myself cry out. A movement at the corner of my eye has caught my attention and thanks to my instincts my warning comes just in time. I don't know which one of us who blocks the shot, all that matters is that one of us do. The force in it is so strong, though, that it knocks us of our feet and we fall to the ground. In the fall, I lose my grip around Nick and I hear him moan of pain from the hard landing.

"We got to keep moving!"

The desperation in Madison's voice is the encouragement we need to scramble back to feet. In synchronized motion, like we've all had the same thought, we reach for our staffs and call in union:

"FINISHIO!"

Oculus evil laughter haunts us as we evaporates.

Space and time, even dimensions unknown to us, flashes for a brief moment before our eyes until it suddenly stops and we're pushed out of the loop. We land of soft ground. We're surrounded by deep forest. I recognize the place, we've been here before, but my fear for Oculus' gun prevents me from remembering when and why.

Vida helps me to pick Nick up from the ground. He is too weakened by the pain from his wounded leg to get up on his own. I'm not sure how much longer he will cope. With Madison as our only protection we start moving.

"We should make a break for Rootcore," Vida suggests a short while later. By then Nick is leaning so heavily on the both us that we're panting almost as heavily as him. I want to answer her that it sounds like a brilliant plan, but am too tired to do so. Instead Madison answers:

"Keep running!"

The fear in her voice is tangible. Her head is snapping in all direction, trying to catch a glimpse of Oculus before he can shoot another one of us.

Xander...

"I don't want to jeopardize the base," Nick grunts and stumbles over a root. "This guy can follow us anywhere."

His words make sense, I know they do, but they don't really help our situation. I'm so exhausted by the chase and carrying Nick that I can't help what comes out of my mouth next.

"I'm running out of suggestions," I declare. "If this was a roll play game, I would give myself a time out."

None of the others make an attempt to answer this. A moment later we reach an opening among the trees. Tired beyond what we ever thought was possible, we make a stop. Vida is panting as badly as I am. Nick is worse than ever.

"At least we got some covers from the trees," Madison says, cautiously optimistic.

No sooner have the words left her mouth before the explosions starts to rain over us again. Oculus has found us. This time he is not shooting straight at us, I notice. He is aiming for something else.

The trees? I think to myself, as a shot runs past me into a tree. To my horror, the tree evaporates into thin air before my eyes. Just like Xander did.

"Wow!" I hear Madison gasp and I can't stop myself from making a dry comment.

"You were saying?"

"I guess I spoke too soon."

More trees disappear around us and I realize what Oculus is doing: he is cutting down the trees so we won't have anything to hide behind. For every tree that disappears, more shots are coming our way and not before long we are fighting back to back all four of us.

"No!" I hear Nick yell as he is almost hit, shortly followed by Vida's: "We're in trouble!"

"You can't hide from me!" Oculus laughter echoes through the forest. At least someone is having the time of his life, I think bitterly.

Then, everything happens all at once. From the corner of my eyes I see a ball of light coming towards us and I turn my head just in time to see it hit Vida.

"Sis!" Madison's cry is only drowned by my own. I shout Vida's name from the top of my lungs as I watch in horror how she falls to the ground.

And then we were three...

I watch Madison run to the spot where her sister disappeared, throwing herself on the ground as if she could pull Vida back from... where ever Vida disappeared to. Madison's pain is evident, her shock...

Nick falls out of my grip, suddenly I'm too stiff and too weak to hold him any longer. Nick beats his fists to the ground and growls Vida's name in anger over loosing her. I ignore him. It is like all of my feelings suddenly have shut down and only my practical sense is left. We can't stay here. Even though Oculus has stopped shooting at us (obviously very pleased with himself to have shot another one of us), we cannot stay here much longer. We need to keep moving, otherwise we'll be sitting ducks when Oculus decides our respite is over.

"No!" Madison is now laying on the ground, sobbing. I walk over to her.

"Hey, Maddy, are you okay?"

"No!" Her voice breaks my heart. Nick grunts something behind us, but I ignore him. To get them both back up on their feet takes as much of my strength as I have left, somehow I manage though.

"C'mon," I tell them. "We gotta find cover."

I take them to the place I know best, back to the city. In the narrow streets of old town I hope to find shelter for us, to rest and to regroup. Nick is hurting so badly by now his whole body trembles, he can barely stand. With Madison on the other side of me, limp as a dead fish, I'm in for more than I can handle. I don't know for how much longer I can carry them. All I know is that I need to be strong for both of them.

"Wait, wait!" Nick suddenly yells. "Stop for a second!"

Before I know it, he is out of my grip and down on the ground. He is gritting his teeth in pain inside the helmet, I can't see it but I can sense it.

"Nick," Madison has suddenly come back from the dead, "we can't stop."

Nick looks at us. Defeat is written all over his face.

"I'm gonna surrender."

"What?!" The voice is a shrieking excuse for a yell. At first I think it is Madison screaming, but she hasn't moved a muscle. The shrieking came from me.

"You can't, we're a team," Madison pleads. She sounds like she is about to cry.

Nick meets her gaze.

"It's me they're after", he says. "If I give up, it will save Xander and Vida."

He grunts as another shot of pain runs through his body. Madison stares at him speechless. I do not.

"If it's you they're after then it's you we have to protect." I give Madison a harsh look to let her know that she cannot show Nick any compassion right now, or he'll give up. Right now, it is all about getting Nick off the ground before...

"Gotcha!"

Nick and I see the blast too late to react, but Madison has plenty of time as she is facing that direction. Like in slow motion, I see her pushing herself in between Nick and myself. Stretching out her body in full length in front of Nick to protect him. The shot hits her clean in the chest and she falls...

"MADDY!"

Nick's horrified scream is almost worse than seeing Madison disappear before our eyes. I can tell by the sound of his voice that her getting hit is much more traumatic for him than seeing Xander or Vida getting shot. It only takes me a moment to realize why that is - Nick loves Madison.

If the situation had been another, one less serious where we weren't hunted by a one-eyed monster who tries to evaporate us from the face of the earth, I would have jumped up and down in excitement over this discovery. I've known for a while now that Madison likes Nick - a lot! - but I have never been really sure as to what his feelings are for her. As it is now though, all I can do is to gasp:

"Oh, no!"

Now there's only two of us...

With Madison out of the picture, my chances to get Nick on the move again are even smaller than before, but I have to try anyway. There can be no other way. Nick is the Light. If the Master gets his hands on the Light, we're all doomed. I refuse to let that happened. Xander, Vida and now Madison, they gave their all to protect him and I'll be damned if I don't do the same.

From where I get the strength to pull Nick up on his feet again, I do not know. I drag him with me to the nearest tree and - zap! - we're back in the forest again. This time unmorphed as we no longer have powers enough to stay rangered up. We come to stand with our backs against the tree we came through, eyes on our surroundings. Nick is breathing heavily and I am no better.

"You know he's gonna find us," Nick says. The devastation of loosing Madison is written all over his face. I'm positive he sees the sequence of her getting shot over and over again in his head. It must make him feel terrible to know that she sacrificed herself for him. With no one else around, it falls on my plate to convince him to not give up.

"I've been thinking," I say, still struggling for breath. "He is probably in another dimension which allows him to follow us wherever we go. If we could make..."

"Stop!" Nick interrupts me. Without me realizing it, I've been circling away from the tree. Now I'm standing face to face with Nick.

"I'm gonna give myself up," Nick declares.

"What?"

Nick looks at me, he is leaning so heavily against the tree that he would fall if it moved.

"I'm not gonna lose all my friends if there is something I can do to stop it."

I feel my hope fading quicker than water through my fingers. He is giving up. He said 'friends' but I know what he really means is 'Madison', otherwise he would have given up right after Xander was hit. He don't want to lose her. I want to smile at the sweetness of it but don't, knowing it could ruin the effect of what I am about to say. Vida would have teased the living hell out of him if she had heard him... or beaten it out of him!

"But..." I say, trying to keep myself together one last time, "If you surrender, you'll destroy everything we stand for. We're Power Rangers!" Like that matters to him now! "Do you really think that's what Xander, Vida and Madison would want you to do?"

I never get to hear his reply. In the very same second I finish the sentence, Oculus shoots me. I've come away too far from the tree.

The last thing I see before the world turns a wide range of colors, is how the fires are lit in Nick's eyes and I smile to myself. Love really do conquers all!