Aisha followed behind Adam as they made their way into the desert. She was a little bit worried about him, but then again, there hadn't really been a moment over the last year that she hadn't been worried about him and Rocky.

"How many miles is it to this place?" she asked.

"I teleported in," Adam said shortly. "I don't really remember."

"I know that this is hard, but don't you dare take it out on me," she told him.

He softened slightly. "I know," he told her. "And I'm sorry. I'm just trying not to remember."

"I think it would be better if we all could forget," she said softly.

"Too bad that isn't possible," Adam answered.

"Maybe one day it will be," Aisha said. "And then we can start over, and go back to our lives as if none of this had ever happened.

"There's not very much cover out here," Angela observed. "But from the map, we should probably be there by the end of the day, if we keep going."

"And if we don't run into any more Putties, or worse," Aisha added.

"A fight is the last thing we need out here," Adam said. "You would think that this desert would be less mountainous."

"Angel Grove has always been the center of weird geography," Gene said. "I mean, even before all of this."

"Less talking," Adam said. "We don't want to attract any more attention." His eyes kept darting to the northeast.

"What's out that way?" Aisha said.

"A camp," Adam answered. "I spent some time there."

It was the first time Aisha had heard Adam say the word camps without his voice shaking.

"How many are being held in that one?" Angela asked.

Adam shrugged. "It was the first camp I was in," he said. "It's been so long now, my information is probably really out of date. Most of the camp was dead within the first few weeks," he continued. "I don't know if they added more people after. I wasn't there for that long anyway."

October 7th, 1993

Aisha sat on Rocky's couch, eyes glued to the TV screen.

"How can the Power Rangers be dead?" Adam asked. "I mean, they're the Power Rangers."

"They looked like they were our age," Rocky said softly, none of his customary good humor in his tone. "Can you believe it?"

"Rita can't actually be taking over the world," Aisha said. "I mean, where is the Army? Shouldn't someone be coming in to stop them now?"

"What is the army supposed to do against those things?" Adam asked. "I mean, if the Power Rangers couldn't beat them, what is a regular army supposed to do?"

"I suppose we'll find out soon enough," Rocky said suddenly. The Air Force had just arrived.

Rita just laughed. "Goldar, Scorpina!" she shouted. "Grow!" She held up her wand, and the two villains grew to a tremendous height, Scorpina losing her human form and turning into a horrible monster as they did so.

The two monsters seemed incredibly unconcerned by the invading Air Force, and in only a few seconds the two giants had smashed the planes into bits.

"Well, that was no good," Aisha muttered. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"Rocky!" his mother said as she burst into the room. "You and your friends need to hurry. Everyone is packing up and leaving."

"Are you sure?" Rocky asked. "I mean, where are we going to go?"

"Somewhere not here," his mother said firmly. "We're way too close to Angel Grove right now for my liking."

"Where are we supposed to go?" Aisha said.

"I just finished talking to both of your parents," Mrs. DeSantos answered. "The whole group of us are going to caravan out together. We'll head out of California, and then we'll see what happens. Hopefully we'll get far enough away that we'll be safe."

"Where are we supposed to go that will be safe?" Adam said. "I mean, you saw those things. If the Army can't beat them, and the Rangers are all, you know, do you really think that there's anywhere safe for us?"

"You three shouldn't worry about all of that," Mrs. DeSantos said. "Don't worry, we'll keep all of you safe." She turned to Aisha. "You guys should head on home, your families are waiting for you. We're going to meet back here in half an hour. Bring only what you really need."

"Sure thing," Aisha agreed. "Don't worry about us."

*

The caravan pulled into a gas station. They hadn't gone nearly as far as they should, since Adam's family needed to stop for gas. Aisha got out of her car, and knocked on Rocky's window. His two younger siblings were curled up against him, and he shook his head. Aisha nodded – there was no real way for him to move without moving them, and he wasn't going to try.

Instead, she went and let herself into Adam's car.

"Hi, Mr. Park," she said to Adam's dad, as she settled into the backseat next to Adam.

"Hello, Aisha," he said. He looked exhausted, and Aisha looked quizzically at Adam.

"Dad's not handling this well," Adam said quietly. "He didn't want to leave, he kept saying that the authorities would handle it somehow, but Mom overruled him."

"It's probably a good thing," Aisha agreed. She glanced behind them, at the large cloud of smoke that was coming from where Stone Canyon had previously been. They had gotten out just in time, it looked like, and Aisha was sure that plenty of other families were probably wishing they had left. She hoped that everyone would be okay. She had called Shawna before they left, and amazingly had been able to get through after a bunch of busy signals. But Shawna and her family hadn't been interested in leaving. Not yet, anyway. Shawna's parents had said that Rita would probably be too busy conquering Angel Grove to get to Stone Canyon yet, and they were sure that someone would stop it before it got too far.

"Don't look back," Adam said quietly. "Right now we just have to keep going forward. We can mourn later."

"You think Shawna and the others got out?"

Adam shrugged. "We'll find out," he said finally. "I'm nervous about cutting so close to Angel Grove, but the radio was saying that Hasper City should be safe."

"Aisha," her parents called. "Get back in the car. We're ready to leave again."

"Later," Aisha said to Adam, as she ran back into her parents' Sedan and buckled her seat belt. Her family's car pulled out first, followed by the DeSantos', and finally the Parks.

October 3rd, 1994

They walked in silence for a while, Aisha and the others all keeping a careful eye out for any monsters or putties. There were times when Aisha wondered why Rita hadn't just sent down a complete army of her monsters to crush Angel Grove, as she had done to all of the other cities. It had been so long now since they had really heard from any other cities – supposedly there had been other resistance movements at first, but now Angel Grove was the only one left.

The problem with wandering through the desert was that it all looked the same. Well, there were other problems – it was hot, it was dusty, there was no cover, they were all quickly getting dehydrated. And wandering through the desert was boring, but at the same time they needed to pay careful attention to make sure that they were going in the direction that Ernie had marked on their map. Angela was the one with the compass, so as long as they followed her they should be going in the right direction.

"It's supposed to be in those mountains," Angela said. "If we keep going straight ahead, we should be right there. And at least when we get closer it'll provide some shade."

"That sounds about right," Adam said softly from behind her.

Aisha took a moment to glance at Adam. He was looking relatively calm, but she had known him long enough to know that he wasn't doing as well as he claimed. But then again, any mission that would make him deal with his memories of what happened had that potential for disaster. To be fair, that was true for any of them. But she had gotten so used to looking out for both of her boys that she couldn't help but do it more now.

October 8th, 1993

"Crap," Aisha said as she stared up ahead of them. "What are we supposed to do now?"

The cars came to a complete halt, and her parents were obviously still so shocked that they didn't bother to yell at her about cursing. But the road ahead of them was filled with Putties.

"Whatever you do, don't get out of the car," her mother said. "Is your door locked?"

"Yes, Mom," Aisha said dutifully, as she pressed down the lock. "So what now?"

"We could try running over them," her father said thoughtfully.

"You'll just kill them?" her mother asked.

"It's them or us!"

While her parents squabbled, Aisha turned around to look at the other cars.

"Mom," she said softly. "Mom!" she repeated again. "Rocky's car! There's a monster!"

Rocky's car was being completely overwhelmed. She watched as the door opened, and Rocky came out, brandishing his younger sibling's baseball bat. He swung it at the monster, which resembled a giant oyster.

"Don't get out of the car, Aisha," her mother said, as she revved the car up.

"But that's Rocky!" Aisha protested. She could see Adam running over to join Rocky. "We have to help them!"

"There's nothing that we can do for them," her mother insisted, and even as Aisha fumbled for the door her mother slammed on the gas, plowing through the monsters.

"No!" Aisha yelled. "We need to go back! We need to save them!" Her father turned around in his seat and grabbed Aisha's arm.

"Don't even think about it," he said. "They're gone. There's nothing that you can do to save them."

Aisha looked back, and she saw Adam fall. Even if they went back, they would only end up captured as well. Her parents had put enough distance between them that she would never make it in time to help.

But she still felt like she should have gotten out of the car. She should have tried to help them.

It was all her fault.

October 3rd, 1994

"I think it's a little bit west of here," Adam said suddenly, the first time he'd spoken in a few miles. "I recognize those rocks up ahead." He started to turn left, and Angela relinquished command of the group, as they all began to follow Adam.

Aisha walked a bit faster, enough that she could get over to talk to him.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked him quietly.

"I'm fine," he repeated, but there was less of an edge to his voice this time. "Really, Sha, I know you're worried, but I really can take care of myself."

"I know you can," Aisha said. "But I look out for you. I need to. Please let me help you."

"You are helping," Adam said, his voice shaking slightly. "More than you know. But right now I'm really okay. I just need to… not focus on what happened the last time I was here."

Aisha nodded, and reached for his hand. Adam flinched slightly at the contact, but then squeezed back before releasing her hand. The two of them walked on in the lead, with the others following behind them, all carefully looking for any intruders. But remarkably, their trip was undisturbed. There hadn't been any signs of putties or monsters or anything else since they had gotten into the desert, but that didn't mean that there weren't any out there, just waiting for them.

Adam stopped suddenly, and Aisha wondered what it was that he'd seen. The others on their team all moved in closer to him, wondering what he'd seen.

"It should be just around that next bend," Adam said, nodding to the ridge that they were nearly at. "If they're going to attack, that's probably where they would do it. That's where I would, anyway."

"Any ideas then?" Angela asked.

"Stay in formation," Adam said. "Keep a look out, and be prepared for a fight. The whole area there is pretty rocky," he glanced over at Rocky and smiled. "No pun intended, I swear."

The group nodded, and reformed. Adam still stayed in the lead, with Angela following close behind him. Aisha took the middle, with Skull behind her and Rocky bringing up the rear. She was one of the stronger fighters in the group, and one of the more versatile ones. This way she could help out whoever needed it, and if the middle was attacked expecting to find the weaker party there, well, they would be in for one hell of a surprise.

They rounded the side of the ridge without incident, and Aisha's jaw dropped slightly when she saw what it was that the Putties were guarding.

October 12th, 1993

Aisha was running. Sometimes it felt like all she had done in the last week was run. She was never fast enough, not ever going to be fast enough. She had gotten fairly good at dodging Putties and other monsters. She was tired and hungry, and she was pretty sure she was lost. She'd need to stop soon, but she didn't know where.

She'd lost her parents almost two days ago, when they had been caught by a group of putty patrollers. Aisha had fought her way free, but they hadn't. The last she had seen of her mother had been her being dragged off, while yelling at Aisha to run.

So she had. She had run away again, leaving more people behind her to die or get captured -- and she had no idea what Rita and her monsters were doing to the captured. She had failed her friends, she had failed her family, and she had clearly failed herself.

Angel Grove Park was almost completely abandoned. This hadn't been Aisha's first plan – they had been trying to get far away from it. But all of the roads out of the area were blocked. Stone Canyon was still in flames. She'd been forced deeper and deeper into Angel Grove. At least she could probably hide in the park somewhere – it was fairly big, and maybe she could find some other people around.

She needed to stop for a while. She found a tree and made her way up it, and settled down, glad for all the practice she'd had at climbing to get into the tree fort that she and Rocky and Adam had built.

There was someone sitting up in the tree across from her. He was human, or at least he definitely wasn't a putty. One of Rita's new monsters, the one that had killed the Yellow Ranger, she looked human. And the Green Ranger was human. So this guy could be working for Rita.

"You're not a monster," the guy said in surprise.

"No," she said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Sk… I'm Eugene," he said after a moment's hesitation. Aisha didn't push it. She could understand not wanting to give out a real name, especially when she didn't know who he was or what side he was on. Still, she was going to have to trust someone.

"I'm Aisha," she said.

"You're not from around here," he observed.

She shook her head, balancing carefully among the branches. "I'm from Stone Canyon," she said. "Or I was, anyway. It was burning when I left."

She tried not to think about the last week. She tried not to think of the town that she loved, and the flames she had seen pouring from it.

"I'd say welcome to Angel Grove, but it isn't really that welcoming a place right now," he said grimly. "Look, I need to get some sleep. But after this, I was going to try and head to the Youth Center. They were talking some about rebellion before – I'm going to try and make my way back there and join up."

"I'm in," Aisha told him. "It's not like I had any other plans anyway. Besides," she added, "Rita and the rest of them need to pay for what they did."

October 3rd, 1994

There were putties everywhere, and Aisha recognized Squatt and Baboo guarding the ruins. She was surprised that they were being given such an important assignment. The two of them were not really known for being that competent. But it was what they were guarding that was the most interesting.

She hadn't known at all that there were ruins out there. She had no idea what it had been at one point, but it had clearly been something incredible. She could almost see the structure rising up into the sky. But that had been a long time ago, now there were only piles of rocks, with only parts of the base still standing.

"What do you think it was?" she whispered.

"Whatever it is, we need to find out," Adam answered. "But if we try to go in right now, we'll have one hell of a fight on our hands."

"You'll already have a fight on your hands, Rebels!" a voice said from behind them. The five of them whirled around, only to see that Goldar was standing behind them.

"Scatter!" Adam ordered, and the five of them split up in all directions, running into the putties, fists flying. Aisha saw Squatt and Baboo teleport out, and as they left, a piece of parchment dropped to the ground. She leapt after it, doing a dive roll over the kick of one of the putties, fighting her way through the rest of them until she grabbed it. She didn't know what it was, but if it was what the two troublemakers were holding then it had to be something that she and the rest of the rebellion could use.

She tucked the parchment into her belt, and then went back to the fight. The five of them were good, but they were heavily outnumbered.

"Retreat!" she heard Adam yell, even as his kick caused another putty to explode.

"This is a disaster," Gene muttered, when they regrouped safely behind some rocks.

"It might not be," Aisha said as she pulled out the piece of parchment. "Squatt and Baboo dropped this."

As the five of them inspected the parchment, a white light suddenly surrounded them all, and then Aisha knew no more.