Dillon, Scott and Flynn followed their bizarre new allies through the deserted streets of Omega City. It had now been just short of an hour since Summer and Ziggy had been snatched by the nightmarish creatures known as "Dregs". Gem pointed up to a large building a little way off.

"That's the factory..."

"...Your friends are inside..."

"...Come on..."

Scott held up his hand again to stop the twins.

"Remember our new rule?" He asked them. "Decide which one of you is talking and then carry on."

Gem and Gemma faced each other, each forming a fist, bobbing them up and down, before forming the symbols of a piece of paper and a pair of scissors respectively. Having won, Gemma turned back to them.

"Your friends will be inside." She told them. "We should go in and get them before it's too late."

"Hold on a second. We have no idea how many of these things there are." Scott told them. "We should come up with a plan..."

"I've got a plan." Gem said with a childish grin and a boundless enthusiasm. "We shoot first, ask questions later. BOOM!"

"Zap!"

"Kablam!"

"And people say I don't think things through." Dillon grumbled. "Summer and Ziggy are both in there and I want to get them out as much as anyone."

"Then let's go!" Gem declared as he and Gemma morphed and prepared to rush headlong into the building. Dillon grabbed them and held them back.

"Going in there all guns blazing probably isn't the best solution." He warned them. "I can't believe I said that."

"The point is that we should try to get in quietly and scope the situation out first." Scott told them. "There's a window up there. We should get a good view from there."

"Then we go in..."

"...And kick cyborg but..."

"...pow..."

"...thwack..."

"OK, let's make another new rule." Scott barked impatiently. "I make up the plans, and when we discuss them, absolutely NO sound effects!"

Gem and Gemma both nodded obediently as the other three morphed and began making their way up the rubble piled up by the warehouse, approaching the window. Dillon arrived first, looking around inside. He shook his head as he got a mental image.

"Dillon, what's wrong?" Scott asked him. "Can you see them?"

"Not from here." He replied. "It's those pods. Something about them, I feel like I've seen them before."

"Like you saw Kenmore?" Flynn asked him. "Sorry man, but right now your memory isn't the most reliable. We don't know how much of it is real."

"I guess you're right." He answered as they slowly climbed inside, quietly stepping onto a walkway, looking around to ensure that none of the Dregs were watching them. "Come on, let's find the others and get the hell out of here."

As they made their way along the walkway, Flynn inspected one of the pods. There was a plate attached to the door, carrying an identification code.

"Dillon, maybe your memory isn't that bad." He told him. "You should have a look at this."

Dillon looked at the identification on the pod.

"D4." He read aloud. He moved to the next, reading it, and the next, checking a few of them as his voice cracked a little. "D6, D8, D10...guys; the Sat Bot and Venjix both called me D44."

He looked at them, a little rattled as he took in the surroundings. He finally realised where he was.

"Guys, I think this is where I was given my implants." He told them. "I think those things down there are failed attempts to create me."

Back at Central Command, Dr. K was frantically trying to reconnect to the Rangers, but so far all her attempts had been fruitless. Colonel Truman offered her another cup of coffee.

"I'm sorry; I just can't connect a signal. The communications relay must be damaged." She told him. "This is so frustrating!"

"Calm down Dr. K, if anyone can do it, you can." He said reassuringly. "There's no point in getting overwrought."

"I know I shouldn't get this upset, but I can't help it." She complained. "I really wish I knew what was going on."

"It's always the hardest part of co-ordinating a campaign." He told her sagely. "All you can do is sit back and wait for news."

"Perhaps my diagnostics of Tenaya's physiology will take my mind off things." She sighed, turning to another screen. She overlaid Tenaya's x-ray with Dillon's, pinpointing the similarities and differences between them.

"The right arm is completely artificial, that much is hardly surprising. It's how she can detach her hand." Dr. K commented. "That's odd though..."

"What's odd?" Colonel Truman asked her. Dr. K zoomed in on the x-ray of her skull.

"Tenaya has shown to have exceptional hearing, she heard myself and Ranger Green talking on the other side of the lab, and she appears to suffer discomfort whenever I play my violin." She explained. "However, the only modification to her ears appears to be an implant augmenting the inner ear canal."

"Why don't we pretend I'm not a genius?" Colonel Truman said with a confused look on his face.

"The inner ear canal is the fluid-filled tubes inside the ear that handle the human body's balance and equilibrium. Tenaya's appears to have been modified, which would explain why she is as acrobatic as she is." Dr. K continued. "However, none of those modifications would affect her hearing at all."

"Perhaps she just had good hearing before she was captured by Venjix." Colonel Truman suggested. Dr. K continued to study the implants in her head.

"She had severely augmented visual acuities as we know, allowing her increased range, weapons scanning capabilities and several other improvements all wired directly into her..."

Dr. K's words tailed off as she realised that something was amiss.

"Dr. K, what have you found?" Colonel Truman asked her.

"To be more accurate it's what I didn't find that's bizarre." She explained. "The hardware augmenting her visual abilities is wired directly into her visual cortex in the brain, and also into her eyes. I thought it was connected to her retinas, but that isn't the case. She has artificial retinas that were created for the purpose."

"Perhaps Venjix thought that the retinas were obsolete and replaced them." Hicks suggested as he came up to the screen.

"I don't think so Corporal Hicks, since no such modification was made to Dillon, I would doubt that. There also doesn't seem to be evidence of surgical removal. The optic nerve endings are severely underdeveloped..."

"So you're saying the retinas weren't replaced because she never had any?" Colonel Truman asked her. "But that would mean..."

"That's correct Colonel Truman, it would mean that before her modification, Tenaya was blind." She told him. "She would have been blind since she was born."

She groaned in frustration and pounded her hands down on the desk as another thought came to her.

"How could I have been so stupid?" She snarled, bringing up another file. "Of all the half-assed, sloppy schoolchild errors..."

"Dr. K calm down, what are you getting so worked up about?" Colonel Truman asked her.

"You know that when Dillon arrived I ran a DNA test against the central database to see if he had any relatives in Corinth?" She asked him. Colonel Truman and Hicks both nodded as they stared blankly at her. "I did the same thing with Tenaya. However, after a failure to find a genetic match for Dillon, I didn't add his DNA to the database, so when I ran Tenaya's sample, it was checked against everyone in Corinth EXCEPT Dillon."

The computer flashed up a message confirming her suspicion.

"They're a match." She announced. "Dillon's never seen her face-to-face, she always had her visor on when she fought him, and he never goes into her cell. Venjix must have known."

She turned to them, her eyes wide with the realisation.

"The blind girl in Dillon's dreams isn't just real; she's been under our noses now for all this time." She informed them. "Tenaya is the girl from Dillon's dreams. She's his sister."

Back at the factory, the Rangers finally came to an area they could see the rest of the warehouse, finding the Dregs all gathered around the fire. Dillon made his way forward, activating the telescopic mode on his helmet's visor.

"There are dozens of these things." He commented. "I can't see exactly how many."

"Does it matter?" Gem asked them. "Let's get down there..."

"What did we agree about plans?" Scott asked him. Gem just nodded in understanding. "Can you see Summer or Ziggy?"

"There they are." Flynn whispered, pointing to the far end of the warehouse where they were still tied to the scaffolding. Dillon zoomed in, checking on their condition, satisfying himself that they were both alive, and were not injured in any way that would significantly hamper their abilities.

"There are a pair of those things guarding them." Dillon pointed out. "It doesn't look like we'll be able to get them out without being seen."

"Then we need to free them quickly." Scott told them. "If those things know we're here..."

"We'll cut your friends loose..."

"...Follow our lead..."

"...Then get out of here." Gem concluded as he and his sister started working their way around the catwalk. Scott shook his head.

"I am never going to get used to that." He remarked.

"They have been out here a while." Flynn said with a shrug. "They are entitled to be a little odd."

Without warning, Gem and Gemma launched themselves from the balcony, taking down the two Dregs guarding the other Rangers.

"I must have missed the signal." Dillon growled as he leapt over the balcony, joined quickly by the others and started fighting his way through the assembled creatures.

"We're here to help!" Gemma yelled as she cut Summer down.

"Your friends are here too." Gem added as he released Ziggy. The Green Ranger got up and looked at the new arrivals curiously.

"You're the ones that helped us before aren't you?" He asked them.

"We sure are." Gem replied as he combined his cloud hatchet and his blaster. "Come on, we need to get you out of here!"

"You don't have to ask me twice." Summer replied as she and Ziggy prepared their morphers. "RPM, Get in Gear!"

"Guys, are you alright?" Scott asked them.

"Fortunately you got to us before we ended up on the menu." Ziggy responded as he powered up the Power Axe.

"I'll be fine." Summer told him as she joined the fight. "Come on guys, we need to get out of here. There are too many of these things."

"We need more space to move." Scott agreed. "Dillon, make us a door!"

"Not a problem." He answered as he pulled out the Rocket Blaster, punching a hole in the wall nearby. "Come on guys, this way."

The Rangers beat a hasty retreat, making their way back towards the stricken Go-Onger. They formed a defensive perimeter around the vehicle.

"Flynn, how long will it take you to get this thing moving?" Scott asked.

"The axle's broken; I could probably weld it in..."

His words were cut off as a large bomb landed on what was left of its hull, attaching magnetically to it. The Rangers scattered just in time as the bomb went off, utterly destroying the vehicle. As the dust cleared, Flynn observed the smoking crater where the Go-Onger once stood.

"Your dad is so going to kick my arse for this." Flynn grumbled.

"We can't worry about that now." Scott told him. "I think our friends have just caught up with us."

The Dregs arrived in the plaza, but stopped in their tracks. They started backing slowly away, leaving the Rangers untouched.

"Maybe they're scared of us." Ziggy suggested. "I mean we have kicked quite a few of their..."

"I don't think it's us they're scared of." Flynn interrupted him quietly, turning Ziggy around.

"I guess we should have seen that coming." He sighed as the Dyna Bot strode into view, accompanied by Grinders.

"I see you've already met your cousins Ranger Black." Dyna Bot taunted him. "Welcome to Omega City Rangers."

He threw another bomb in their direction, this time they were ready though. Gem leapt forward, batting it back with his Cloud Hatchet, destroying the attack bot and the Grinders with his own explosive.

"That was a little easier than I'd have thought." Scott commented, before watching Dyna Bot growing to massive size. "Why did I have to say that?"

"Our energy levels have almost bottomed out, but I think the doc's mobile down-morpher is still working." Flynn told him. "Maybe it's time to use that one Zord configuration we have."

"I think that sounds like a plan." Scott agreed. "Zenith Megazord, Online!"

Dyna Bot marched on them, swinging wildly and smashing into the zord's chest, staggering it.

"Guys, this thing is seriously kicking our butts!" Ziggy complained as he straightened himself out. "We can't keep taking shots like this!"

"Time for the Wheel Blaster?" Flynn asked.

"Good call Flynn." Scott replied. One blast later, and the attack bot was destroyed.

"I think we should have enough energy to use the Zord to get us back to the city." Flynn suggested as he checked their power levels once more.

"Flynn, we need to use the Wheel Blaster again." Scott told him in a sigh. "We have to destroy that factory."

"But how will we get back to the city?" Flynn asked him. "Come on, they're out here, we're in there..."

"Flynn, you never saw what those things are, we did." Summer replied gently, looking at him. "There may still be people out here, people that those things will hunt down. They have to be destroyed."

"But they're human." Dillon protested. Ziggy put a hand sympathetically on his arm.

"Maybe they were once, but not anymore." He replied regretfully. "Their minds have been completely erased; they have no compassion or reason. They don't have lives anymore, they only have an existence. It's the most humane thing to do."

"I guess you're right." He said sadly as he considered the fact that it was only fate that had made him a successful trial of the infiltration unit technology. He had always thought of himself as having lost everything, but seeing the Dregs for himself, he realised what losing everything really was. "Go for Wheel Blaster."

The Rangers fired off a second blast, expending the last of their energy, the factory exploded devastatingly, being reduced to rubble. With the last of their energy expended, the Zords disappeared and they de-morphed, leaving them standing in the street.

"Did it work?" Scott asked as Gem and Gemma came over to them. Gem performed a scan of the area.

"There are only seven life signatures in the city." He confirmed.

"Well I guess that just leaves the question of how we get back to Corinth." Flynn sighed.

"Our Zords don't require a down morpher to activate." Gemma informed them. "We could always give you a lift."

"We only have one condition." Gem chipped in. "Can you..."

"...take us with you...?"

"...because of the radiation..."

"...we couldn't find our way to Corinth..."

"It's fine." Summer interrupted them. "If you give us a ride, we'll take you to Dr. K. I have a feeling she'd like to meet you."

Gem and Gemma looked at each other, grinning and nodding with a childish glee. They knew the Rangers used the technology Dr. K had created, so they suspected that she was still alive. Now though, Summer had confirmed it. Their only friend had indeed survived the attack on the Alphabet Soup facility. Soon they would be reunited with her. They both called fourth their Zords.

"Well, are we going to Corinth?" Gemma asked them. Summer and Dillon made their way into her Zord. Ziggy was about to follow them, only to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck by Flynn.

"I think they might want a little privacy." He suggested to the Green Ranger. "Come on, there is another Zord waiting for us."

"Come on guys, I can't wait to see Corinth!" Gem said excitedly, rushing to the cockpit.

"At least they do this separately." Scott grumbled as they made their way on board.

In the Silver Zord, Summer was enjoying having Dillon all to herself. She settled into his arms as he held her gently, allowing her to rest against him.

"I can't imagine how you're feeling." She whispered to him as she closed her eyes, settling into a more comfortable position.

"I'm just happy to know that you're safe." He replied, kissing the top of her head gently. He pulled her in more closely to him, allowing her to sit on his lap. "You've had a pretty big day there."

"Almost becoming the main course is definitely not something I want to repeat in a hurry." She murmured. "Dillon, I know you didn't want to destroy them, but we had to. You know that right?"

"Summer, I almost was one of them." He replied. "Venjix kept trying until it got it right. Those things were once people too..."

"We did the only thing we could for them." She reminded him, looking up into his eyes. "You can't for one minute think that you're anything like them. They had all their humanity taken away. Even if we had captured them, there was nothing that could have been done. We didn't have a choice."

"It just doesn't make me feel great to know that all those people suffered to make me." He replied as he squeezed her gently. "It kind of makes me wish..."

"Don't say it!" She warned him sharply. "Don't even think it, not for one second!"

"Summer..."

"Dillon, I love you!" She told him abruptly. "What Venjix did to those people is awful, but it doesn't change the fact that you are different. You're your own man. More than that, you're the man that I love."

She grabbed his t-shirt, pulling him in and kissing him passionately, running her hands through his hair. As they parted, she looked deeply into his eyes and smiled. There was no more fear. She felt nothing of the dread that she once had. He was everything to her.

Back in the dome, Dr. K was scanning the area for signals, hoping for some form of communication from the Rangers, only to catch a couple of readings on the radar. Two craft were approaching the city fast.

"Hicks, how are the shields holding up?" Colonel Truman asked him.

"They're at full power." Hicks informed him.

"Vasquez, are there any life signatures aboard those craft?" He asked her.

"No sir, there's nothing alive on those craft." She said in response.

"Then prepare to repel if they should threaten the integrity of the shields."

"Colonel Truman, lower the shields." Dr. K commanded him as a bright smile split her face. She checked her readings again to be sure, only confirming the identity of the craft. "The craft are friendly."

"There are no life signs aboard those craft." He told her.

"Colonel Truman, trust me. They have cloaking technology which masks life signs." She told him. She looked over to him pre-empting his question. "I created that technology. I know how to track it. It's the Rangers!"

Colonel Truman didn't need any further convincing. He gestured to Hicks to lower the shields as he was instructed. On the Zords, the Rangers noticed the shields being lowered.

"They know we're coming." Scott said with a smile. "We're home."

"We sure are." Gem replied. "Now, where can we land these things?"

"There's an air-strip near the Garage." He informed the Gold Ranger. "Set it down there."

The Rangers made their way into the Garage a short time later, taking comfort in knowing that they were finally home and safe.

"Dr. K, we're back!" Scott called out loudly, though receiving no reply.

"I have to warn you, our boss Dr. K takes a little getting used to." Ziggy warned the Gold and Silver Rangers. "She can be a little cold and distant..."

"Gem?" Dr. K asked as she arrived with Colonel Truman. "Gemma?"

The two new Rangers both de-morphed, allowing her to see their true identity. Dr. K ran over to them, leaping up at them enthusiastically and hugging them both with a passion none of the Rangers had ever seen from her.

"We've really missed you Dr. K." Gem told her.

"We thought you were dead." Gemma responded tearfully as they held her closely. The other Rangers just watched on dumbstruck by the scene.

"I guess she's trying a new management style." Ziggy commented sarcastically.

"Friends of yours?" Dillon asked her. Dr. K finally released them, turning to face him and wiping away her tears.

"Gem and Gemma were my only friends at Alphabet Soup." She told them. "They were the original test pilots for the Ranger Series technology."

As Dr. K and the two new arrivals hugged each other again, completely lost in the moment of being returned to each other once more, Colonel Truman came over to the Rangers.

"So what happened to the Go-Onger?" He asked them. Scott and Flynn just looked at each other uneasily.