AN: Special thanks for Nagasha for posting the first review! Glad you like the story so far!

Chapter 2

He was floating. Everything was black, but it was a soothing sort of darkness, which made him feel almost... safe. But there was something he was forgetting. What was it? He tried to remember. Only memories of pain were fresh in his mind. Everything else seemed tangled to the point it was just a mass of colors, sounds and smells. He gave up. He would just wait for this darkness to disappear.

What Koragg didn't know was the simple fact that he was unconscious.

The Rangers surrounded Koragg's prone form lying on the floor. He was badly injured; pieces of armor were missing and his left shoulder seemed to be dislocated. But his right thigh looked the worst of all – it was a giant, gaping wound, constantly bleeding and showing off bone.

Xander couldn't bear to look at it. He hated blood – its smell made him want to throw up. And that's what he did.

"Argh! Xander, get a grip!" shouted Madison. "Let's get you out of here..." She took him by the arm and together they left Rootcore.

Nick looked after them. "Really? Xander can't stand a bit of blood? That's some good blackmail material."

"Focus, everyone! There's no time for joking. We must help Koragg. He surely has some valuable information we can use to our advantage," said Daggeron.

"And what makes you think he would tell us anything? I mean, he's our enemy. He could just lie to us," Chip told him.

Udonna decided to step in. "Stop chatting and help me. I have to heal him first. Then we can think about what to do with him. Clare, do we have basic healing potions?" she asked her apprentice.

Clare approached the potions shelf and looked at its contents. "Umm... only Bleeding Stopping Potion is good. We're short on Blood Replenishing Elixir and Pain Reducer isn't fresh enough. Do you want me to make some?"

'Bad idea,' everyone thought and it must have showed on their faces, because Clare said:

"Okay, I know I'm horrible at brewing potions. So maybe I can set up a room for him?"

"Very well. Rangers, you can help her. Daggeron, you will assist me. I must brew those potions after healing him," said Udonna in her no-nonsense tone. "Off you go!"

Then she crouched beside Koragg and cast a spell which would inform her about his injuries. The results were bad. Dislocated left shoulder and broken bone in the right forearm. And the worst off all, right thigh bone. It wasn't broken - it has been ripped out of body, rotated and put back in. One of the most gruesome curses invented in the Great War, Mutra Rotho Os. She had to deal with its victims during her apprenticeship and she knew that recovering from it was long and painful. She couldn't imagine being hit with this curse. Sympathy swelled within her, even though Koragg was an enemy. She shook her head. This wasn't time for getting emotional. She had to disinfect the wound. Disinfectant appeared with a wave of her wand. She unstoppered the glass vial.

"This is going to hurt," she said to herself.

Udonna soaked a gauze with vial's contents and began to cleanse the wound. Just as she predicted, Koragg let out a pained howl and started shaking. She ignored this and continued working. When the wound was clean, she took the Bleeding Stopping Potion from potions shelf and spelled it right into his stomach. They didn't want Koragg to bleed out, after all. After that a bandage roll magically wrapped itself around the injured thigh. This had to do for now. Udonna turned to Daggeron.

"Will you help me take him to the room Clare and Rangers set up for him?"

He simply nodded. Together they cast a levitation spell and lifted Koragg's lifeless body from the floor.

"When is he going to wake up?"

Vida gave Chip an irritated look. That was the third time he asked in the past hour. Of course he was just voicing their thoughts, but it didn't make it less annoying.

Nick, Madison and Xander returned to the human world after helping setting up Koragg's room (Koragg's room, it still sounded weird to her), because it was their shift in Rock Porium. She and Chip stayed in Rootcore and occasionally went to gather some ingredients for the potions Udonna and Daggeron were brewing. After a while Clare joined them too. Right now they were just sitting and being bored out of their minds. She wanted to go home, but they had to be on 'Koragg Watch', as Chip named it. Basically they just had to check in on the Wolf Knight once in a while and see if he's awake.

Suddenly the crystal ball darkened and showed Imperious, along with a few hidiacs. It seemed that they were looking for something.

"Come, Rangers, I think we have something to talk about!" Imperious' voice came from the ball.

Chip whooped. "Finally we get to kick some ass! Let's go, V!"

"You don't have to tell me that! Udonna, Daggeron, we're leaving! Imperious appeared and is looking for something."

They didn't even look up from their potions. "Fine, go, just be alert! Don't let him trick you!" Daggeron warned them.

"We'll be fine, don't worry!"

When they found Imperious, the rest of team was already there. They weren't fighting, which was odd.

"Hey guys, what's going on here?" Chip asked them.

Madison turned to him. "We don't know. Imperious wanted to wait until you came. He told us nothing more."

Nick stepped forward. He wanted to get this over with. "Now that everyone is here, it's time for you to tell us what you want."

"Oh, you see, I have a little problem with Koragg. It turned out that he was a traitor, but he managed to escape from his punishment. I know that he's your enemy too, so we could join our forces and look for him together! It's easier to fight one opponent rather than two, don't you think? That's like killing two birds with one stone! A perfect solution to your problem!" Imperious was quite pleased with his little monologue. If only they believed him...

The Rangers were thinking this over. It did sound like a good idea. The problem was that Imperious couldn't be trusted. He was unpredictable and making cunning plans came to him as easily as breathing.

"We should ask him to give us more time," Xander whispered to the others. "Then we can make a decision. Remember, we have the upper hand there. We know where Koragg is. I think two days would be enough."

"You're right. Finally you have an actually good plan, Xander!" Vida grinned.

The Green Ranger looked offended. "Hey! My plans are good! You just don't appreciate them!"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it. Now let's go and tell Imperious about our offer."

"Two days, huh? I think we can come up with some plan until then. But the whole thing about Koragg being a traitor just doesn't seem right. Of course it's the perfect explanation for the state he's in, but he always seemed to be very devoted to The Master," said Daggeron after hearing Rangers' story.

Udonna looked thoughtful. "I suspect there was a power struggle between Koragg and Imperious. Calindor must have done this behind The Master's back."

"Maybe. We'll find out more when our special guest wakes up," Daggeron murmured under his breath.

He and Udonna have just finished brewing the potions when the Rangers returned. Now they were bottling the elixirs. He was tired. Brewing wasn't just throwing ingredients in the cauldron and hoping something will come out of it. Every potion had to be infused with neatly measured portions of magic. It was truly a form of art and he admired Udonna because of her skills. Her movements were always precise and careful. Even now she didn't look as tired as he felt. No wonder Clare's potions always blew up in her face. She didn't have the sort of patience needed to be a potioneer.

Suddenly there was a crash and Clare ran into the room they were in. Speak of the devil and she shall appear.

"He's awake."