It felt like the past couple months had passed by without Emma even being aware of them. After everything that had happened, life had moved so fast and she felt like she couldn't catch up. But the reality had set in that it was already almost April, and the school year would shortly be coming to a close. And also with that, came Emma's eighteenth birthday.

She felt like she had been waiting on it forever, to help her escape her father's abuse, but now that it was upon her, she had no idea what to do. They were still barely scraping by on funds check-to-check, and there was no way she would be able to move them out of her father's house. And unfortunately, as long as her father was paying the bills, she was still tied to him.

Emma hated that, but accepted her reality. Although the Brainfreeze was a great gig and Ernie was an even better boss, the paychecks left much to be desired in her current situation. She hoped that maybe once school was out, she could find a job that paid higher, or maybe take on another part-time job to help with funds and maybe find an apartment.

What worried her the most though, was that the monsters seemed to be gaining strength. It made her worry that soon, everything was going to come to a head and the rangers were going to have to face a final battle. The kind where they either win, or all die trying. The looming prospect concerned her to no end, and with everything else going on in her life, it was made even worse for her.

She was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of Gavin walking down the stairs. They were just about to leave for school. When she turned away from the eggs she was halfheartedly cooking to greet him, Gavin mock recoiled.

"Wow, you look horrible."

Emma frowned. "Thanks?"

Gavin laughed. "Sorry, but it's true. You look like a truck ran you over, and then once realizing you were under it, backed up again over your body."

The pink ranger punched him in the arm. "I wake up early this morning to make my sweet little brother breakfast before school, and this is how he thanks me? Rude."

Gavin wrapped his arms around his sister. "I'm sorry. I'm just worried about you. And if I don't make jokes about it, I won't be able to cope at all. Don't lie about waking up early. You didn't sleep at all last night, did you?"

Emma sighed. It seemed that nothing ever got past Gavin these days. "I told you not to worry about me. I'm fine."

Her brother led her to a chair at the table and finished frying the eggs. "You didn't answer my question, so I'll take that as a no. And stop telling me not to worry. You completely vanish without telling me, for a day and a half, after I see the rangers get destroyed by some sword throwing dude on the news, and you expect me not to worry when I see my sister looking like a crazed zombie from a crappy Lifetime movie?"

His sister couldn't help but laugh. "Glad to know you think so highly of me. Seriously though, I'm sorry I didn't call. It kind of slipped my mind. But everyone's fine and I finally got my cast off."

Gavin had been secretly happy that his sister was forced to sit out a bunch of dangerous battles because of her injuries, and was less than enthusiastic to hear she was back. He felt bad, but he hadn't even noticed her cast was off. She stayed out late the night before with Noah, and he had tried staying awake to greet her at the door, but his recent seizures had exhausted him.

He hadn't gotten the chance to see her yet. When he turned to hand her the eggs and get a better look, he was greeted by the sight of Emma frantically pulling out some homework she had apparently forgotten about. "Don't tell me you didn't have time for your homework. Again."

Emma sighed. "With everything going on, it's kind of hard to keep track of all my assignments. I worked on a little at the Brainfreeze yesterday with the others, but this assignment totally slipped my mind. I've had a lot going on recently."

Gavin set down the eggs and grabbed a pencil. "Lucky for you, your little brother is great at copying handwriting and forgery."

His big sister frowned. "Excuse me? Should I be concerned about how you discovered that skill in the first place?"

"No... It's probably better you don't ask." He grabbed a page of her english assignment. "If we split this, we'll finish in half the time."

Emma laughed. "You know, I don't feel all that great having my little brother do all of my homework for me. My honor and integrity have just about gone out the window by now."

Gavin shrugged, jokingly putting the pencil down. He was going to help her regardless, but he wanted to have a little fun first. "Would you rather me not help you and take an F instead?"

"Pick that pencil back up."

"But, I thought you said-"

"Pick it up. We have some english to do."

He laughed and started writing, in a perfect imitation of his sister's penmanship. "Yes ma'am."

-0-

Later that day, Emma was just on her way to turn in her english assignment (which she had done completely honestly and on her own, with no outside help), when she heard the muffled sound of her morpher coming from her backpack. She groaned. It had been a while since she was involved in an actual monster fight and though she was happy to be out on the field helping her teammates, she was not all that enthusiastic to risk injury again.

She made up an excuse to leave and hustled to the plaza, where there was an ugly female robot waiting for her and the rest of the rangers.

Noah stared in confusion. "Aren't we supposed to be fighting insects...? She looks like something that could have come from my garage."

Jake laughed. "Dude, I totally knew you built yourself robot girlfriends."

The blue ranger elbowed him in the ribs. "I meant that she looks like a robot. You know what... never mind."

At that moment, Vrak suddenly materialized in front of the team. "I decided to test out a little experiment. Insects are expendable, but robots can be repaired and reused an infinite amount of times. I figure it'll be more efficient this way, and just want to test out my new little creation."

Emma felt rage rise up inside her at her recent encounter with Vrak. Thinking about how he had tried to take advantage of a vulnerable kid, and planned to take Gavin to experiment on him, made her blood boil.

Without warning, she charged straight at him, and power consumed her as she ran. The energy summoned her suit of its own volition, and just as she was about to strike Vrak, she was stopped by the female robot and struck down.

Vrak took his foot and stomped down hard on Emma's exposed ribs. The force of the blow caused her to power down. She struggled to stand back up, but the wind had been knocked out of her, and Vrak was still pressing down on her stomach.

"Do not test me, Pink Ranger." He gestured to the robot. "Metal Alice was programmed with only one purpose: do whatever it takes to protect me. If that means killing you rangers, she will not hesitate." To accentuate the point, Metal Alice brought the tip of her sword to Emma's throat and pushed slightly until blood trickled out.

Emma froze, for fear of any movement causing the sword to impale her. The team was shocked at the way Emma had run in and attacked Vrak alone, but once they recovered, they immediately sprang into action upon seeing her in danger. Noah summoned his Bowgun and shot at Metal Alice, creating distance between that sword point and the Pink Ranger.

Gia took her blaster and shot at Vrak. She didn't hit him, but it forced him to step off of Emma so he could dodge the blast. Emma immediately rolled away as Troy and Jake ran in to follow up and attack Vrak while he was still on the back foot. Gia rushed over to her friend in concern, but it didn't appear that Emma had been injured too severely.

When Vrak sensed he was fighting a losing battle, he teleported out, leaving the rangers with Metal Alice.

"We will meet again. Next time, you will not be so lucky."

With that, she vaporized, and the rangers were left staring at an empty plaza.