Author's note: Happy summer vacations to everyone!

Chapter 26- Savage Part 2

Morgana and Sydney stood with their backs to each other. The attackers closed in on them, curiously looking them over. One of them began speaking a foreign tongue to another member of the alien tribe. The members spoke in a series of sounds and words neither of them had ever of before. The tribe seemed to be deliberating what to do with them. They didn't need to understand their dialect to know what was going. If they were found to be intruders, or threat most likely, there would be a confrontation. And judging by the numbers, it wasn't going to be an easy one. If they were not considered a threat, they would probably be allowed to pass.

"Any idea of what they are saying?" Morgana asked. Fear was evident in her voice meanwhile Sydney remained confident.

"My alien dialects are a little rusty, maybe you could help me out." Sydney replied, slightly amused by her question.

Morgana scoffed, "Do I look like someone who speaks their dialect."

"Well, you speak Troobian. Grumm told me…"

"Whatever Grumm told you was a lie." The brunette interrupted between clenched teeth, moving a hand to her bag, ready to pick a weapon.

"Well, I think that's pretty evident." She replied while trying to listen in on the conversation. She made out a few sounds, but without any knowledge about the dialect, it was impossible for her to form words. "I mean, he certainly did lie to you when he told you that you would look younger each time he turned you to your 10-year-old self and back. Your wrinkles are starting to show."

Just as Morgana was about to talk, a loud howl interrupted her. The tribe members closed in on them and began attacking. Being two ladies of action, they also engaged in battle against them. While Syd used a staff to fend them off, Morgana transformed into full-warrior mode with her power suit. The blonde groaned and secretly wished she had her morpher with her. The arrows the tribe sent their way instantly made her remember the first time she had been there. She took out a pair of blades and stabbed one of the aliens in the stomach. After stealing a bow and a pack of arrows, she began shooting them. She smiled. I'm so going to beat them at their own game.

As soon as some of the aliens became aware of what was going, they began scurrying away. They were some persistent ones, though. Morgana gave her a quizzical look. "Poisonous arrows." The former Pink Ranger pointed out. The other girl nodded and grabbed her own bow and set of arrows. Sydney avoided an arrow directed at her by doing a back flip. Upon landing on her feet, she took care of the enemy. Even if they were winning, they still outnumbered them. It was impossible to beat them, taking them down would take over two days. If they even gave them two days. It seemed unlikely. They were bent on destroying the intruders.

For every member that they defeated, two other seemed to come out of nowhere. Bows and arrows were not good enough despite being effective. They needed something more. They stood back to back, thinking of plan. Morgana finally piped up, "We need to scare them."

"That's right up your alley, Morgana. You're scary enough for both of us." The young villain crossed her arms and replied with a smile, "I'm serious."

A smile appeared on both their faces when a brilliant plan came up. Both girls closed their eyes and raised their hands, pointing straight at the alien tribe. A burst of energy emanated from their beings. The aliens that were hit by the wave were gone and the few that had managed to survive were either running or hiding. Sydney groaned and fell to her knees; she was still not strong enough to withstand the energy loss that came from using her powers.

She got back on her feet, deciding that she wouldn't give Morgana the satisfaction of seeing her like that. They both continued walking until they found a safe spot on a small clearing inside the jungle. The former Ranger gathered some wood and piled it up on the ground while the villain got some of their food out.

She grabbed a small stone from the ground and closed her fist around it. "Fist of stone."

She positioned her hand over the wood and began rubbing the stone over it, hoping she would at least get a few sparks. A few rubs later and a fire produced. Syd smiled and dropped the stone in the fire. Both girls stared at each other as they sat together.

Morgana put her hands by the fire, trying to cool them. The night had become unbearably cold. A few minutes later, she was handed a can of warm beans by Syd, who had heated them in the fire. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"We need to stick together if we're going to get out of here." The blonde replied coldly as she took a bite from her beans. She made a sour face and set the can on the floor. She was never going to eat beans from a can ever again.

"Eat them; you'll need all your strength tomorrow. We are climbing a mountain." She pointed a spot in the map. The cave was located a few miles away from the mountain they needed to climb. She rolled her eyes and began eating the beans again, keeping her mouth shut. She was too tired to discuss anything with Morgana.

She rolled out her sleeping bag and unzipped it. "Did you hurt him?"

"What?"

"Did you hurt Sky?" She hissed as she lied down. Morgana shook her head and confessed, "It was all Grumm and a few Krybots. Broodwing was away and I was in my room. I never thought he would hurt him like that, I just thought…"

She scoffed, "What did you think Grumm was going to do with him? Have him clean the ship? Entertain him with jokes, perhaps?"

"I'm sorry!" exclaimed Morgana.

Another snarky reply threatened to come out but something stopped her in her tracks. She looked down and saw a purple orb shining in her hands. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down. She spoke more calmly this time, "Spare me the apology. I don't want to hear it."

The other girl's words stung Morgana deeply. In all her years of torturing young Sydney, she had never seen her so affected. Maybe it was true what they said about love. It could make a person go mad. Her attitude was understandable so she kept her mouth shut. It wasn't like she expected anything less than what had already been said.

She got inside her sleeping bag and closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to come.

Diamond deposits, outskirts of Newtech, Earth

Z parked the Jeep inside a small warehouse and tracked RIC. It seemed as if the robot had already found something since it was hovering over a hole. She ran up to him and raised her eyebrows. To her, it just looked like a dark hole filled with dirt.

She kneeled down and stroked his head. "Maybe Bridge was right; some of your parts still need some work."

The dog made a whimpering sound and hung its head. It suddenly dropped the sample into the hole and walked away silently, whimpering still. She groaned and jumped inside, surprisingly landing on her feet. RIC had been right; it wasn't just a simple hole. This was the storage Syd had found or what was left of it. The room seemed to have been emptied recently; only a few containers of the green slime remained untouched. She was going to need an extra set of hands to help her carry them out. She contacted Bridge on her morpher.

"Are you busy?"

"Depends on your definition of 'busy' since I am currently reading the latest issue of the magazine Extreme Upgrade to help me brainstorm new upgrades for my computer. I think a toaster…" She let him ramble on for a few more seconds before finally interrupting. "Bridge!"

"I'm sorry; I just rambled again, didn't I?" She grinned. "No, you just piled up a bunch of sentences and spoke really fast."

"Oh ok." She mentally slapped herself on the forehead and took a mental note never to use sarcasm with him. Ever again. "I need you."

She explained her findings to him and soon enough, he arrived in his Patrol Cycle. She could clearly hear his footsteps and his voice coming from the ground above. "I'm down here!"

He ran over to the hole and popped his head inside. She grabbed one of the glass jars. "Catch it Bridge." She tossed it and smiled when he grabbed it. They continued the same process for the other ten jars of slime. Z began climping to the top when she heard a voice and saw a blast. She hurried to the top and groaned when she discovered she couldn't pull herself up. But that wasn't her main concern; he was lying on the floor before her, an alien with a horn for a nose pointing its weapon at him. She closed her eyes and made a replica of herself as a distraction.

The alien turned around and began shooting at the Yellow Ranger's hologram. The sweat on her palms made it hard to grab anything to hold onto. She began slipping gradually. Just as she was about to fall back down, Bridge grabbed her arm and pulled her up slowly. She panted and grinned. "I owe you one."

"I'm just glad you're ok." He grinned and helped her stand up.

"Hey ugly, turn around!" shouted Z. The alien turned around and groaned, aiming its horn directly at them. They nodded to each other and took their morphers out. "SPD Emergency!"

"Grumm warned me about you pesky Rangers!" The alien growled. "You are no match for Rhynix!" Without a warning, the alien came running towards them, ready to ambush them. The Yellow Ranger got her Deltamax Striker from her belt, ready for an attack. She put her weapon in front of her, ready to strike. She didn't know when to hit since it was coming at such a speed she couldn't begin to calculate what spot to hit. She closed her eyes just when she though she would get hit. But the hit never came.

She opened her eyes to see the Green Ranger fending off the alien. There was no time for being grateful. She suddenly remembered the events from earlier. Upon calling on RIC, it came to her aid when the battle between Rhynix and the Green Rangers raged on.

The Green Ranger struggled at first. This alien was strong and the battle seemed to get more intense every minute. He wished there would be a time out so he could get on his head to think of a solution. Before he could make another strike, a laser passed by the side of his helmet, hitting Rhynix straight in the horn. It groaned loudly when half of its horn fell to the ground.

He came by her side, ready to finish the battle. He picked up the Canine Cannon from the other side and aimed at the culprit. "Rhynix, you are charged with being responsible for the disappearance of citizen of Newtech and for crimes against our city."

Z later added, "You are also charged with theft. You stole the diamonds."

Their license made the decision for all three counts. The result: the first two charges guilty, the last one innocent. Z frowned and hesitated for a minute. Bridge noticed what was going on and intervened, "Is something wrong?"

"No." She pressed the button on her license, ready to confine this menace once and for all. I could always question Rhynix later. She retrieved the confinement card and put it in her pocket. She was somehow convinced that they would later find out who was responsible for the diamonds disappearing. What wasn't left clear was the reason behind the thefts.

She demorphed and put a smile on her face, despite all her concerns. She high-fived her teammate and began walking back to her vehicle. He did the same and shouted after her, "Z, wait!"

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if, maybe if you weren't too busy, you wanted to come to watch some movies with me." Z's hear skipped a beat. No one had ever asked her out. Maybe this was her chance to find her knight in shining armor. "Sky and Jack will be coming too. Kat suggested the idea to get Syd off Sky's mind for a while."

Her heart dropped a little, but still she replied, "Yeah. I'll see you there.", trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. She was crushed now. She knew Bridge's intentions weren't to make her feel bad. She couldn't blame him. She often put matters of the heart on a very high pedestal. She was often crushed by the outcome of such matters. And without another word, she got into the car and drove off with RIC.

"Love is difficult, RIC. Lucky for you, you'll never have to worry about it."

Planet Savage

Both girls awoke before the sun rose to get an early start. While Syd packed up their sleeping bags and changed into suitable attire for hiking, Morgana prepared breakfast. After yesterday, Syd wouldn't be surprised if the other girl had put poison in her food. She sat on the floor next to the fire. A question popped into her head concerning the night at the Terror. "Who's the new alien helping Grumm?"

"Name's Dream Catcher." She said as she took a bite of a slice of pineapple. The other grabbed a can of peaches. The mere thought of her sent chills running down her back. "What can she do?"

"She gets into people's dreams." Syd was startled by the revelation. It was now clear to her what ad gone down while she saving Sky from his dream. She hated the new alien even more now that she knew what had happened that night. Grumm had been trying to control her via Dream Catcher. She took a deep breath. "Thanks to her, I got killed in my dream."

"By Grumm or by Broodwing? Or was it me after you pissed me off about something?" Sydney scoffed, "None of the above, actually."

"Who, the Krybots, Cruger, Dru…." She counted with her fingers and continued on naming other possible suspects. She wasn't ready to confess, she hated ecposing her weaknesses.

"Ok, fine. Rogue killed me in my dream. She stabbed me and beat me to a pulp, happy?" She crossed her arms and took a deep breath. "Maybe it's just a metaphor for what's about to happen. I'm doomed anyway, right?"

Morgana sighed and put a hand on her shoulder, "I didn't give you the brand just because. The symbol chose you."

"So, basically, I'm doomed to be evil for the rest of my life, right?" Morgana shook her head. She sat next to the petite girl. "No, I told Grumm the wrong interpretation on purpose."

The girl scoffed, not believing a word out of Morgana's mouth. The joy in her eyes when she was branded was clearly there. She hated every minute of it. She had come to accept the reality of what had been to her in the past and she had almost thought of forgiving her at one point, but nothing would ever change the fact that the ugly brand was there. "The brand doesn't mean evil necessarily."

"Enlighten me, Miss Morgana. I'm more than thrilled to hear the story behind my awesome tattoo."

"The brand talks about two split personalities, hence the circles on opposite sides. One of them is good and the other is bad." She took a stick from the earth and began drawing to explain better. "Its like two sides of the same coin. Always different, never the same. At some point, both personalities of the one who carries the brand have to exist."

She had been Rogue before and she was now Sydney, which to her meant that she had already won the battle. When she explained this to the other girl, Morgana simply laughed. "Not quite. Rogue is the complete opposite of you. She's the girl you saw in your dream."

She closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath. She put her head in her hands and began crying. "This means that no matter what I do, I will still become her. Great! Bring on the evil."

"The line in between means conciliation between both personalities. It is only reachable after both personalities have existed. No person is completely good or completely evil, except if you're Grumm." She added in an attempt to lighten up the mood.

"Tell me more." She said gently after wiping her tears.

"Everyone has a dark side they have to control. You will have to learn to live with yours." She explained.

Sydney stood when the sun rose, looking over the horizon. Something about watching the sun rise always made her happy. She felt warm inside, a feeling she didn't get much when being above the Terror. It mad her feel more alive somehow. She smiled and turned her gaze back to Morgana.

"How do you know all this stuff?" Morgana pointed to the thunder drawn on her cheek. "I was instructed in Troobian magic when I was young." She confessed proudly.

"I'm not going to get deep into the history of my mark. Grumm's former lackeys gave it to me when I was 16." She continued as they started the long trek to the mountain. "Unlike yours, mine is meant as an insult. They used to call me 'Sparky' because I was feisty."

Syd took a deep breath and nodded. She could understand why she had acted the way she did when she was younger. In her own twisted way, Morgana protected her from Grumm's humiliation by giving her that particular brand. The girls had more in common than they both thought possible. "Were you kidnapped like me?"

She shook her head sadly. "I don't know. I don't remember my parents."

"Grumm makes you forget." Sydney stated bluntly.

An awkward silence fell over them for the rest of the way to the bottom of the mountain. Once there they began climbing quickly, however they could. While Morgana used her blasts of energy to punch holes in the rocky surface, the other girl used her fist of diamond to do the same. Even though their powers were useful, climbing was turning out to be an excruciating activity, especially for Syd, who was afraid of heights. The brunette seemed to be doing pretty well; she was a few meters ahead of her. Her body had never been pushed this far. Her body was burning with pain. She could feel every blister and every scrape in her skin; it was like fire climbing up her body. Her body screamed for her to stop, but she didn't. She had to keep going. The faster she climbed, the faster she could get out.

Morgana stopped to rest upon getting to the top. She took a deep breath and poured some water on her hair, trying to cool down. The heat looming over them was unbearable. She set her eyes on the edge of the flat piece of rocky land she was in. Sydney's hand reached the edge. She seemed to be struggling to pull herself up. Suddenly, she saw her hand slipping. She threw herself on her knees and grabbed the blonde's hand. Sydney was closing her eyes when she set eyes on her. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "Don't look down!"

The terrified girl nodded and put her other hand on the edge, pulling herself up with Morgana's help. She sprawled on her back upon reaching firm land. She let out a small laugh and grinned at the other girl. "Thank you."

"You owe me one."

"Let's keep moving or I will begin crying again." She began climbing first, carefully placing her feet on big rocks. This was the easy part, climbing up was the hard one. She hoped no major incident would occur while they were going down, like some random beast swooping in to attack them. She got to the bottom first and waited for the other girl. After reaching the bottom, they both wanted to high five each other but their hands were horribly blistered. They trekked on to the destination. As much as they wanted a break, all they really wanted was to get out of there as soon as they could. Sydney never believed that Morgana would become her partner, much less her friend.

"If you're interested, you could always join SPD. My friends…"

She shook her head, "It's too late for me to redeem myself."

"It's never too late."

The other girl quickly switched topics when something caught her eye. She hit the other girl's arm anxiously and smiled. "I spy a big cave with a crystal inside. Shall we take a peak?"

"We shall." Agreed Syd. They entered the dark cave together and smiled when they spotted something shiny at the far end of the cave. The crystal was exactly like they how pictured, transparent and without a single spot or scratch in its perfect surface. She placed her hand on the edges to retrieve it. But as soon as she touched it, she was shot out of the cave by a white beam. Morgana soon joined her on a spot in the floor.

"Well if it isn't my two favorite ladies." Grumm stepped out into the open, letting out a loud laugh. Two Orange Heads put Sydney on her feet and dragged her away from the fallen villainess. She hit one of the Krybots on the chest and kicked the other in the head, momentarily distracting them. She began to run towards the other girl, but a shot from Grumm's staff in the back stopped her in her tracks. She screamed when the robotic henchmen grabbed her again.

"You betrayed me! You knew this was going to happen!" Syd cried loudly. Morgana slowly stood up, trying to compose herself. "Maybe you are right. Maybe it is too late for you to redeem yourself."

Those were her final words before being dragged away by the Orange Heads. Another pair of Krybots grabbed her arms. "What are you going to do with her?"

"Are those feelings I perceive? Here I thought you had none." The Troobian motioned for the Krybots to also drag her away. Once inside the ship, they finally let her go. She ran through the sdhip looking for Syd, but she wasn't there.

"Where is she?" He let out a loud laugh. "I wouldn't worry much about her; you should be worried about yourself."

Before she could ask any questions, one of the Orange Heads covered her mouth and began dragging her to the room she had never wanted to go into. She groaned and looked back at him, despair in her eyes. The Krybot threw her inside and closed the door behind her, leaving Morgana to face someone who was much worse than Grumm. She screamed loudly once the creature set its sight on her. And after a few seconds, everything became quiet.

"She's all yours, Omni."

Earth

At first, she thought Grumm was stupid and reckless for bringing her back to Earth, especially back to NewTech. SPD could have tracked her down and rescued her by now. But that wasn't the case; he had instructed his soldiers to attach to her wrists what he called 'power depressors', which to her was just another word for two big ugly bracelets that prevented her from using her powers or emitting an energy signal.

They had landed on the coast of the city, which was now abandoned since the tides got very high at night for a few weeks. In other words, it was the perfect spot to keep her out of sight. They brought her inside an illuminated cave that overlooked the ocean. This wasn't just any cave as she had come to notice. It was equipped with high-end technology. It reminded her of the Command Center back at SPD. She felt miserable and nostalgic, not to mention weak and betrayed by someone who she thought she could be friends with. She felt stupid for trusting her, too.

An alien with a crescent moon for a head came by her side and grabbed her arm. He pressed a button on a console and an invisible force field hat surrounded the entrance was created. She resisted at first, but it was of no use, she was going to become Rogue whether she wanted it or not. Now she wondered if anything that Morgana had told was true. She was beginning to think that it was all just a bunch of crap she had come up with.

She lied down as instructed by the alien, whose name was Mooney. She turned her head to the direction of the ocean. Then something caught her eye, on the table beside her chair, she saw a bunch of syringes with a black liquid inside. If she didn't want to escape before, she certainly wanted to do so now. Her attempts at breaking her restraints were useless. And trying to escape wouldn't be of any good either, there was Mooney and the Orange Heads to take care of and she certainly didn't have the energy to deal with them. After making a small tourniquet and locating her vein, the alien slowly injected her with the liquid and extracted the needle once it was empty.

A heavy ringing invaded her ears. A pulsing pain emerged in her head. An intolerable pain ran through her body. Dark spots began dancing around her vision, gently forcing her to sleep. The last words she heard coming out of Mooney's mouth were, "Once this is all done, you'll feel much better."