As Emma arrived in the Command Centre with RICO, the alarms immediately sounded. She and RICO looked around, completely confused as red lights started to flash.

"What is happening?" RICO asked her. Before Emma could think of an answer, he blasted RICO in the chest with beams from the statue's eyes. RICO looked up to him, his visor glowing deep red. Before he could do anything though, a white, rippling field appeared around him.

"RICO!" Emma called out. "Gosei..."

"You were forbidden to bring him here!" Gosei called out as the others arrived, just a moment behind her. They heard the alarms, and could see RICO restrained in the energy field.

"I guess he took it well." Jake stated, seeing some smoke still emanating from a scorch mark in RICO's chest plate.

"You were FORBIDDEN to bring him here!" Gosei bellowed again as Tensou zoomed into view, beginning to scan RICO. "Tensou, did you detect any foreign signals?"

"There was an attempt made to create a connection between RICO and...the other end of the signal seems to terminate somewhere under the ocean."

"What kind of signal?" Noah asked. Just then, they heard some loud banging and some flashes of light. They turned to see RICO battering into the energy field with his hands.

"Why did the statue attack RICO? What did RICO do to the statue?" RICO asked, hammering into the field, causing Emma to shudder in fear as he hit it, each time with a flash of light and a loud crack. "Let RICO go!"

"RICO, please stop, you're damaging yourself!" Emma begged him, coming up to the field, reaching out as close as she could to the field. She could feel the hair on her hands standing up, and knew an incredible current had to be running through it. Gosei had put him into this field to restrain him and ensure he couldn't attack. "Please!"

RICO looked to Emma, and immediately stopped attacking the field. As he put his arms down by his sides, they could see his hands were badly scorched and smoking.

"Why did statue attack RICO?" RICO asked again. "Emma said she would take RICO somewhere RICO could get help."

"I did, we can help you here!" Emma insisted. "Tensou, can you look over RICO?"

"I'll do what I can." Tensou told her as he shut off the alarm.

"Emma, bringing unfamiliar technology in here is dangerous. The last technology we brought here had to be destroyed." Gosei told her. "We don't know what RICO's purpose is."

"Tensou, this light on his chest started blinking a moment ago." Emma informed him. "It activated just as we were taking pictures. Maybe the infra red on my camera activated something."

"There was a failed attempt at a signal connection." Tensou reminded her. "RICO was put into that energy field before the connection could be made."

"What kind of signal?" Noah asked him. "Could you crack it and see what the instruction was?"

"He was probably designed to activate if someone was stupid enough to bring him to the Command Centre!" Jordan said as he glared at Emma.

"Hey, that's enough!" Gia said angrily, coming to Emma's side protectively.

"Oh come on, can't you see the wounded puppy thing was just an act?" Jordan asked her. "That signal came just as he was brought here. At best Metal Alice was probably trying to get him to show her where the Command Centre is. At worst, he was going to suddenly stop being all cute and fluffy. Isn't that right RICO?"

"RICO is not fluffy. RICO is made of metal." RICO responded.

"Yeah, I'll bet you've got all sorts of weapons in there right?" Jordan asked him. "I'll bet if it wasn't for that energy field, you'd probably be attacking us all right now."

"Jordan, that's enough!" Emma yelled at him. "RICO can't help it if Metal Alice put something in him. He didn't choose that."

"He didn't choose anything, he's a ROBOT!" Jordan said as he got into Emma's face. "He's a walking tin can! He doesn't think, he doesn't choose, he just does what he's told, when he's told. The second Metal Alice doesn't tell him to be a wounded bird to get you all maternal, he..."

Jordan jumped, feeling a harsh sting. He looked to see Tensou looking at him, a taser attachment extended from his body.

"What was that about robots?" Tensou asked him.

"Tensou, I didn't mean..." Jordan started to stammer out, looking around. "I mean, you're different, Gosei made you, you're..."

"I'm only here to do as I'm told and help." Tensou responded, before turning away from him. Gia got into Jordan's face.

"I know you've been through a lot, but back off." Gia warned him. "I think you've said enough."

Jordan just backed away, looking far from happy. Before anyone could say anything, there was a huge explosion, making everyone jump. Looking around, they saw the energy field was gone. RICO was standing, one of his hands now an energy cannon, smoking having been recently fired into the ceiling, smashing the mechanism that created the field. He teleported out of the Command Centre, leaving the Rangers completely dumbfounded.

"You know, somehow...I told you so just doesn't seem strong enough." Jordan stated as Emma stood silently, looking at the place RICO had been standing.

"I...I can't believe...he just..."

"RICO must be recaptured!" Gosei commanded them. "We have no telling what kind of information he has taken. He cannot be allowed to remain active!"

"He seemed so different." Emma stated.

"Well, that's just..."

"I swear Jordan, one more word and I'll crack your head open." Gia warned him. "Right now, let's just find RICO and we'll worry about who should have done what then."

"His signal's hard to locate. The sensor in his chest, the competing signal...it's making him hard to pinpoint." Noah told them. "He's somewhere in the woods."

"Alright, let's split up and find him." Troy answered. They teleported out, aiming for different points of the woods, intending to find RICO before anyone else did. Right now, they had no telling what he was doing or why. All they knew was that right now, they needed to find him first.

Back at the underwater base, Metal Alice was working frantically on the control console while Vrak kept track of things over his communicator.

"What happened?" He asked her. "Why is this taking so long?"

"I saw Gosei, he must have been taken to the Command Centre." Metal Alice told him. "The signal was lost after that. I didn't discern the location from his signal, or activate his attack mode. His signal has re-appeared though. He must have escaped."

"He escaped?" Vrak asked her. "Then find him!"

"I'm trying, there are a lot of signals in the area, something is interfering with his control sensor signal." Metal Alice told him. "I'll need to get closer to him to activate his control mechanism."

"Do what you have to." Vrak told her. "I've never gotten so close to finding where Gosei hides. His reliance on his technology for survival makes him vulnerable. Once we find him, he's as good as destroyed!"

"I'll find Robot 1 C 0." Metal Alice told him as she picked up her tablet. "By the end of the day, I will have Gosei's location."

Meanwhile, in the woods, Emma was desperately searching for RICO. She couldn't believe she had been taken in like that. In that one moment, she had seen what everyone was trying to tell her all along. For all she wanted to believe he was different, she had seen him utilising his energy cannon. As much as she wanted to believe in the good in him, that was still inside him. He was created to be a weapon.

As she rounded a rock, she found RICO sitting on a log outside the cave she had told him to stay in before they saw the sensor activated. He didn't look any different to her than he had done. Emma reached for her morpher seeing him, but as he looked up she paused.

"RICO, you...you ran away." Emma began. "You...you escaped from the energy field."

"Jordan and Gosei wanted to disassemble RICO." He told her. "RICO doesn't want to be disassembled."

"You scared us when you used that cannon." Emma told him. "I thought you promised me you wouldn't hurt anyone."

"RICO didn't hurt anyone. RICO only escaped." He explained to her. "Did RICO do a bad thing?"

"No, you just scared us." Emma told him. RICO looked down to his chest.

"This sensor will let Metal Alice tell RICO what to do." He said, letting Emma see that he understood what had been said. "Metal Alice is not nice to RICO like Emma is. RICO doesn't want to do what Metal Alice tells him to."

Emma just smiled hearing this. Although she knew that people would say it was just programming, she felt in her heart that something was different about the way he was talking. He had expressed the fact he didn't WANT to accept Metal Alice's commands, even though he understood he wouldn't be able to do anything to refuse those orders. If he could feel anything, Emma was sure that he was almost expressing sadness, knowing he couldn't help what was inside him.

"It's alright RICO, I won't let anyone harm you." Emma told him, hugging him tightly. "It might mean we have to hide you for a little while, but...maybe we can remove that sensor. Maybe there's some way we can let you be free."

"Free?" He asked her. Emma just nodded.

"It means you wouldn't have to do anything you didn't want to do." She explained to him. "It would mean no one could make you do something you don't want to do."

"RICO want to be free." RICO responded. "RICO want to be free to be with Emma."

"That's good." Emma told him as the others finally arrived, obviously having had the same thought, that he would go somewhere familiar. Emma held up a hand. "It's alright, he just did what he did because he thought we were going to destroy him. If we take him back, he won't do it again. If we promise not to harm you again, will you promise not to use any of your weapons, and do what we tell you?"

"RICO will do what you say." RICO replied. Emma just smiled.

"Good." She told him. "Now, we need to go back to Gosei. Don't worry, we won't let him harm you..."

"Well, isn't that sweet." They heard a familiar voice saying. They turned in time to see Metal Alice arriving. "This experiment has been most enlightening. Your pathetic human emotions cloud your judgement! If I suspected any of my followers of being a traitor, I would have destroyed them in a second."

Before any of them could respond, she tapped the screen of her tablet. At this range, the signal had no interruptions. Emma watched as both of RICO's arms transformed into cannons, and his face changed into a horrendous, snarling visage.

"Robo gained your trust, just as I knew he would." She announced. "You should have listened to Robo Knight. He's the most evolved among you, and yet instead you fell for the programmed weakling I created to play your emotions."

"RICO?" Emma asked. The robot didn't even respond to her commands.

"He obeys only me now." Metal Alice warned her. "Robot 1 C 0, destroy them!"

RICO levelled one of his blaster cannons at them and opened fire. The Rangers scattered, running for cover, morphing as they went.

"I am so SICK of being right!" Jordan roared as he formed his armour up around himself. He looked to Troy. "Deal with RICO!"

"What?" Troy asked him. "Jordan..."

He was too late though, Jordan rushed towards Metal Alice, drawing his Robo Blade as he went. Troy knew that Jordan didn't really care one way or another about RICO, but on this one occasion, it seemed like his single-minded nature might help them. If Metal Alice was controlling RICO, then maybe taking her out of the equation would help them regain control of him. The only thing that mattered was that they couldn't allow Metal Alice to take him away and analyse his memory. Anything he had learned could be used against them, including the location of the Command Centre.

"Emma, I know you don't want to do this." Troy told his girlfriend. "But RICO's dangerous. He's at least as powerful as Robo Knight. If we have no other choice..."

"I understand." She told him. With that, they broke cover, heading straight for RICO.

A little way off, Jordan was locked in a deadly battle with Metal Alice. His rage filled him, making it hard to breathe as he tried to find a way though her guard. Alice just shoved him into the cliff face, before scoring two harsh slashes to the chest. Jordan looked up at her.

"Now, this is a familiar look isn't it?" She asked him. "This is just how that human looked before I gutted him like a fish."

He was starting to get up, but she kicked him down again. She flicked his Robo Blade away with her sword.

"You saw through my ruse right away didn't you? You weren't fooled by my ruse at all. You just knew that I was using him to get into your Command Centre." She taunted him.

"I figured it was too much to hope for that you'd come up with an original plan." He spat angrily as he struggled to get free of her. "That worm programme in your mask? The one that crashed the system? I bet you were hoping that would give you access."

"Worm programme?" She asked him. She started to laugh, taking Jordan aback slightly. "Is that what Gosei told you? That I tried to use a worm programme in my mask? I really pity you humans, you're so easily deceived. You can't even see when the one you've entrusted your lives to is the biggest liar of all."

"Gosei?" Jordan asked her. "What are you talking about? What does this mean?"

"He's the one with the answers, he's the one keeping the truth from all of you, and yet no matter how many times he sends you to risk your lives, you still never ask him why he's got all the answers at his fingertips, and yet still sends you blindly out into the world." She told him. "It's so pathetic to watch. You deserve so much better. Yet now, you get to die knowing that the only one that could give you everything you seek, is the one you trusted from the beginning."

Jordan finally managed to get his hand free, and threw a rock into her face, staggering her. He snatched up his Robo Blade and rushed to the attack. Metal Alice barely got her blade up in time, but with the power of everything Jordan had behind it, both blades shattered, scattering across the ground.

"NO!" She screamed, seeing the blade in pieces before her. She punched Jordan hard in the stomach, winding him even through the armour, before launching him to the ground. "You ruined everything!"

"Glad to oblige!" Jordan wheezed as she started to pound into him ferociously.

Over at the site of the other battle, RICO's display flickered, and he suddenly became aware of what was happening. When the sword was destroyed, Metal Alice's control signal was destroyed with it. He powered down his attack mode, just as Troy cut him down with his Ultra Sword. He looked up to him from the ground.

"What happened?" He asked. "Metal Alice made RICO attack his friends?"

"RICO?" Emma asked him. "Guys, I think...I think Jordan managed to disrupt the signal!"

"RICO does not want to hurt friends again." RICO told them. "Friends should destroy RICO before..."

"No RICO, we won't do that." Emma told him. She started to try and think of a way to protect him. "Guys, Metal Alice couldn't control him when he was far away right? What if we take him away?"

"Emma..."

"Guys, trust me!" She told them, pulling out her power card. "Gosei Command Ship!"

As the Command Ship showed up, landing before them, Emma grabbed RICO and started to lead him towards the ship.

"Emma is risking her life for RICO." He stated. "Emma should not...

"It's what friends do." She told him. "I'm not going to let Metal Alice control you again."

"You take him away." Troy told her. "We'll go and find Jordan."

"Jordan!" RICO called out. "Metal Alice is destroying Jordan!"

Before Emma knew what was happening, RICO ran from the ship, bowling over all the Rangers as he went. By the time they got up, he was long since gone.

"RICO!" She screamed after him, struggling to turn the ship around.

Elsewhere, Jordan's heads up display showed that his power level was reaching critical levels. He could feel his armour buckling and cracking as she struck him, and knew it wasn't going to be long before she'd get through to him. In a last ditch effort to stop her, he shifted his bodyweight, taking both of them over a cliff. As they tumbled, slamming into the rock face, he saw her face strike a rock. By the time they stopped at the foot of the cliff, she pulled herself to her feet, and came over to him. He tried to get up, but by now, he was well and truly spent.

"You are troublesome, but squeezing the life from you will be worth it!" She told him. Jordan just looked up.

"You sound like you're taking all this kind of personally for a machine." He told her. Metal Alice grabbed him, lifting him up. It was only then that he saw her face. It was torn, and leaking...but it didn't look like any form of machine fluids. In fact, if he wasn't mistaken...it almost looked like blood. "You...you aren't just a machine are you?"

She didn't answer, slamming him into the ground a few more times. Eventually, his armour gave up the ghost, and returned inside him. He looked to her, hardly able to breathe.

"Why?" He asked her. "Why do you have a vendetta against me?"

"That, I'm afraid is something you will never..."

Her words were cut off as RICO slammed into her, having controlled his fall enough to arrive on the scene. Jordan could hardly believe what he was seeing as the others arrived to help him.

"RICO's attacking Metal Alice!" Gia called out. They watched as he snatched her into a full-nelson.

"Robot 1 C 0, release me at once!" She screamed.

"Metal Alice is bad. Metal Alice try to hurt RICO's friends!"

She struggled against him, causing sparks to fly as they collided with a rock face.

"My signal...why is it not...?"

"RICO does not want to hurt friends, not even Jordan!" He told her. The truth was that while destroying her sword weakened the signal, it came from Metal Alice herself. RICO could feel her will in his systems, trying to take over, but any time she tried to force him to comply, he just remembered that she was hurting his friends.

"You can't resist me forever!" She told him. "My signal will regain control of you!"

"Leave him alone!" Gia screamed at him. As she was about to run forward though, RICO fired an eye-beam, stopping her.

"Stay away!" Rico warned her, before looking to Metal Alice. "RICO does not need to resist you forever. RICO only needs fifteen seconds!"

"Fift..." Noah started to say, before getting a horrible realisation. He and Jake picked up Jordan. "Guys, hit the deck!"

The Rangers all threw themselves into cover, just as RICO's self-destruct mechanism activated, causing a huge explosion that ripped through the woods. As the dust settled, they broke cover, seeing the charred, damaged form of Metal Alice shakily regaining her feet.

"Another day Rangers!" She snarled. "This isn't over Robo Knight! Your life WILL be MINE!"

With that, she disappeared. The Rangers all gathered in the clearing, Emma was noticeably silent.

Troy just put his arm around Emma as she surveyed the scene, finding nothing of RICO left behind.

"Come on guys." He said sadly. "There's nothing else we can do here."

With that, they all made their way home, all thinking about RICO, and the sacrifice he had made.