A/N: Sorry for the hiatus folks! I really did intend to get this out earlier, but I've really had to re-tool it a few times. Also, as a note for this chapter, if it's written in Italics then presume the character is speaking in Andresean.

Back in the past, Orion was sitting on Lafitte's ship, stitching up a wicked looking wound in his arm after their latest raid. True to his word, Lafitte had concentrated most of his efforts on Armada ships. Orion knew that this wasn't really by choice; Lafitte had made it clear that his main interest was in profit. If any of the nearby planets had been WORTH raiding, he would have attacked without any further thought. Of course, in Orion's sector of the galaxy, there simply WASN'T anyone else worth raiding.

While Andresea had been one of the hardest hit worlds, being completely levelled by The Armada, leading to Orion believing they didn't really know about its value as far as its mineral wealth was concerned, the rest of the worlds had been completely subjugated. Even those that had simply surrendered in the face of The Armada's strength had been brought under heel. All the worlds under The Armada's command were required to pay a levy or tax to The Armada for their "protection". Most of the worlds were taxed so heavily that most of them weren't especially wealthy. That meant that the prize targets in the area were flotillas of collection ships.

"Have you finished cleaning yourself up?" Marv asked him as he came into the room. Orion was just finishing up the stitching, and just held the thread out.

"Just about." Orion told him, gesturing to the trailing end. "Would you mind?"

Marv picked up a nearby set of scissors and cut off the excess as he sat down. He just smirked.

"You know maybe things like this wouldn't happen if you fought with a real weapon instead of that toothpick." He teased his crew mate, pointing to Orion's spear in the corner. He had since given up the rough, home-made spear he had constructed from available materials back on Andresea, and replaced it with a trident made from Xyberian steel. Orion had opted to continue using this weapon because for months on Andresea, he had trained himself to use the spear as the only practical weapon he could construct himself. By the time he left, using it was second nature. "I mean, that big ape Kolo might have an armoured hide, but you don't."

"I kind of like it." Orion told him. Marv just pulled out his blasters.

"Look, why don't you just let me show you how to use a real weapon?" He asked. "That backwoods stuff might work against the X-borgs, but you've never even seen a Bruiser yet, and if you run into a Commander, you're screwed."

"Look, you might like blowing the shit out of everything that moves, but I like to know when I use my weapon, it's going to destroy what I want it to destroy." Orion told him.

"Suit yourself." Marv said with a shrug. Just then, Lafitte came into the room.

"Have you finished patching yourself up yet?" He asked Orion.

"Yeah, I'm good." Orion replied, pulling his shirt back on.

"Well then, perhaps you can get to the galley before we all starve." Lafitte told him. "We don't keep you around for your sparkling wit you know. Marv, come with me, I have a lead on a huge score."

"Sure, I'll be right there." He answered, before putting his blaster away. "The offer's still open if you decide you want to be used as something other than target practice."

"Thanks, but I'll give it a pass for now." Orion replied as they left. With that, he went to the Galley to start on their next meal.

His story moved on, and the Free Joker was approaching a huge flotilla of ships. Marv, Kolo and Orion were all on the bridge, surrounding Lafitte's seat at the controls.

"That's...that's a treasury ship!" Marv stammered, seeing the huge number of escort ships with it. The Armada's taxation followed a very strict protocol. Ships would go to the subjugated worlds and collect money, minerals, jewels, whatever the planet could afford in terms of tribute, and then they would go to rendezvous with a larger treasury ship to take their ill-gotten gains to wherever it needed to go. The Treasury ships were massive ships, and were always well-guarded due to the nature of their cargo. Going after one was a tough prospect with a whole fleet of ships. With a single vessel, it was looking a lot more like a suicide mission.

"I know you like to think big Lafitte, but are you nuts?" Orion asked him. Lafitte just laughed.

"Will you two relax?" He asked. "I've already hacked their systems. Their surveillance is blind to our approach."

"But...what about the small matter of the whole escort contingent?" Marv asked him. Lafitte just pointed to the screen. After a moment, they saw around half the ships suddenly broke off and flew at top speed in another direction.

"What happened?" Marv asked.

"They just received a report of a sighting of the Free Joker in the next solar system." He informed them. "All available ships have been called to apprehend us."

"Well, half a contingent is still a lot of ships." Orion reminded him.

"And if all we had was the Free Joker, that would be a problem." Lafitte answered. "Of course, once we teleport you and Marv onto that ship and you commandeer their weapons..."

"We'll have more than enough firepower to take them out!" Marv said with a huge smirk. "That's the kind of plan I like."

"Well, let's do it." Orion stated, grabbing his trident. "A score this big is bound to hurt them."

A little later, Orion and Marv were on the ship, battling their way through some X-borg guards. They had teleported as close to The Bridge as they possibly could, but that still meant they had a fair way to go.

Marv clamped a magnetic bomb to the door to the Bridge, while Orion took care of some X-borgs, spinning it expertly as he looked around for more.

"That's the last of them." Orion stated. "I don't like this."

"Well if you stand there, you'll like this a lot less!" Marv told him, pulling out the ariel to the controller with his teeth. Orion took cover behind a bulkhead as Marv activated the bomb, blowing out the door.

"NOW!" He yelled. He and Orion ran for the doorway, before diving, sliding along the floor. Part of the safety system on a lot of Armada ships was a series of back-up security bulkheads that would slide into place if there was an explosion, or sudden decompression. It was designed to secure the ship in case of an attack. Sliding under the bulkhead as it came down, they got into the bridge as it slammed into place. It meant they were sealed in until they could over-ride the system...but it also meant that now they were sealed in with the bridge crew, who had no means of getting reinforcements. They were using their own security against them.

Marv flipped to his feet, opening fire with his blasters, while Orion waded in with his trident, slicing down the crew. Within moments, they were standing alone on the bridge.

"We're clear." Marv stated as he put his blasters away.

"I don't like this." Orion stated. "This was too easy."

"Lafitte had this planned to a T." Marv told him as he went to the controls.

"This is a Treasury ship, and there wasn't one Commander on the bridge?" He asked. "There wasn't even a bruiser?"

"They're probably somewhere else looking for us!" Marv told him, tapping some keys as he tried to over-ride the security on the controls to access the weapons to start clearing out the escort ship. Lafitte had told them he would make a start, but there were a lot of them, even with half the fleet gone. "Come on Orion, how many times do I have to tell you? Don't look a gift-horse in the..."

There was a bright blue flash and Marv was thrown from the controls, landing in a crumpled heap on the floor. Orion just looked to his fallen body.

"MARV!" He yelled as he threw his trident aside and ran over to him. He found that he was still alive, but barely conscious. "Marv, what happened?"

"Get DOWN!" Marv told him, grabbing him and pulling him aside as he opened fire with his blaster. Orion turned to see a secret panel had opened up and half a dozen bruisers had rushed into the room. A blast hit Marv, punching through his shoulder. Orion, seeing that there was no way to get to his trident, grabbed Marv's blasters and fired into the chest of the nearest Bruiser, smashing it, but knocking the wind out of himself as he overbalanced and landed on the ground. Having never used blasters, he was unprepared for the recoil, especially from the hand-cannons that Marv seemed to favour, and use effortlessly. It seemed his comrade was a lot stronger than he looked.

He found himself pinned to the ground by a couple of the Bruisers, while others grabbed Marv and held him up. They marched them to the middle of the room, where Damaras met them.

"Well well, if it isn't the notorious pirates." He greeted them. "I am a little disappointed to be honest. I thought you'd be much more difficult to capture."

"You haven't got all of us!" Marv spat as he struggled in the grip of his captors. "Lafitte's still..."

"Lafitte?" Damaras laughed. "How do you think we arranged this little ruse?"

Orion just glared hatefully at Lafitte as he and Kolo entered the room. He approached Damaras, and held out a hand.

"Some people are happy to stay out of jail." He stated as Damaras took out a large pouch, and handed it to him. "I expect to be paid to leave."

"You sold us out!" Orion screamed angrily, trying to break free to attack him. Lafitte just laughed.

"It's nothing personal my boy. If I'm honest, it was fun while it lasted." He stated. "It's only business. You see...I had a better offer."

He opened the bag and pulled out a Ranger Key, the Mighty Morphin' Green Ranger key.

"You see, in exchange for a commission to a new employer, and a new crew, one that's a little easier to control, all I had to do was give them you." He told them. "I'm not even asking for the reward. These will be much more useful."

"Just take your prize and go." Damaras snapped. "Before I change my mind and have you arrested too."

"Oh, there is just one more thing." He stated. "I was also required to give them the ship. Where I'm going, I won't need it you see. So I guess, I'll be on my way."

With a low bow, he turned and left the room, taking Kolo with him. Orion renewed his struggle.

"Well, an Andresian. This is a novelty." Damaras stated. "I was sure you were all gone."

"You'll all pay for what you did to my planet!" Orion screamed at him.

"I highly doubt that." He replied. He looked to Marv, who seemed to be barely alive by now. "This one...it's just as well his reward is dead or alive. I doubt he'll make it back to the flagship."

"Orion." Marv croaked out, straining to look up. "Do me a favour. Make Lafitte pay!"

With that, he activated an EMP grenade that he had secreted in his hand. It knocked out all electronic signals within a few feet for a period of thirty seconds, which right now was Damaras and the Bruisers. Orion ran, snatching up his trident and ran down the corridor, unable to teleport for a while because of the EMP.

As his systems started to clear up, and he regained control, Damaras got to his feet, while the bruisers concentrated on grabbing Marv. Damaras checked the surveillance systems.

"He's teleported." He confirmed, knowing he likely would as soon as he was able. "He's probably gone back to the Free Joker!"

"So what do we do with him?" One of the Bruisers asked, holding up Marv. "He won't last much longer. Shall we take him to the morgue?"

"Not yet." Damaras said, holding up a hand. "Call Lavira...I have an idea how he can still be of use to us."

Meanwhile, on the Free Joker, Orion teleported back onto the bridge, finding the ship deserted. It looked like this was the one thing Lafitte wasn't lying about. Wherever he and Kolo had gone, they clearly weren't going in the Free Joker.

As he sat by the controls though, he checked the systems. It looked like before they had gone, Lafitte had cleared out pretty much anything of use. The power cells were almost completely depleted, and the weapons had all been disabled. He used what little power he had to blast off, leaving the fleet behind him. He knew he wouldn't get far, and started to look for a planet with a breathable atmosphere to land on. It seemed that he was on his own again.

Back on the Red Galleon, Orion accepted a glass of lemonade from Emma.

"Thank you." He said gratefully, before taking a small sip.

"I always knew Lafitte was a piece of work." Noah stated. "But that's low even for him."

"So you got away?" Jake asked.

"I managed to find a nearby planet with an atmosphere I could breathe just before I completely ran out of power." Orion told them. "I barely made it to the surface before the power cells died. Unfortunately, the planet was uninhabited. It was like being back on Andresia. I was right back to where I started. I was there for months, how long...I didn't really know. The solar cycles on that planet were hard to track. I thought I was never going to get off that planet. Then one day, I saw something I never thought I would."

On the surface of the planet, Orion was just returning to his camp with the bounty of his hunt. It was a large, furred creature with long tusks he had taken to calling a Tuskarn. It would feed him for a couple of days, its naturally salty flesh acting as a kind of natural preservative that stopped it spoiling too quickly. As he got back to the camp site though, he found a cloaked stranger sitting by his campfire.

"A successful hunt I see." The stranger greeted him in perfect Andresian, albeit with a strange accent he couldn't recognise.

"I thought this planet was deserted." Orion stated. The stranger just gestured to him to take a seat.

"It is...at least...it is deserted of all intelligent life." The Stranger told him. "You and I have a lot in common. We are both the last of our kind."

"What kind is that?" Orion asked. The stranger pulled down his hood, revealing a black helmet, with a visor he couldn't see a face through.

"Eltarian." Gosei told him. "Forgive the helmet, but the fresh air does not favour me as it does you."

"Eltarian?" Orion asked him. "What do you want with me?"

"I want to offer you a way off this world." He told him. "I understand your last partnership did not end well, so I am not offering you anything like that. I will be leaving alone, what you choose to do with my gifts is up to you."

He got up, and handed Orion a strange device, and placed a figurine of a warrior in strange silver clothes in the other.

"Hold these together, they will speak to you, and guide you in their use." Gosei told him. "I won't tell you how to use them, that is up to you. However, if you wish to find the place you can strike the most harm against the heart of The Armada, they will guide you there."

The stranger got up, and waved a hand in the direction of the Free Joker, which lit up as he did.

"I have provided your ship with all the power you need." Gosei told him. "You have a long journey ahead of you Orion. Choose your path well."

With that, he disappeared in a flash of light. Orion took the key and the morpher in his hand, and placed them together.

"When I did, I started to get visions, visions of warriors in helmets, warriors who called themselves Power Rangers." Orion told them. "They started to talk to me, to tell me secrets, guide me and train me in the skills I would need. They led me here, to this planet, to you."

"Guys, check this out." Noah stated, showing them the morpher. "His morpher's different than ours. It has all different buttons...ones marked by different Ranger helmets...all of them Sixth Rangers."

"They're the ones that came to me." He told them.

"So...his morpher has some kind of connection to the Sixth Rangers?" Gia asked. "I guess that makes sense, since he's a Sixth Ranger."

"Maybe we'll know more if we try his morpher with the other Sixth Ranger keys." Emma suggested. "I mean, we got the Sixth Ranger keys from Lafitte right? Maybe they are connected to him."

"Wait, we still don't know who this guy is!" Jake snapped. "All we've got is his word to go on! Why would Gosei go all the way across the galaxy to give a morpher, JORDAN'S morpher to some...castaway?"

"I don't know. He never told me that. All he said was that this would lead me to where I need to be." Orion told them. "If you're worried about handing over the keys, then how about we trade?"

He put a hand in his pocket, and pulled something out, before throwing a bunch of keys on the table. They rattled as they landed. Troy and the others looked to them, and then back to him.

"Fifteen keys, courtesy of Lafitte." He told them. The Rangers all pulled into a huddle.

"Troy, are we seriously thinking about this?" Jake asked. "He just turns up with a morpher and we're meant to trust him?"

"Gosei's never been the most straightforward with his plans, but a lot of things seem to fit." Noah told them.

"If he's not a real Ranger, he's put on a heck of a show." Gia conceded. "He wasted a ton of their troops, and a Commander! Also, he's gone to a lot of effort with that story for it to be all bull."

"Not to mention he gave us fifteen Ranger keys we had no idea how to find." Emma reminded them.

"Presuming they're real!" Jake stated. He looked to Troy. "Look, I'm not saying he definitely isn't on the level, I'm just saying..."

Just then, they heard an alert. Tensou checked the scanner.

"There's been an attack on a building site." He told them. "It looks like Vekar's not done with Paris yet."

Troy thought about it for a moment, before holding out his hand to Noah.

"Give me his morpher and his key." Troy told him.

"Troy..."

"Trust me." Troy replied, taking them, and going over to Orion. He handed them to him.

"I'm giving you your morpher and this key, ONLY this key." He told him. "If you're on the level, this is your chance to prove it. Show me what you're made of, and we'll talk about those Sixth Ranger keys."

"Just take me to where they are." Orion answered, gripping his morpher tightly.