Disclaimer: If i owned power rangers... um... well...ah forget it.

A/N: This Chapter might be kind of out there and it's definately short, but it allowed me to introduce the idea of my favourite ship: scorpina/goldar.

Scorpina sat silently in her dank quarters thinking as Goldar blundered in.

"She won't let us go down," growled the ape, "won't let us fight: I say we go without her permission."

The female remained silent.

"Did you hear me?" he demanded, "I say we go and defeat them on our own."

"No," came her calm reply, "Rita is my mistress and I obey her commands: if she forbids my going I will not go."

"Then I'll go."

"No," she repeated, "You will lose."

A deep roar erupted from the monkey, "I will not lose to those brats."

"You- we have lost before" she pointed out.

"No," he argued forcefully, "We knew when to draw back."

"However you perceive it," she continued calmly, "we were not successful and we will not be again."

"But he is coming, if we are not victorious by then we will be punished."

"No, she will be punished," the scorpion paused, "we will not be blamed so long as we do not stand by Rita in this."

The ape was puzzled, "how can you be sure?"

She paused as if unsure of how much to reveal, "he knows what we face."

"Those brats?"

She nodded, "it is why he is coming."

"He's coming because she lost the green power coin."

"That was only a sign," she said slowly, "think Goldar: can you ever think of a time a ranger switched sides before?"

"No," he yelled, "what has that to do with anything?"

"If they are bound to the coins it is not possible, they must follow the side for which the coins at that time serve…" she began.

Finally he understood, "but if the coins serve them then it is they who choose the side."

Again she nodded, "the end is upon us: one way or another."

"How far along are we?"

"From what I sense they are just starting to change, but I don't think they know it yet."

"Still time then."

"Yes," she agreed, " but I have no idea what we should do."

"Wait for the master, he's been planning for this for a long time."

Scorpina looked downwards, "he is not my master," she paused, "you know my loyalty is to Rita and not to him and I only serve here of my own choice."

Goldar was shocked, "you're not serious? You're going to run out so close to the end? Or be punished with Rita."

"I'm torn" she explained, "between my loyalty to my mistress," she paused, "and other commitments."

The ape snorted, whether this was a snort of disgust at her loyalty to her useless empress or of approval at her acknowledgement of other options, and of him. Either way he stormed straight out and down the corridor to do some thinking of his own, amused a little that he knew something that Rita clearly didn't.

Mr Scott walked home numbly, almost physically shaking with shock. He walked straight into the kitchen, barely even acknowledging the existence of his utterly confused wife and picked up the phone. 10 minutes later he was explaining to an extremely patient school receptionist that it was crucial that he knew the exact time and date of every lesson his son had missed. After a further (excruciatingly boring) 20 minutes of checking detention logs and lesson times he had a comprehensive and just about accurate list of his son's absences. With a brief wave to his wife he walked swiftly out again, towards the library to cross reference the dates and times with the reports on the ranger battles. Mrs Scott stared for a moment in disbelief, before catching herself thinking, ' I guess it didn't go well then.'

'Four out of six,' thought Jason as he landed fully morphed in the park, 'that's not bad, considering. Just Zach and Kimberly who couldn't get away and as things stand we probably won't need a full team to defeat the monster.'

"It's quiet," commented Billy, "none of the usual rampaging."

"Maybe it's tired," suggested Trini hopefully as they looked round for it.

"Maybe it's clever," replied Tommy.