In his lab, Nate was working on his latest project, when Ben and Betty came strolling in. They came up behind him as he was carefully working on the device.

"That feels kind of weird." The device said in a strange, distorted, mechanical voice, but with something of a weird Brooklyn accent. "My vision got better, but then suddenly dropped out!"

"Sorry about that, I obviously over-corrected." Nate stated. "That's why needed you to be active while I'm making these adjustments to your sensory network."

"Really?" The device asked. "Would you go poking around in a human's head while they were awake?"

"Actually, the vast majority of brain surgery is done while the patient is conscious for exactly the same reason." Nate told the device. "They need to know what a patient is feeling and so they need them to be able to tell them."

"So, you seriously just drill a hole in people's heads and poke around in their heads?" The device asked. "Gross!"

"Not personally, neurosurgery was never one of my main areas of study." Nate carried on.

"Well…it's still gross." The device responded. "Wait…wait…stop, stop right there! That seems perfect!"

"OK, lets give it a check. Can you read the first column of that table right there?"

"Lithium, Sodium…"

"OK, you can see it. How about colours. What colour is the wall?"

"Blue."

"And the table?"

"Silver…ish. It's kind of a stainless-steel thing…"

"OK, we're just about done here then." Nate responded. "So, do you want me to turn you off until I finish your body?"

"No, I just love being a disembodied brain on a table!" The device said sarcastically. Nate turned the device off, then let out a shriek as he turned around, seeing Ben and Betty standing behind him, grinning brightly.

"Would you please not do that?" Nate blurted out in a panic. "My family has no history of cardiac issues, and I'd really not like to be the first."

"Whatcha working on there?" Betty asked him.

"I was working on the neural interface that will be the centre of the Beat Bot's systems." Nate informed them as he gestured to some blueprints. "I think I've got the first one almost done."

"It sounds a little cranky." Betty commented as she picked up the robot 'brain' and started looking at it. "Why's it so...you know…testy?"

"Because the Beast Bots have animal DNA in them and because they'll have to work closely with the Rangers, I thought it might be helpful if they had personalities. It just…I don't know, it feels right, you know? They're not just robots, they're Beast Bots. They should have the same right to their own personality as anyone else."

"I guess so." Ben responded with a shrug as Nate took the 'brain' back off Betty and put it safely on a shelf for later use.

"Look, not that I mind these little visits, but what are you doing here?" Nate asked them. "This project is classified…"

"And we have clearance." Betty interrupted him. "You know, kind of how we know the code for the door."

"That doesn't mean you're meant to just…you know what? Never mind." Nate responded as he tried to brush it off. "I have a lot to do so how about you just tell me what you want and that can get you out of here faster."

"We were wondering how your trip to the woods went." Ben stated. Nate just looked to him rather puzzled.

"What?" He asked.

"You know, that trip out into the woods you took with Zoey?" Betty asked him.

"Oh…Oh right, that trip!" Nate responded, trying to think of an answer. "It was very productive."

"Productive?" Betty asked.

"Yes, we got all the invisible fences installed and activated." Nate told them. "I have the ability to monitor their maintenance from here, we'll need to renew their Morph-X supply in a couple of hundred years, so…yeah, very productive."

Ben just turned to Betty and mouthed the word 'productive' with a quizzical look on his face as Nate turned back to his work, trying to ignore them, hoping they would go away. Betty came right up next to him.

"You know, I looked at those plans, it shouldn't have taken more than…I don't know…a couple of hours to set them up but you were gone the whole day." Betty pressed on in an innocent little voice. "Kind of makes me wonder what you two were doing with the rest of that time."

"We were…working." Nate stammered, trying to avoid the twins' gaze. God, he wished they'd just leave him alone and stop talking about Zoey. He had invited her along because she was partly responsible for the design and he figured she'd want to be there to see them activated, but other than that, he just liked spending time with her. Sure, he had a habit of degenerating into a blathering idiot that was barely capable of functioning whenever she was around, but he did like how he felt when she was around. It was odd, he felt both completely humiliated at how much of a moron she had to think he really was and was just too polite to say, and he felt a little tense in his stomach and his chest whenever she was looking his way, but somehow it also felt good. The only thing he did know was that he didn't want to talk to Ben and Betty about it. It was bad enough Zoey probably thought he was an idiot without adding them to the list. "We did some calibrations and some stress tests, then we observed the animals to make sure that the frequency we chose works on as many species as possible."

"Really?" Betty asked. "You just…worked?"

"Yeah, what else would we be doing?" Nate asked as he went to his computer. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I do have a lot to do here so I could do with some privacy!"

As he ushered them out the door, closing it behind them, Ben and Betty just looked to each other.

"What the hell?" They both yelled.

"Those two are hopeless!" Ben complained.

"You said it bro." Betty sighed, shaking her head as they walked away.

Elsewhere in the city, Ravi and Roxy had gotten to the restaurant. It was a nice little bistro in the middle of the park. It was kind of a high-end place, but Ravi hadn't minded springing for it on their first official date. The park was a very special place to them, being the place where they met, at least as far as he remembered it. They'd already agreed that it was 'their place', somewhere they always wanted to come for special occasions. Birthdays, holidays…he'd even had thoughts of bringing her here when he wanted to introduce her properly to his mom, or, when the day came, when he asked her to marry him. He never for a minute suspected that they'd be here to have what was going to be one of the most difficult conversations of his life.

Roxy still seemed blissfully unaware of the reason they'd come here. She was staring at a picture they'd bought from a photographer only a little while before. They were both standing by the fountain where Ravi had his 'accident'. He'd bought her a rose, and they posed for the picture. He'd paid for two copies. He wanted her to have something to remember happier times if the worst happened.

"I think this turned out great, don't you?" Roxy asked him.

"Yeah, it's great." Ravi said a little distantly as the waiter poured them some wine. They'd already ordered their starters and main courses, but this bistro made everything from scratch, meaning that it took a little while. Ravi was painfully aware of how long it was taking, and he was starting to run out of ideas on how to delay the conversation about regulation 34C.

"Is everything alright?" Roxy asked him.

"Why would you ask that?" He asked, a little taken aback.

"You've been pretty quiet all night." Roxy told him.

"I was just enjoying being with you." He replied, taking her hand. Roxy took a deep breath.

"Ravi, you're really starting to worry me." Roxy responded. "Please, can you just tell me why we're really here?"

Ravi almost wished she didn't know him as well as she did. He took a deep breath. Where was the waiter with the starters when he needed him? He squeezed her hand gently.

"Roxy, there is something I want to talk to you about." Ravi told her. "How…how much of the Ranger handbook have you read?"

"The Ranger handbook?" She asked, looking a little surprised. She had the feeling that something was troubling him deeply, and while he was always super serious about his duty to the base and to the program, she was expecting something a lot worse than just some concerns about the fact they might soon be Rangers. "Is that what's worrying you? Ravi, you are killing it! Even with Blaze's performance in that gauntlet you're still a shoe-in. You've been top of the tables since day one!"

"Roxy, how much of it have you read?" He asked her again. She now looked a little worried. Ravi was dreading the answer long before it came out of her mouth.

"I...kind of flicked through it when I got it." She told him, before seeing the look on his face. She then rolled her eyes. "Alright, I got about a dozen or so pages in before it all just seemed exactly the same as the Grid Battleforce code of conduct. I didn't want to read the same thing twice."

That was exactly what Ravi was dreading. He was hoping that she'd at least be aware of the rule, but would have thought that it was just silly and that she was just planning to ignore it. She respected Grid Battleforce, but she didn't have the same military upbringing Ravi did, and she'd always been a little more relaxed with her attitude to rules. She told him how she had been put in detention many times through school. He pulled it out, opening the book to the correct page, something he could now do instinctually. He slid it across to her.

"Not exactly the same." He told her. "34C."

She took the booklet and started reading. Her face scrunched up as she read it over and over. He wondered if his face did that. He could see her trying to comprehend what she was reading and what it meant. She let out almost a nervous little laugh.

"Fraternisation?" She asked, before looking to him, almost like she was wondering if this was all some kind of sick, cruel joke that had gone horribly wrong. Like he was trying to be funny but instead only upset her. "Dating's not allowed?"

"That's what it says." Ravi sighed. Roxy looked to him, seeing the look on his face. She could tell this was what was troubling him. She could see that there was writing on the wall, and she did not like what it said. She didn't like it one bit. She let out a nervous laugh, trying to make it all sound as ridiculous as it seemed.

"You're kidding, right?" She asked. "This is what's worrying you? Screw the rules! What does it matter?"

"It matters because it's their rules!" Ravi put down flatly. "They're the ones running the program, they can make any rules they like and we have to live with it."

"Ravi, they can't tell us who we can and can't date! That's just ridiculous!" She put down flatly.

"Roxy, we're going to be responsible for people's lives. They have to be sure we're going to make that our priority, not each other." Ravi reminded her. "If there was a burning building, and two people are trapped, me and some random guy you've never met before. Can you say with all honesty that you would leave me and save the other guy?"

"Well, it depends." She said a little uncertainly. "I mean, is one of you unconscious? If so, that's the person we should save first…"

"Roxy, that…that's not the point!" Ravi told her.

"Well it really kind of is!" She snapped in response. "They're trying to say we can't make decisions based on priority of life because we're dating?"

"Roxy, it's the rule."

"Well it's a stupid rule!" She snapped.

"Would it make you feel better if I agreed?" Ravi asked her. "Well, feel better because I think its stupid too, but there's nothing we can do about it, it's their rule!"

Just then, the waiter arrived with their first course.

"Who has the pate?" He asked.

"Over here." Ravi said quietly, inwardly wishing the waiter had been just a few minutes earlier.

"Then that leaves the bouillabaisse for the lady." The waiter answered, setting it down in front of Roxy. "Can I get you anything else?"

"No, we're fine." Roxy said in a barely-audible whisper. The waiter looked to Ravi, who just nodded and left the table. Ravi and Roxy both just stared at each other for a moment.

"You should…um…" Ravi said. "The soup's going to get cold."

"You think I give a damn about the soup right now?" She asked. She sat back in her seat. "So, what are our options?"

"Options?" Ravi asked her.

"Ravi, I know you. I know you probably thought about this for ages before bringing it up." She responded sadly. "OK, so what's the options?"

In another part of the city, Blaze was in the Riptide Gym, arriving for his class. He didn't genuinely care about any of the students, one of the main reasons he only took the advanced class was because he barely had to teach any of them anything. He only even took the classes because people were willing to pay to be able to say they had trained under a world champion, and because it was a way to make it look like he was 'giving back to the community', with minimal effort. He didn't really care too much about what people thought about him, but his father had taught him long ago that a little philanthropy made people very quickly ignore a lot of the other, less admirable things he was doing.

He was about to head into the changing rooms when a kid scrambled out of a booth.

"Blaze!" He called out. "Blaze, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Do I know you?" Blaze asked.

"No…well, not yet. I just…wanted to know if I could join your class." The kid asked him. Blaze stood and looked him up and down. The kid did look to be in decent shape, but that didn't mean to say that he was any good. He could be a lacrosse player or a swimmer or something.

"I teach an advanced class." Blaze told him.

"Well, that's what I'm looking for!" The kid replied. "My dad…he kind of had a falling out with my old sensei. I'm still friends with the guy but dad told me I can't take any more of his classes. He didn't say I couldn't do karate though, so I was hoping I could join your class."

"Really? Just like that." Blaze asked him a little arrogantly. "You think you're good enough?"

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't." The kid replied. "Look, all I want is to learn karate. I've been hooked since my first lesson."

"Who taught you?" Blaze asked him.

"Mike Barnes." The kid answered. Blaze thought about it for a moment.

"It's been a while since I've heard that name on any of the tournament rosters but…he's pretty good." Blaze conceded. "Like I said, it's brown belt or above only."

"I'm a brown belt!" The kid rushed out. Blaze just nodded.

"OK, we'll give you a try out. Your money is as good as anyone else's." Blaze stated. "What's your name kid?"

"Devon." He answered.

"Alright Devon, get changed and warmed up and we'll see how it goes." Blaze replied.

"I will!" Devon replied with a bright smile. He only had one problem, his lessons with Mike were far from a formal affair. He didn't do the whole belt system or even really worry about dressing properly. He pulled out his phone, dialling. "Mike? Yeah, I need a favour. I need a gi and a brown belt in like…twenty minutes."

Back at the restaurant, Ravi and Roxy continued to sit, looking at each other as they discussed their options. The starters remained on the table completely untouched. Neither of them was thinking about the food, as wonderful as it was.

"So, those are our options?" Roxy asked.

"Those are the only viable options." Ravi told her. "The military isn't exactly known for being quick to change its regulations. We could both quit."

"Ravi, do you seriously think you could live with that?" She asked him.

"Hey, as long as I'm in the service I'll be happy." Ravi stated. "I'll…"

"Really?" She asked. "You'd be happy watching someone else, someone who isn't as good as you running around in the spandex?"

"Well, actually it's not…"

"I don't give a flying FUCK what the suits are made of!" She interrupted him abruptly. "You think you'd be able to be cool about watching other people do the job? What if someone died Ravi? Are you really telling me you wouldn't be killing yourself questioning if you could have saved them?"

Ravi didn't answer, but his silence said all it needed to. She knew him intimately. He believed in the idea of serving his country and his people to his core. He would always take personal responsibility for anything that happened that he could potentially affect. If he was on the team, he would still always question if there was something else, he could have done, but if he wasn't even there? He'd feel like he abandoned his duty, even if it was strictly speaking never even his. No matter how much of his own happiness he would sacrifice in the process.

"I…I could drop out." She told him.

"Roxy…"

"It's never meant as much to me as it has to you." Roxy stated. "I'll hand in my resignation tomorrow. If that's what it takes for us to be together, I'll quit."

"Roxy, I can't ask you to do that." Ravi protested.

"You're not asking, I'm saying I'll do it!" Roxy stated.

"Roxy, you can't quit any more than I can. You've come too far, you've earned this." Ravi reminded her. "You can't tell me you wouldn't be having a lot of the same thoughts if something bad happened."

"But if we both make it…"

"Then we know the best people made it." Ravi concluded, reaching out for her, cradling her face with his hand. "Our lives could depend on the people on our team. I know I would only want the best person for the job watching my back. If that turns out to be you, then I know there are few people I'd rather trust my life to."

"But that would mean…"

"Yeah, I know." Ravi finished off. He could see her starting to shed some tears, it was something he was expecting, he doubted it would be long before he was joining her. "Being a Ranger…how long could it last anyway? A couple of years? Maybe we could wait and see if we still feel the same then?"

"But we couldn't be together while we were Rangers?" She asked. He just shook his head.

"I don't really see how we could." He answered her. "I mean, its still possible one or both of us wouldn't get chosen, but the closer we get, the more I think we have to be prepared for the fact we're probably going to have to…you know…"

"So, what are we doing?" She asked him. "Do we wait and see if one or both of us get cut? Just pretend this isn't done…"

"Do you really think that'll make things any easier?" He asked her. She just shook her head.

"No, I don't." She replied, getting her stuff together.

"Roxy, please just stay and finish dinner…"

"Goodbye Ravi." She said, wiping away some tears.

"Roxy!" Ravi called after her as she left. He thought about going after her, but after this, he thought better of it. He somehow thought he would be the last person she'd want to see, perhaps for good. He'd hoped to make the night as easy as possible, but now he was thinking maybe he'd just built it up into something that he never intended it to be. The waiter came back.

"Is everything alright sir?" He asked. "Is something wrong with your starter?"

"No, it's…the food's fine." Ravi told him. The waiter could see how upset he looked, and the way Roxy had left and quickly put the pieces together.

"Would you like me to fetch the main course?" He asked. Ravi just nodded.

"I…I guess." He replied. The waiter just dutifully took the plates and headed to the back, leaving Ravi alone at the table. Ravi just held his head in his hands.