Disclaimer: Yet again I say I still don't own TFPR or Trip (who is the coolest ranger there is, was and ever will be) I just am the owner of Intersepticore.

Lera had another weird dream that night.

This time she was sitting on the beach looking up at the star filled sky when suddenly a large fiery thing flew across the sky. It looked like a UFO and she ran after it. She ran and ran and ran until she was no longer on the beach but miles away in a swamp. She hid behind a large tree as the door to the craft opened with a loud hiss.

The man who tried to strangle her from her previous dream stepped out flanked by a pale girl with pink hair wearing a white skin-divulging outfit and a gold robotic device with a long black cape.

They started to say things to each other but the only sound Lera made out was the girl's loud squeal of delight. And Lera did the only thing she could think of.

She bolted out of the forest as fast as she could and ended up on the beach again panting. She fell to her knees and looked back up at the sky. It was still dark but the sun was slowly showing itself near the horizon.

Then another craft flew across the sky but it didn't go as far as the other one did. It landed barely feet away from her and she had to cover her eyes to protect them as sand flew and caught in her hair. Once it stopped she stood and ran behind a pile of rocks at the edge of the coast just in case more evil people came out of this ship.

The large piece of metal was steaming and fire was scattered around it. There was movement as the door to this shuttle opened and Lera watched as the man from her other dream ran out followed by a pale brunette woman, a dark woman, a tan man with dark hair, and a flying blue electronic birdlike object. He was carrying a few large yellow cases and she had the urge to run to him but she held her ground.

The ship behind them suddenly exploded and now she knew why they were hurrying so quickly away from it. The blast knocked the people off their feet and the fell to the ground not moving.

Lera woke with a start.

Trip was in that dream too and so was that man.

Why did she keep dreaming about them?

Who were they?

She was about to try and get back to sleep again because she knew that she hadn't been asleep for more than a few hours when she heard a loud beeping sound coming from somewhere around her wrist.

She sat straight up and looked at the communication device on her arm. One of its buttons was lit up orange. She pressed it.

Maybe this was the call she was waiting for.

A holographic projection of a person appeared coming out of the device. He was a middle-aged man with his hair slicked back.

"Why hello Lera." The man's tone was gruff and businesslike. "I haven't seen you in a long time. I'm Captain Logan form the year 3000. Where is your Aunt Rasha?"

"She died a few months ago," she said quietly staring in awe at what was happening. The future was finally contacting her.

"I'm sorry, but the future needs your help. A notorious mutant criminal has escaped custody and our censors are unable to locate him because of a cloaking device he has assembled. Only someone like you can help capture him." He paused for a few seconds letting Lera take in all the information until he continued. "Will you help us?"

She couldn't speak. All of this was happening too fast. Her powers were finally going to be of some use to someone.

"Of course!" she exclaimed barely containing her joy.

No more sleeping on the streets.

No more going to bed hungry.

No more being alone.

She'd finally be of use.

Logan smiled. "Tomorrow night you will be contacted again. You'll learn more then but there is something I must tell you now. I must warn you that this criminal, Ransik, mustn't be taken lightly. He is one of the most dangerous felons of our time. You must be careful when confronting him."

"Yes sir," she said enthusiastically.

"I'll speak to you tomorrow evening."

The connection was cut leaving Lera to wonder about the future and she forgot all about her dream.

Trip awoke with a jerk. His head hurt terribly and it took him a moment to remember what had happened.

Then everything flooded back to him. The captains message, Ransik, the ray gun, everything came back to his aching mind.

He tried to move his arms but found that he was unable to move any of his limbs. It was then that he noticed his wrists were chained to the wall above his head and his feet were shackled at the ankles. The room was made out of some sort of metal. It could've been steel or maybe even lead. There was also a thin metal band around his head. He wasn't sure what it did; he hadn't seen that type of technology before.

Before he began to think of a way out he wasn't able to think of anything. His thoughts were jumbled together making it impossible to concentrate. His musings went from how to escape to how to make the perfect waffles.

He felt his head suddenly throb painfully as if an electric current had just been sent up his spine to his brain. He bit back a cry of pain as another jolt followed the first. Then another followed that and so on causing him to finally gave into the pain.

Limply he hung there as his mind was lost into the darkness of unconsciousness.

"We have to go out and find him," Katie yelled at Wes and Jen.

I was 10 in the morning and there had been no news of Trip. Lucas didn't want to get in Katie's face so he was across the room doing his hair and monitoring the holophone.

"Katie we don't know where he is," Jen said frustrated. "It's almost impossible to just suddenly find him in this city. They might not have caught him yet."

"We know that he'll be in trouble soon if he isn't all ready!"

Wes tried breaking in the argument. "Guys please we are all worried about Trip just calm down."

"Stay out of it!" Katie yelled turning on Wes.

"Don't yell at him he hasn't done anything. He's just trying to help!" Jen yelled at Katie.

"The only way we can help Trip is to find him!" Katie yelled back at Jen.

"We can't find Trip until he sets his tracker back on," Jen said unsteadily trying to calm down.

"He would never turn his tracker off! Something has happened to him!" Katie yelled in hysterics.

"Katie, calm down!" Wes yelled over the woman's shrill voice.

"Wes, leave me alone! I only want to know that Trip is safe!" she yelled at him.

"Well, we all do, but yelling does no good!" Wes yelled at her.

"You should talk!"

"Will all of you just shut up!" Lucas yelled looking at all of them with disgust. "Would you just listen to yourselves for one moment. Just chill out or spread out because I am tired of this!"

They all looked at each other with looks of pure hatred on their faces, then they turned directly around and sat in separate corners of the room.

They sat that way for almost ten minutes when the holophone started beeping.

"Hey guys! There's a message coming in from Captain Logan," Lucas called to the others who came rushing over to see.

"Good morning, Rangers," the captain said in his usual greeting. "Today you are to have another join your group…"

There was an uneasy silence as the captain noticed that they were missing a teammate.

"You lost Trip didn't you." He said it quietly; it wasn't a question it was a statement.

Solemnly they nodded.

"We'll get him back, don't worry," Jen said briskly. "What about this new arrival?"

Katie glared at her but kept her tongue. No reason in losing her composure in front of her superior.

"Well actually, Jen, she's been living here for almost her entire life. Her aunt brought her here as an infant because her government would've used her powers wrongly. She's from the planet Thista and was prophesized to be one of the two chosen ones. I'm sending you a photo now."

A picture of a girl around their age with long purple hair and emerald eyes appeared on one side of the screen. She was wearing ragged street clothes. The image pivoted on one half of the screen as the captain's head took up the other half.

"You are to meet her on the beach. She said she'd stay put so you should be able to find her. You'll understand more when you locate her. You are to bring her back to the tower and never let her out of your sight. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," they said quietly in unison.

"Sir," Jen said quickly before their connection was severed. "Who is the second of the two chosen ones? Do we know them?" She felt like the captain was keeping something from her.

"Yes…" he said quietly. "You know him, but I fear that I cannot tell you right now. It's not time. Everything will make sense soon enough, just make sure you get to the girl before Ransik does."

"Are you even sure we're going in the right direction?"

"There is no direction, Jen," Wes said testily. His leader had been asking him if there were going the right way for twenty minutes and it was starting to get dark. "The Captain just said that she'd be on the beach and we're on the beach. Apparently the beach in the future is a very very small one!"

It went quiet again and the waves were heard quietly lapping against a combination of quiet shore and the rocky cliffs that surrounded them

"Why couldn't he have been more specific in her location?" Lucas wondered frustrated at this tedious searching attempt. "We have better things to do, like looking for Trip. Did you guys see his face when he realized that Trip wasn't with us?"

"Yea," Wes said quietly. "He definitely knows something we don't…"

"Well, duh!" Jen said loudly. "He's in the future and knows everything that'll happen until our time, Wes."

Katie was yards in front of them. She had been usually quiet ever since the Captain's contact. She hadn't said a word and kept far ahead from the rest ever since.

"I wonder who the other "chosen one" could be," Lucas said aloud. "The Captain said we know them but, I don't remember any powerful being I might've met through the years."

"Yea…"

Wes wasn't paying him any attention though, because Katie had just stopped and stared at the sand in front of her. She turned back to them and they all stopped.

She opened her mouth and pointed to something front of her.

"I think we found her…"

The blue volts of energy were increasing in number and it was taking all of Trip's strength to keep his eyes focused on the cold stone floor. He didn't even have the energy to fully inspect his surroundings. All he saw was stone…

"Why hello there green ranger," Ransik said entering the stone chamber from a door in the far wall that Trip didn't even realize was there. He spat the word "ranger" with disgust. "How are you on this lovely afternoon?" He smiled crookedly showing his disgusting teeth.

Trip barely able to lift his own gem-clad head spoke in a weakened tone, "What do you want with me?"

"I told you." He sighed quietly and smiled even more evilly. "You have a gift and I want to help you fully discover the warrior within you."

"What are you talking about?" Trip asked painfully. "I'm useless when it comes to fighting."

The volts were growing in size now as well and Trip, unable to hold back the building scream, let it loose in a throat ripping cry that tore at his vocal chords.

"Ransik, please," Trip pleaded out of options now. He moved his head upwards to look into the face of his tormentor not caring at how his pained neck muscles refused.

"You and I similar in a way, we both aren't human. You know that I am an alien Xybrian. I know how you feel. Always being stared at, and the constant words being said behind your back just loud enough for you to hear them. Ransik, I know why you hate the humans but I over came their hate for me. Why did you become like this?"

Ransik's smile faded away into a look of hate and fury. He looked at him like he wanted to destroy him for bringing back all those memories of his tortured past.

"Their hate destroyed me, made me who I am," Ransik said turning towards the door.

"No Ransik. I can see it in your eyes when you look at Nadira. You love your daughter. There is good in you I know it."

"Be quiet!" Ransik roared turning back to the weakened alien in front of him. "We're monsters compared to the humans! That's all we'll ever be to them!"

He took the few steps needed in order to reach his captive then took hold of his orange windbreaker and shoved him into the wall, pinning him there.

"We may be the same in some ways, but we chose our paths differently…" he breathed into Trip's face. "We can't change that…" He let go of the cloth and the green ranger sagged once again into the position he once held.

"I used to act like you," Trip said unable to lift his head or open his eyes. "I used to think like you do now." He paused and gasped as another jolt ripped through his body.

"I grew up with people who beat me up everyday, taunted me, and eventually killed my parents just for knowing that my family was different!" Trip was telling him this to try and make him understand how much he went through and was still at peace with the humans. "Why can't you understand that your not the only one who was hurt by their kind?"

Ransik turned and walked back to the door. "We should do something about it then…" was all Trip heard besides the door slam.

After gasping there in silence Trip mustered up all his strength and tried once more to pull against the chains that held him captive only to fall victim to another jolt of electricity.

Alone in a dark cold room he let himself go…

A/N: Wow... that took forever... review if you loved it... review if you hated it...

Any sort of feedback is now welcome!

THANKIES!

TheDudeLordOfFantasy a.k.a. Kathleen