A/N: So I went back and forth on this chapter for a while when planning the story. At first, I thought about just having this be an interlude in Taylor's chapter, but Ronny deserves better. And the Overdrive Rangers deserve the growth they never really got in their season.

That said, this felt late in the game for a full hometown episode, especially with the escalation in Turtle Cove already well underway. So, I start things off here and then continue them later on, at the conclusion of Ronny's story.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: What you recognize as canon belongs to Hasbro.

Chapter 16: Those Who Miss Us

Ronny hadn't been sure that she would ever lay eyes on the Hartford Mansion again. As she stared up at the house, the memories came flooding back: the good, the bad, and everything in between. She had spent most of the past four years putting those memories behind her. Now, she was faced with them again.

Everything that she had told Tanya and Trini in Mariner Bay was true, from her perspective. Compared to the other ranger teams, hers had been dysfunctional, never growing as close as they might have. They had spent that whole chaotic year rushing around the world, chasing one jewel after another, fighting enemies that were as varied as they were. During that time, they worked together when it mattered, but their attitudes still clashed.

She thought of all the times that Will and Mack had stubbornly chosen to act on their own, putting themselves at risk. Even at the very end, Mack had gone alone to face Flurious, and sacrificed everything in the process. And Ronny herself had been inclined to do her own thing more often than not. She considered the others friends and allies, but she had her own skillset and was the only one who could use it.

And outside of battle, they had each retained their own interests and inclinations. It was inevitable that whatever dynamic they had forged would fade when they were no longer relying on each other.

"Uh, are you going to keep on standing there like a statue? Cause there's already a statue, right over there, yeah."

She shut her eyes, the grin arriving unbidden on her face. "Hello, Norg." She turned to face the yeti, who was holding a half-eaten geranium.

"Hello, Ronny. I've missed you. And the others have missed you too, yeah."

"The others? They've been back here?"

"Well yeah, uh-huh. Tyzonn and Vella are here, and Dax and Will and Rose show up from time to time."

Why had Dax never told her?

She suddenly felt the need to be moving again, and zipped halfway towards the door.

"Whoa, you can still move very fast, yeah." Norg hurried to catch up with her.

"Is Mr. Hartford here?"

"No, Mr. Hartford is not here. He and Mack have gone to some cave far away from here. And Mr. Spencer went with them, yeah."

"Spencer went, too?" She sighed to herself. If anyone was capable of providing a safe EMP device on short notice, it was Mr. Hartford.

The door opened, and Tyzonn emerged. Ronny paused as another wave of memories washed over her.

The Mercurian had grown out his hair, but his silver eyes were as sharp as ever as he stood in the doorway, crossing his arms.

"Finally," he said with a gruffness she didn't remember.

"Hi, Tyzonn."

"You should have come back a long time ago, Ronny."

She sighed again. "It's great to see you too."

He grimaced and dropped his arms, stepping out. "Why did you stay away?"

"We all went our separate ways. I didn't think..."

"You didn't think that we would miss you? Why, did you not miss us?"

She faltered. She was surprised that the others had all visited. Even Will. Could she have been wrong about them? Could she have been wrong about the dynamic between them inevitably fading?

Had she missed them? She had spent four years hardly ever standing still, racing away from all of it. From the sight of Mack lying there, broken and still, until the crown saved him. From the memory of the device that Moltor and the Fearcats had attached her to that nearly killed her. From all the times they had each been hurt, all the times they had nearly failed their mission.

But the better times that they had spent together? Had she run from those too?

She had thought those times were over.

"Uh, she's pretending to be a statue again," said Norg.

She quickly snapped back to the present. She didn't have time for this. She needed the device. "Tyzonn, I need something from downstairs."

"So you didn't come back for a visit?" He shook his head. "You never wanted to see us again, did you?" Turning, he reentered the house.

"No, it's not like that." She hurried after him. "I do miss you guys, I just..." She paused as she followed him into the living room, where Vella was seated on the couch. "Vella, you're... wow, you're... very pregnant."

Why wasn't Dax telling her these things?

"Hello, Ronny." Vella's gaze drifted between Ronny's surprise and Tyzonn's anger.

"Dax has been here? Why hasn't he told me?"

"Because he knows that you didn't want to come back." Tyzonn sat down beside Vella. "It's nice that you still take his calls, but you never ask about any of us."

"I didn't know who else he was still in touch with." She had been so wrong about all of this. "I'm sorry."

"Go and get whatever it is you need."

"It's an EMP device. There's an evil computer trying to take over the world."

"A computer?" Norg had come in behind her. "How can a computer be evil? Computers aren't good or evil, yeah, they're just computers."

"Well, this computer is really evil. I nearly got killed by a remote-controlled fighter jet this morning." She turned back to Tyzonn. "An EMP device would wipe out the computer and any tech it's controlling, without hurting any people."

"Fine. Go and get it."

Her gaze dropped. "I'm sorry," she said again. Then she made for the entrance to the lab.

Norg continued to follow her. "I think Mr. Hartford has the device you're talking about, yeah. He told me not to touch it, or it could turn off all electricity in the city."

"Good. That's what I need." She slid down the pole. As she looked around the lab, she flashed back to seeing Mack lying there, before quickly shaking the memory away.

Norg attempted the pole, and wound up landing face-down at the foot of it. "Ouch." He got to his feet. "I'm not supposed to be down here. But that's the device." He pointed at a device that lay beside the table. It was powered down, which made it difficult to determine what exactly it was, but she decided she could take the yeti's word for it.

She tried lifting it, but strength was not her superpower.

"I would help, but I'm not allowed to touch it, yeah."

Shaking her head, she drew her Overdrive Tracker. "Overdrive Accelerate!" With her connection to the Morphing Grid established, she drew on the extra power to lift the heavy device. "Open that door." She indicated the door to the zord bay. Norg did so.

Inside, she looked around, and her gaze fell on the Hovertek Cycle. A thrill went through her.

"I don't think Will will like you taking that. Yeah, he won't."

"I'll apologize to him after I save the world with it." She strapped the EMP device securely to the back of the vehicle, then climbed on, activating it. "About time I got my hands on this."

"Promise that you'll come back again, Ronny, even if you don't have to save the world."

She looked at him, thinking about Tyzonn's anger and everything she had just learned upstairs. "I will come back. I promise."

Z watched the little girl play with her two favored zords. Was it true that her cousin went looking for her from time to time?

She knew where Katie Delgado was in her time, of course. She checked in from time to time, just to make sure her cousin was okay. But she never showed her face. She knew where she wasn't wanted.

"Hi." Tanya sat down beside her, watching the girl. "You know, I left my family back in Africa when I came here."

"I know. I've read your file."

"My teammates have become my new family, especially Kat. But I still miss my real family from time to time."

Z knew where she was going with this, and decided that she had no choice but to brace herself for it.

"You have an opportunity to be with your family now. Maybe it's not what happened in your past, and it doesn't have to be a lasting thing that could change your future. But at least go and spend some time with her instead of hiding in the trees and watching."

Z looked down. She hadn't expected to be called out quite so bluntly. But Tanya was telling her to do what Z herself wanted to do, deep down.

Standing, she approached her cousin, the other ranger following.

The girl looked up and beamed. "Come and meet Armadillo and Rhino."

Z smiled as the girl gestured for her to pat the head of the armadillo zord, and she did so.

Not to be left out, the rhino lowered its head and gently nudged Tanya, who had stepped closest to it.

"Oh, you want some attention to, huh?" Tanya smiled as she reached up and pet the base of the giant horn. "You remind me of home, a little bit," she said more softly.

Summer sat down beside Kira, who was fiddling with her powerless morpher. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Kira pulled her sleeve over her morpher and leaned forward. "It feels like this is almost over."

"I hope so." There hadn't been anything since the cyclobot attack that morning and Kelsey's confirmation that the deer zord's power had worked. Taylor believed that Venjix was switching to defense in anticipation of the rangers attacking the receiver. But Summer knew that evil AIs never waited around for long. She was sure Venjix was planning some new means of attack.

And she had a feeling it was going to be something big.

"Excited to return to your own universe?"

"Yeah, definitely, once this is done." She missed Dillon and the others. But she realized that she might miss her new friends in this universe once she was back. "Maybe Doctor K can find a way to open communication between our worlds."

"That would be cool." Kira stood, walking over to where the deer zord lay, and Summer followed. The rockstar reached up, petting the wildzord, and it looked at her with a purple eye.

"Hello, friend." She briefly glanced at Summer. "This is Summer. She saved her world from Venjix, and then she came here to help us save ours."

The deer's eye shifted, and despite its lack of iris or pupil, Summer could tell it had shifted its attention to her. She reached out and pet the wildzord, feeling the warm, living metal beneath her hand.

Doctor K would have loved to study these living zords. But maybe it was best that science stayed away from this place. Summer knew firsthand of the problems science could cause.

"I wish you existed in my universe," she said softly. "You could have helped us save a lot more people. Just like you helped save a lot of people in this world."

The deer's gaze remained fixed on her. A green energy appeared around its eye, and fell towards the bottom of it.

Was that... a tear?

The droplet of green energy trickled downwards, and Summer, on instinct, caught it. It glowed in her hand, taking on the shape of a ball.

And then the energy faded, and she was holding a little ball of green crystal, like a large marble. Inside was a miniature version of the deer wildzord. "What?"

Just then, the Animarium shook. The world beneath it was trembling violently, the shockwaves reaching all the way up to their haven in the sky.

"What is that?" Kira asked.

Beyond the hills that surrounded the Animarium, a dark shadow emerged from below. Summer, on instinct, climbed up to the deer's antlers, and held on tightly as it stood so she could see.

Where the air force base had been, a giant robot now stood hundreds of feet over the ground. Venjix had turned the entire base into a giant attack bot.

"Are you kidding me?"