Ahhh Iuploaded the wrong chapter last time. Oops! Sorry!

thank dead god for the Notes App on the iPhone, writing this one on my way to London to go to an art gallery/backstage at my Christmas show! Whoop!

Once again, Taz/Up belong to team starkid! The rest at OC's! :P

Nearly a year had passed since Up had gone back down to earth. Taz sat, bored out of her mind in Calculus. She didn't understand calculus. Not even Freya understood it, and she would get A's in every algebra test they had at the Academy. Taz silently let her eyes drag around the scene about her. Freya was scribbling away, and no matter how many times she had explained it, Taz didn't understand. George and Jasper say hunched over at the table in front, their eyes focusing over the paper airplanes they were devising for Geography, the next lesson. Saki was sat to Taz's left and was slowly typing numbers into the calculator on her desk. Aliciana and her friends were sat towards the back, most of them complaining loudly. About half of them had already half finished the sheet. Taz was on question five. The first four answers were extracted after numerous pleading to the four teenagers sat around her. Now she was stuck.

"Any leftover work is to be finished for next lesson." Miss Grayson announced. The elderly teacher then clicked a button and the date of the next lesson appeared behind her on the chalkboard. Everyone groaned and reached for their agendas. As soon as the agendas were finished, classes were dismissed for the day. As Taz, Saki and Freya left the Maths Class room, Aliciana came up behind them.

"Hey Squirtle." She greeted Taz.

"What do jou want?"

"Sorry? What did you say?" she smirked. "You said something that sounded like Jello halfway through."

"What do JOU WANT?" Taz roared.

"Calm down, Squirts." Aliciana giggled and then she and her friends walked off.

"Taz! Saki! Freya!" Kit was calling them from the top of the corridor, with Kian on her hip. The baby boy gurgled and shoved his chubby fists out to the girls as the neared. As all three began to coo over the nine month old, Taz looked up at Kit.

"Any News?"

"All we know is that the squadron lost a lot of their men in Nevada a while ago, and lost contact. We have no idea how Up is. Rick's to anxious to do anything." Kit sighed. Kian's eyes fixed on Kit's face at the mention of his fathers name. Tax couldn't help but think that Kian looked slightly like his Uncle. He had the same blue eyes the brothers shared. As Saki and Kit began to talk about Nursing stuff, Freya turned to Taz.

"You've got to stop thinking about him."

"What?!"

"I mean it."

"Who said I was thinking about him?" Taz snarled.

"Whenever you see Rick, Kit or Jed, you ask them for news. If there is some, you keep thinking about him. And no you can't write him a letter because he's always on the move, but for dead god-damned sake, stop sniffing every time you talk about him!" Freya whispered. Saki and Kit were talking about some sort of gauze related thing. Freya looked at them all before turning away.

"Lieutenant?" an ensign called.

"Yes?" Up barked back. They had lost their communicator back in the desert and only a quarter of Rangers remained. Up was sat beside a rock, using the small amount of shade to cool his burning skin. Commander Trent was with a small group looking for Water or communication devices. The robots had them trapped in the desert, and the rangers were dying of thirst and hunger.

"Ensign Wells, well, he's hallucinating." The ensign informed Up. Standing up, Up grabbed a Medi pack and walked over to where the ensign, Hunter his badge read, was stood. A curly haired ensign was curled up, and as soon as Up entered his vision of sight, Wells backed away screeching. Up dispensed a tiny tiny amount of water into the mans mouth.

"You better pray to Dead God that he makes it." Up informed Hunter. Hunter nodded and sat beside his friend.

"Lieutenant!" Commander Trent's voice boomed. Just peaking a ridge, was the four rangers who had left two days ago, holding a chunk of metal. When it was back at their tiny camp, Up recognised it as an old style communicator. Their science officer, Gretchen, started to take it apart and re build it. Up looked around as this was going on. The distant crosses far away on the horizon marked how far they had traveled in two days before finding shelter. Some crosses were closer to the camp. And all those crosses marked their dead Rangers. That night, there were four new crosses, Wells included. He had died an hour after the communicator was being fixed. Up let Hunter and some other Ensigns sit with his as the Dehydration took the dying twenty year old's life. Then they dug a hole, best they could in this heat, and buried him. One other had died of Heatstroke and the other two from their wounds. Up remembered using his limited first aid skills on one of them. He would have survived if he had done a better job, but it was the best they could do while walking over a hot desert, to all their dooms. Ups mind wandered to Rick and Kit, and Up remembered he was now an Uncle. His mind then lazily dragged itself to an image of Jed, before most of the other Lieutenants filled his mind, until his thoughts reached Taz. He missed her. The way she would stand up for her rights, how she laughed, how tiny she felt as he carried her over the dead bodies of her whole family. Up then shook his head and walked over to help with the communicator. Gretchen had been working for hours now, and as Up neared, the Radio buzzed to life. Suddenly everyone's heads looked up to the hunk of metal, as the Ambassador read out the evening announcements. The G.L.E.E. anthem rang out and the radio went back to communicator calls. The rangers heard different attempts to contact them, which all failed as they were ringing the old receiver that was somewhere in this sandy wasteland. Gretchen started to twist the screwdriver around in the phone part of the radio and in no time, Commander Trent was talking down the phone into the Radio. Suddenly twenty different voices sounded from the radio, with the Ambassador screaming that a pod is being prepared for them as they speak. The rangers all stayed still for a minuet, then the realisation hit that they were saved.

"TAZ!" Kit screamed running down the hallway, before banging on the door about twelve meters from the elevator. Kian grizzled as she ran, he was strapped to her tummy in a baby carrier.

"Si?" Taz opened the door. Saki emerged from one across the hallway, looking confused.

"They've found Up!" Kit exhaled breathlessly. Taz paused. Saki looked at Kit.

"Jou mean... Up's coming back?"