Phillip and Kendall looked at each other and the others stood by, waiting. About an hour had passed since their blowup at each other, Tyler's team were all resting in their rooms and no one had actually expected the next confrontation to be so soon. All of them expected it to be in the cafeteria though; no one knew what it was but the place seemed to attract difficult conversations and strange occurrences like nowhere else. RJ said it was the food but as he made the food a lot of the time, they weren't sure if he was thinking this was a good thing or bad.

Lauren, who more often than not still preferred her own company, had her arms crossed at Kendall's side, watching the Zandar prince and the ex-museum curator very carefully. Trent chewed on a piece of beef jerky and Chip seemed to be almost vibrating with fascination of where this might lead; he seemed to not be as concerned with the potential bad results of the two being in the same room so soon after their tiff but more than one of the more senior Renegades had noted how he seemed to rather good natured and sweet. Tori had wondered aloud if it was a yellow trait; the jury was still out on that one.

"So?" Kendall spoke first and Phillip straightened out some, staring at her; she held out a hand, "Give it."

He frowned back at her. "That is not a very polite way to ask for something, Miss Morgan."

She twitched some and took a deep breath, likely to center herself. "It's also not polite to withhold important information from those who need it the most. Like the discovery of one of the missing Energems, Prince Phillip."

"I," he started then paused, trying to figure out how best to respond; his brow furrowed some then he sighed and nodded, "I suppose you are correct, though I did have the best intentions and I fully planned and making you and the others aware..."

"After you successfully bonded with the Energem I assume," she said arms crossed; he gave her a displeased look.

"You needn't say it like that."

"It's true isn't it though?"

"Guys," Lauren said, stepping forward, "Don't start, either of you."

Both adults were silent for a moment and as time ticked by, Trey continued to eat. There was a decided lack of actual tension or malice between the two; Phillip had not tried to do anything bad but Kendall had her reasons for being so on edge when it came to the Energems and the Rangers attached to them. She closed her hand, retreating some it appeared, then continued, "May I please see the Energem, Prince Phillip?"

He nodded and reached into his pocket. The gray colored Energem shimmered in the palm of his hand, though less so than when one was bonded to it; multiple individuals, driven by curiosity, moved to get a better look. Though it was the eighth of such stones in their possession now, it was never a bore seeing one of them.

"Why does our team get only six pretty stones and your team has ten?" Trent asked Kendall.

"Because you have Abby and Tommy; don't complain," Lauren told the boy, flicking his forehead and getting a displeased hiss in response.

"This must be the Graphite Energem," Kendall said, ignoring all others and looking over the stone; she notably didn't try to grab for it, furrowing her brow as she thought.

Noting that Chip looked at her, tilting his head. "Is something wrong, Kendall?"

"It's nothing," she said, to the short bitter laughter of Dino Thunder's White Ranger.

"You know, every time someone says that I just can't believe them," Trent said shaking his head, "It more often means something very serious is going on."

"We've been trying to track this Energem honestly; that Prince Phillip found it first is a surprise but more than that we didn't even notice it in Amber Beach," Kendall said after some pause, "The E-Tracer didn't pick up it's signature."

Lauren frowned and looked at the scientist. "Do you think something is wrong with the device?"

Kendall shook her head. "No I don't think so. The device hasn't been damaged or anything based on anything I could determine. I think it's more likely that it will be harder to pick up on the locations of the remaining two Energems if we just depend on the E-Tracer. But on the other hand..."

"You don't have much choice," Phillip said nodding and closing his hand around the Energem, "It's the only thing that can sense Energems that you have, and with things the way they are you can't risk wandering around the globe, looking for the fossils personally, and risk being seen and apprehended. I doubt there are any more Energems in Zandar, two is a miracle I think, but that leaves a lot of land with a lot of scattered fossils."

"We can't risk Sledge getting his hands on the remaining Energems," Kendall said, "So we need to amp up our attempts; we need some way to be able to track down the Silver and Purple Energems and soon, before things potentially get worse."

Trent looked to Lauren but the red was silent. It seemed obvious there was more on the mentor's mind than just the E-Tracer not being able to pick up the Graphite Energem and it didn't take a genius to be able to guess what that was exactly. She was right and while it could as easily be about the push to the finish line of collecting them all together, with the way their lives had been going, it was clear it wasn't just that. Kendall was scared of what could happen to them before they could complete this mission, of the forces who had destroyed her museum and attacked her Rangers that day. But so were they all honestly.

"For now though," Phillip said after some thought and he smiled gently, opening his hand again, "We might as well be glad for the retrieval of the eighth Energem."

Trent saw it coming before it even started; call it intuition, call it experience, call it paranoia, but the white ranger stepped back as Kendall reached out to take the stone and right as she was about to touch it Zedd came into the room. They were becoming cliché, having sudden attacks and sudden interruptions just when things were getting going in a calm way. Admittedly unlike the alarms and the time when Fury woke up, Zedd didn't look panicked; he actually looked pretty composed, opening the door and walking inside, the Z Staff held in one hand and now his neck wrapped in already red bandages. But he never seemed to care too much and seeing the people there already he nodded. "Afternoon, we found the robot. That's the good news."

"Bad news then?" Chip asked blinking; Kendall and Phillip both tried to prepare themselves.

"So did Sledge and he seems to have decided to rip me off," Zedd said and sighed, leaning on his staff, "It's supposed to be my schtick, taking the things you Rangers have and turning them into monsters; maybe I should copyright."

"Lots of villains do that, moving on," Trent said with all the patience of a rabid koala, "So Sledge has turned the robot into a monster."

"At least done something to it; it's attacking people in the park. I managed to contain it using magic but...well, you know." He gestured to his neck, to which the knowing nodded and Chip looked troubled. It couldn't be fun to watch an ally literally falling apart because of magic but there was nothing any of them could do and Zedd did not actually like when people dwelt on it.

Phillip stepped forward. "My robot is what?!"

"We will need a team to go destroy it, and the monster buddy it's picked up, before things get too serious," Zedd said, half ignoring the prince, "I tried to get everyone out but they don't seem to appreciate help from a half-mummy man with a big scary staff."

"What about Vida, didn't she go with you?" Chip asked with just a little too much concern in his voice.

"She stayed behind to keep the barrier going and keep the two busy; I couldn't exactly put a lot of power into the barrier so two monsters together could probably break it with enough effort and disregard for their own bodies."

Kendall sighed deeply, rubbing the bridge of her nose; the headache she was getting was quite a big one. Phillip looked about, seeing Trent stand and start to roll his shoulders, obviously planning on going down. Chip got up to whisper something to Zedd but the older man brushed it off with an unconcerned expression. Lauren bit her lip and turned to Kendall. "What's the plan?"

"Why are you asking me that?" Kendall asked with more than a little irritation.

"You're the human mentor and this is a Power Rangers situation, not a Renegades situation; I'll defer to you on this one. Tyler your red isn't here and neither is Keeper; time to make a choice."

The scientist did not look impressed or pleased, glaring at the red samurai then turned to Zedd, "Go get James and Sir Ivan; they didn't go with Tyler's team earlier so they should be able to fight. Sir Ivan might be stubborn about leaving but tell him it's an emergency and we need him."

"I'll go with you," Phillip piped up, walking over to Zedd; eyes stared at him and he continued, "I'll be able to convince Sir Ivan; he'll listen to me."

Kendall couldn't argue with that though she did narrow her eyes. "Alright but you will not go down with them, understood? You've already done enough as it is, we don't need you getting yourself into more trouble. Leave this to the Rangers, do not get involved."

The prince nodded and Zedd led the way out of the room, followed quickly by both Trent and Phillip. They did not get far before Trent spoke, walking beside the prince. "She's gonna give you such an earful later."

"What do you mean?" Phillip pretended to be clueless; the look Trent gave made it clear that he wasn't convinced.

"Fine, be that way. But I'm not going to protect you if you get your ass attacked; you need to learn your lessons."

"We are not going to let Phillip get killed," Zedd called back.

"Well Sir Ivan will be there, he can keep an eye on the idiot prince," Trent offered shrugging.

Phillip didn't say anything. He knew that this was reckless and that he was doing something decidedly stupid, but he couldn't help it. The robot was his responsibility and it was his fault that it was even out there, being a problem and potentially harming more people. He wasn't just going to sit around and let the others clean up his mess yet again; he was going to get that thing back under his control if it was the last thing he did. He just hoped to God it didn't end up being.

Getting Ivan out of the infirmary took some persuading; the knight had decided upon his post and he was unwilling to be easily dissuaded from such. It was not as if the place was in particular danger, the separated power supply meant that even when things happened in the rest of the ship, as they more frequently did as the Megaship started to get closer to fully functioning again, the infirmary was safe and isolated. The four who were pretty much always there, plus Billy who was again acting doctor and Heckyl, were safe and didn't tend to cause problems. Even with Dustin's awakening things had only changed to include attempted physical therapy. If anywhere on the ship had to be designated the least in danger of attack, it would have to be the infirmary. But the knight had at some point made up his mind and he didn't much like to change it back.

But Phillip was still his liege and he could not really easily say no to him. Billy offered to come along but it was decided it best he stay behind, along with Tommy and Heckyl who both were still in the room when Phillip had returned. When they went to go get James, they found him sleeping with his head resting in Abby's lap; the pink Dino Thunder gave them a look that asked what they were doing and Zedd started moving his hands. It took a moment for Phillip to realize what was happening, only tipped off as Abby furrowed her brow and he did the same gestures again a little slower: Zedd, who according to the others was evil once upon a time, was talking in sign language with his ex-enemy. This time she got it and nodded before gently starting to wake the Aqua Power Ranger; Phillip stared, unsure what to make of what he just saw or even if there was anything to make of it.

James was a bit groggy once awake but willing and after promising Abby that they would do their best to return her husband to her unharmed, as much as possible, they managed to get going. Phillip felt odd being teleported, having to hold onto Ivan as they were returned to the planet's surface and brought into the confined park. There they found silence, an eerie sort that gave him more anxiety rather than less. Zedd frowned, adjusting his grip on his staff, and looked around for a moment before turning to the others. "We better split up; I'm going to go look for Vida, make sure she's okay and see about making sure the barrier stays up until you are done. Sir Ivan, I suggest you go with Phillip while he looks for his robot, try and keep it at bay while he does whatever he can to get it back under control. That leaves the monster to James and Trent; think you can handle that?"

The three Rangers all morphed and while Trent made a noise that didn't sound very polite, James nodded. "We should be okay though I'm still not too used to fighting."

"Don't worry about it, old man; I got you," Trent said putting a hand on James' shoulder; the aqua turned to him but the two walked off without another word on the subject.

Zedd watched them go for another and Phillip saw him wince some before setting off on his own to look for the pink Mystic Force, leaving the two Zandarian individuals. Ivan didn't move immediately and Phillip took a moment to realize it was that the knight was waiting for his lead; he took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare himself for this. It wasn't like doing this was especially easy, and he knew that he was being risky with this, but he couldn't just leave the robot he created and had brought here cause chaos. In his opinion this was his responsibility and thus he had to be the one to make the effort to fix it.

"Come along, Sir Ivan," he said, choosing a direction and getting going.

"Yes Your Highness," came the knight's answer and he knew without looking that he was being followed, exactly as it was supposed to be.

As they walked Phillip took in the sight of the park; it was nothing particularly impressive, just a slightly wooded area with playground equipment, open field, a place for people to collect and interact. It's greatest aspect seemed to be its sheer size which allowed for the group to all spread out and not be able to see each other. This gave him some more concern considering the situation and he kept both his eyes open and his ears peeled as the two of them looked for the missing robot.

"Tis silent as the grave, is it not my liege?" Ivan asked, causing Phillip to turn to look at him before glancing about again.

The prince nodded in agreement. It felt more wrong having everything be so quiet; according to Zedd there was supposed to be a fight going on but even taking into consideration the size of the place there was way too less noise. It left him wondering what exactly was going on around there.

"Can you contact James through your communicator?" The silence and sensed stare from Ivan answered that question; he'd need to ask Kendall about making sure Ivan was aware of how to make use of the less battle orientated parts of the Ranger gear, if she ever decided to forgive him for being reckless and coming down here.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed bushes shaking, and part of his brain registered that there was no noise from them doing so; he stopped, putting out his arm to stop Ivan as well and the two waited. The shaking continued for a time before out rolled a familiar pink haired unmorphed Ranger. Her Mystic Morpher tumbled a bit farther than her, landing at Phillip's feet and he glanced down at it before bending down to pick it up.

"Lady Vida?" Phillip asked and she looked up at him, "You look..."

She looked ruffled; not especially harmed or anything, but there was a definite sense of something having happened and as she stared at him, he expected something more. He offered her her morpher which the woman seemed happy to take but as she opened her mouth, it finally became clear what was going on around them: though her lips moved there was no sound. In fact nothing made noise except Ivan and himself. He frowned and turned to Ivan who seemed to understand this too and tightened his grip on his sword.

"The monster did this?" he asked and Vida's eyes widened before frowning as well, furrowing her brow and paused before shaking her hand sideways. Kind of. Phillip racked his brain, "The robot?" A shake of the head that time. "So the monster and...you?" She actually looked annoyed but it didn't seem to be because of the accusation; she nodded and held up the morpher.

"It would seem that it was mayhaps a reaction between the morpher and the monster?" Ivan offered.

Phillip thought and shook his head. "More specifically I am guessing between the magic used by the morpher and the monster."

Vida pointed upwards and he looked up at the sky. It took him a moment but he thought he got it. "The barrier? Zedd's magic too?"

When he looked at her she was nodding, getting to her feet and brushed herself off. Phillip crossed his arms, Ivan watching the prince carefully. "So after Zedd left to get us the monster tried to break through and it's effort, combined with your magic to strengthen the barrier I'm assuming, caused some sort of...silence? Loss of sound in this area, affecting all who were within when it happened?"

"That sounds rather...odd," Ivan commented; Phillip couldn't really argue against that, it really was. But neither really knew that much about magic or Sledge's monsters or any of this really; he had made conjectures which just happened to be mainly true.

He sighed; he supposed that made this more complicated. No sound meant that they would need to rely on sight to find the robot and the others would likely need to find the monster the same way. Looking around he frowned then took a deep breath. "Zedd! James! Trent! Can you hear me?"

Vida gave him a look but he didn't pay it much mind. He waited and he listened; if everything really was silent then maybe if he shouted loud enough they would hear. But he got nothing in return and he sighed; it seemed unlikely they really got so far enough that in dead silence they couldn't answer, nor that he wouldn't be able to hear them doing something. This whole situation seemed weird to him.

"Can you bring down the barrier? Would that be able to fix the situation?" he asked Vida, causing her to raise an eyebrow, "If the magic is the problem, then wouldn't removing the magic fix it?"

"But if Lord Zedd's power is part of it, should we not explain the same to him?" Ivan inquired.

Phillip nodded. "Possible but if he can't hear us..."

The only option was to find him; the prince would have preferred to focus on finding the robot, that was his whole reason for being there, but if he had Vida then Zedd was going to have to find them anyway since the two were supposed to work together. And if the silence could be lifted then it would be helpful in finding the robot.

The prince ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I guess we must go find Zedd then. Come along, Sir Ivan, Vida."

She gave him a look and he added a "please" which seemed to at least be a start. Ivan chuckled lightly to himself but the trio started off again, this time in search of the damaged mage.

The silence was starting to make him hallucinate and Phillip, once he was aware this was what was happening, did not like it. At first it was little, bits of laughter, someone whispering in his ear in a voice he didn't recognize, the sound of footsteps coming from weird directions; slowly it moved towards being the sound of what he suspected to be dinosaurs roaring and something exploding. He looked around quickly but there was nothing there; turning to Ivan and Vida, both seemed to be staring at him, making him feel worse about this whole thing.

He tried to push it aside but every few steps he got something else; he started hearing the crackling of fire and could almost feel the flames, making him let out a scream and stumble back. Phillip didn't tend to have flashbacks and he certainly didn't seem to have had any issues in the last few months, no nightmares of what happened, no extreme aversions to flame. He remembered, of course he did, but the second he heard and felt those things, he couldn't help but panic. Ivan called his name but he shook in an attempt to force what was playing in his mind away again.

"Sire!" Ivan yelled and Phillip put a hand on the knight's shoulder.

"This silence is messing with my head," Phillip said, "It's too unnatural, too quiet; I just...experienced something unpleasant, but I'm fine, Sir Ivan."

"I have to at least thank you though," Zedd spoke, walking over to them; he was leaning on his staff and he seemed to be sweating though it was hard to tell through all the bandages, "Your girly little scream helped to knock me out of my own nightmares."

Vida ran over to him, opening her mouth but he lifted a hand and she closed it again. He gave a forced smile. "I gathered when I saw a bird fly by without making a noise that something weird had happened; I assume then that there was a magic backlash, stemming from a show of serious brute force and power from the monster. The mixing of our magic shouldn't have caused problems but...hm...it could be a side effect of combining Dark Grid magic with that of light magic, or residual of my powers being corrupted like they have..."

"Can we fix it?" Phillip asked, trying to focus on the important thing here; while explanations were good he was more concerned with making things right again.

Zedd nodded. "It shouldn't be too hard though it will require getting rid of the barrier, which means the monster and the robot will be free again."

The prince gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "We will simply have to deal with that as we get the chance; if you can return the sound to the world then you should do it. Don't worry about the other stuff, leave that to James, Sir Ivan and Trent; they're Rangers, they can handle it."

"If you say so. Vida, your morpher please." She handed over the phone without hesitation and it occurred to Phillip how much she trusted the ex-villain. He couldn't imagine Tyler or Riley or Chase giving over their morpher easily; he hoped Ivan wouldn't be so willing to hand over his to Phillip. But Vida didn't seem to give it any thought before giving over the focal point of her magic and her device for morphing to a man who was melting with each spell he cast. Of course Zedd had already proven his loyalties but still, it was of interest to the prince and he watched as the ex-evil villain took hold of the phone and started to cast some kind of spell. He tried not to look away as a piece of the man's cheek peeled away though it made his stomach turn some to see the effects doing this had on him. He heard Ivan gasp beside him and he realized that the knight was likely unaware of what this was; he only knew because of what he had been told by Lyta who still loved to visit the Megaship all the time. She was convinced Zedd was a cursed soul but seemed to like him as well as the rest of the Renegades.

"Do not fret, Sir Ivan; this is unfortunately an expected side effect of Zedd using his magic," Phillip tried to explain, to the horror of the eight hundred year old knight; he did not argue though, showing his own trust in the prince of Zandar.

As the barrier melted away, the first thing Phillip heard was the sound of birds singing. Followed soon by heavy footsteps that did not sound human; as he turned he saw a familiar, and somehow angry looking, white humanoid machine making its way over towards Vida and he moved before thinking.

"Look out!" he yelled and shoved her out of the way, the next thing he heard was her voice as she shrieked in startlement then the thud of her body hitting the ground. He heard Ivan call out to him and he heard Zedd still continue to recite his strange spell, doing what he had to do; Phillip was thankful for that much. One of them at least needed to do what they were supposed to instead of acting out in instinct and causing more problems, like he was.

The robot slammed into him, landing a rather hand kick to his body and the prince gasped for air before falling to the ground. He heard something thump beside him and he didn't immediately know what, except he heard a less familiar voice call out, "An Energem!" and he opened his eyes to blurrily see the Graphite Energem had landed a few steps away. He also saw the figure of the monster from earlier in the day and he saw the forms of two people, likely Trent and James, grab the monster to try and stop him. But Phillip had hit his head and things were blurry and spinning; pain coursed through him and he tried to breathe, reaching out to grab for the grey stone again. The robot, his robot, his creation, stomped down on his hand and the prince bit back a scream as more pain joined the rest.

He should have made sure Kendall got the Energem before they left. He had forgotten all about it in his pocket and he'd brought it down here and now it was out of his reach. As the machine lifted it's foot he tried again to grab for the gem only to be kicked and roll away; Ivan yelled again, Vida yelled, and he could make out a gold blur rush at the robot, slashing at it. But it seemed somehow to be able to handle that much and fought back; Phillip groaned and Vida rushed to his side to check on him. He wasn't dead, he wasn't that lucky, but he sure hurt and the Energem was still laying away from him, out of anyone's hands, and he felt bad for that. But at least he managed to do one thing right in helping Vida. He managed a small laugh at that; he caused a thousand problems but did one thing right.

The Energem started to glow, dim at first and with all the other stuff going on no one really noticed it, but quickly it built and with the increase in light came a slight shake that eventually caused it to lift from the ground. And as if shot out of a slingshot it flew, past Ivan, past the robot, past Zedd and Vida, right into Phillip's open hand. Blinding light engulfed him and as the suit of the Graphite Power Ranger appeared around his body he gasped for air, sitting up. The pain was gone and that was startling, unbelievable really, but more than that truthfully, more than the lack of pain, more than the surprise he saw on Vida's face, was the realization of what just happened. The Energem came to him, it had chosen him, decided he was worthy, and he morphed. He was now the Graphite Power Ranger, the only Graphite Power Ranger.

"Your Highness," Ivan said in awe and Philip pulled himself up as the robot moved to approach him.

He wasn't sure what drove him to do it but once it was close enough he slammed his head against the machine's, causing it to stagger and step back; Phillip's head spun again but he smiled, glad for the helmet because he felt like he probably looked like a maniac. He felt like a maniac but summoning up the gun-like morpher he slipped his energem inside and shot at his own creation, shattering it to bits. It felt good, it felt really good, and he turned to Ivan.

"Well then, Sir Ivan, we still have a monster to deal with, don't we?"