Nothing could get Gia to calm down. She paced the floor at the vet's office. Everyone watching her was sure that where she walked had been eroded down at least a centimeter at this point, maybe more. They had already asked her to stop, sit down, and try to calm herself, but Gia knew she couldn't. Not until she knew Tiger would be okay.

It wasn't like there was a list of people who would want to hurt the big cat. Gia had worked with Tiger by her side for a few years now. Everyone in the cities she patrolled, as well as people from neighbouring cities knew that the tiger wandering the streets in a Silver Guardians vest was Gia's tiger. Unless they were doing something illegal, Tiger wouldn't even think to hurt them.

Those who were doing something illegal often didn't want to threaten Tiger at all. She was bigger, faster, stronger, and often smarter than they were. Their guns could hurt her, but not much, and then they would have an angry Gia to deal with once they were caught.

Some people were stupid enough to try and hurt her. Tiger had been stabbed once, and of course, many people felt that they could tease her under the assumption that she couldn't do anything to them if they did. They had to learn the hard way that if they were distracting Tiger, she was allowed to snap at them. So long as she didn't break skin, it wouldn't be excessive force and there wouldn't even be talk of putting the big cat out of duty.

However, unlike other times, there were no visible wounds. There were none on Tiger and no one had stuck around long enough to complain that the cat they were teasing bit them. Someone had gotten close enough to Tiger to hurt her, and got away with it.

Gia already had a team looking into it. Though there weren't many people around, she had officers looking for any witnesses. Anyone who saw or heard something could prove helpful. She had Emma going over security cameras from the area, trying to see if there was an angle that could catch what happened. Her mothers were promising that they would look after Ciara until Gia could be home.

A doctor stepped out. Gia thought it would be an update on Tiger, but he spoke to another pet owner, taking in him and his dog. Gia groaned and finally sat down. Bringing Tiger to a regular vet wasn't ideal. They often weren't trained to handle animals that were bigger than they were, but it was all Gia could do. There was no wildlife vet available on such short notice in Summer Cove, and Gia didn't want to wait for help. Anyone could brush through Tiger's fur and look for a wound, and any doctor could run some blood tests to be sure the cat wasn't sick or poisoned.

"Who would do that?" Levi asked. He hadn't had too many run ins with the big cat, but regardless, it didn't make sense to him why someone would want to hurt her, or how someone could be so brave to get so close. Levi knew Tiger was Gia's pet, and he knew she wouldn't harm him, but he was still hesitant to get close to her.

"Anyone with enough bravery and stupidity," Gia muttered. She got up again, finding that sitting still wasn't helping. She started to pace.

"They'll find what's wrong," Kelly assured her. "At least she's not bleeding. That's good, right?"

"I wish she was," Gia grumbled. Bleeding wasn't good, but bleeding made any wound obvious, and treatment was also rather obvious. Clean and close the room. Gia could do that herself. But Tiger wasn't bleeding, and there didn't seem to be a scratch on her. Instead, she was unconscious. For an otherwise healthy cat, that wasn't right.

"Officer Holling?" a doctor called for her and Gia turned to face him. He held up a chart. "We can't find any obvious injuries. We are running a few blood tests to rules out illness or disease, but unless something comes up…"

"She doesn't have diseases," Gia stated confidently. Though Tiger was a tiger, she wasn't like any regular animal. She was the second life of Gia's spirit animal. She could get sick, like any living being, and she could succumb to injuries, but there were no diseases that could plague her. It just wasn't possible with her genetic makeup. No life on earth could overpower a spiritual life.

"I understand," the doctor nodded. "But we're going by a process of elimination. Right now, though, she is stable."

"Can I see her?"

"She's resting upstairs. We would like to keep her overnight to monitor any changes to her condition and to continue running tests. The more we can rule out, the better."

Gia nodded her head, then thanked the Ninja Steel Rangers for picking her and Tiger up, and staying with her until she knew something. She followed the doctor upstairs where Tiger was resting in what appeared to be the break room. She was too big for any of the cages that they used to house their animals overnight, and the doctors felt that leaving her in with the other animals might only cause them all to be a bit agitated. The break room was the safest place for everyone.

"I'll give you two a moment," the doctor said.

Gia nodded her head then sat next to her cat. She gently stroked her fur.

"We'll figure this out, Tiger," she promised her. "We'll help you feel better, we'll find whoever did this and we'll make them pay. Just, get better, okay?"

Tiger didn't answer. She was either still asleep, or unconscious, Gia wasn't sure. She did know it would be a few minutes still before the doctor returned to kick her out, so she still had some time to be with her cat. She wrapped her arms around her cub and continued to stroke her gently.

-Ninja-Steel-

"Well, at least it wasn't a monster attack, right?" Brody asked as the Rangers returned to Ninja Ops from the vet's office. It had been weird being called as Rangers to drive a cat to the doctor, but under the circumstances, they could understand why Gia would reach out to them. It had been difficult for them to safely move Tiger from the street into the back of Brody's truck. They needed a lot of hands and none of them were sure any regular person would feel confident enough to touch a sick or injured tiger.

"Is this better?" Calvin asked. "I mean, Tigers obviously hurt but… we don't know why. At least with a monster we can… you know, kill it."

"We?" Kelly asked. She looked to Calvin, then to the Prism, which still housed his and Preston's stars. The two boys had talked about what happened in the game room with all their teammates, both as a group and individually. Everyone had agreed that forgiving them was for the best. It was easy to understand how the boys might act while being tortured, so forgiving them for letting their better judgment slip was the fair thing to do. However, everyone, including the boys, agreed that forgetting about the incident was out of the question. The Rangers were working on building back that trust, and until it was there, and stronger than ever, neither Calvin nor Preston wanted to take back their Power Stars. "We'll kill it?"

Calvin looked to Kelly, then nodded his head, "Right. You could kill it."

Kelly turned away. She didn't want to acknowledge him more than that. She had agreed with her friends, that forgiving Calvin and Preston was for the best, but she hadn't forgotten how it was Calvin who killed Sarah.

She understood the torture, and the excoriating pain that Calvin and Preston had to endure. She understand how it could cloud their judgement, and make them do things that they would never do. She also understood that Sarah had forgiven them both. Sarah, the victim, had let this go.

Sarah was forgiving, and kind, and fair. Kelly knew that maybe better than anyone. When she had outed Sarah to the school, she knew she had been wrong. She knew she had hurt Sarah, and she knew exactly what that pain and fear would feel like. She understood if Sarah never wanted to talk to her again, and she understood why everyone else at school hated her. Summer Cove wasn't like her previous school. People didn't care who other people loved. Kelly didn't know that until after she outed Sarah and once again made herself the outsider.

Everyone picked on her. Everyone teased her, called her names, excluded her from groups, in class. Even the Rangers, Kelly's best friends, wanted nothing to do with her. It wasn't until Sarah saw the bullying happening first hand that she decided to step in.

It was strange for Kelly. Despite, the fact that Sarah was the victim in all this, Sarah was the one to stand up to the jock and defend Kelly. Sarah was the one to extend the olive branch. Sarah was the one who helped reintroduce Kelly to the school, and by extension, had the school forgive Kelly. The green Ranger would never forget that. Sarah wouldn't let people hurt people. It didn't matter what they had done to her. If she saw injustice, she corrected it.

Kelly loved that about her, and she knew she had been the recipient of Sarah's forgiving heart. So it didn't come as a surprise to hear that Sarah had already forgiven the two people who wanted her dead. However, the difference was, though Kelly had caused a lot of pain, her actions didn't result in Sarah's death.

Calvin had killed Sarah. Kelly wasn't quite ready to just let that go, especially when him giving up his Power Star meant there was now one less person watching her back. If Calvin truly didn't want to repeat his mistakes, Kelly felt he needed to be out there, on the battle field, protecting and helping all his friends.

"In any case," Brody said, bringing the conversation back to Tiger, "Do you think there's anything we can do to help?"

"Gia's been such a huge help to us, it's only right," Hayley nodded her head.

"Tiger's been a huge help," Sarah said. Tiger had been with Sarah for some of her worst moments, and had helped to make them better. She protected Sarah after she had been kidnapped by her mother and Drex, and was there to play with Sarah when she visited Gia and needed a break from all the chaos. When Sarah was having anxiety, Tiger was there to help relieve it, and stayed by Sarah's side as a comfort. Now Tiger was the one in crisis and Sarah desperately wanted to return the favour. "Gia said Emma was going on security footage. Maybe we can pop by and help out?"

"Pop by? To Angel Grove?" Levi asked. "Uh, I hate to break it to you, but you've already missed first and second period, and Mick can only cover you guys for so long."

"Not to mention, it might look suspicious if we're all away for a day," Preston added. He and Calvin had already missed some school as they waited for their injuries to heal up a bit more. Too many people would ask too many questions if they both suddenly showed up to school covered in bruises and cuts when there had been no reports of any accidents. If Hayley, Brody, Sarah and Kelly were to also suddenly miss a day of school, and news got out about Tiger getting sick and the Rangers showing up to help, some people might put the pieces together. The rumour already was that Kelly was the green Ranger, because them both suddenly needing a wheelchair around the same time seemed like too much of a coincidence.

"Cal and Presto are already off school sick," Sarah suggested. "I'm already a known Ranger, so what if the three of us head down?"

Kelly's eyes widened, then she shook her head, "Can't a call to Emma accomplish the same thing? Besides, the attack happened in Summer Cove. Going out to Angel Grove will just delay things."

"What if we helped with the investigation?" Sarah asked. "Calvin and Preston could put on their training suits, and we can walk around and look for clues. Someone hurt Tiger, and if they're stupid enough to do that, maybe they're stupid enough to leave clues behind?"

"It's worth looking into," Brody nodded. "We'll tell Serena where you are. She might want to help out too."

Kelly breathed a sigh of relief hearing this. She knew the boys wouldn't hurt Sarah over nothing, but if they were out alone and Oedius decided to strike, Kelly worried history – or the future – would repeat itself. At least with Serena there, Sarah wouldn't be alone if the boys did turn on her.

"Good idea. Let's go," Kelly said and made her way to the door that would take her and the others straight to school.