The Nighlok was rampaging through the street, its bulbous body littered with red tumors stomping around with its spiked club.

Jayden and the other Rangers arrived at the scene. Where Lauren was already combating the monster.

Her Red Samurai armor was wrapped around her as she parried the club with her Spin Sword.

"You're late," She muttered to Jayden.

He frowned from under his helmet and summoned his sword, which he swung into the body of the creature.

It growled and slammed its club down, knocking Jayden right into the dirt.

Noah and Emma flanked its side with their weapons, while Jake and Gia each assaulted it with their respective weapons.

Lauren then blasted the Nighlok with a wave of fiery Symbol Power. The fire washed over the enemy, and when it subsided she was mid-air, her Spin Sword engulfed in flames.

She struck down the creature, and it began to grow.

By the time the Rangers ended the Nighlok's second life, Lauren was gone. Jayden didn't know what to expect, it wasn't like she was going to be waiting to congratulate them.

He sighed, feeling deflated.

"Hey Emma," He said, "What are you doing after this?"

She shrugged, "Home I guess. I have a test I should study for."

"Can I come with?"

She smiled, "Sure."


Her room smelled kind of sweet, with pink walls lined with various photographs.

Jayden examined them all, trying to imagine what it would have been like to be all of those places, to have as much fun as she was having.

His eyes found a picture of her mom. She smiled despite her pale and hollow face, freshly picked flowers in her hair.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked.

Jayden looked at her blankly for a second before shaking the thoughts away.

"Yeah- maybe…" He muttered.

"Is it Lauren?" She asked.

"Yeah," Jayden admitted, too exhausted to lie.

"Why don't you talk to her?" She asked.

"I abandoned her," He said with his head down. "There's no going back from that."

"You can still try," Emma suggested. "You're family after all."

"Our family doesn't work like that," Jayden said. "Everything is honor and tradition." He paused and reflected how he'd been when he joined this team, how stubborn he'd acted.

"Yeah I know," Emma said, "But if she's anything like you then you'll be able to break through if you try hard enough."

Jayden stood up, "Yeah… maybe you're right."

She quickly pulled him into a hug and whispered, "You got this."

Jayden grinned as he walked out of her room.

Maybe he did have this.


Gia did not have this. She felt ice in her stomach as she stood outside of her brother's room.

She didn't want to do this now, but she had to move quickly before her parents got home.

She knocked, and a weak voice replied. "What?"

"Can I come in?" She asked.

"Sure… why not," He spat.

Gia opened the door and found him slumped over his bed, scrolling on his phone.

Gia awkwardly sat down at his desk and looked down at him. "What happened between you and Axel?"

"Nothing," Brad muttered. "It was a mistake and I just want to move past it."

Gia rolled her eyes, he'd used that flat tone after every other fit he'd ever thrown.

"Look…" She said, feeling a mixture of emotions in her stomach. She didn't want to have this talk, but the thought of Emma being mad and Jake pestering her pushed her forward. "He's really upset. You should at least talk to him."

"I messed up," He said and shot up. "I shouldn't have led him on. I-I'm not like that. What if dad found out?"

Gia felt pain as she watched the rollercoaster of emotions.

She couldn't imagine him with another man- not like that…

But seeing how distraught he was…

She was starting to think that might be way worse…

"I'm going to the gym," He said and walked past her without saying another word.


Baron scowled as he sat alone in his room. He'd destroyed the Nighlok, showing Noctis his power, yet the ancient fool remained silent.

He was completely stumped, and that bothered him far more than anything else could.

"Brooding again," Nobody said as he appeared in the room, "Quite a popular activity for you it seems."

"What do you want?" Baron asked.

"I came to get things rolling," Nobody replied, "Because clearly, you're stuck."

"Just tell me whatever you want to tell me and get out of here."

"The Nighlok don't care about anything other than causing misery to humans. If you're trying to get Noctis' attention I'd suggest starting there."

With that, Nobody was gone, but Baron hardly noticed.

Because an idea was starting to form…


Jayden had found her sitting alone at the beach, a blank expression as she quietly mediated.

"How did you know I'd be here?" She asked before she even turned to see her brother.

He just shrugged, "There aren't a lot of places someone can find peace and quiet during the day."

"What do you want?" She asked.

Jayden sat down next to her and tried to swallow the anxiety rising in his throat.

"The day before I left was one of the worst days of my life," He said softly. "But the day after was the worst."

"Maybe you should have thought it out better." She said and glanced towards him in the corner of her eye.

"No, I thought hard enough," Jayden said, "And in the end, it turned out for the best."

She looked away.

He winced and instantly wanted to stop, but Emma would have kept going, so he did too.

"After Xandred I felt so empty, I didn't know what to do with myself." He shook his head, "I felt useless. I didn't want to leave, but I didn't know what else to do."

She turned to meet his eyes, but then his morpher began to beep.

"What's up?" He asked the device.

"There's another Nighlok," Karone said.

The two siblings looked at each other for a few seconds before giving in to their instants heading towards the monster.

1***

Kimberly got the call alongside the Rangers, she looked down at the Morpher anxiously. The teens might need her help, but if the power gave out again she'd just be holding them down.

She contemplated silently, looking over at Rebecca who sat in the living room on her cellphone.

For the first time in years, she felt a familiar tug on her guts. She thought of the stress she felt as a teenager.

Not the stress of saving the world, but the stress of what would happen if she were to perish.

Back then she imagined grief-stricken parents, waiting for her to come home…

But now she thought of Axel and Rebecca, they meant the world, and she trusted them.

Would they be okay without her? Honestly, it wasn't something she wanted to think about. Still, despite that very real fear she knew that she had a responsibility…

"Kimberly!" Karone nearly screamed through the morpher.

"Yeah?" Kimberly asked, pulling the device to her ear.

"We have another situation," Karone said, "Baron is back on Earth, and he's up to something…"

"I'm on it," Kimberly said darkly.

The Rangers would have to be fine without her.

And she'd have to be fine herself…


Axel happened to be walking down the street moments before the disaster started. His hands were stuffed into his pockets, his mind a million miles away. He felt lost and dissociated from reality.

He was thinking of Brad, and what went wrong, or what he could have done differently to carve a different path.

A path where things were still okay.

He was so lost in thought that when the monster sirens began to flare he barely had time to register it before people broke into a panic.

Typically he'd just head home, after all, they lived far enough out of town to avoid the battles.

But then he figured Brad would head to the shelter, and this could be a good excuse to talk to him, or at least investigate the situation from afar.

But then Baron transformed into a dark visor version of the Gosei Guardian. He was a street ahead of Axel, blocking the path between him and the shelter.

And then Baron aimed and shot a car heading towards the shelter. The energy burned away the hood and killed the engine. The family flooded out, and he blocked their path with a large wall of stone.

"Now, now, now," He said smugly, "We're just getting started."

"Yeah," A voice as familiar as his own face said. "We are."

Axel's mother was already morphed and charging towards Baron.

The man laughed and shot at a nearby building, hitting an exposed rafter and causing it to collapse right next to a panicked family that was attempting to sneak away.

The two warriors clashed their blades together, each of their helmets mere inches apart.

"Let's see how tough you are when we're on even ground," Kimberly said.

"Plenty, I assure you," He said and pushed her backward.

He summoned a flying boulder, but she deflected it with a wall of stone.

She threw a whirlpool of water, but it was merely absorbed in his wall of water.

Then they both threw a tornado that combined and created a whirlwind that sent everything around them into disarray and them both flying backward.

Kimberly got her footing first, and the moment she landed on the ground she was running.

"Our power is even," She said as she pulled her sword back, "So this is a battle of skill and I've been doing this years before you were born."

Her sword flew towards Baron, but he could the oncoming weapon with his hand.

He laughed, dark energy radiating around his armor. "Whoever said our power was equal?"

Her weapon flew from her grip and clanked against the ground, and Baron punched Kimberly in the helmet. She stumbled backward and he slashed his blade into her chest, causing sparks to fly from her body as her armor began to flicker and threaten to fail.

"How are you supposed to beat me when your body can't even handle the power?" He asked.

She fell to her knees and her morphed form completely gave out. Her eyes narrowed at him and she spat, "I've been a mom long enough to handle a brat."

He slapped her across the face, instantly blooding her nose.

Axel felt a rush of fire in his stomach.

Baron's fingers wrapped around Kimberly's neck as he lifted her up.

"You're nothing but a washout, a has-been Ranger who thinks they have the spark to be a warrior. Well, you don't, and your time in the limelight as long since passed."

Axel's mom flashed an expression he hadn't seen since he had accidentally knocked over one of her glass ballerina figures.

It was that exact expression that convinced him never to touch them again.

"You're a coward," She said, "Some punk who thinks that he can punch his way out of any situation."

"Well I can't prove you wrong," Baron said and pulled his arm back, "So I might as well roll with it."

Axel knew his mom was tough, but he didn't think she'd fair well against a punch that could stunt a monster.

Yet he punched her, rather softly in relativity to his strength, right in the gut.

She yelped as her body spasmed.

"That's right," He said as he tightened his grip on her neck. "Scream again. Give up all of your despair!"

In a moment of clarity, everything around Axel completely froze. And he knew exactly what he had to do next.

His eyes found the morpher his mother hand dropped, and he ran towards it.

"I don't know what made you hate women so much," Kimberly said through her crushed throat, "But it's seriously messed up."

Baron brought Kimberly up to his face. "Let's see how smug you are when I destroy that pretty face…"

With his hands trembling and his heart pounding, Axel quickly scooped up the morpher and slid the nearby card inside of it. The morpher hummed for a second before he was enveloped in its light.

He thought of uttering a quip like a Saturday morning superhero, but with his mother's life on the line, he didn't want to risk it. Instead, he summoned a wall of rock to separate Kimberly from Baron and charged at the enemy head-on.

"Well that's interesting," Baron said.

He swung at Axel, but the freshly transformed Ranger dodged it. The power flowing through him felt similar to what he felt at the amusement park but much more concentrated. He caught Baron's fist and shot him point-blank in the face.

Baron shook away the sparks and shot a wave of dark energy that knocked Axel back.

"Well that was a fun little stress reliever," Baron said, "But I can't waste all day dancing around with you." And he teleported away.

He turned towards his mom and offered his hand. But the moment he lifted her the ground began to tremble.

He looked down the road, where a giant monster arose several blocks down.

You must summon me. A voice said from inside Axel's helmet.

And a glowing card materialized in his hand.


The Nighlok swung its broadsword into the Megazord's midsection, its snarling face formed a grin as sparks rained down on the city below.

"That hit a little harder than usual," Jake said, holding the controls firmly.

"Maybe the Nighlok have learned enough about us to better strategize," Noah offered.

The Nighlok hit again, sending the Megazord stumbling back.

"Our shields are about to completely fail," Noah said darkly.

"This isn't the end," Jayden replied and steadied himself. "Not by a long shot."

Despite Jayden's words the Nighlok had vastly different plans and bashed its weapon hard enough to completely shatter the Megazord's shield and leave a large dent in the dragon head positioned on the chest of the machine.

But just before the Nighlok could deliver another attack it was flanked by missile fire.

"Fear not Rangers," A deep, robotic voice said through their comms. "I have come to your aid."

The Rangers then became aware of the large lion-like tank that rolled towards them on its caterpillar wheels.

"Now that's a Zord," Jake said excitedly. "Look at that beast!"

"I am the Gosei Guardian Fortress," The Zord itself spoke. "Loyal protector of Gosei and those that wish to preserve peace on Earth."

"And I guess that makes me the Gosei Guardian," A familiar voice said to the Rangers.

"Wait…" Gia said, "Axel?"

"Yeah, that's right," Axel said and laughed nervously, "I guess I'm a Ranger now."

The lion zord then turned towards the Nighlok and its eyes pulsed red before expelling a powerful laser that racked its side and knocked it backward.

Which also happened to give the Rangers the perfect opportunity to ram its sword into the Nighlok's chest and finish it off.


Jayden and Lauren sat together while everyone else went to Ernie's Brain Freeze. The scene felt so surreal to Jayden since he had doubted he'd ever see his sister again.

But here they were, with only a few inches of space and a vast wall of awkwardness between them. Though the more Jayden realized that missed her and that she missed him as well, the less awkward things felt.

"I just…" Lauren said, struggling to continue.

He empathized with the way she choked, and he grabbed her hand.

She wasn't an enemy… she was another damaged child. She was someone struggling to handle a world outside of protecting humanity.

He looked into Lauren's eyes and watched as the tears began to form.

"I missed you so much!" She said and broke into a sob and tightly embraced him

Jayden hugged her back

He wanted to tell her about how much had changed inside himself. How much better his life had become once he'd opened up and became a part of something akin to a family.

But that would come in time.

Instead when she cried into his shoulder he just softly patted her on the back.


Emma, Jake, Noah, and Gia all sat with Axel at Brainfreeze, each of them occasionally sucked on their smoothy as Axel finished up his recap of how he got his morpher.

"How's your mom though?" Jake asked.

Axel shrugged, "A bit sore, but she didn't want to bother with another hospital visit. She just took some ibuprofen and a warm bath."

"What about you?" Gia asked, "How are you doing?"

Everyone's eyes fell on Gia as she looked over at Axel.

He shrugged, "I guess I'm doing alright."

"I think you should talk to Brad," Gia said, "See if you can get him out of this funk he's in."

Axel sagged his shoulders, "I don't know, I think he's just done."

"He's not done," Gia said, "He's just confused."

She then stood up to throw away her empty plastic cup, but on her way to the trashcan, Jayden and Lauren arrived to join the other teens.

Gia and Lauren bumped into each other, knocking Gia's empty cup out of her hand and splashing Lauren's drink across Gia's chest.

"I'm so sorry!" Lauren exclaimed and rushed over to the table and retrieve some napkins

Gia looked down at the fresh stain in disbelief. This was her favorite shirt, and it was ruined by the giant red blemish.

But she didn't quite feel mad, not when her eyes met Lauren's.

She felt a little out of breath…


Fire exploded in the main cabin of Baron's ship, but the young man didn't react. Instead, he watched intently as the fire took shape.

Noctis appeared from the fire, his yellow eyes glowed as he looked at Baron.

"You allowed me to collect a large amount of despair, am I wrong to assume that was on purpose?"

"Clearly you have no doubts about whether you're wrong," Baron said, "Otherwise you wouldn't be here."

Noctis smiled and that relieved a lot of stress building in Baron's chest. Keeping up the facade of confidence was becoming harder by the second.

It would be impossible for it not to, not when he could feel how much raw power Noctis possessed.

"So what do you want?" Noctis asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Baron asked. "I'm looking for the Greatest Treasure in the Universe."

"Oh, that old thing?" He asked with a momentary frown. "People are still wasting their time on that?" He looked at Baron's confused expression for a few moments before saying, "If you insist. Let me tell you a little story…."