Everyone was looking for Mike. They searched the fields, the barn, James and Serena even went into town to see if he had snuck off. No one could find him.

In fact, no one had seen him for hours. He had left a note for Emily asking her to meet him in the mountains, but after that went horribly wrong, and Mike had been nowhere around to rescue her, they all doubted he wrote the note.

With James and Serena searching the town, and Ji, Jayden, and Antonio searching around the farm, Mia and Emily were left inside. They doubted he was playing hide-and-seek, but every corner of the earth needed to be searched.

At least according to Emily who was staring teary eyed into the fridge. Mia walked over and gently closed the door and moved the yellow Ranger away.

"He spends a lot of time here," she agreed, "But even you're too big to squeeze yourself in there. I doubt he did."

Emily opened the freezer. Mia closed it.

"Em…"

Emily ran into the living room and started tearing the cushions off the couch. Mia rolled her eyes and caught one of the cushions before it knocked the old VCR off the top of the TV.

She had stopped searching for Mike a long time ago, and was now cleaning up the mess Emily was making. When all the cushions were gone, Emily jumped onto the couch and checked behind it. Mike wasn't there. She jumped off and flipped the couch. He wasn't under there either.

"You've checked there already," Mia reminded her. "Emy, you've checked everywhere."

Emily shook her head. She would turned the house upside down if she had to. Mia would argue she already had, had she not been cleaning up after the frantic yellow Ranger.

"Mike!" Emily cried and darted up the stairs to try again. Searching the house top to bottom was all she could do. As she reached the top of the stairs, she suddenly slipped and tumbled down. She would have fallen all the way, had Mia not been right behind her, ready to catch her.

"Careful, Emily."

Emily either didn't listen or ignored her. She tried the last few stairs again, stumbling once more. Mia was a little faster to catch her and pushed her up the rest of the way. Emily ran into the bedroom she shared with the rest of her family and started looking everywhere. She opened drawers and threw out their contents. She pulled the blankets and sheets off the bed. She checked under the bed, under the dresser, under the crib, where Terran stood and tried to watch, but a shirt had covered his head and he was trying to get it off. Mia helped the poor boy and then lifted him out of the crib.

"Emily!"

"Your room!" Emily tried running out of the room but Mia caught her arm.

"Why would he be in my room?"

"I have to find him!" Emily shouted and pulled away from Mia, "What if Kevin got him? What if whatever happened to Kevin happened to him?"

Emily stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the room and turned to Mia, "Kevin and Mike were out on their own, right?"

Mia nodded her head, "They got pulled away from the main fight. But they wouldn't lie to us. They said they defeated…"

"They could have lost," Emily whispered. Mia's eyes widened. It was true. While she had witnessed her own clone, Antonio's clone, Jayden's clone, Serena's clone, and Emily's clone all die, she hadn't seen what happened to Mike's and Kevin's. While she trusted they would have been strong enough to defeat their clones, she really had no idea.

"But Mike seems normal… unless he hurt you," Mia said. Now it wasn't making any sense. Kevin was acting strangely, but aside from the disappearing act, Mike had been… Mike.

But Mike wouldn't lie about destroying Kevin's clone. And if he doubted he did have the right Kevin, wouldn't he have brought it up? Mia's head started to hurt.

Emily tore the room apart searching for Mike. The bed, the dresser, even the pillows were searched and stripped of their cases, as if Mike could cram himself between a pillow and a case and go completely unnoticed.

"Emily…"

She didn't even hear Mia and darted over to the closet, the last place she would look before moving onto her parents' bedroom. She ripped the doors open, almost taking them off the hinges and looked inside. At first she didn't see anything. It was just Serena's old nightgowns and blankets for when she got cold.

Then she noticed something odd. Something she didn't notice the first time. The blankets had fallen to the floor. She had never seen them on the floor. She couldn't recall a single time they had been on the floor, and she would have remembered if that had occurred. There was a little step ladder tucked away in the closet just for her, just so she could reach up to the shelf and get Serena a blanket. She pulled them out of the closet and gasped. There was Mike, tied up into a ball on the floor, unconscious.

"MIKE!" she screamed and pulled him out of the closet, "MIKE!"

"Holy shit," Mia set Terran down on the floor and started to help Emily undo the ropes restraining Mike.

As the ropes came undone, Mia and Emily laid Mike out on the floor. Mia could see he wasn't breathing, and he hadn't been breathing for a while. Emily seemed convinced he would wake up soon. She seemed to think her voice would wake him up and let him know he was safe.

"Mike… Mike please," she cried and touched his cheek. Mia watched and though she knew it was useless, she couldn't give up without a fight, for Emily's sake. Kevin had taught her a bit of CPR. She knew enough to convince Emily she had tried something, but she was sure Mike was gone.

She opened his mouth but saw the cause of the problem. Emily had removed the gag from his mouth as soon as she had pulled him out of the closet, but it seemed that hadn't been the only thing keeping him quiet. Stuffed in his mouth was a cloth, and it was lodged into the back of his throat. With his knees pressed into his chest, the gag, and the cloth in his mouth, as well as his claustrophia, Mia knew Mike had suffocated.

"Do something!" Emily shouted when she saw Mia was still. Mia shook her head and pulled the cloth out of Mike's mouth. She set it down on the floor and then wrapped her arms around Emily.

"I'm sorry…"

"NO!"

-Samurai-

Kevin, the real Kevin, dropped to his knees to catch his breath. He would live through the pain, he just needed to walk through it. He needed to get to the others and let them know his Nighlok was among them.

He sat down in the dirt and breathed heavily. He would sit for a couple of minutes and then he would push through. He closed his eyes, but stayed sitting up so he wouldn't fall asleep.

A bark made him open his eyes. He looked around and saw Storm running over to him. He had no idea where she had come from, but there was no way she was far from the team. Storm approached him and then sniffed his hand. Satisfying herself that this was Kevin her friend, she bit his shirt and started to pull. She didn't know what was going on around the house, but her humans had been acting very weird.

"I'm coming," Kevin grunted and got to his feet. Storm ran off ahead, but would turn back to make sure he was close behind her. Kevin took a few steps and then heard the crow of a rooster. "Chickens?"

He climbed a small slope and found himself standing before a fence. Storm ran under it, but Kevin would have to climb over it. It hurt; it hurt like hell. He pulled his body up and over the wooden fence and then dropped to the other side. He was so tired.

Then something pecked his face. Kevin would cry out in pain, but his body hurt so much already it was pointless. Instead he just turned his head and found himself staring at a chicken. Storm barked and chased the bird away. Then she bit Kevin's shirt again and tried to pull him up. Kevin got up and had another look around.

He was on a farm. There were more chickens running around, and cows, and goats, and horses, as well as a field for crops. There was a barn and a house.

A house. He recognized the house from the portals. The Rangers were staying there. It was Emily and Serena's house.

He picked up the dog and kissed her head, "I love you. I love you. I love you."

Carrying the dog in his arms, he mustered up whatever energy was left and raced to the house.

"Guys!" he called as soon as he opened the door, "Someone? Anyone?"

He leaned against the wall. Now that he was back his job of surviving was done. The seal would keep him alive, but he could collapse from the pain. He just needed to stay conscious to let the others know this was a trick, he was the real Kevin, and the Nighlok Kevin was the one tearing them apart.

He heard someone stomping down the stairs. Before he knew what was happening, or who was approaching him, he was grabbed by the shirt and slammed back into the door. He cried out in pain and looked to see who had attacked him.

"You son of a bitch!" Mia slammed him into the door again. Kevin held his hands up. He should have expected a reaction like this, especially from her.

"Mia! Mia, it's me! It's Kevin!"

"Liar!"

"Octoroo kidnapped me! It was all a trick. Look at me, Mia."

Mia did stop and had a look at him. He looked terrible, like someone had put him through a blender and beaten the shit out of him. He looked like he should be dead. Kevin pointed to the seal on his chest.

"Don't take it off. Whatever you do, don't touch it."

"Why?" Mia still looked very angry with him, but at least she wasn't slamming him into anything anymore.

"It's a seal from Octoroo. It kept me live in the Netherworld. It's keeping me alive now. Octoroo wanted to know the Sealing Symbol."

"You're lying," Mia shook her head, "I can't trust you. You hurt me, you hurt Em, you killed Mike!"

"It wasn't me! It was the Nighlok! Mia, I… I killed Mike? What? What does that even mean?"

"He's dead, you asshole!"

"No, I…" Kevin shook his head. She was wrong. She had to be. Mike had been tied up and locked away, sure, but he couldn't have been dead. That couldn't have killed him.

"You're a fucking traitor!"

"Mia! Mia, please listen to me," he touched her face and she flinched away, as though she had been hit. She let go of him and backed away. Kevin started to tear up, "I'm so sorry."

"You hit me," Mia started to cry as well, "You hit me and you… you killed Mike. Your brother!"

"I didn't. Mia, I swear, I… I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Mia wiped away her tears and looked up the stairs. Then she turned back to Kevin. She saw the tears coming down his cheeks, and the way he was looking at her. She hadn't seen that look since the Shiba House came down and the Nighlok were defeated.

Then she looked at his body. His shirt was gone, exposing the many gashes, burns, and bruises. His shorts had been torn, almost just as badly as the rest of his body. He was barefoot. He was tired. He was sore. He was beaten down.

He was Kevin. She knew it. She could see it now. This was her Kevin.

"It… it wasn't you?" she asked. He shook his head.

"There was a mix up when Mike and I fought our Nighloks. He thought… he thought I was the Nighlok and he tried to kill me. The Nighlok spared me though, for Octoroo. I've been down in the Netherworld since. I would never hurt you, Mia. I swear."

Mia jumped into his arms, but then ended up being the one to catch him as his legs gave out. She walked him over to the couch, struggling to support all his weight. When she sat him down, she asked him if he needed anything. He pointed to the seal, and re-explained to her how it would keep him alive, no matter what. Mia nodded and then rushed into the kitchen. She was in a house where a former yellow Ranger, a woman who had been critically ill, and a girl who could hurt herself with nothing more than a fluffy pillow lived. Surely there was a first aid kit somewhere.

She found one by the sink and started to tend to Kevin's wounds. The seal on his chest would keep him alive, but she wanted to do everything she could to speed up his recovery.

The front door opened as she knelt to work on him.

"We checked the barn. He's not there," Antonio's voice announced. Mia didn't bother getting up. She told Jayden, Ji, and Antonio to head upstairs. Emily was still sitting with Mike. They could put the pieces together once they saw what had happened.

"Who are they looking for?" Kevin asked.

"This might hurt," Mia said as she rubbed one of Kevin's bigger wounds with disinfectant. Kevin didn't flinch. His pain had reached a max.

"Mia, who are they looking for? Who else is missing?"

"Antonio, Jayden, and Ji were in the barn," Mia said, but she didn't answer Kevin's question at all.

"James?" he asked.

"Who do you think?" Mia wrapped a bandage around his leg and looked up, "Mike."

"You didn't find him? He was just…"

"We didn't know he was missing," Mia said. Kevin rubbed his face with his hands. He had seen quite a bit through the portals, but most of his focus had been on Mia. Mia sighed, "Apparently there was a note left for Emily this morning. The guys thought it was from Mike. He invited her to the mountains for a lunch date. Everyone thought he was out there setting it up. No one noticed he was gone."

"You said he was dead."

Mia nodded sadly and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, "Everyone started to look for him. James and Serena went into the town, the boys searched the fields and the barn. Emily and I looked in here. By the time we got to him, he had suffocated. There was a rag caught in the back of his throat, and the way he was tied would have made it hard for him to breathe. To top it all off, he was probably panicked. He was locked in the closet."

"He's claustrophobic," Kevin breathed out sadly and then shook his head, "but he can't be dead."

"I know a dead body when I see one."

"Mia…"

"Let me just… fix you up, okay," Mia insisted and started to wrap his chest with bandages. She wanted to cover the seal, to ensure it wouldn't come off. She went around him several times with the bandage and then asked, "Is it too tight?"

"It's fine."

"Lie down. Get some rest. I'll explain what happened to the others."

Emily's loud scream echoed through the house and more tears flooded down Mia's cheeks. Kevin watched sadly. He pulled Mia into his arms.

The seal wasn't working properly. A little part of him died. He kissed her cheek and held her warmly, ignoring all the pain in his body because it hurt more to watch her cry.