Troy and Jake had texted their parents that they would be out for the remainder of the day, and retired to their designated beds in the Command Center. The rangers had no idea when Noah and Gia would be back, or if it would even be soon, so they decided they would take this opportunity to rest.

Emma could see that her brother was still slightly rattled from watching the earlier battle, so she decided to stay with him. After Vrak came for the rangers in the Brianfreeze, she did not want Gavin to leave the Command Center and potentially be taken too, so the siblings elected to stay inside as well. Emma directed him to their small kitchen, which consisted of a table and five chairs, accompanied by a meager fridge and some paper cups. Needless to say, the rangers did not usually spend more time than was necessary inside their cave hideout.

Gavin looked around and saw a deck of cards, and began fiddling with it. He had a lot of nervous energy, not only from the previous battle, but also in anticipation for the one that was coming. While he was shuffling, his hands started shaking so much that the cards started spilling all over the table. Emma looked over and saw her brother had unshed tears in his eyes.

She rushed over to sit across from him and took one of his hands. She gave it a comforting squeeze. "Gavin, I'm okay. Really. It's just a couple of cracked ribs. I should be feeling better within days."

Gavin shook his head. "It's not that. Well I guess it's that a little bit. But, I just hate this, you know? How is any of this fair?"

"Hey, it's going to be-"

"Don't say that, Emma. Please stop pretending that everything is okay. I just watched your best friend, someone you think of as a sister, try to kill you. She beat you so bad and hurt you, and you didn't even put up any kind of fight. How am I supposed to believe that everything is going to be after seeing that? How do I know that you're going to make it home from the next battle? Have you ever thought about what I'll do if this war takes you from me? I'll have no one."

"You can't think like that, Gavin. I will fight like hell every battle to come back to you."

"That is not the story your cracked ribs are telling right now."

Emma sighed. "This is different. I can't hurt her, you know that. I will defend myself if it comes to it, but I won't attack. Against other monsters though, anything goes. And in my heart of hearts, I know Gia won't kill me. I have to believe that, or else it's really going to be over for me. Going into a battle thinking I'm going to lose is dangerous, and Gia taught me that I need to have hope for the best outcome. You should too."

"Emma, it's not that simple. You know it's not that simple. You always tell me not to worry about you, but that's like telling you not to worry about me. It isn't possible. I love you, and I don't want to lose you. You're all I have left."

In that moment, Emma was not seeing her brother Gavin. Instead, she saw a scared little boy who had lost everything. Who had been forced to fight for his life since the day he was born. Her heart ached for him. He always tried to be strong for her, and sometimes she forgot that he was just a fifteen-year old kid.

"That's not true. The rest of the rangers want to help and take care of you. Today, Gia took a job at the Brainfreeze to help both of us deal with what's going on. Jake has been great with being there to take you to and from appointments when I can't. And he doesn't know I know, but Noah has been researching solutions with Tensou during late nights, trying to find a way to get rid of your tumor in case the treatments fail. Troy looks after you at school, and he genuinely cares about how you're doing. They all want to see you be healthy and happy, and they're willing to help.

If you really insist on believing that something is going to happen to me, you'll have them. And maybe she is not here, but you have mom too. She did raise you, after all. If you need her and I can't take care of you anymore, she'll be on the first flight back. She left you here because she knew I'd be able to look after you. But that doesn't mean she doesn't care about or love you."

Gavin kept his eyes on the table as he fidgeted with one of the cards that had fallen out of the deck. "That's just the issue. She left me in your care, and just expected you to be okay. Do you think I haven't noticed what kind of damage that has done to you? You've been exhausted constantly, you never sleep or eat, you work endless hours trying to make money for us to survive, and you also have to be a ranger in your nonexistent downtime? Everything wrong in your life right now is because I got dropped into it."

"Gavin, how many times do I have to tell you that you're not a burden, for you to start believing it? Yeah, life became harder after you showed up, but it also became better. You made it better. Dad is finally gone, and that means I get to make up for all the time I lost with you. I missed you everyday you were gone, and I never stopped. Now that you're here, I've been happier. Maybe it doesn't look like it, but compared to what it was before, the quality of my life has improved significantly since you came. I don't take care of you because I feel obligated to, I do it because I love you. And I would happily do it all again.

You are the reason I keep fighting. When I've fallen on my ass for the hundredth time during a battle, thinking about keeping you safe is what makes me stand up again. So don't worry, because as long as you are here, I am not going anywhere. No monster is going to take me away from you. We are both going to come out happy and healthy from this war."

He finally stopped playing with the cards to look up at his sister. "I need you to promise me that you're going to be safe, and you're going to come back to me. And I need you to mean it."

Emma looked him right in the eyes. "I promise."

At that moment, alarms started going off in the Command Center.