"I'm gonna live, right?"

Dustin looked over at his lion companion questioningly. They had both been silent for a long time. He was trying to make sense of everything.

"Your part in the world is not over little cub." Lion replied. "You must have strength and courage, but most of all you must have hope."

"What if it seems hopeless?" Dustin questioned, in a moment of total sincerity.

Lion's eyes seemed to smile. "Then that is the most important time to have hope."

"Isn't that, like, contradictory or something? And yes I do know what that means. I'm not a complete idiot."

"I think I know that little cub - slow and a little thick occasionally, but not an idiot." Lion replied with a loving tone. "And no it's not contradictory. When all seems hopeless it does not mean that it is hopeless."

For a moment Dustin was silent as he took in the lion's words. Then a light bulb lit up and he smiled. "I got it. We supply the hope, right? It's only when we give up that all hope is really lost."

Lion smiled as best the animal could, but did not reply. Dustin smiled proudly and his ego gained a boost. He knew without Lion's spoken confirmation that he had been right or at least on the right track. He looked out over the savanna and felt his spirits sink.

"How long will I be here?"

Lion snorted. "You're unconscious little cub. You'll be here until you wake up...or you let this little dream go."

"Where will you go?" Dustin asked, looking over at his companion again.

"I'll be with you, remember? I'll always be with you."

"That kinda makes you sound like a stalker, dude."

Lion rolled his eyes. "I'm bonded with you. It wouldn't be considered stalking."

"Oh."

"I suppose our deep, meaningful conversation is over now?"

"We were having a deep meaningful conversation?"

"Never mind."

ZzZzZ

Things were starting to get incredibly tense in Ninja Ops and not just between certain members of the team. Everyone was starting to feel a little claustrophobic as well as irritated with the lack of space. Being stuck in an underground secret ninja hideout with the same people for several days was beginning to take its toll on the occupants. Cam could barely say anything that wasn't sarcastic or a little rude while Shane was going absolutely stir crazy. Having an affinity for the element of air, he felt trapped, which they were, and it was beginning to be too much to deal with. Something had to give and Hunter feared it would be his sanity.

Cam was going over power readings from the Psychos as well as battle footage. He knew there had to be a clue somewhere as to how to defeat the Psycho Rangers. He was just looking over the readings of Psycho Red when he had used his powerful attack on Dustin when the screen suddenly changed. It took him a minute to realize he was looking at a ranger stumbling through the forest.

"Rangers." He called out. The rangers had been lightly sparring, but stopped at the sound of Cam's voice. "The Knight Ranger is back on Earth."

"We'd better get to him before the Psychos do." Shane said.

"No, you stay." Cam told the leader of the rangers. "You're still not cleared for action."

"It's a simple retrieval." Shane argued.

"And if the Psychos show up it'll turn into more."

Shane opened his mouth to argue again, but Sensei cut him off. "You must stay Shane, but be prepared to help if the situation requires it."

"Yes Sensei." Shane relented reluctantly.

The other three quickly streaked away and found that the Knight Ranger was actually rather close. He seemed to know where he was going, but was having a hard time getting there. He tensed when they appeared in front of him unmorphed and none of them stopped to think he didn't know who they were.

The Knight Ranger straightened the best he could. "You...kids."

"We just streaked in from no where. Do you really think we're normal kids?" Hunter commented, somewhat gruffly.

"No, you're rangers." Kale murmured. "I...have much to...share with you."

"Not here." Tori said. "We'll take you back to Ninja Ops first."

Kale silently agreed but before he could take two steps he nearly collapsed. Blake and Hunter rushed to his side to help him stand. Even with their help his knees gave out and Hunter picked him up and carried him in a fireman's carry. The team then streaked back to Ninja Ops where Hunter sat the Knight Ranger at the table. Kale seemed to gain a little strength and also seemed to catch his breath for the first time since his escape.

He felt safe in Ninja Ops and decided to demorph. After all, the other rangers were demorphed and he decided to show a little respect. He reached internally and flipped a switch that instantly caused his suit to crackle and then dematerialize. He was visibly no older than Cam. He had short unruly reddish blond hair and big bright expressive purple eyes. It was within those eyes that they could see his true age. Hundreds of years of turmoil and wisdom shone within. None of the rangers felt it was their place to question him about his age though; there were more important things to discuss.

Kale gave the group a small smile. "I imagine you have a lot of questions. But first I feel it's only fair I know your names."

The room went through names and an explanation of the guinea pig for a Sensei. Then it was chaos as everyone, except the wise guinea pig, tried to ask the Knight Ranger questions all at the same time. After a moment they grew silent and waited as Kale gave them a small amused smile. When no one spoke Kale decided to just pick one of them and pointed at Cam.

"What are the Gems of Power?"

Kale smiled slightly. "I knew that would be the first question. The Gems of Power tap directly into the Morphing Grid, the source of most Rangers' powers. Unlike morphing devices that only harness a small amount, the Gems of Power draw directly from the Morphing Grid. Originally there were twenty and they were created by the original Morphin Masters in an attempt to create a power strong enough to stop Dark Specter. Initially there Gems were a success and the Morphin Master began creating more, but soon it became obvious there were major problems. So, the Morphin Mastersgave the Gemsto Protectorsto hide away so that no one could use them."

"What kind of problems?" Cam asked.

"Some didn't survive the coupling, a few went completely insane, and others were completely corrupted by the power and became as evil as the forces they originally set out to stop."

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Tori murmured.

"Exactly, so it was deemed that they should be hidden and protected so that no one, good or evil, could attempt to use them." Kale said.

"Wait a minute, you said thousands of years ago. You weren't the original protector were you?" Shane asked with wide eyes.

Kale laughed, his purple eyes sparkling. "No, I'm the fourth protector."

"How old are you?"

"Old enough." he replied mysteriously. "I've been at this ranger thing a long time."

His statement was met with silence for a long moment. It was Sensei Watanabe who finally broke the silence. "Kale, is there anything you can tell us about the Psycho Rangers?"

Kale nodded and to the surprise of everyone he pulled a disk out of thin air. Sensei Watanabe was the only one not clearly shocked and Kale imagined that Sensei did not often show his surprise to his students. He smiled sheepishly and assumed that was something else he would have to explain.

"When I escaped I didn't have much time to do anything, but I did manage to download files on the Psycho Rangers onto that disk." Kale said. "I haven't had a chance to look at it, so whatever is on there is all I can share with you." He decided to leave out the part about Navy helping him. If Navy was going to convincingly play the role of bad guy the rangers would have to treat him as such. "Do you have something to read that?"

Cam eyed the disk as he took it from the Knight Ranger. It was the same size and shape as CDs from earth, but one glance at it and he knew it was made of completely different materials. He couldn't be sure what would happen if he put it in his computer and he couldn't afford to lose programming.

"I don't think so." Cam finally said.

Kale nodded. "Okay, you do have portable computers, right?"

"We call them laptops."

"Well, bring that laptop with you to my ship and we'll transfer the data." Kale suggested.

"Alright, but not yet. You look like you need to rest." Cam replied, stepping in as medic.

Kale smiled softly and nodded. "I do, but there are more important things. We have a common enemy that we need to stop and our best hope is on that disk." He took the disk back from Cam and reached into empty air where the disk seemed to disappear just as it had appeared moments ago. "I landed not far from here. I couldn't pick up on your exact location, but I could pick up residual power traces."

"Wait, you have a ship here on Earth?" Hunter spoke up for the first time.

Kale rolled his eyes. "How do you think I got here? It's not a big ship...more like a shuttle...but it does have cloaking capabilities. Obviously not good enough if Kalix and his goons knew I was here."

The rangers shared a confused look at that. Blake spoke for them all. "Who's Kalix?"

"The reptile thing that took a cheap shot at me and managed to get away with my Gems of Power." Kale said, his voice turning dark and angry. "I fought off armies to protect those things and then one little reptile thing strolls in, slaps some electric device on me, and strolls off with the Gems."

"So this is a revenge thing for you." Hunter surmised.

Kale shook himself out of the dark place he had been headed. "No, not entirely. My duty is to the Gems until the new Protector comes forth. Then I'll be free."

ZzZzZ

"Of all the arrogant...foolish...stupid...grrrrrrr!" Kalix was too angry to even form a complete sentence. He was pacing back and forth, but his eyes stayed glued to his source of irritation.

Crimson stood before his master, head bent with submission and secretly terrified of the seething General. He didn't know what he had done to make Kalix so mad, but he knew he was going to pay for it. Even before the insults had started Crimson knew he was in trouble. They never got called separately to the command room unless it was to be punished.

"Master, what is it I have done to displease you?" Crimson asked a slight waiver in his voice.

If it was possible Kalix seemed to grow even angrier. Without warning he lashed out with his telekinesis and threw Crimson across the room into the hard unforgiving wall. His eyes flashed fiercely.

"Don't play innocent with me! You went and saw the Knight Ranger!" Kalix barked.

Crimson shoved himself to his feet and ignored the throb in his head. "Master, you can't be blaming his escape on me. My lord, I was weight training."

"The security camera clearly shows you going in to see the Knight Ranger." Kalix said his voice deadly calm. "Your username and password were used to drop the shield and the Knight Ranger used both to transport to Earth. Now, how do you suppose that happened?"

"Master."

Crimson was cut off as an unseen force slammed him against the wall again. Kalix stormed over to the Psycho's prone form and picked him up by the throat. Crimson struggled briefly before realizing it would only get him into more trouble. Kalix rammed his free fist into the Psycho's rib area, but the suit absorbed most of the blow.

"He escaped because of your stupidity! I should strangle you right now and choose someone new to be my Crimson Psycho Ranger. Someone with less ego and more dedication."

"Master, there is a distinct possibility that I was framed." Crimson ground out before he could think about it. Some part of his inner mind screamed at him for implicating one of his teammates. The other part was glad he wouldn't be the only one punished. "When morphed we can change our suit colors and manipulate the voice outputs to change our voices."

Kalix released Crimson and took a step back, eyeing the leader of the Psycho Rangers warily. He wasn't sure if he approved of Crimson's tattling as a way of saving himself. It showed he didn't have any commitment to his team, felt no responsibility to them. It was disheartening in a way, but Kalix didn't dwell on it. They had bigger fish to fry apparently. There was some things about their new power Kalix didn't know and apparently that was going to have to change.

"So you think one of your teammates framed you?" Kalix questioned. "Who?"

"I don't know master. Da—Psycho Red maybe?" Crimson suggested. He loved the idea of getting his rival into trouble.

Kalix shook his head. "No, Psycho Red would never betray me like that just to get at you."

Crimson inwardly growled at his rival's ability to thwart him without even knowing it. He would get rid of Red one way or another.

"I want the perpetrator brought to me Psycho Crimson. You will find out who did it or you will pay the consequences." Kalix growled into the Psychos faceplate.

"Master...not that I believe in the whole team aspect...but."

"You guys haven't been a team since Jaldia." Kalix grumbled. "That was my mistake. I still don't know what went wrong down there, but I know I'm getting tired of seeing the results."

Crimson inwardly grimaced at the mention of Jaldia. The planet had been the site of their final month of training. He had pushed the whole thing to the back of his mind. He never wanted to think about it. It was so much easier to just hate than to try and actually understand what had gone wrong. So much of it was a blur that he wasn't even quite sure what had happened anymore. He just knew he didn't want to care. He hated Red with a passion and nothing was going to change that.

"In any case, I want you to keep an eye out for strange behavior in your teammates." Kalix continued. "You have two days to find out who did it or it's your head. Got it?"

"Yes Master."

"In the meantime, to make up for this send Psycho Yellow to Earth. Tell him to finish off the Yellow Ranger while he's still down." Kalix ordered. "If they're going to be foolish enough to leave him in the open they'll have to suffer the consequences."

"As you wish, Master."

ZzZzZ

"You are going to explain your ability to pull things out of thin air, right?" Cam asked as he, Kale, Hunter, and Blake walked through the forest.

"Well, I can't explain the details. That's all techno-babble to me that Max always tried to get me to understand." Sadness flashed in his eyes for a brief moment, before being carefully covered up. "Basically, Max set up these…personal subspace pockets for each ranger. He modified the morphers and I can access it with a thought. It came from the need to carry medical supplies, extra weaponry, and other things with us when both morphed and unmorphed."

"How is that even possible?"

Kale shrugged. "Like I said, most of what Max ever said went right over my head. All I know is I have a subspace pocket right here," he pointed to a space in front of him, "and it can hold anything I put in it. I just have to think about which item I want to pull out and that's what I grab."

"So there's a mental factor to it. Amazing."

"Most of my people's technology has a mental aspect to it."

Hunter and Blake shared an amused smile at Cam's reaction. They were used to him getting excited about technological stuff, but it never failed to amuse them. They listened as he continued to badger Kale with questions about the subspace pockets. At the same time they kept an eye out for trouble. Lothor hadn't really done anything since the Psycho Rangers arrived, though they assumed the Psychos were working for him.

"Stop." Kale's command forced them all to freeze.

The Knight Ranger reached into his subspace pocket and pulled out a remote control of some sort. He pushed a few buttons and instantly the group found themselves inside the ship. Kale looked over his shoulder at his guests and grinned at their stunned expressions. The mirth faded away as a wave of dizziness forced him to close his eyes and hold on very tightly to a console. It passed quickly, but reminded him of what he was doing. He reached into his "pocket" and pulled out the disk with the Psycho Rangers information on it. He went to the front of the ship and sat in the pilot's seat and slipped the disk into a slot on the console. Instantly, the files began to open on the main screen and it took him a moment of sorting before he could properly view them. There seemed to be a file on each Psycho Ranger as well as a group assessment. There were also lots of files that were obviously messages that had been sent between Kalix and someone called Dareth about the Psycho Rangers. He closed all those files to go through later.

"Somehow I didn't think they would be human inside those suits." Hunter mused as pictures of the Psycho Rangers unmorphed popped up.

Blake shot his brother a confused look. "You beat Psycho Crimson unconscious, how didn't you know?"

"I wasn't exactly paying attention." Hunter replied. "I wasn't seeing anything really."

"Well, they're human all right." Kale said. "How they can harness the power of those Gems is beyond me, but they're normal humans just like you and me." He typed a few things into the computer and all the files closed. He then turned to Cam. "Pull out that...laptop of yours and let's get these files transferred."

It took them about ten minutes to figure out how to hook the ship computer up to the laptop and after that it was another five minutes to get the transfer started. While that was going on Blake and Hunter looked around the ship a little bit, at Kale's okay of course, and were completely amazed by just about everything they found. It wasn't that big really in comparison to Lothor's ship, but it was big enough to have personal quarters for Kale, some sort of chamber in a room just behind the cockpit, and a hanger at the back of the ship. What they found in the hanger is what really got them excited and they immediately bustled back to the cockpit.

"Dude, what kind of vehicle is that in the hanger." Blake asked.

"More importantly, can we ride it?"

Kale looked up from the computer console and over his shoulder at the two brothers. For a moment he didn't know what they were talking about. Then it struck him like a blow tot he gut. On his planet they had called it a Runner. They were four wheeled vehicles, two wheels up front and two in back, with the wheels side by side. All the rangers had them in order to get to emergencies quickly. Shadow Rogue had destroyed them all, except Nick's and Kale had kept it. The thought of Nick brought tears to the back of his eyes and he had to force them back down.

"No, you can't ride it." Kale growled. "And if you touch it..."

The brothers shared a look as Kale let the threat hang in the air. As much as the vehicle called to them they decided it was in their best interest not to mess with it. They didn't know Kale very well and weren't sure what exactly he would do if they did do something. Before they could say or do anything else the computer beeped letting them know the transfer was done. Cam and Kale began undoing the connections they had made between the two computers. While they were doing that Hunter thought of something else he wanted to ask about.

"What is that chamber thing back there?"

Kale stopped what he was doing and looked at Hunter once more, his brows furrowed. For a moment he didn't answer as he struggled to think of what the Crimson Ranger was talking about. His eyes lit up as he figured out what the ranger meant.

"That's the healing chamber." Kale replied. His eyes burned again at the thought of the last healing chamber he had been around. But he banished the thought from his mind. "It's effective against most injures, but the more serious they are the less chance of it working. It won't save someone who is an inch from death."

The other three young men looked at each other instantly. They all had the same thought. Dustin.

"One of our friends, the Yellow Ranger, was injured by the Psycho Rangers. Could we use your healing chamber to heal him?" Blake asked.

"Of course." Kale said without hesitation. "Go get him and bring him here. I'll transport you in when you get close enough. That'll give Cam and I chance to look through some of the files."

Blake and Hunter agreed and Kale transported them off the ship. He didn't want to offend them by telling them he didn't want them to know the exact location of his ship. The range of his transporter was 35 yards in every direction meaning that there was still plenty of space for it to remain hidden in the relatively big field he'd landed in. It was just safer for him that way so that the rangers couldn't lead the enemy to his ship.

Cam looked at his companion. "Let's get to work."

ZzZzZ

Yellow stared down at his counterpart. It felt wrong somehow to kill the ranger while he was completely defenseless. He was angry too. He wanted to get a chance to beat his ranger in a fight, not kill him while he was in a coma. It wasn't even a coma he had put him in either. Psycho Red's energy attack had done the job, though Yellow had softened the ranger up a bit. It wasn't fair.

"Well, might as well get this over with. Orders are orders." Yellow murmured.

The Psycho Ranger reached out to snap the boy's neck, but just as his fingers touched the skin Hunter and Blake walked in. There was no hesitation between seeing the Psycho Ranger and their actions. Yellow saw them, but didn't have time to react before they threw themselves at him. Of course, they barely hurt him since he was morphed, but it forced him to back away from his target. He watched the two rangers place themselves between him and his target and growled deep in his throat.

"Back off." Blake snarled.

"Please, what are two going to do to stop me?" Psycho Yellow laughed, falling into evil bad guy mode.

As if to answer him two streaks, one red and one blue, herald the appearance of the Red and the Blue Rangers, both morphed. Without a word the two rangers launched themselves at Yellow, who backed away under the onslaught. He blocked a punch from the Red Ranger, only to receive a kick to his chest from the Blue Ranger. He ducked and dodged away from them both in order to collect himself, but they were persistent in their need to protect the fallen Yellow Ranger.

"You're not touching him." Shane growled with determination. He had failed Dustin once and he wasn't doing it again.

Yellow grunted as a kick knocked him backwards into the wall. He ducked a swipe at his head and lunged toward Dustin's bed. Everything seemed to go into slow motion and he saw the boot flying at his face too late. He felt his teeth rattle at the impact and found himself slouched against the wall while his head spun. Before he could collect himself he was transported away.

"Nice kick." Blake complimented.

"Thanks." Tori replied. She looked over her shoulder to see a small crowd had gathered outside. "Now that Psycho Yellow is gone we'll be going. But rest assured if he returns to try and finish what they started we'll be back."

Hunter spoke up quickly. With the doctors watching there was no way they could just walk off with Dustin now. He had to get Shane to take Dustin or else they'd have to come back again.

"Wait, don't you guys have a healing chamber or something?" Hunter asked.

Shane and Tori exchanged looks. "Nooo..."

"Don't you know somebody who does? Somebody new maybe..." Hunter insisted. He hoped they got the message.

A light bulb seemed to click on over Tori's head and she caught on. "Yeah, we know someone."

"We do?" Shane asked her. She elbowed him in the chest. "Oh yeah, we do. And since he was injured by the Psycho Rangers it only seems fair for us to help."

"Doctors," Tori turned to address the crowd. "We're going to take the boy with us to be healed. Rest assured he'll be fine."

None of the gathered crowd could say anything, but there seemed to be an air of agreement. A few nurses gathered their wits and came in to help unhook Dustin from the myriad of machines he was connected to. When that was done Shane stepped up and lifted Dustin carefully out of the bed. Then with a flash of their respective colors the two morphed rangers streaked away. Blake and Hunter quickly left as well leaving a stunned crowd behind to try and figure out what had just happened and why.

ZzZzZ

"Your Psycho Rangers seem to be on a losing streak General."

Kalix winced under Lothor's harsh glare, even if it was through a viewscreen. "They just need to catch their footing."

"No excuses General. I want results." Lothor snapped. "Figure out what's going wrong and fix it. I'm tired of failure Kalix."

"Yes sir, I imagine you are."

"Are you saying I fail a lot!"

Kalix ducked his head to hide a smirk, but quickly wiped the look off his face. "No sir, of course not."

"Good. Just make sure there's no more failure Kalix. I'm leaving the Psychos in your leadership, but that's only as long as I see fit."

Kalix again had to hide a smirk. The Psychos would never listen to Lothor. If he tried to control them they would probably kill him. He had no idea how much power he was messing with.

"Of course sir. I'll try not to disappoint you anymore."

The communication was cut on his end and Kalix spun to glare at Psycho Yellow. He took several menacing steps toward the Psycho and felt inwardly satisfied as Yellow took one step back. Intimidation was very important in the game he was playing. The Psychos still thought he was more powerful and as long as they thought that they would listen to him and follow his command, but if they knew the truth...he didn't want to think about what would happen then.

"What took so long? You had plenty of time to kill the boy." Kalix rumbled.

"Master, I."

"Shut up! I don't want to hear your excuses. Hasks benes plsna klro...you Psychos are really starting to disappoint me." Kalix said, briefly lapsing into his native tongue before catching himself. "You better pass on the warning that things had better change."

"Yes Master."

ZzZzZ

Cam glanced up as Kale transported the whole ranger team onto the ship. He felt a strange sort of relief to see Dustin again and knew he would feel even better after the healing chamber was done with him. He looked at Kale as the Knight Ranger got up and led the rangers to the healing chamber. Cam got up, because he wanted to see the thing in action, and joined them just in time to see Kale pull the side open. Shane seemed to hesitate a moment before stepping forward and putting Dustin down inside. Kale shut the chamber and latched it closed before pushing a big green button. The chamber issued a soft hum to ensure Kale that it was working. Cam felt slightly disappointed. He had hoped to see some magnificent light show or something, but all he got was a hum.

"I have to admit I was expecting more." Hunter said, expressing Cam's disappointment.

"What do we do now?" Shane asked.

Kale sighed. "Now you wait. His injuries didn't look too severe, but...like most of my planet's technology there is a mental aspect to it. He has to be ready to come back or it just won't work. So, in the end it's all up to him."