Sorry for the delay. The HSC is a bitch. But don't worry I'm back. So yeah review and stuff and I promise that it won't take as long for chapter three to be uploaded (I can promise that because it's already written). Blame any mistakes on the fact that this was written at one o'clock in the morning.

Chapter Two

Goodbye

The morning saw Commander Up leaving early for a meeting. He turned to take one last look at his sleeping lieutenant as he walked out the door. Something inside him was telling him to stay, to forget the meeting, forget the mission and just stay here with Taz forever. He forced himself to turn around. How would he force himself to leave for another planet in a few hours when he couldn't even leave for one of the meeting rooms across the base? Up closed the door behind him, wishing that things were different, wishing he was heading back to Taz.

Taz awoke to the feeling that something was missing. She opened her eyes, looking for the face she knew wasn't there. Up. She had always been able to sense his presence, like there was something telling her he was near. She had felt it ever since her Quinceañera all those years ago. She had been strung up like a piñata as the robots beat her, she struggled to fight back. She was sure she was going to die and then she felt a glimpse of happiness, a flicker of hope as she knew that she would survive. Then she saw him. He charged through the battle taking down any robots in his way like they were tiny clockwork toys. From that moment on she had always been able to sense his presence, whether he was coming to help her on the battlefield or is he was lost and she was finding him or even if he was just walking into the same room as her. She always knew.

Taz snick out of Up's room and hurried back to her own. Luckily hardly anyone else was awake and so she managed to slip back unnoticed. She got changed and threw the last of her belongings into her bag, ready to be taken with her on the mission. She left her room and wandered through the halls going wherever her feet took her. She had 3 hours to kill before she left on the mission. She found herself outside the gym. She walked through the door and threw her bag down on the bench before going over to the weights.

Up walked back to his room. The meeting had been the usual rubbish. Spaceclaw had spent hours going on about how this would be the end of the robot wars and anyone who prevented this would be faced with serious consequences. There was a long lecture about how there would not be any communication between the rangers on different ships unless it was strictly necessary. Space Claw said this while looking at Up. Everyone was aware of the friendship that Taz and Up had, most were fine with it, others however did not approve and would do whatever it took to separate them.

Up was slightly disappointed when he found his room empty. He had hoped to spend some time with Taz before they left. He grabbed his bag that he was taking on the mission and started on the familiar walk to Taz's room. Halfway there he stopped and turned around. He knew where she would be.

"Hola Up" Taz said the second the door to the gym opened.

"How'd you know it was me Taz?" he questioned as he sat down next to her.

"I just knew." She replied before continuing to lift the weights. Up began to hoist the bar over his head and they stayed there in silence as they worked out. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence between two people who didn't know what to say, it was a silence between two people who were comfortable enough with each other to not feel the need for mindless chatter.

Up wanted to say something, to tell her, to make her his. He was trying to work out how to tell her when a voice rang out over the p.a. system.

"Would all of the rangers departing on missions today please report to the hall immediately." The voice broke the silence in the gym, ruining the moment and reminding the two rangers of the struggle that lay ahead.

"The Robot Wars are nearly at an end," said Space Claw as he stood behind a podium on the stage, the commanders sitting behind him. The faces of hundreds of rangers stared up at them. "That is why we are sending you all out to simultaneously attack all of the major robot bases. You will be fully briefed by your commanders following this. Some of you will die but it will be for the greater good. You will be dying serving the Galactic League of Extraterrestrial Exploration; you will be dying serving mankind. This will be the battle that will end the Robot Wars."

The rangers filed out of the hall to go to the smaller briefing rooms to be briefed on their upcoming missions. Taz stole one last look at Up as she left the room. He was sitting tall up on the stage, his game face on. He was ready to fight.

Taz zoned out for most of the briefing, it was all stuff she had heard before. Her idiota commander repeated Space Claw's speech word for word before explaining to the other rangers how to use a zapper as well as basic mission protocol. If the idiotas didn't know it by now they shouldn't be on the mission. That was the problem; most of the rangers weren't ready. Many of them would die because of this; many seasoned rangers would die because they had no one that could cover their backs. Taz just hoped Up wouldn't be one of them.

Up's briefing didn't go much better. He had the worst team he had ever seen. None of them looked like they could even work a zapper let alone shoot a robot with one.

"Alright everybody," he said as he strode into the room "our objective is simple: get in there, shoot some robots and"

"Woooo!" shouted one of the rangers. Up started walking over to the ranger's seat.

"And your name is?" asked Up as he leant towards the ranger.

"Krayonder," he said leaning back in fear "Um I mean Krayonder, sir"

"Well Krayonder," replied Up "never interrupt a commander ever again or it may just be the last thing you do. Now when we get down to the planet we will be collecting information about the robot base so that we can formulate a plan to destroy it. The robots will not know we are there until we attack. If any of you alert them to our presence then if the robots don't kill you, I WILL! Any questions?" Said Up as he glared at them. Of course Commander Up didn't actually mean for the rangers to ask him questions. No one dared to question him after one of his speeches; it was just something that damn G.L.E.E made him say.

"Commander Up, sir" said one of the rangers sitting at the back of the room, she was tall will long dark hair, rings covered her manicured fingers. She looked like she was about to walk down the catwalk rather than depart on a dangerous mission. "Commander Up" she repeated "um so I was wondering if you had a girlfriend"

"Your name?" he replied, how some of these people became rangers Up didn't know.

"Ensign Esme" she said, winking at him.

"Well Ensign Esme, why are you a starship ranger?" he questioned as he walked slowly to the back of the room. He couldn't stand rangers who weren't dedicated to the job.

"Because being a ranger is in, I hope to be this team's 6th most important starship ranger" she replied hoping to impress him.

"Well Ensign Esme if you plan on surviving this mission I suggest that you start taking this seriously and if I ever catch you wearing this ridiculous jewellery on a mission ever again I will cut each and every one of your fingers off and feed them to a data dog" He shouted and he turned to walk back to the front of the room.

"I think he's single" whispered to girl next to Esme.

"Definitely single" she giggled back.

"ALL RIGHT YOU MEDIOCRE DUNCES!" yelled Up, "go out there and die for something or I will kill you for nothing."

There was ten minutes left until Taz had to leave on her mission, Up was scheduled to leave fifteen minutes later. Ten minutes. That was all the time that Up had left to find Taz. Time was ticking away. Up reached the landing dock and began to look for Taz. That was the problem with Taz she was so short that she was nearly impossible to find in a crowd of people. He could always find her though; there was just something about her. Up turned to the right and he saw her sitting in the corner playing with her knife and glaring at anyone who dared to come within a metre of her. A group of young ensigns push past Taz. Within seconds Taz had one of them pinned up against the wall, her knife at his throat.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa Taz. Let's just calm down," said Up as her reached her. Taz punched the ensign in the stomach for good measure.

"Hola Up," she said cheerfully as though she had not just threatened to kill a boy at least twice her size. Her good mood faded as a voice on the intercom informed them that there was only five minutes left until Starship 37b was scheduled to leave. Five minutes until Taz and Up would be separated.

"It'll only be for a few months," said Up trying to reassure them both, but they both knew it wasn't true. There are no guarantees with war, no set time, because war is messy and complicated and there's no certainty on who will come back alive. There was no certainty that Up and Taz would ever see each other again.

A voice called for all the assigned rangers to board starship 37b. Taz made no move to board the ship. Moving would mean leaving. Moving would mean goodbye. Moving would mean leaving Up and facing the possibility of never seeing him again.

"Would lieutenant Taz please board ship 37b immediately."

"You should go," said Up. Taz stood up and walked towards the ship. Up followed behind her and stopped at the door.

"Bye Up," she said as she walked through the door. As she stepped into the ship she felt these pains in her chest and she just knew it was Up's fault that perra. She turned around and ran out the door straight into Up's arms. She buried her head in his chest and whispered "Te echo de menos ya"