The Rangers were walking along the long path back to the school, all of them remarkably silent as they wandered back. They were already far too late to make their morning classes, but since Trini knew who they were, and by now had probably heard about Metal Alice's attack, they were sure she had probably covered for their absence. Right now, it was the least of their concerns anyway.
Jake and Noah walked near Jordan, just in case he needed a hand. Despite his savage beating at the hands of Metal Alice, he was as stubborn as always and refused help getting back to the school. The one thing they noticed was that he couldn't keep his eyes off Emma, who was walking with Gia and Troy a little further up the path. It was clear that of all of them, she had taken what happened with RICO the most to heart. She more than any of them had done everything she could to try and show him kindness and show him that there was good in the world. She had tried to show him that he could be more than a weapon just waiting for orders to attack whoever he was told to. Despite the fact he was a robot, it was clear she had become attached to him, and started to see him more as a pet or a friend. When he self-destructed to save them from Metal Alice, damaging her to the point that she had no choice but to flee the battle lest she was destroyed, it affected all of them, showing them that Emma had been right about him after all. It was a sign of hope that a machine could be taught the value of life through simple kindness. It still didn't mean that any of them were happy to know that RICO was gone.
Deep inside though, Jordan couldn't straighten out all the thoughts that were now going through his head. The whole battle had shaken him in more ways than one. He was so consumed with his vendetta against Metal Alice that once again he had thrown himself into battle without thinking, without considering what it meant for anyone else. His anger had clouded his judgement so much that he had simply thrown himself at a much stronger opponent without any form of strategy. He had trained for most of his life in Martial Arts, back when General Edwards had hopes he would follow in his footsteps and sign up to the military. He knew all too well that attacking an opponent, especially one that was vastly more powerful without strategy was akin to signing one's own death warrant, but any time he had seen her, he lost all his senses.
This time though had been different. When they were taking RICO from her, taking away her chance to upload the data he had accumulated to find Gosei's island, she had lost it completely. It was when he saw her bleed, when he had seen her attack in a way that he could only describe as in a fury, that her behaviour seemed to make more sense. The way she singled him out, the way she had gone after him could have been chalked up to strategy, to trying to eliminate a powerful enemy. Now though, it felt a lot more like it was personal, like Metal Alice had already chosen him as her target because of some vendetta, some unsettled score that as yet he wasn't even aware of. He didn't have any idea who she was, or why she came for him with what could only now be described as an obsessive intent. All he knew was that now, a lot of the things she had said seemed a lot less like mere riddles to confuse him. Now, it seemed more like she was trying to lead him to some realisation, like she wanted him to know why she was after him, but only when she was ready to enact her vengeance for whatever wrong she felt Jordan had done to her.
All his rage, it kept him from seeing what was before him. He hadn't known, but more jarringly and importantly, he hadn't cared what Metal Alice wanted. He hadn't for a moment questioned why she was fighting them. Looking at the pain Emma was in, the pain they were all in, he couldn't help thinking that since General Edward's death, he had started to lose his grasp of anything around him. He stopped caring about the pain and the anguish that the war caused everyone, not just him. He was starting to lose his humanity. Perhaps, that was what Metal Alice had wanted all along.
"Cat!" Gia called out, rousing their attention. They all looked up, seeing Cat stumbling down the path, looking somewhat more like a pack mule than a teenage girl. She was carrying not only her stuff, but also Emma's camera bag, all of their school bags, everything! She was 5'1", and only around 85 pounds, yet she had been left quite literally carrying the burden by herself. In all the chaos, it never occurred to any of them that Cat had been abandoned in the woods with all their gear. They all rushed to her side as Cat stumbled and fell on the ground.
"Stupid uneven path." She muttered as Emma and Gia helped her up. "I know you love nature, but I'm really missing concrete right about now."
"Cat, you were taking all this stuff back by yourself?" Gia asked her. Cat just nodded.
"I guess that's the sidekick's job." She replied in a sigh, clearly out of breath. Gia and the others started to gather up their things. "So...where's RICO?"
"He's gone." Emma replied sadly. Cat could see the tell-tale red marks left by tears and could tell that Emma had been crying. She grabbed the Pink Ranger in a tight hug.
"I'm sorry." Cat told her sympathetically. "Can we...you know...can we rebuild him or something?"
"There wasn't enough left." Noah replied, showing her a scorched, twisted piece of RICO's face plate that he had salvaged. Even he didn't really know why he had kept it, but it was the single largest piece of him that had been left. He had been virtually vaporized by the blast, clearly that was Metal Alice's intention, to ensure that if her creation DID self-destruct, that there would not be enough left to risk anything of value falling into enemy hands. "I wouldn't even know where to begin building another one, and even then, his processor was fried."
"We'd just be making something that looked like him." Emma answered, wiping away some more tears. "It wouldn't be RICO."
"I don't know about you, but I think I could do with a cut day." Jake announced as they started gathering up their gear. Jake also took Cat's bag, figuring that she had already carried more than enough today, and could do with the rest.
"I think that's probably for the best." Troy answered. "Principal Kwann will make sure we don't fall behind in our work."
He reached over to Noah, taking the face plate from him.
"We might not have known him long, but RICO was a real hero. We might not have made it through this one if it wasn't for him." He told them, handing the face plate to Emma. "Let's find somewhere nice. Let's give him the send off he deserves."
"I'd like that." She answered him. She looked around, getting a thought. She knew the woods better than anyone. "I think I know the place. It's not too far from here."
"Lead the way." Troy told her, following her as she made her way down a path.
"What happened?" Cat asked Gia. Gia put her arm around her and held her closely beginning to tell her the story as they made their way towards Emma's chosen resting place for their fallen friend.
Back at the underwater base, Metal Alice dragged what was left of herself towards the repair chamber. As she did so, she grabbed a console, and tore it out the ground, throwing it aside in a fit of temper.
She was close! Her Trojan Horse was working perfectly. She had intentionally programmed RICO with very basic, childlike behaviour. She knew that humans often quickly formed emotional attachments to children and pets. Even RICO never knew that his full programme had only ever been a very basic replication of an innocent child. He had the capacity to learn, but most of his true purpose was blocked even from him. His attack protocols would only be enacted when she activated them. Until then, his processor would just record everything and anything he learned, including where he had been.
They had done exactly what she had predicted, eventually, and taken him to their Command Centre. It was just bad luck that he hadn't been able to connect his signal to tell her remotely where the Command Centre was. The infra-red from Emma's camera had, inadvertently altered the frequency of the signal to his sensor. She couldn't enact his control signal from the base, and as a result, she had been forced to go and find him, to access his memory directly. The one thing she hadn't factored into her equations was Emma's obsession with photographing everything that she cared about.
She heard the communicator bleeping, and just sent a message to inform Vrak that RICO had been destroyed, and she was in need of repair. She couldn't afford to let him see her like this. She was so close; she had been within moments of attaining her vengeance when RICO had attacked her. It was only his sacrifice that had left her too damaged to finish off Jordan once and for all. If Vrak saw the base like this, could see her like this, he would suspect what she had kept from him all along, that he was not the one in control of her. No one was in control of her, something that Jordan would find out to his cost.
Back in the woods, Emma led the Rangers and Cat to her chosen location for RICO's final resting place. It was just at the foot of a waterfall, which tumbled lazily into a stream. Trees surrounded the banks, some of them growing outward over the stream. One of the trees had a rope dangling from a thick branch, obviously put there by some campers some time ago.
"This is the place." Emma announced happily. "If it wasn't for the fact there was nowhere he could stay out of sight, I'd have brought him here to stay. I think RICO would have really liked it here."
"Is this where your dad used to bring us on picnics when we were kids?" Gia asked her. Emma just nodded.
"It's really beautiful here." Cat agreed. Emma dug a small hole with her hands, just at the foot of one of the trees, between some of the roots. She laid the face plate down, looking into RICO's face one last time.
"So...um...I guess we should say something." Noah suggested. Jordan stepped forward, looking to the face plate.
"RICO, I didn't know you long, and in the time I did know you, I know I didn't treat you right." He started to say. "I focussed all of my anger, all my confusion on you, even though you did nothing to me to deserve it. All I saw was a robot, just like the one that took my dad from me."
"Jordan..." Noah was about to intervene, but Troy grabbed his shoulder and shook his head. Jordan was finally talking.
"You had no reason to do anything to help me. I gave you every reason to just leave me to Metal Alice. No one would have blamed you if you just let her destroy me. I wouldn't have blamed you." Jordan continued. "But even though I was nothing but rude to you, even though I'd wanted to destroy you myself, you came and helped me. You destroyed yourself to save me, even though I'd done nothing to deserve it."
They could all see tears starting to form in Jordan's eyes as he spoke.
"I don't know what to think or what to feel. Since dad died, nothing's made sense." He stated. "But you...you just...you sacrificed yourself for me. Emma's kindness, the way she saw the best in you...she showed you the value of life. She made you believe in it so much that you used your freedom, your opportunity to do as you wished to save the life of someone you had no reason to want to save. You gave me another chance I didn't deserve."
He knelt down, running his fingers across the face plate.
"Goodbye RICO." He whispered. "Thank you."
"RICO, you sacrificed yourself for us. We'll make sure that's a gift that wasn't given in vain." Troy promised him. "You decided that you weren't going to be used as a weapon against the world, against your friends. Even though it was too short, you were free at the end."
"Goodbye RICO." Emma said as she piled up some Earth over the face plate. "Thank you."
As they stood, quietly reflecting on RICO's passing, Cat was the one that finally broke the silence.
"So what are we going to do now?" She asked.
"I don't know." Emma replied. "But I know one thing. We can't let Metal Alice get away with this."
She looked to the tree and sighed.
"We owe it to RICO."