Dropping off the first two morphers to Troy and Noah had been fairly straightforward. Gia explained the lesson Serena put her through as well as what she had learned from it. She then apologized to the boys for running off after Vrak on her own and ignoring their warnings for her to stop and wait for the rest of them. Both Troy and Noah were quick to accept her apologies and told her the only thing that matter was that she was okay and they were glad Gosei would keep her on the team.

When she got to Jake's house, she hesitated to tell him about the lesson. She didn't want to go over again what had happened to him. She barely managed to choke out the words when Jake took her into his arms and held her.

"Vrak wasn't the one making me suffer," he told her which only made her start to sob a little harder. "But you've learned from it. That's not going to happen. You're back, you have your powers, we're going to keep each other safe."

"No matter what happens to me," Gia said, "Don't you ever, ever, go after Vrak on your own."

"You too," Jake pulled her in for a soft kiss and then took his morpher from her hands. He could see she was still upset but there was nothing he could for her anymore except hold her again and tell her everything would work out for the best as long as she remembered what she learned. After a few moments Serena had to interrupt. It was getting late and she didn't want to bring Gia home after dark, especially when there was still so much to talk about with Emma and her mother.

"We're training with Kevin and Mia in the woods tomorrow," Jake said, though he was sure Gia would hear about it once she got home. "I promise to try a little harder with the meditation stuff so Vrak can't hurt me even if he tries."

He knew that would calm Gia down a little bit, and it did. She smiled at him, kissed him again, and then left for home with Serena.

When they were home, it was nothing like Gia expected. Her mother got up from the couch and stormed off to her room, slamming the door as she disappeared. Emma, Mrs. Goodall said, was already hiding out in her bedroom. Only Mrs. Goodall, Kevin, Mia and the kids were ready to greet her, though Riley only said a quick hello and then ran upstairs, while Jesse closed his eyes for another nap.

"So how did it go?" Kevin and Mia pulled Serena aside while Mrs. Goodall listened to Gia tell her about the lesson. Serena looked to her teammates with a little smile.

"She's a quick study. As soon as we left the command center she and I talked. She knew right away what she did wrong."

"You always said she was smart," Mia nodded her head.

"She learns faster than you did," Kevin teased Serena. The white Ranger rolled her eyes.

"She got the message that she actually needs to be around if she wants to keep looking after her friends," Serena said. "She still wants to see Vrak go down. I think we all do, but she'd rather he not have the last laugh. It's kind of like what we always told each other. You can't protect someone if you're dead."

"Like we told you," Mia smirked as she teased Serena. "You're probably the one who ran into trouble the most."

"Shut up. My experience makes me the best mentor for these new kids, so take that," Serena stuck out her tongue. Mia was about to respond with something equally childish but was stopped when she heard a grunt from the stairs that sounded a lot like Riley. When the three Samurai looked up, they saw the little girl pushing Emma on her desk chair down the hallway.

"She's home, Emma, just talk to her," Riley said to the pink Ranger. "You don't have to be scared anymore. Power Rangers don't not become Rangers. The scary picture can't take her powers away."

"Riley, the stairs!" Kevin shouted when he saw Riley was pushing Emma's chair a little too close to the stairs and both risked tumbling down. Emma, though stood up at the top of the stairs and grabbed Riley's arm. The chair wasn't too fortunate as it came crashing down.

"Whoops," Riley said as she watched the chair fall. "Too far."

Gia and Mrs. Goodall, hearing the crash, stepped into the hallway to investigate. Gia spotted Emma and reached into her bag.

"Gosei finished the morphers."

"I don't care," Emma turned away and started to walk back to her room by Riley grabbed her around the legs.

"Don't be stubborn."

Gia bit her lip and waited for Emma to listen to Riley and look back down the stairs. She smiled hopefully, "I learned my lesson."

"I know."

"I'm not running off after Vrak again. We'll get Dr. Oliver back as a team and once we have a plan. A good plan."

"I know."

"Emma…"

"What did Gosei say?"

Gia smirked as she realized what Emma wanted to hear, and was possibly scared to hear. Fortunately, she had good news. She set Emma's temporary morpher down and reached into her bag to pull out her real morpher, "I've got it back."

"Powers and all?"

"Do you really think I'm going to let you fight aliens and mutants alone? Of course, powers and all. This isn't just a toy."

Emma smiled then hurried down the stairs and hugged Gia tightly.

"I was worried Gosei would kick you off for good and you'd…"

"Ignore him? I promise, I won't do that. Powers or no, I'm helping, but I'm not doing anything stupid. I kind of have to be alive if I want to defeat Vrak, right?"

"If not he wins," Emma nodded her head. Gia smiled, hugged her best friend again, and then remembered she had something she wanted to ask. She pulled away.

"Em… Serena used a Symbol on me while we were gone. It killed me so…"

"What?" Emma shouted and turned to Serena. Gia held her back.

"Listen to the complete sentence," Gia chuckled. "The Symbol killed me to show me what the future would be like if I did something like this again and… well, died. I saw what all the others would do but you… disappeared."

"Where?"

"I thought you'd know," Gia shrugged her shoulders. "Ryan, my guide, didn't have an answer for me. She couldn't say whether you were dead or alive or…"

"I don't know where I'd go," Emma answered. "And don't you dare make me ever find out. It's probably not good, though."

Gia nodded her head and smiled as she pulled her best friend in for another hug.

"Um… Gia?" Riley called from the top of the stairs and started to make her way down slowly. "There's a weird noise coming from your mommy's room."

"You should talk with her," Mrs. Goodall said to Gia. "She's having a hard time with this."

Gia looked up the stairs nervously and then nodded her head. She knew she would have to face her mother. She wanted to have a talk with her. Her lesson with Serena hadn't just shown her what would happen after she died. She learned a lot about the way her mother cared for her. She always knew what she meant to her mother. Both her parents made sure she knew they cared about her and loved her from the time she was born.

But her mother had it together. Gia had seen her cry since her father's death, but rarely. She knew her mother was devastated. She knew her mother hadn't been the same since. She couldn't expect to have the same mother she had before her father died, it simply wasn't possible. Joe Moran had been a very important part of the family, and a very important person to her mother.

Gia knew all that. She knew her mother loved her father. She knew her mother missed her father. She knew that, now that her father was gone, her mother was even more terrified of something happening to her than before. But Gia never imagined it was to the point where, if she died, her mother would also die. She never imagined that, every day, her mother's only reason for getting out of bed, her only reason to keep going, was her.

She climbed the stairs and nervously she knocked on her mother's door. She was yelled at to leave but she didn't take it too personally. Her mother couldn't be certain it was her on the other side.

Despite being told where to go, Gia opened the door and stepped into her mother's bedroom. Her mother was on the bed, head in her hands. Gia took out her morpher.

"You're probably the only one who won't be happy to hear I'm still the yellow Ranger."

"Gia, get out."

"Mom, I…"

"I don't care, Gia," her mother shook her head. "What difference does it make if you have your powers back or not? Get out. Leave me alone."

Gia wouldn't leave.

"If it means anything…"

"Gia, you are this close to pushing me to my breaking point," Mrs. Moran growled and held her fingers millimeters apart to prove her point. "If you know what's good for you…"

"That's what I wanted to tell you," Gia said. "Serena put me through a lesson and…"

"I don't care, Gia!" her mother shouted and jumped up from the bed. "What you did the other day…"

"Mom…"

"I gave birth to you, Gia! I raised you! I took you to the doctor when you were sick. I help you with homeword! I've invested the last seventeen years of my life entirely to you, and this is what I get?"

Gia bit her lip and tried to hold back her tears by reminding herself of what she had been told in her lesson. Her mother cared, she was just angry.

"You've taken everything I've done, everything everyone's ever done for you, and you throw it away? For what? What were you possibly thinking? Or maybe I was missing something. For seventeen years I thought I somehow made this daughter with such a beautiful mind that she would accomplish so many amazing things. Was I wrong? Am I just blind? Don't tell me you're actually so stupid you're going to throw away everything you have and run into a battle against a super powered alien who has it out for you!"

Gia clenched her fists. Her mother was angry. She kept reminding herself her mother was just angry.

"I'm not going to do it again," Gia said and wished she hadn't said anything. She didn't want to cry in front of her mother. She was the one in the wrong. She had no right to cry. Her voice betrayed her, though. She cleared her throat, to pretend she just had something caught that changed her tone.

Mrs. Moran shook her head and turned away from Gia. She stormed into the ensuite. Gia tried going after her but the door was locked. She knocked once and her mother answered with a loud pound.

"Go away!"

"Mom, I'm sorry," Gia said and decided she would take advantage of the fact that her mother locked herself into a corner to talk to her. "I… just didn't think my plan through. I just wanted to stop Vrak and I set my sights on that. I kind of ignored everything else."

Gia looked up at the doorknob and wondered if maybe there was a way she could get inside. She got up and started to look around her mother's room for something she could use.

"I wasn't trying to be stupid. I wasn't trying to hurt anyone, especially you. I know you don't like that I'm a Ranger. I know you don't like that I have to be in danger. That alone has to be hard enough. To know Vrak's picking on me too, and I'm letting him control me like that… I know that upsets you and I'm sorry."

Gia found one of her mother's hairpins and decided to try that. She walked back to the door and tried to silently work the lock as she continued to explain herself to her mother.

"Serena taught me a lesson. While we were away she used a Symbol on me. It's really hard to explain, but I went to a future where I did something exactly like this and I got myself killed. I saw what happened to my friends, to Jake, to Emma, and to you and I didn't like it. I don't want that to happen, mom. I honestly don't care what happens to me as long as you guys are safe, but I don't want to leave you guys in such… misery. Especially over something so stupid. Trying to save Dr. Oliver by myself was stupid, selfish, irresponsible and reckless. I scared you, I know I did, and I'm really sorry I did. I promise, mom, I'm not going to do it again."

She got the lock to give and opened the door. She saw her mother sobbing on the bathroom floor and sat down beside her. Almost instantly, her mother took her in her arms and held her tight. Gia wrapped her arms around her mother.

"I'm sorry, mom. I didn't mean to scare you. I can't say I won't ever put myself in danger again, but I promise it's not going to be something stupid like running off. My life is important to me and I know I'm important to you. For some reason, despite being a pain in the ass, you still want me around."

Mrs. Moran nodded her head and pulled away from Gia. She took her daughter's face in her hands gently.

"I don't know what I'd do without you, Gia," she whispered through her tears and Gia had to fight to keep her own back. She knew what would happen. "Your father's already gone. I can't… I can't lose you too."

"I'm going to do all I can so that doesn't happen," Gia promised. "I want to beat Vrak, but I want to live to see the look on his face when I come out on top. So I'll fight him, but I'll make sure I have my team behind me. I'll make sure we've got a plan. I'll make sure I'm safe. There's only one future that I want to see come true and it involves all the people I care about staying alive, and me still being around."

Mrs. Moran finally managed to smile and kissed Gia's forehead. Then she remembered the bandage around her daughter's arm and gently reached for it. Gia winced when her mother started to unravel the bandage.

"Now you're just asking for a heart attack."

"I want to know what happened," Mrs. Moran said. "Did you face Vrak? What did he do?"

"Vrak and I met. He didn't stick around," Gia said. "Robo-Knight got to me before he turned up. If it makes you feel any better, I challenged Vrak with Robo-Knight by my side."

"You probably should have mentioned that earlier," Mrs. Moran said and then she winced when she saw the bite marks along her daughter's arm. She sighed and reached for the first aid kit under the sink. "Not that it would change the fact you still ran off on your own."

"I know," Gia nodded. She winced as her mother rubbed the disinfectant along her wounds. "Ow, mom…"

"I'm cleaning it out. I want you alive no matter what, but ideally you have all your limbs."

"It's not that bad."

"These look like bite marks, Gia. Now, Vrak's a big and scary monster to me, but even I know he's not that big."

Gia sighed, "Mom, not that I'm trying to justify running off by myself…"

"Because you were completely wrong and you'll never do something that stupid again, lest your poor mother suffer a heart attack from all the stress you've caused her."

"Yeah, that," Gia said. "I know what Vrak's done to Dr. Oliver. It could help us come up with the right plan to get him back."

"Dr. Oliver was there?"

"Vrak wanted a pet," Gia nodded her head. "I guess he's tired of wasting his own monsters on us. You remember how mutants kidnapped Emma and that's how we found out her dad wasn't her dad?"

"Yeah…" Mrs. Moran nodded her head hesitantly, unsure she wanted to know where her daughter was headed with this thought.

"Vrak used the information the mutants collected to… I guess change Dr. Oliver. He's now part human, part dragon."

"He…"

"There's no telling what the mutants and Vrak can do with the information they managed to gather. Dr. Oliver turned into a dragon. Vrak hinted that, if Dr. Oliver hadn't taken my place, I'd have been a tiger. Dr. Oliver bit my arm. He might not have control of what he's doing, but we know he's human. He's a friend. We can't destroy him like the other monsters."

"You certainly can't," Mrs. Moran shook her head. "You've got to turn him back."

"We've got to get him back first. Dragon or no."

"It's going to be dangerous, you're saying?"

"My team will help," Gia promised. "I'll tell them about Dr. Oliver. We'll come up with a way to bring him back."

Mrs. Moran nodded her head. She finished wrapping a new bandage around her daughter's arm and then kissed her again.

"Go to bed," she said to Gia. "You'll need rest for tomorrow. Mia and Kevin already made arrangements with Ms. Chesterfield to substitute for Dr. Oliver. Until he comes home, you'll be spending the school days training. It'll just have to look like a gym class."

"Jake will be happy," Gia said.

"I'll be in to check up on you later. I just need a little time to myself right now."

Gia nodded. She hugged her mother one more time before leaving to go to bed. It was getting late and she was rather tired. When she was gone, Mrs. Moran got to her feet. She cleaned up the bloodied bandaged, put away the first aid-kit and then stepped outside into her room. She sat on her bed and took a few deep breathes to keep calm. Then she heard a knock on the door.

"Vanessa?" Mrs. Goodall walked in. "Did you talk?"

"She's not just saying things I want to hear, right?"

"You know her better than I do," Mrs. Goodall sat next to her. "Is everything okay? I heard some yelling."

"Yeah, everything's fine. You know how I worry."

"There's really no quitting in motherhood, huh?" Mrs. Goodall chuckled. "No matter what, you've got to love that pain in the ass."

"No matter what," Mrs. Moran smiled. "Sometimes, I really wish Emma would rub off on her a little more."

"So did she talk about what happened?"

"Yeah. We also talked about that little bandaid she's sporting on her arm."

"Yeah? What happened?"

"My daughter was bit by a dragon human hybrid."

Mrs. Goodall frowned, looked to Mrs. Moran just to be sure she heard her right. When Mrs. Moran nodded she sighed, "Alright, even though I know about the Ranger stuff, can you lie to me sometimes?"

"No. If I have to know it, you do too."

"Seriously? How am I supposed to get used to the fact that Gia was bit by a dragon?"

"The same way you're supposed to get used to knowing that dragon was created when mutants kidnapped Emma to analyze her DNA."

"Wait? What?"

"You don't really think Gia just, one day, decided she would get a paternity test for Emma done, did you?"

"Mutants kidnapped my daughter! What did you tell me that time?"

"I don't know," Mrs. Moran shrugged, "Probably that the girls would be home late."

"So I thought she was hanging out with friends, meanwhile she was kidnapped?"

"Not a good feeling, is it?"

"No!"

Mrs. Moran hugged her best friend gently and then got up, "You can tell Serena that if she wants a night away from the couch, she can sleep in here. I think I'm going to spend the night with my daughter."

"I… I might also," Mrs. Goodall nodded her head in agreement and both left for their daughters' bedrooms.