Disclaimer: I do not own the concept of Power Rangers or any names you may find familiar.

Chapter 3 summary: The new Rangers learn more about the terrifying powers of what they are up against, and make plans. Meanwhile, Xadrin calls her family in Eltare...

Chapter 3: Making Plans

Xadrin woke with a start. She felt more rested than she had in days. But the white ceiling and the bed beneath her were not what she had expected. It was not her room.

Then she remembered what happened the day before.

She sat up quickly, and cursed as the wound on her back stung mercilessly.

"Sudden movements are not advisable." VIKI suggested, helpfully.

Still trying to balance on her hand and trying not to fall back down, she did not reply immediately. When she felt ready, she found the nearest camera and proclaimed, "Thank you, for the timely advice."

"You are welcome." VIKI replied. She must be in a good mood today – and yes, Xadrin was positive that VIKI had moods, even though she had only lived on the Ace for a few days. VIKI would find ways to make them known, such as dispensing helpful advice.

Just then, she realized that a small table had wheeled over and parked itself next to the bed, serving up a tray with a glass of water and a small shot of nasty looking liquid.

She took a few sips of water first, staring at the liquid in resignation. "Can't you make them look better?"

"Previous experience had shown that the appearance of the medicine has no correlation with how compliant patients are. Therefore, it is suboptimal to waste resources on the matter."

Xadrin rolled her eyes, and gulped down the liquid. She made a face at the camera.

"While you were asleep, three recorded messages have arrived from Eltare."

She almost spat out the water she just sipped. Three. "What time is it? How long was I asleep?"

"It is now 11.24am Crystal Falls time. You have been asleep for more than sixteen hours."

"Crystal Falls?"

"The town where the other Rangers come from."

"Oh." The other Rangers. Messages from Eltare. Metigor no doubt planning an attack. She was starting to feel a headache coming up. Message from home, or the Rangers first?

"Who sent the messages?"

"Two came from the Red Ranger, and one from your parents. The messages from your brother came first."

Well, Xander was probably trying to warn her that her parents had finally found out about her little hunt. And her parents – well. She could guess what they would say.

She sighed. "Where are the other Rangers?"

"They are training in the simulator room."

"What?" Among the possible answers, this was the one she least expected. "Why are they – do they even know what was going on?"

"They are now aware about Rangers and their bond to the morphers they carry. As of two hours ago, all three of them have decided to remain Rangers. You were still asleep when they returned to the ship this morning, and I suggested that they try the programs in the simulator room to assess their training needs."

Xadrin opened her mouth, and closed it. How could things change so fast while she slept? She had given the morphers to them out of desperation in the field, though they had already shown that they deserve them. If they had decided to remain Rangers, were they her teammates now? What about Xander and the others back home?

But Metigor was here. He must be planning something. She could not return home now and leave this new team in the lurch.

She needed to talk to them. She flipped open her covers, and swung her leg down – "Blasted!"

"I believe I mentioned sudden movements were not advisable. It is also not advisable for you to leave your bed-"

"Shut up, VIKI. Bring me a crutch."

The man in black snuck past Aly's defense, and landed another kick to her side. She bit back a curse, and charged again. The faceless mask betray nothing at all as he blocked all her attacks with ease, and countered with faster and faster blows.

And suddenly, she fell on her back, and blinked up at the ceiling. She did not even know how it happened.

Cody's face came into sight, upside down. He offered a hand.

"What the hell." She grumbled as she took the offered hand, and got up. "I swear he got progressively better during the spar. That's not fair." The faceless man stood motionlessly on the mat a few feet away, waiting for the command to start another round.

Cody shrugged. "You knew it was a test. He was programmed to get better and better until he beat you."

Aly knew, of course. But it was one thing to watch Cody fight until his current 'level' of hand-to-hand combat competency was determined, and another to try to fight someone, knowing that he will best you eventually.

"Well," she said, testing the various places where she got hit with a grimace, "I am more curious about how they make everything so real and solid."

The simulator room was not to be underestimated. When the three of them arrived, it was merely a big, empty room with literally nothing in it. Yet at VIKI's command, the room – about the size of a soccer field – was divided into three stations by walls that just materialized. The walls, along with the any other object thereafter, including the virtual sparring partner, were completely solid. If she had not seen them materialize out of thin air, she could have sworn that they were real.

She shot another glance at the faceless man. Hand-to-hand combat was her final station, and she knew that she sucked at it. She barely lasted a minute. She was pretty sure she sucked at the flight test as well, which was the station that Cody just passed. She could only console herself that she was at least quite decent at shooting.

"Let's go see if Shawn is done." Cody said, and she followed eagerly. She was curious to see how she fared among the rest.

As they crossed over to the next station, they caught a glimpse of the final two dummies appearing and two separate corners, and Shawn firing rapidly with a hand-held laser gun. He hit both.

With the program over, VIKI displayed his score on the screen next to the table he stood behind.

Cody whistled. "Impressive!"

Aly hid a smile. Her own score was slightly better than Shawn's – so she was at least good at something.

"That's not bad." Xadrin's voice drifted over, and all of them turn around to find her standing at the door, supporting herself with a crutch.

"Xadrin!" Cody jogged over, "Are you sure you're supposed to be out of bed?"

Aly frowned as both she and Shawn followed close behind. Xadrin was still looking rather pale, and she seemed to be breathing rather heavily.

Still, her expression was defiant as she swatted away Cody's help as she lowered herself into a newly conjured chair next to the door. The door slid shut as three other chairs materialized around Xadrin. They took the hint, and sat down.

"I'm feeling much better," Xadrin said as if she meant it, "thank you. And I should have said this earlier – thank you, for saving my life yesterday."

Aly saw her own surprise mirrored in the others' faces. They were so caught up in the fact that becoming Rangers had turned the tide of the battle, that they almost forgot that their initial intention was to help Xadrin.

"Well, you saved ours as well," Cody said finally, leaning back on the chair.

"Yeah, we saved each other. And I suggest we stop here." Shawn remarked with a grin, "Otherwise, we will never move on."

They chuckled, and were silent for a moment. It was a comfortable sort of silence.

Aly toyed with her morpher unconsciously, and she found Xadrin looking at it. "VIKI told me that you have decided to remain Rangers." She said finally, and looked around at them.

"We have." Cody replied, looking at both Aly and Shawn, as if asking for permission to be their spokesperson. They nodded at him. "We know Metigor is coming back. And he probably has some nasty plans for Earth. If we are the only ones who could use these," he held up his hand to show the morpher, "then we will do what we can."

"Do you even know what you are getting yourselves into?" Xadrin asked, her face unreadable.

As if on cue, both Cody and Shawn turned to Aly. This was her refrain last night, after all. "Probably a lot of trouble. A lot of dangerous situations." She started, as if running through her own internal debate as she lay awake in her dorm last night, "But we would have a fighting chance. If Metigor threatens our families or friends, at least we could fight back."

Xadrin's expression had softened at the mention of families and friends, as if she understood. She nodded. "There is something else about Metigor that you need to know. His species has a unique ability. Remember the spikes on his arms?"

They nodded. Aly did not think anyone who had seen those monstrous-looking spikes would forget them easily.

"They are highly poisonous. Its venom will stay in the victim's body, and forced it to obey Metigor's commands." Xadrin continued grimly, "In other words, Metigor could control minds."

Their jaws dropped.

"Mind-control?"

Xadrin nodded. "It gets worse. Most members of his species could only control one mind at a time, limiting their potential for damage. Metigor somehow found a way to control many at a time. His most notorious crime was the massacre of an entire city's inhabitants, presumably by getting the inhabitants kill each other, and set the whole city ablaze."

Aly sucked in a quick breath, imagining the horror of a city of people killing each other. She felt a chill down her spine.

Shawn cursed under his breath.

"But…" Cody took a moment to find the words, "But why wasn't he caught? There must be a large number of people wanting to catch him if they could…"

"There are," Xadrin said softly, her eyes seeing something they could not, "but that's the thing. He disappeared. For years. For the first few years there was an intergalactic alliance to hunt him down. But in the past few years the war took greater priority. I never expected him to be the thief I thought I was hunting."

Aly was torn between asking more about the war and the more urgent question of what Metigor was doing on Earth now.

Shawn beat her to it. "What would he want from Earth?"

Nobody was willing to venture a guess. The slain city Xadrin mentioned hung heavily in the air, unspoken.

But something didn't add up for Aly. She forced the vivid pictures of burnt cities out of her mind, and tried to focus on what the likely motivation was.

"Why would he want to massacre a whole city?" she wondered out loud, "If Metigor accomplished something beyond what most of his species was capable of, he must be paying some price for it. Or at least, it would require greater effort. Why put in the effort to poison the entire city, just to kill them all?"

"Maybe he couldn't control them as expected," Cody picked up, his eyes sharp but grim, "And that's why he disappeared – he needed to refine his… technique, whatever it is."

"And now he has perfected it." Shawn continued, eyes wide.

"That's just speculation." Xadrin muttered with a frown, "You can't prove anything. The alliance –" she paused, and sighed before continuing, "My family was part of the alliance that hunted him."

"Your family?" Cody repeated in surprise.

Xadrin nodded, "My brother is the Red Ranger of Eltare, my home planet. He was part of the team that led the hunt. I've sat in on the meetings. Trust me, they have been through every angle of this." She suddenly looked down, and said very quietly, "One of our younger cousins was in that city."

Aly winced at what that meant. Cody, sitting right next to Xadrin, reached out hesitantly, and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. She nodded silently in acknowledgement.

She took a deep breath, and looked up again. Her eyes were too bright, but also determined. "Whatever he wanted, the people on your planet are in great danger. Even if he doesn't kill, he could build an army –" she stopped, frowning.

"An army of humans?" Shawn picked up that train of thought, "Would that be useful to him?"

"I…" Xadrin finally sighed, "I don't know. I think I need to talk to my brother."

Aly did not know what to say. There were so, so many questions, and no easy answers.

"Well," Cody started after a few moments of heavy silence. "This is getting nowhere. Why don't we grab something to eat, and think about what to do next after lunch?"

Shawn raised his hand, "I second that."

Xadrin chuckled, "Right, I'm starving! Let's go!" This time, she accepted Cody's hand as she got up, making a face as he handed her the crutch. But she didn't complain further, and followed Cody out the door.

Aly imagined an army of humans controlled by Metigor. She imagined her younger brother, her parents among them. She imagined the army advancing on her, and her standing alone and frozen on the spot…

"Coming?" Shawn was by the door, waiting.

She snapped back to reality, and nodded at him.

No, she would not be standing alone, if it comes down to it. She would probably get into a lot of trouble, a lot of dangerous situations as she said, but she would not be standing alone. And that made her feel that she was ready.

Lunch was a mostly quiet affair. Xadrin seemed lost in her own thoughts, while all the things Cody wanted to say or ask seem to lead inevitably back to Metigor's plans for Earth. But it did seem like all of them were starving – they ate quietly but quickly, and soon all they all had empty plates.

Their earlier unfinished discussion hung silently in the air.

"We have to strike first." Xadrin said unexpectedly. She looked up from her own plate, her eyes cold and calm, "If Metigor really wants to build an army of humans, we have to stop him before he does."

Cody himself had been thinking exactly the same thing. With the powers that Metigor had – what if he really did build up a human army? Could they fight fellow humans who did not have control over their actions?

"That's much easier said than done." Shawn muttered, even though he seemed to agree.

"It always is." Xadrin replied without batting an eyelid, "We just need to work out a plan to take him down. We know where his ship is now."

Cody looked around the others, noting their reluctance to point out the obvious fact. And so he did. "Even so, do you think we can do it? You heard the summary VIKI gave – the three of us barely mastered the basics in the different combat skills. I hate to say this, but if we rush to strike first, we might drag you down."

Shawn frowned. "We can't be that bad. We forced a retreat last time, remember? If we just train together a little more, work on our tactics, I don't think we'll lose."

"Frankly, I think we got lucky." Aly said, meeting Shawn in the eye, "We caught him by surprise – he couldn't have been expecting four Rangers on a planet that had not establish any intergalactic contact. Next time, he'll be ready. Maybe he'll – Xadrin, do you know if he has any accomplice?"

Xadrin thought for a moment. "Not that we know of. He's never had any known accomplice. And when he stole the ship, there was no sign of anyone else with him."

"Well, that's at least one piece of good news." Shawn muttered.

"Yes," Cody said firmly, they needed all the good news they could get. "It is. Now we just need to find out what else he is capable of. Aly is right – he will be ready next time. We need to know about the weapons he had, or anything else – like a giant tub of his venom stored up in the ship or something. We need to do some recon."

Xadrin nodded, "Good point. We know the ship location. We should have a recon mission before we strike."

"What if we do both?" Aly suddenly said, "What if we do recon and strike while we are at it? Xadrin said his ship is a stolen cargo ship – I bet the layout plans can be found. If we had the chance, we could try to disable his communication or navigation systems – trap him, isolate him."

Cody's eyes widened at the idea, and saw his surprise mirrored on Xadrin's eyes.

"That," Shawn said slowly as he repeated the plan in his head, "is a freaking good idea."

Xadrin immediately requested VIKI to look for the cargo ship's layout plans, only to have VIKI surprise them with it. VIKI must have started searching for the plans as soon as Aly made her suggestion.

With the ship layout projected in 3D into the middle of the lounge area next to the kitchen, the team shifted over, and started discussing how to execute the plan. It was as if they were on a roll – ideas flowed freely, and they were critiqued and refined as quickly as they came. And slowly but surely, their plan took shape.

Hours later, the team plopped down onto the colorful couches and chairs, exhausted but exhilarated.

"Wow." Cody exclaimed, rubbing his face with his palms. He couldn't help but marvel at what a good team they were turning out to be. With them on his side, he felt like he could take on anything.

"Yes, wow," Shawn said from the next couch, "I don't think I can do anything else today. I feel like I fried my brain."

Aly laughed. "I feel exactly opposite – I don't think I can sleep tonight."

With mock disgust, Shawn threw a pillow at her. She caught it happily, and grinned back.

Xadrin chuckled. "Whatever it is, let's call it a day for now. You guys deserve a break."

She looked down at her injured leg, and lightly massaged it. "Five days." She said, her expression serious again. "VIKI said I would be combat-ready in five days. That's when we'll strike. You will have to be ready."

"We know." Cody said quietly, seeing the same determination in the others' eyes. "We'll start training tomorrow morning."

"Let's just hope that Metigor doesn't strike first," Aly muttered, "five days… can be a long time."

Shawn made a face. "Don't jinx us. And besides, we are doing what we can do. No point worrying about things we have no control over. Just focus on the training."

For a moment Cody thought Aly would retort, but in the end she just nodded. Xadrin smiled slightly at that.

Shawn was right. There were too many things that they had no control over. They could argue forever about the what-ifs, or they could use the time to focus on what they could do. And focus they would.

Xadrin fidgeted in her seat as the live link to Eltare was being established. She could not remember the last time when she felt nervous about talking to her parents. Even when they disapproved, she was always sure of her own choices, always defiant. But this time, her choices would affect the fate of a planet, and three fellow Rangers whom she had come to like.

The insignia of Eltarean Rangers flashed into view, and Xadrin took a deep breath, waiting for them to pick up the call. They must have just finished dinner, if she calculated correctly.

Her mother's face blinked into view, smiling in relief. "Xaddie! Where have you been?"

Her father came into the picture, and sat down next to her mother with a scowl. Xadrin tried not to wince.

"Hi mum, dad." She said, forcing a smile. "How's everything?"

"You are the one to ask." her father said, "Did you care about 'everything' when you took the Ace and just flew off?"

"Xarues," her mother chided, "you heard Xander. She felt personally responsible for the ship theft. She took off after it because she cared."

Xadrin was reminded again of how much she loved her brother. Even when he disapproved, he was always one step ahead of her, soothing their parents' anger and building escape routes for her. She silently resolved to thank him properly when she got back home.

Her father gave her mother a look, and reluctantly let it go. "So where are you now? Ready to come home yet?"

She noted how he deliberately avoided asking if she had caught the thief. She wondered whether it was because he was confident that she had, or whether he was sure she didn't, and did not want to dent her pride by pointing it out. She felt both comforted and indignant, almost like a child again – but this was not the time for that.

"I'm at a system orbiting a planet called Earth. I – is Xander home?" She asked, knowing that all of them had a right to hear this from her, "I need to make a formal report to him as well. This is – this is not just a ship theft."

Her parents exchanged a look, and her father turned around and called out to his brother. Her mother was beginning to look worried. "Xaddie, is everything all right? Are you all right?" Xadrin saw her squinting at the screen, as if she could see through the light years between them and –

"Why is there a crutch in your room?"

"What-?" she turned around quickly to check – only to cry out in pain as the wound on her back reminded her of its existence. She cursed quietly.

"—what happened?" her father demanded.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she croaked, cursing herself for not checking if the blasted crutch was out of sight. She dreaded turning back to face her parents now.

"You are certainly being very convincing." Xander's voice drawled, and as Xadrin glanced back at the screen, she saw that he was leaning over the back of the couch their parents sat on, his grim expression a stark contrast to his casual posture and tone. Her mother's expression was strained, and her father's sternness could not completely hide his concern.

She sighed. "I'm sitting here talking with you, aren't I?" Frustrated, she ran a hand through her hair. "I'm sorry I made you worry. But I have bigger news." She paused, and continued when she found that there was no better way to say it.

"The thief I was chasing was not just anyone. He is Metigor."

A beat.

"What?"

Xander had straightened up, and her father looked like he was about to jump out of his seat. Her mother gripped his hand.

"He caught me by surprise." Xadrin explained, "But I think I caught him by surprise too. I don't have any idea what he is doing on Earth. We have some theories –"

"Xaddie, are you all right?" Her mother asked urgently.

Even her brother was showing open concern now. "Just give us a straight answer, Xaddie. Or do you want us to ask VIKI for a medical report?"

"I really am fine now. Please don't worry." She sighed, "Metigor had a grade-nine laser weapon. I…" she avoided their gaze, "… took a couple of hits."

Her mother gasped. Both her parents used to be Rangers in their younger days. They knew what it meant – what happened when a grade-nine laser penetrates, what the burns looked like.

"When did this happen?" Her father asked, his voice strained with cold fury, "Where is he now?"

"Yesterday." She replied, and shook her head when she realized it wasn't actually true. "Almost two days ago now. I slept through most of yesterday."

"What happened?" Xander asked quietly.

And so she told them the full story. About how three strangers came to her aid, how the same strangers were now her teammates. Her father had snapped at her for giving away the morphers so easily, but he let it go when her mother pointed out that without the other Rangers, she might not be sitting here now.

And finally, she told them of their plan. And she braced herself.

"Absolutely not!"

"Are you crazy?"

"Your team is completely untrained –"

"You don't know what tricks he has –"

" – and you won't have any planetary defense to back you up –"

"- four days! I don't care what VIKI said, are you sure you can even walk properly in four days?"

"I will be morphed, mum." She said quickly, finally getting a word in.

"You will hardly be at full strength." Her father said, his eyes full of disapproval.

"Look, I get it," Xadrin replied just as Xander was about to add on, "it's not the best time to do this. But time is the thing we don't have. Earth has over six billion humans – that's more than twice the population of Eltare!"

The mildest surprise flashed across her family's faces, and she quickly continued, "We know what Metigor is capable of. Even if he gets just one human under his control, that is one more casualty we cannot afford. The more humans he controls, the harder it will be to fight him. If this gets out of hand he could supply a large number of soldiers to turn the tide of war."

Their faces were grim. Xadrin knew that they would see the big picture. She had always respected their expertise and experience, even if she liked to challenge them. Sometimes, she even wished she was not their daughter, and they would see her as the Ranger she was. But only sometimes.

"This may not be the frontline or Eltare, but I still have a duty to see this through. You know I do."

Her mother sniffed openly, trying to get her emotions in check. "But your odds are not favorable at all… maybe we will come help you!"

Her eyes widened at the suggestion, "No, you can't! You and dad have retired for so long, we don't know if your immunity to the venom still works. We can't afford to have you fall under Metigor's control."

"Then Xander will…" Even as she said it, her mother knew Xander couldn't. As the leader of the Eltarean Rangers in a time of war, he cannot be absent, and neither could any of his teammates.

"You know he can't, mom."

Xander took a deep breath. "I'll find someone. Give me one day, and I'll send backup your way."

Xadrin smiled a little, "Do you think you can convince the Council to spare resources in one day? Chances are, you won't even get them in a room and talking to each other by the time I'm done."

"One day." Xander repeated. "Have I ever broken a promise to you?"

No, Xadrin thought. Not when it mattered. But knowing from experience the sheer impossibility of the Council to be efficient, she thought her brother might be pushing his luck this time.

"Just stay focused on the frontline, Xander." She finally said, "Don't get distracted by me. And," she dragged on the word, "maybe I didn't emphasize this enough, our primary objective is reconnaissance. Taking down Metigor's comm and navigation is secondary. We won't engage until we are sure of our chances."

Xander and her father exchanged a glance, while her mother looked away. They all knew how carefully designed plans tend to work out.

Xadrin knew too as well, of course. So she felt the need to elaborate, "And my team here is not that bad. Cody – the Red Ranger – is pretty shrewd; he knows how to manage the team. The Blue Ranger, Aly, is turning out to be a sharp strategist. And Shawn – he's the Black Ranger – he could react to situations very quickly by simplifying the options, which is a great complement to the others who might overanalyze –" she yawned uncontrollably, "and – "

"Xaddie," her father sighed. "We get it. Get some sleep."

"And please take care of yourself." Her mother said, her voice strained.

She smiled weakly. "I will. You too."

"And remember, just give me one day." Xander said, his hands gripping the back of the couch tightly. "I promise –"

"I know." She said quietly. "Say hi to the team for me. Tell them not to worry."

For a moment no one said anything else. They just stared at each other, trying to stretch this moment.

At last, her father straightened up. "Go to bed."

She nodded. "I love you."

They echoed back. And the link was cut.

For a long time she just stared at the blank screen, replaying the conversation in her head. She thought back to her last conversation with them before this, and recalled with a pang of regret that she had been in a hurry to leave, and had lied to them so that she could sneak off to chase the thief she had inadvertently helped.

She had thought that she would be back latest in a day, and life would be back to normal after some minor scolding. She would train with the team again, fight alongside them, joke around with them, pull a few pranks…

Growing up as the youngest in a family of warriors, and among a strong and close-knit team, she was always fiercely protected, she knew. She had long wanted to prove herself – or perhaps to prove to herself that she was just as good.

And now she had the chance, thousands of light years away, with the fate of a planet and the tide of war on her shoulders.

She got up slowly from her seat, and limped towards her bed, wiping her wet cheeks carelessly. She needed the sleep. She had work to do.

Half an hour after the call with his sister ended, Xander was at the control room at the base, facing his team. They were not in uniform, but they were alert and on standby.

Xander leaned forward and rested his elbows on the round table, looking around at his team. "I have bad news."

"We know." Rakan drawled. "You know we won't forgive you if you drag us back to base at this hour for useless announcements."

"Useless announcements at any time are unforgivable, to be honest." Brecian commented lightly with his arms folded.

Outsiders might think that they were being inappropriate by cracking jokes in times like this, but Xander knew that it was their way of making him feel better. No matter how bad it got, they will move forward together.

"I spoke with Xaddie."

The room tensed.

"Is she all right?" Meryl asked the question on everyone's mind. Xander reached out and gave his lover's hands a gentle squeeze.

He chose his words carefully. "She found Metigor." There was a collective gasp. "He was the thief she was hunting. They fought. She walked away, but not unscratched."

"How badly?" Nirra asked, tensed with worry.

"Grade-nine weapon. She said she took 'a couple of hits'." Someone hissed in pity. "She's using crutches, so I'm guessing it was her leg and her back."

Rakan cursed, and shook his head. "That girl… she's so going to hear from me when she gets back."

"Do that." Xander muttered, "I'll just be happy if she gets back."

"Xander, that's not helping." Brecian snapped. "What do you mean? Just tell us the whole story already."

He curled his fists tightly, and slowly released them. Then he told them the whole story, and Xadrin's so-called plan.

When he finished, Rakan slammed his fist on the table, and cursed.

"That's too reckless." Meryl commented, "Even for her."

"But I see her need for urgency." Nirra said quietly. "She's right, time is not on their side."

"Why don't we just go over?" Rakan said, and even then he knew how unlikely it was, and corrected himself, "Some of us? At least one of us not on crutches?"

"Time is not on our side either. We need one full day to reach that galaxy, and one full day back." Nirra said, ever the voice of reason, "And who knows how long it'd take to defeat Metigor. With the frequency of attacks lately, I don't think any of us can afford to leave."

"But-"

Brecian cut off Rakan's protest, "Xander, you look like you have something in mind. Care to share?"

He nodded his thanks at his official second-in-command. "I do. You guys are right that we should do something to help her. We can't go, and the Council won't mobilize fast enough to be of help at the moment. I have one person in mind, and I'm taking all of you off duty tomorrow to find him."

"Who would want to take on Metigor – oh." Brecian seemed to realize whom it must be.

"Him?" Rakan seemed to have gotten it as well, though he did not seem convinced.

"He's not the same person we used to know anymore," Nirra warned, "you know that."

Meryl gave him a quick look. "He's not. No one can stay the same after what happened. But I still trust him; I know he still has a good heart."

Brecian raised his eyebrow. "Have you heard of the crowd he's been hanging out with? They are borderline criminals."

"Borderline." Xander emphasized. "He's the best option we have – not a Ranger we cannot spare, not attached to any defense forces, but someone we know, someone trained, someone with a personal stake in this. The 'crowd' he hangs out with might also give him the resources to reach there in time."

"What you said is true," Nirra admitted, "But I met him a few months ago. You won't believe how much he hates us."

"He does?" Rakan frowned. All of them used to be friends. If things had not turn out as they did, perhaps he would be sitting at this table, too.

"He hates Rangers in general, I suppose."

Xander shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Trust me, I'm not happy with sending him to Xaddie – he's almost as much an unknown as Metigor. But he is still family. He has to – he will help."

"Let's find him."

A/N: I found some extra time this weekend, and thus here's an extra chapter this week! The next one will be up by next weekend.