Author's Note: Just a lil' fun fanfic I've been talking about with my friends and threw together for them. I apologize if my writing is terrible or my plots are ridiculous.

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is my own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

If you review, it'll make me smile and I'll try to respond to positive ones or questions here.

WARNING!: This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). Nothing m-rated, mind you, but it will contain pairings. Please keep this in mind. Pairings included are Dillon/Ziggy, Flynn/Gemma, Scott/Summer, Tenaya/Dr. K.

WARNING 2!: Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, and is slightly AU. I won't be following the series exactly at some points so you have been warned.

Thanks again to all of my awesome readers. Another thanks to Dream for the continuing reviews and a thanks to PinkRanger who totally reviewed RIGHT BEFORE I posted chapter 3 XD Love you all and keep on responding 3


The drive to Attica was way more depressing than either Flynn or Summer had expected. Dillon was refusing to speak to or even acknowledge Ziggy, and the Green Ranger was stuck in the back after the last time he'd tried to navigate for Flynn. He mostly curled in the corner, watching for any signs of danger as they drove along.

"This is weird." Summer commented idly to Flynn, looking over her shoulder frequently to check on the pair.

The blue ranger glanced into the rear-view miror quickly before nodding to her comment. "Neve' been in a ca' with Z' this long wi'ou' him talkin the whole tahm." he commented, expression somewhat dark as he glanced once more before returning his eyes to the road.

Summer nodded but returned to watching the map, a lot of the towns and roads along the way to the city having been blown up during the attacks that had turned the world outside the shield into the Wastes. That made things extremely hard to navigate, especially in the re-purposed old bus they'd had to use after destroying the Colonel's van on their trip to Omega City. Flynn had had to spend a good long while repairing the vehicle before they'd been able to leave.

The blonde did attempt to start up conversation with the other two members of the group, try to get them to even acknowledge each other or that they were in a bus. However, she had absolutely no luck with Dillon and Ziggy kept looking startled whenever she addressed him, as if he'd been in deep thought. When asked about what he was thinking about, he'd appear puzzled before saying he didn't know and look out the window again. So there went her attempts at getting them to talk.

After about a day-and-a-half's worth of driving, Summer was positive they were lost. The map didn't make any sense, they hadn't past any good landmarks, and she was SURE she'd seen that rock before. At least three times. And thrown an empty cup at it, which was still there. The woman was about to yell at Flynn to stop when suddenly Ziggy's brown mop of curls appeared at her shoulder and he pointed to the left.

"Go that way." his voice startled the duo, causing Flynn to nearly crash into the rock as he swerved the bus around, and Summer to hold her heart.

"Ziggy, don't startle us like that, particularly not when Flynn's driving." the yellow ranger scolded her companion quietly before shaking her head a bit, "How did you know we were supposed to go left?"

He blinked at her a few times, "Because Flynn's been turning right every time we passed that rock?" he asked, before shaking his head and pointing to a slightly newer rock up ahead, "Get closer to that one and go straight for a while. You'll see a sort of little mountain-y thing after a bit. Go left there."

Flynn peered back at Ziggy for a moment or two before shrugging, heading the way he said. The man usually didn't trust his friend's directions but that look Ziggy had, the confused by slightly sure, it was enough to let him know he should probably follow whatever instructions were being given. That and Summer's directions hadn't been too good up till this point.

"Ziggy, do you want to switch with me?" Summer inquired when they reached the aforementioned "mountain-y thing". She needed a rest and hanging over the back of her chair was probably not the best position for the younger ranger to be in at this point.

The change-over was quick and left her Summer able to head to the back of the bus and see if she could get any reaction out of Dillon what-so-ever. She was hopeful to get more out of him than when she'd been up front trying to make conversation, but Summer didn't want to be unrealistic.

"Hey, you doing okay?" she started softly, heading back to sit on the seat across from her friend. Dillon at least bothered to glance at her this time and nod some, eyes returning to the back windows of the bus once more.

Summer smiled a bit, "You know she's probably fine, right?" the blonde pointed out, trying to hit on what was bugging him. "Scott and the others will keep Tenaya safe, and she's doing much better fitting in with the group and the city than anyone expected. She's even managed to stop trying to choke Ziggy when he surprises or annoys her."

Dillon nodded once more, letting out a long breath that blew his bangs a little bit, "I almost wish we weren't bringing him." he admitted, "I didn't want 'Aya coming along, but I'd have dealt with that over having Ziggy with us."

The answer startled his teammate, but she smiled, glancing to the front of the bus, to where Ziggy was pointing and quietly directing Flynn, no doubt creeping the Scot out with his less than enthusiastic behavior. "It's a good thing we did bring him though, he seems to know his way around pretty well."

"That's part of what's worrying me." the black ranger leaned back a bit in the tiny back seat, bending one of his legs, and resting a hand on his knee. "Have you noticed something's been off about him a lot lately?"

Summer quirked at this, looking at him funny, "I'm surprised you noticed. You've been avoiding him like the plague lately. Scott was starting to think you two had a fight and that's why Ziggy was so out of it and you were acting like he didn't exist."

Dillon snorted, "No. We didn't have a fight – it'd be easier if we had." he told her. Summer gave him a quiet look that urged the man on in his explanation. "I care about Zig, I do, but he's done what I needed him to – I was just trying to fill a need to protect someone till I found my sister, and I've got her back now, I don't need to try and protect him the same way anymore."

There was hesitation in Dillon's words, as if he weren't even sure of them himself. Sure of their meaning or their emotion. "So you're avoiding him and sheltering Tenaya since you think you only cared about him because you needed a younger sibling to protect?" Summer restated for him, making the awkward and stupid part of the whole idea a bit more obvious.

"Yes." Dillon snapped back, turning back to the window, "I need to let him live his life." Well that conversation was over, but Summer somehow felt didn't really want to continue it.

With a roll of her eyes, the woman went to take a middle seat on the bus and relax. Guys could be idiots about their emotions some days and it really tried her patience. It'd taken Scott more than a year of being close with her to realize they might just have something more than friendship, and she had a feeling it'd take Dillon a long time to figure out and admit to himself that maybe he really did care about his best friend more than he thought.

Watching the two in the front seat to take her mind off of Dillon, Summer found her mind retreating to what he'd said before explaining his problem. He'd said something that'd been weighing on most of the rangers' minds off and on recently.

"Have you noticed something's been off about him a lot lately?"

Oh yes, she'd noticed. They'd all noticed something seemed to be wrong with Ziggy. Hell, even outsiders were noticing and asking on occasion. The problems had started small and just seemed like weird quirks – his inability to improve in fighting, for one thing and his random lapses in intelligent thought for another. However, with time and observation, it was beginning to be noticeable that he seemed to have something actually off about him. This recent behavior where he seemed to understand and know things he couldn't explain was just another little moment in the confusion. The fact that even Dillon noticed when he was pointedly trying to NOT pay attention added to the worry forming in Summer's gut.

Flynn, for his part, was trying to keep his eyes on the road and not stop and smack Ziggy for being a tad creepy. The other wasn't rambling or trying to have a snack, and he was giving directions that he obviously didn't understand, and it was getting on the blue ranger's nerves. Not because he had a problem with it but Odin's beard could things start making sense already? He was more than thankful when they pulled up in front of the obviously deserted remains of the city. Boy was he glad to see THAT.

"Well now, Mr. Smarty, any idea how to ge' us in'o the bunkers?" Flynn asked, parking and giving Ziggy a decidedly unamused look.

The younger man looked sheepishly at him, seemingly apologetic for the weirdness. If people were annoyed at how odd Ziggy's brain was being lately, it was nothing compared to how annoyed Ziggy himself was at it. He didn't exactly LIKE being useless and ticking people off with weird directions that came from no where and familiarity with landmarks he barely knew. He just chalked it up to having lived in the city with his last family before joining the cartels, but that didn't explain the huge gaps he had when it came to this place. But now wasn't the time to expound on why his brain didn't seem to want to work, Flynn had asked him a question and he needed to answer it.

Wracking the void his mind seemed to be very often, Ziggy finally pulled something up. "Yeah, there's a basement in one of the buildings that'll take you down into the bunkers. They're all connected, or should be now." he said, "I'm not sure which building. It might've been a hospital or somethin'." another apologetic look and shrug, and he was sure Flynn would deck him.

Summer smiled gently, putting a hand on Ziggy's shoulder and steering him a bit away. "Come on, let's see if we can find that hospital then. Flynn, you and Dillon can figure out who stays with the bus on your own. We'll meet you back here soon."

The young ranger relaxed under the woman's light touch to his shoulder. If there was anyone Ziggy was grateful to above all others, it was Summer, with Dillon coming in a close second. She willingly filled a role of big sister or mother that he was lacking and seemed happy to do so for not only the green ranger but for other members of the team. Scott would sometimes joke he'd be doomed when he and Summer finally had kids, but everyone knew he appreciated her maternal side quite a lot.

"Doing okay?" she asked, walking him through the wrecked buildings and pointing at some to see if they seemed like what he wanted.

He nodded a bit, making an effort to spot the appropriate building among the wreckage. "Yeah, sort of. This is all really weird and I don't like it." he admitted, "I'm starting to have more and more of an idea about how Dillon feels when he's wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out his memories."

Another hand lightly clapped Ziggy's other shoulder and Dillon's voice could be heard, "At least I'm not the only one." the older man commented before walking ahead of them, "So we're looking for what again? A hospital or something?"

The Green Ranger seemed flabbergasted that his friend had even spoken to him, having to shake himself a bit before responding, "Y-yeah. A hospital or an...an orphanage!" he pointed up ahead, seeing the building that vaguely flitted into his head, slightly more clear than the other thoughts. Oh he could remember having been there, at least once. Not that that was a surprise, he had been an orphan after all, though that information was in the fuzzier sections of his brain.

Summer had been exchanging a warm look and a smile with Dillon, proud of him for at least trying to be friendly with Ziggy before the youngest member of the group had his revelation. When he pointed, all three took off running towards it, and thankfully were able to get inside without much incident.

The basement door was locked but the door itself had taken a bit of a beating along with the building, so Dillon was easily able to just rip it off the hinges and help them down the stairs, which were concrete and actually pretty intact.

Down there was what looked like a ton of very sturdy file cabinets and what looked like an intricate series of reinforced caves. This may not be the place they were looking for, but they could start looking around down here.

"Ziggy, why don't you scout ahead and see if you can find anywhere that looks like the record logs of a government agency, okay?" Summer suggested, nudging her friend forward so she could talk to Dillon a bit while he was gone. He agreed quickly and the blonde smiled, turning to watch the black ranger idly pulling some of the files out of the cabinets.

Wandering over, the yellow ranger leaned lightly on the one he was looking through and smiled. "It's good that you're trying to be nice to him again." she commented as he seemed to scan over the files.

Dillon shrugged, "Yeah well, I have been being an ass and he doesn't deserve that. Particularly when we're all on a mission that's supposed to be helping me..." the man trailed off, seeming to find something interesting in the top drawer cabinet and reaching in to pull it out.

Summer's eyes widened before she had to duck out of the way, watching Dillon blow dust off of the file he'd found. "What is it?"

Her companion just stared at the file in his hand for a bit before showing it to her.

"Well...that explains how he knew the way here." the yellow ranger commented, opening the cover to the manilla folder marked Z. Alexander, and staring at the faded photograph of a very young Ziggy that was clipped to the file.


Summer keeps taking over the direction of this fanfic from her. And yet somehow I don't blame her.