After the attack on the Moran home, the Rangers were left to pick up the pieces. They had defeated all the Guards that had invaded their home and then noticed the space ship over the city. Seeing it hadn't stayed long, and the invasion of the city seemed to return to normal just after its disappearance, the Rangers could only assume they got what they came for.

"Vekar's prince, but Vrak's the favourite son?" Noah asked as he placed a kitchen chair upright.

"Does it surprise you?" Orion asked. "Given Vekar's attitude, something tells me he's not exactly..."

"Competent?" Rebecca said. "Vrak is the better fighter. He's got the better plans. And he doesn't run off sulking when they go wrong like Vekar does. He takes matters into his own hands."

"Yeah, but it's not like Vekar didn't have any good invasion ideas," Noah pointed out.

"Maybe they weren't his ideas," Rebecca suggested to him. "Maybe he just got the credit because he's a bratty prince."

"It should have been me," Troy whispered. He turned to Ryan, who was doing her own version of cleaning up by checking out everything that was broken. "I killed Prince Vekar. I did it with my own hands, I..."

"Troy, Vekar wasn't even liked by his father, apparently," Rebecca assured him. "If you wanted to be arrested, you picked the wrong brother to kill."

"I'm the red guy," Troy looked up. "If they're going to come after anyone..."

"Vrak was obsessed with Gia," Emma pointed out as she walked into the kitchen with a bowl of water and a rag. "If those Imperial Guards salvaged anything of his, it probably had Gia's name all over it. No one could have covered for her."

Emma placed the bowl and the rag down on what was left of the counter and then turned to Jake. He was sitting in a corner staring at his morpher hopelessly. "Jake..."

"What if she doesn't make it home?" Jake looked up and asked. The Rangers turned to him.

"Gia's been in tight situations before," Jordan assured him. "If anyone can get out of this mess, it's her."

"She just woke up from the pounding Vrak gave her. She was out for days!"

"Tensou's laser..."

"What if that was my last chance to be with her?" Jake asked. "What if this is always how this was supposed to end? She hasn't even done anything to this emperor guy and..."

"She killed his son."

"So did Troy!" Jake shouted and pointed to the red Ranger. "This emperor dude had two sons. Why couldn't he go after both of them?"

"It would have been better," Rebecca agreed. Troy turned to his sister in shock.

"Becca!"

"What? You have your powers," Rebecca shrugged. "Gia wouldn't be all alone. She doesn't even have a morpher. She's got no powers. And she's still not a hundred percent after Vrak nearly killed her. I'm not saying I'd wish you into enemy hands. I'm just saying, if there was the option for a double kidnap over this... you know."

"You're screwed up," Troy sighed and shook his head.

"Guys, we can't just sit here and sulk," Orion said. "These Imperial Guards and their emperor have made the first move. We need to start fighting back."

"With what powers?" Jake scoffed and lifted the frying pan he had used to fight when an Imperial Guard took his Snake Axe, "This'll only get us so far. There's only four of us with our Megaforce Powers, and those feel like toys compared to what we're used to. These Imperial Guards are like Loogies or X-Borgs on steroids, and if this emperor guy's the real big bag and we had this much trouble against his two sons..."

"So that's it? We're just going to lay down and let him take this planet?" Orion asked. He walked over to Jake, "You're just going to let him take Gia?"

"Well... no, but..."

"I didn't get the chance to fight for my planet. I didn't have any of the weapons or the powers we have right now. You guys are Power Rangers, and your old suits might not be as powerful, but they're still ten times more than what I had. I'd have killed for them when the Armada took over Andrasia..."

"Orion..."

"If we're going to lose everything," Orion stated as he turned to the rest of his team, "I'd rather go down fighting. If I'm going to lose my home a second time, I want to know I gave it my best. I'd rather die fighting for the people I care about and the home I love than sit back and lose it all anyways. This emperor guy's going to have to go through all of us."

"Me!" Ryan said with a smile and clapped her hands. Orion nodded and lifted her into his arms.

"The little one's ready for a fight. Don't tell me Little Red's got more courage and strength than all of you."

"Ryan's not fighting," Troy shook his head and took his sister from Orion's arms. He set her down and redirected her attention to the living room. "But I will. I've come too far to just give up now."

"What the hell," Noah muttered. "I've got nothing better to do."

"That's the spirit?" Orion frowned.

"Someone's got to save Gia's butt," Emma nodded. She turned to Jake, "Are you really going to let the emperor take your fiancée?"

Jake sighed and shook his head. He got up to his feet and then held up the frying pan.

"I'll take out his whole empire with this if I've got to. We'll show him he's messed with the wrong planet."

-Megaforce-

Gia couldn't see. The Guards had covered her eyes with a blindfold. But she could hear Tiger's cries and growls and it broke her heart.

"Stop it!" she screamed to whoever was hurting her cub. "Let her go! Please!"

She tried to get to her feet, but two Guards grabbed her shoulders and forced her to her knees.

"Emperor, shall we just..."

"No," a deep, gruff voice answered and it struck fear into Gia's heart. She knew who he was, though she had never seen or really heard of him. He was the emperor. He was Vrak and Vekar's father and the true force behind the invasion. If his henchmen were anything to go by, he was stronger than anything the Rangers had faced before. "This... mutant will be my message to these... Rangers."

"Don't you dare hurt her or I'll..." Gia tried to get up again but the Guards held her down and one punched her in the stomach. She doubled over and let out a cry of pain.

"Finish with this mutant," the emperor announced. "Send it back to where it came from. Tell the Rangers they have a week to surrender before the true invasion begins."

"And this Ranger?" one of the Guards asked as he grabbed the back of Gia's hair and pulled her head up.

"Make an example out of her. Show this planet it is better to accept their fate. I cannot be stopped."

"As you command," a Guard answered and then he and another grabbed Gia's arms and started to drag her off. She screamed and tried to fight but couldn't get herself freed in time for what happened next. She heard Tiger cry out and then felt a tug on her heart, similar to the one she felt the first time she had lost Tiger.

"No! No! Tiger!"

A door slammed and Gia was dragged down what she could only assume was a long hallway.

Back in the throne room, a Guard picked up Tiger and then headed down another hallway to a smaller space craft. He dumped the cub in the back of his ship and then took off for Earth. He landed in the same neighbourhood where he had picked up the Tiger and carried her out of the ship. Almost instantly, the Rangers were out on the street, weapons at the ready, but they seemed to relax just a little bit when they saw what he was holding.

"This is a warning from our Emperor," he announced. "Surrender now or we will take no mercy on those who stand in our way."

"Where's Gia?" the one in black shouted. The Imperial Guard shook his head and turned back to his space ship but he didn't make it inside. Something shot him in the back and knocked him off his feet. As he rolled over to look up, he saw the black Ranger standing over him. He had recovered the Snake Axe one of his men had taken from him.

"We have a message for the emperor as well," Jake said and then brought his Snake Axe down, piercing through the body of the Imperial Guard. "We're not going down without a fight."

While he made sure the Imperial Guard was actually dead, Emma powered down and raced over to Tiger. She saw the cub was bound tightly, with a rope around her shout to act as a very tight, very painful muzzle, and more rope binding all four of her legs together.

"Come on, Tiger, don't do this," Emma whispered. Troy gave her his sword and she cut through the rope carefully. However, Tiger still lay limp. Emma worried the burn on the cub's side was much worse than it looked. "Tiger, please. You're okay now. You're safe."

It wasn't a pleasant sound, but a panicked, pained, and sad whine from Tiger let Emma and the rest of the Rangers know she was alive. She suddenly squirmed as she tried to get up. Emma held her down gently.

"Shh. Shh, it's okay. You're okay," she whispered. She scooped the cub up in her arms and then took off her jacket to wrap her up. Tiger continued to whine and struggle. Emma knew exactly what she was doing. She was looking for Gia. "We'll get her back," she promised the cub.

"We should get her home," Jake suggested. "She looks hurt. When we get Gia back, she'll kill us if we let that burn go unchecked."

"It's not my first wild animal burn," Emma said with a sigh as she kept Tiger close to her chest. Her friends all looked to her curiously. She shrugged, "Relax, it's still my first tiger. Some kids thought it would be funny to start a campfire in the woods and leave it. Once the fire department doused the flames, I noticed a baby fox with a burn and... took it home."

"Of course you did," Noah rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Did the fox recover?" Jake asked. Emma nodded.

"Completely. I released him a few weeks later."

"That's good enough for me," Jake said. He placed his hand gently on Tiger's head, "We'll take care of you until mommy comes home."