The Rangers were back in the Command Centre, looking more dejected than ever as they tended to their newest wounds. Emma was just getting her wrist bound by Noah as Tensou looked to the horrendous wound in Jordan's leg, pulling out a piece of metal a little larger than a quarter, and triangular. Jordan just took it from him and sighed.

"I'd love to say I took a piece of her with me." He stated as he tossed it aside, allowing Tensou to start stitching up the wound. "It's just the tip of her sword."

"This has to be the worst Thanksgiving EVER." Jake muttered. "How is it that no matter what we do everything just seems to get worse and worse?"

"Jake, we can't start thinking like that." Gia told him. "There's still more to be done!"

"Yeah, of course there is, there's ALWAYS more to be done!" Jake replied. "At the start, it was just Malkor and his Alien Ant Farm to deal with. Then just as we're getting used to that, oh sorry, but now you have a bunch of Toxic Mutant freaks to deal with. Then it's robots, only, they're not actually robots, but some psychotic Eltarian lunatic!"

"Jake..."

"One day!" Jake roared. "We've lost the Zords, and had our butts kicked three times in ONE FREAKING DAY!"

"Jake, we're all frustrated!" Troy interrupted him.

"Frustrated, is that the word?" Jake asked him. "I used to get frustrated, when I was doing a test and I didn't know the answer. I used to get frustrated when I got sick before a big game...I got FRUSTRATED when I liked a girl, and she didn't even know I existed."

He started to pace, wringing his hands in his hair.

"If that's frustrated, then what the hell is this?" Jake asked him. "We're losing a little more each time we face them, and they only seem to get stronger! Communications are down, so we can't even contact any of the others for help, the Zords are gone, and we're dying on our feet! Oh, and to cap it all off, we've just been unmasked in front of every reporter in the whole freaking city!"

"Jake, it's getting to all of us!" Emma assured him.

"It's easy for you to say, your boyfriend's right there!" Jake told her, pointing to Troy. "Your parents know about you! This won't be a revelation..."

"Like that's going to matter!" Gia snapped at him. "Do you really think that matters? Whether or not they know? It'll only be a matter of time before they figure out who we are, and then what? When they can't find us, who do you really think they'll go to? Do you really think they'll leave our families alone?"

"Don't you think I get that?" Jake yelled. "I know they'll descend on our places, looking for the inside scoop, raking through our lives! It isn't just us anymore, now they're going to tear apart our whole lives, including the people we love!"

He turned to the statue in the wall, tears running down his face as he confronted Gosei.

"We all knew this was risky, but you never told us about this!" Jake screamed at the statue. "This is all because of you! TO HELL WITH YOU!"

Noah came to his side, and held Jake, guiding him back towards a bench, helping him lie back. All of the team felt pretty much the same. They had heard the horror story of the Space Rangers, an entire team whose identities had been exposed to the public. They were watching the same thing happen to them.

"Like it or not, there's still more fighting to do." Troy told them. "Once we destroy Metal Alice and Vrak..."

"Then we just have this war that you keep dreaming about to fight." Noah sighed. Troy just nodded in response.

"So...what does that mean?" Emma asked him. Troy looked around them all sadly.

"I think that means regardless of what happens, we're not going home from this one." He told them. "It'll only be worse for everyone if we do."

"So we just disappear?" Jake asked him. "No...no word, not even a goodbye?"

"We probably have time for a goodbye." Noah told them. "All communications are down. With no internet or anything, it'll take hours for them to find out who we are and who our families are."

"I guess they're going to find out now regardless." Jake sighed. "I suppose it'd be better coming from us."

"Alright, I guess this is it then." Troy told them. "We'll meet back here in half an hour."

"Half an hour?" Emma asked him. He just nodded.

"I doubt we're going to get much longer than that." He told them honestly. "I had a feeling none of us were going home from this one."

With that, they all headed for home for the last time. Jordan though, remained in the Command Centre. Tensou just looked to him.

"Aren't you going?" He asked.

"I don't have anyone to say goodbye to." He responded honestly as he lay back to get some much-needed rest.

Emma and Gia arrived in their Living Room, ignoring all the usual restrictions on teleportation. It was far too late for them to care about such things. Cat, Eric and Louise were all waiting for them. They looked to the girls, seeing that they were badly roughed up, and obviously completely exhausted.

"Girls..."

"Please, don't fuss, there isn't much time." Gia interrupted her mother. Emma was already shedding tears as she looked to her dad. He could see the look in her face, and his heart immediately sank. He recognised that look from a number of friends he had served with in his military days.

"Emma..."

She just made his way into his arms, and held him tightly, not knowing when, or even if she would ever be able to go back to him. She just held him closely, sobbing into his chest.

"There's a big battle coming up." Gia started to say as Louise just looked worried. "Um...the thing is...we were caught on camera...unmorphed."

"You...you were...?"

"They won't be able to broadcast for a while, but they have it all on tape." Gia told them. "Once they figure out who we are...they'll come for all of you. We can't be here when they do."

"So where are you going?" Cat asked. Gia couldn't answer her, as much because she didn't want to say it out loud as the fact she really didn't know. All she knew was that regardless of whether or not they won the upcoming battle, they would not be able to return home. Cat knew what her silence meant and broke down. Gia pulled her in, holding her tightly as the family huddled together into the middle of the room.

Elsewhere in the city, a reporter was in the back of the van, looking over the footage they had shot. She couldn't keep the smile from her face as she paused the frame with all six of the Rangers staring straight at the cameras.

"I'm sorry; we still can't reach the office." Her cameraman told her as he hung up the phone.

"You've got to be kidding me!" She shrieked. "We're sitting on the hottest footage we've ever shot! This is a Pulitzer for sure, and you're telling me we can't get even call it in?"

"I'm telling you, nothing works!" He reiterated. "The net, e-mail, nothing! The only good news is none of the networks are broadcasting, so we're not behind anyone else!"

"Damn it." She snapped. "Any luck figuring out who those kids are?"

"Well, the Asian one kind of looks familiar." He told her with a shrug. "I'd have done an archive search by now, but..."

"Shit, this is unbelievable!" She responded. "This is easily the highlight of my career, and I have to wait for some damned interference to clear up! I can't even Fed-Ex it to another city, all the damned roads are still down!"

"Um...I've been thinking." The driver commented. "This...this doesn't feel right somehow."

"What are you babbling about now?" She asked him.

"Well...they're kids!" He told her. "That one in the black...he couldn't have been much older than my Howie."

"Yeah, and?" The cameraman asked.

"Well...maybe we shouldn't broadcast this." He suggested. Both his colleagues burst out laughing, and only stopped when they realised he wasn't kidding.

"Oh yeah, I'm really going to ignore the biggest scoop of the year!" She snapped sarcastically. "We're journalists, reporting news is what we do! Don't you think that the city has a right to know that the people we've been relying on to save us all year aren't even old enough to vote?"

"But...they're kids!" He repeated. "If we release this..."

"Do you think any of the others will care?" The reporter asked him. "I know I sure as hell don't!"

"But what'll it do to their lives?" He asked. "No one will leave them alone! They won't..."

"Yeah, can you imagine? Hiraldo, Leno, the book deals, the publicity tours..." The cameraman rhymed off. "They'll be set for life! It'll be the best thing that ever happened to them!"

"I just can't help thinking..."

"That would be why you drive the van and we pick the stories!" The reporter interrupted him dismissively, patting him on the head. "You just stick to driving and leave the thinking to us."

At the Holling house, Jake stormed out the house, his parents following him as he tried to walk away. His mother was in hysterics.

"Jake, come back in here now!" Mr Holling demanded. Jake just looked to him.

"There's nothing else to say!" Jake told him.

"You've been lying to us for months!" He yelled at him. "You've been hiding..."

"For this exact reason!" Jake yelled back. "Do you think this has been fun for me? Do you think I woke up one morning and just decided I WANTED my whole life to be decided for me?"

"Jake, you can't go!" His mother begged him. "You're a child..."

"Really? I thought that was the point of that Bar Mitzvah!" He answered.

"That is no way to talk to your mother Jake!" His dad said angrily. "You are MY son, this...this Gosei has NO RIGHT...!"

"It doesn't matter anymore! It's too late!" Jake told him. He was in tears as he looked to his family. "I'm sorry, really I am, but...this is the only way."

His father approached him and looked to his son.

"Promise me you'll be home eventually." He begged him. "Please."

"I love you." He said in response as he handed a letter to his father. "Please, give this to Allison. Hopefully she'll understand."

As he walked away, unable to make a promise that he knew he might never be able to keep. He didn't have any way of telling when, if ever he would be able to come home where it wouldn't drag his family's life into chaos. His anger building in him he was determined to turn it into the strength he'd need to drag his battered, weary body through the battles to come. They had taken everything from him, and he was determined to do the same to them.

Troy finished packing a few personal items in his bag when his father knocked the door to his bedroom gently. Troy looked around.

"How's mom...?"

"She's taking it well, all things considered." Mr Burrows told him. "Did you...?"

"I took some stuff for Jordan." He assured him. Mr Burrows came and hugged him tightly.

"I'm proud of you." He told him as they parted. "Believe in yourself. Anyone with any sense would. Gosei chose well."

"Thanks dad." Troy answered. "I love you."

With that, he teleported back to the Command Centre leaving his father in the empty room. He couldn't help worrying for his son, no matter how much he believed in him. He turned back into the room, seeing how empty it seemed without them, and turned out the light.

Back in the Goodall place, Gia was in the bedroom with Cat, holding her hand, cradling her head gently on her shoulder. Emma knocked on the door, coming in quietly.

"Gia...it's time." She told her. Gia just nodded sadly, before looking to Cat.

"Please, don't say it." Cat begged her. "Maybe if you don't say the word...it won't seem so much like this is it."

Gia pulled off her leather jacket, and wrapped it around Cat, looking into her eyes and smiling, before kissing her softly. She got up, and stood with Emma, before teleporting out of the room. Cat just pulled her jacket around her tightly, lying back on the bed as her tears began.

The Rangers got back to the Command Centre, finding Jordan waiting for them. He signalled to the screen.

"Metal Alice is back." He told them. "And it looks like she's brought a new friend along for the party."

"One or a thousand, I don't care anymore." Jake put down flatly. "There's nothing left for them to take."

"Alright guys, remember what I kept saying about anger?" Troy asked them. "Well forget it. Use it; let it get the adrenaline going. This time, this is it. We fight, and we keep fighting until there's nothing left to fight!"

They all nodded in agreement as they lined up. They held their morphers in their hands.

"This is it then." Gia stated. "Nowhere to go!"

"No one to help!" Emma added.

"Nothing to lose." Jordan stated.

"Bring it on!" Troy concluded.

"Go Go Megaforce!" They all roared together, slamming their cards into their morphers as they teleported into battle.

A/N: Two chapters in one day! I know I don't manage this often, but I was determined to do it tonight as a little Christmas present to my regular readers. I won't be doing any writing at all tomorrow, spending the day with my family. Merry Christmas to you all.