Author's Notes – I don't know, if anyone's still reading, I'm sorry for the wait for such a short little connective piece.

Summary - The group anticipates the arrival of their enemy.

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The Arrival

Zedd

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(3 days later….)

Pacing the floor of Zordon's condo, I can't seem to calm my agitation. It just seems to grow a little more with each passing day and if Zarek doesn't arrive alive or dead soon I am going to go mad.

"You know pacing isn't going to help anything." Sitting on the couch and going over documents that most likely have something to do with the Council, Zordon barely even glances up as my response is given.

"Bite me."

"Zedd why don't you sit down for a little bit and help me calibrate these blasters okay?" Sitting on the floor on the opposite side of the room, away from Zordon's work and my feet, Thomas continues to tinker with the three out of date blasters my father had given him the other day. "I can't get this one set correctly, I could use your help."

Stopping abruptly at his casual tone, I turn and give him a lost look. "How can you be so calm about all of this?"

Sighing and continuing to try and solve his own problem his response is automatic and easy. "Because I know, as well as you do, from past experience that panicking does absolutely no good in situations like this. You have to stay calm and logical."

"He's right you know." Who asked you blondie?

"And pacing is not calm, nor logical." He finishes.

"Very true."

Glaring at Zordon, I bark back my response to his two cents. "You're not helping."

"And neither is your agitation. Zedd, mate, please come sit down with me and help me work on these, okay? Or turn on the TV, find a movie you'd like to watch, but please calm down, you're making me edgy, and that's not a good thing when working on weaponry as you are well aware."

"We don't need those blasters Thomas." Heaving a sigh but giving into his wants and moving to sit with him, I pick up one of the completed ones. "They're only good against eltarians, not someone with power."

"Zarek is eltarain, and he doesn't actually have a lot of power anymore right?" I wouldn't be too certain of that. Handing me the gun he was struggling with as well as his calibration fork, I watch as he leans back on his hands giving me a calm look. "Zedd you can't worry yourself like this okay? This is why we left Earth right? Because we were worried he would come after us there, and innocent people would get hurt in the process. Well we're on Eltar now, we both knew it'd come to a head here sooner or later right? So why the panic?"

"I don't want you hurt." His safety my number one concern, especially after I allowed him to be taken by Mesagog back when that entire mess was occurring on earth, I set the weapon down and reaching out, brush my palm over his face. "If you ended up hurt because of me, because of this whole mess…"

"I won't." Taking my hand in his and kissing it, he offers a reassuring smile. "You can't worry so much about me Zedd. I can take care of myself, I think I've proven that to you time and time again."

"You have, I just, I can't help it." Offering a weak smile and relaxing a bit, I give a shrug. "Okay, you win, I'll try and relax and not think about our impending doom."

"Good." Smiling back and handing me the weapon again he picks up the two corrected ones and places them on the coffee table. "Besides what's the worst he could do? Try to kill us? Try to destroy the world? The universe? Sort of a been there and done that type of situation in case you've forgotten."

"I suppose so." Looking at the weapon and fixing what he had been struggling with, I continue in an attempt to ease my own worry. "Besides I guess when I truly think back on it he wasn't THAT dangerous. He never really did anything too horrible, and hell I conquered more worlds then he did." Feeling a bit better I keep going at Tom's smirk. "Plus he had a stupid hair cut. Honestly not surprised the Council felt sorry for him, he couldn't do anything truly evil."

"See, so no worries. He shows up, we kick his ass, then have dinner." Dropping into a chair, Tommy groans slightly as the phone sounds on the desk. "Zedd?"

"Yeah, yeah." Getting up and moving to answer the handset, I give the half-breed another playful smile. "Watch it'll probably be him saying he's standing outside the door."

Laughing and saying something about delivering pizzas, Tommy turns to Zordon to ask something as I turn the handset on.

"Zordon's over-priced condo, Zedd speaking."

"Hello Zedd, I've been look for you." The low voice instantly hitting my nerves, I don't even have to question who the caller is.

"I hate being right."

To be continued……