In Summer Cove hospital, Sarah and Ellie got up from their seats as the door to the Operating Room opened and they finally saw the doctors leaving, and wheeling Al out of the room.

"What's going on?" Ellie rushed out. "Is he...?"

"He's stable now." The surgeon told them. "He's sustained some pretty serious burns, and a couple of his ribs were broken. We were a little worried about his spine..."

"His spine?" Ellie gasped. "Is he...?"

"It doesn't look like it, but we'll know more once he comes around." The surgeon assured her. "He's still critical, so we're taking him to intensive care. Until he wakes up, there's not much more we can do."

"Can we see him?" Ellie asked him.

"For now he needs to rest." The surgeon told them. "For now, the best thing you can do is go home and get some rest."

"My husband is in there..."

"I promise we'll call you if there's any change. He likely won't come around until at least tomorrow." The surgeon interrupted her. "He's going to need you to be strong when he comes around. You should probably go home and get some rest."

"I'm not going anywhere until I speak to my husband." Ellie told him. The surgeon just nodded in understanding.

"I'll have a room prepared for you to rest in." He told her. "I'll have word brought to you as soon as anything changes."

"Thank you." Sarah said as she held her mom, watching them take her dad to the recovery ward, all the time hoping that soon someone would be able to tell them something other than 'wait and see.'

2012, Panorama Police station, interview room 3. Al was sitting in the room, waiting for his interview. He was fully expecting to be punished for his actions. Hell, he knew that when he got home Ellie would tear a strip off him for what happened to Sarah. He had been asked to watch her, to look after their twelve year old daughter for a couple of hours. It would have been bad enough had he just had to explain to his wife how after telling him specifically to watch her she had ended up blowing herself up. She could have lost a hand, she could be scarred for life, she could have...he didn't even want to think about that. Of course since his arrest, the police had taken her to the hospital and him to the station so as of now; he didn't even know what was happening to her.

He had seen the lights and heard the sirens and he had immediately prepared himself for dealing with a fine. He had hoped that the cops would take one look at his daughter and let him go with a warning, or at worst just hand him a ticket and send him on his way, but this cop had insisted on breathalysing Al. Now he knew he was in serious trouble. California was quite humourless as a state when it came to DUI cases. Al had registered almost three times the limit, meaning he could potentially face a custodial sentence. He was at least looking at a substantial fine and possibly a revocation of his licence. He fidgeted nervously, wishing they would just get on with things so he could go. He had watched NCIS a few times, and he knew that a common tactic in interrogations was what they called 'rocking the baby'. They would turn down the heat in the interview room and leave the suspect to stew, leave them to start to zone out before sending someone in to begin the interrogation.

So far, he hadn't even had a chance to ask for his lawyer. He'd been shown into this room and asked to wait. He didn't even know what exactly they were going to nail him on. The DUI was a given, but the speeding, the red light, the stop sign, the cops could easily add all of them to his ticket just for the sake of it. When the door opened and a cop came in, he reached out.

"Please, I know I've been an idiot, I'm more than happy to face whatever's coming to me." Al told him, immediately throwing himself onto the mercy of the cops in the hopes of appealing to their better nature. "Take my licence, crush the car, do whatever you need to do to me, but let me go to the hospital, my little girl..."

"Your daughter is being seen, the hospital says she's got some painful, but fortunately rather mild burns." The cop began. "We've already contacted your wife; she's on her way to the hospital as we speak."

"Thank God." Al breathed. "Alright, so what do we do? I can sign a statement, I'll not even try and defend what I did, just please..."

"Mr Thompson, I'd be more than happy to begin proceedings against you, but unfortunately we had to wait on some colleagues from another agency." The cop informed him. Al just looked at him curiously.

"Another agency?" He asked. That was when the door opened and two rather familiar faces walked in. Al just rolled his eyes.

"Well if it isn't Mulder and Scully." He commented.

"Agents Bishop and McGee, Federal Exchange Commission." The woman answered, showing him her credentials. "We meet again Mr Thompson."

"Look, whatever you're doing here, I don't have time for it. My daughter is in a hospital." Al told them. He looked to the cop. "I'll hold my hands up to the DUI and everything you have to throw at me, just charge me, bail me and send me to the hospital. As for you Agent McGee..."

"Bishop." The woman responded, correcting him.

"Whatever!" Al snapped. "You have to wait until..."

"You don't know yet do you?" McGee asked, looking to Bishop with a smirk on his face. He pulled out his phone, pulling up a web page and sliding the phone to Al. Al just picked it up, but as soon as he did, his blood ran cold. He quickly threw himself to the side, vomiting on the floor. "Yaxley investments just went belly-up. The CEO, someone I believe you know well disappeared this morning with the money. We've got a warrant out for his arrest, but I'm sure by now he's already well on his way to a nice hot country with no extradition treaty."

Al couldn't answer; he just continued to stare at the vomit on the floor. It was only now it occurred to him, the explosion, the rush to get Sarah to the hospital, he had abandoned his work. He had left the computer and more importantly he had not yet dumped the Yaxley stocks. Their shares were still active meaning that along with everyone else unfortunate enough to still own shares, they were carrying the can for every penny of that loss...millions of dollars gone in seconds. What was worse, the majority of the money wasn't theirs to invest in the first place! He had gambled with millions of dollars of other people's money and lost!

"Yaxley's gone. You and the other shareholders are carrying the can for the whole thing." Bishop told him. "Oh, and interesting thing...we noticed a lot of pension funds are more than a little short."

"That is to say they're empty." McGee clarified. "You and your friends are carrying the can for everything."

"I want a lawyer." Al muttered. "I...I...I need to talk to a lawyer."

"We could do that." Bishop told him. "Of course then we'd have to charge you for felony fraud."

"You could apply for bail; we'd label you a flight risk and have it denied." McGee told him matter-of-factly. "Then we'd take you to trial. By the time you get out, your daughter will be out of hospital. Hell, by the time you get out you might be a grandfather."

Bishop took out a pen and a piece of paper and slid them across to Al.

"What happens now depends on what you're willing to give us." She told him. "Just so you know, your friend Goodwill had a little problem with the IRS, so we've got him too. The only question is, which one of you is willing to give us what we need first? I'd suggest you make it good."

"I'll need more paper." Al answered in a defeated manner, taking the cap off the pen and starting to write. Over the course of the next three hours he wrote no less than twenty pages, detailing years of some of the largest scale investments fraud in the city's history.

In the present, Brody, Preston, Calvin, Levi and Hayley had brought Aiden to the school. Being Saturday, they knew they weren't going to run into anyone, and so it seemed like a good place to bring him to talk. Mick had told them to meet him in the yard out the back.

Brody was delighted to have his brother back. He wasn't a miserable guy or anything, they had seen him laugh and they had seen him smile, but it wasn't as though he made a habit of it. However, since finding Aiden in Trapsaw's trap, it was like looking at a different person. It was almost creepy to see, but it wasn't just his smile which he didn't seem to be able to lose. The way he walked, the way he stood, it was like he had grown a full three inches, like a gigantic weight had been lifted from him. They all knew how much he had wanted this day to come, and no one really wanted to take this from him, but as Mick met them in the yard, instead of in the Ranger Base, it became apparent that he wasn't quite so convinced in this miracle.

"Look, I'm sorry if I sound like I'm being 'that guy', but we have to be careful. I'm sure you understand that." Mick explained as they all sat with him. Brody looked to him a little curiously.

"Careful?" He asked. "Careful about what?"

"Well...it wouldn't be the first time Cosmo or Odious tried something sneaky." Mick told him. "You have to admit that Aiden just showing up out of nowhere is a little...convenient."

"Convenient?" Aiden asked. "Are you saying you don't really believe I'm me?"

"Mick, it's Aiden, I know it is, you guys all believe me right?" Brody asked, looking to the others. They all just looked between each other uneasily. The silence spoke volumes. "Right?"

"Well..."

"Preston!"

"The thing is, on the way over here, I guess it might have occurred to us that maybe...this might be a good way to get a spy among us." Hayley offered as delicately as she could.

"A spy?" Brody asked. "My brother, Aiden, a spy?"

"Well...we don't really KNOW that he's Aiden do we?" Calvin asked them both. "Look, I'll be the first to apologise and buy you the biggest burrito you want if I'm wrong."

"I prefer a double-danger chilli burger actually." Aiden said with a smirk. "They're my favourite; you get them from the snack van by the Botanical Gardens.

"I know you think you know this is Aiden, but it's been ten years." Mick reminded him. "People change a lot in that time, especially from when they're kids. We just have to be totally certain he is who he says he is."

"Guys, this is..."

"No, it's alright." Aiden told him.

"Aiden..."

"No, I get it, I do." Aiden assured him. "You remember that story dad always told us, how a ninja once posed as a Shogun's estranged son to get close to him. He managed to convince the whole household he was legit for eight years before he took the Shogun down."

"OK." Brody sighed. "But for the record...dad DID tell us that story. How would he know that if he wasn't Aiden? Or what Aiden's favourite food was?"

"That story was in history books." Hayley reminded Brody. "You lent it to me once, it's not like that book is the only copy, others will have read that story."

"Not to mention we don't always see those buzz-cams when they come down." Levi reminded him. "You told me that Aiden loved those chilli burgers, I could claim I was Aiden and you wouldn't know any better if that's all I knew."

"Alright, then I guess we need to hear stuff that only Aiden could know." Calvin suggested. "So go ahead, tell us, what happened to you? How did you escape?"

"Now that...that's a story." Aiden commented, shaking his head as he looked among them. "I can remember it as though it was yesterday."

Back on the Romero farm back in 2007, a young Aiden was in his dad's workshop, trying his hand with some throwing stars. Being a few years older than Brody, who was still only eight, he was a little further along in his training than his brother, and having another couple of years on him, Dane had seen fit to let him begin training in weapons forms. It was still a little early for Brody to be running around with live blades, but Aiden had been allowed to practice with weapons now for a little over two years.

He threw a shuriken, which imbedded itself in a board on which his dad had marked out a target. It struck the man-shaped target right in one of the legs, at which Aiden smiled with satisfaction.

Despite popular opinion, shuriken were rarely intended to be lethal weapons. They were simply too light to sink deeply enough into the flesh to do much more than flesh wounds, and a ninja would have to be ridiculously fortunate to nick an artery or some other vital soft target. In general, they were used more as distractions during combat or escape attempts and to injure or hamper the victim. Even in the instances toxins were used, more often than not they were more often nerve agents such as pepper oils and suchlike to cause a reaction and greater pain to the victim since it wasn't common they would deliver enough of a toxin deep enough to get it into the bloodstream and administer a lethal dose.

He heard a commotion outside and went to the window, finding hideous monsters outside, surrounding his brother. Galvanax, Madame Odious and Ripcon were advancing on his younger brother, who looked to be frozen to the spot, paralysed by fear. He grabbed a knife and was about to head out, but he felt a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. He looked up, finding his dad standing over him.

"Dad..."

"I see them son." He told him.

"Brody..."

"Aiden, I need you to listen to me very carefully." Dane told him in a serious tone. He had raised his sons on his stories all their lives. He had trained in the Wind Ninja Academy, trained to defend the world against evil. Although he had opted to leave the Academy after the death of their mother, he still took his responsibility to the Earth seriously, and was raising his sons to be able to take up his mantle should they need to. He grabbed a rusted old coffee can he kept nails in and emptied them out, before sweeping up all the Ninja Steel shards lying on the workbench into it, taking care not to leave a single piece. Aiden had watched his dad forge that steel into weapons ever since the Nexus Prism came to them, and he knew of its great power. Dane thrust the can into his son's hands. "Aiden, I need you to take this and hide."

"But dad..."

"I mean it, take it and go." Dane told his son. "Whatever you do, you can't let anyone get their hands on it. Hide, run and hide, and don't come out until I come back."

"Brody..."

"Don't worry about Brody son." Dane told him, taking his ninjato off the wall, heading for the door. "I'll go and get your brother."

He took a deep breath and went out the door. Aiden clutched the can to his chest, and despite his father's insistence, watched the battle out of the window.

Back in the present, he was nearing the end of his story.

"I couldn't believe it, I watched my father turn into a Power Ranger!" He said with a smile. "I'd only heard about them in my dad's stories, but he became one right in front of my eyes! He fought Galvanax, and it was incredible!"

He suddenly tailed off as his story neared its end.

"I saw Ripcon take my brother, my dad was distracted, and that allowed Galvanax to strike him down." Aiden told them. "He disappeared, it was the last time I ever saw him. They took the Nexus Prism and Brody, but they didn't know I was there. I remembered what my dad had said, so I hid the Ninja Steel in his trophy and sneaked into the school to hide it. Then I got on a train and went as far as I could to hide. I managed to hide for all those years, but then I saw you all on TV, and I saw your Ninja Stars and I knew, I just knew you had to have escaped and come back! I came back as soon as I could!"

"So, are you finished interrogating my brother?" Brody asked. "Or can we finally take him into the Ranger Base instead of talking out here?"

"I...don't think that's a great idea." Mick told him. "I mean, the Nexus Prism, the Ninja Steel, all our tech...really they're only for Rangers."

"MICK!"

"No, its fine...really, it's fine." Aiden answered. "Besides, after all this time, I'd really like to get back to the farm. I'd kind of like to get back to my old room. I've not had a place of my own for ten years."

"Yeah...we can do that." Brody answered, looking at Mick in a way that let him know he wasn't happy. "I have to warn you, time's kind of taken a bit of a dump on the place."

"Then I guess we just need a little of the old Romero elbow grease and work ethic!" Aiden said, offering his brother a high-five as they headed for the truck. Brody high-fived him and got into the truck to go with him. The others looked to Mick.

"Mick, he did sound pretty convincing." Calvin told him.

"I know, it's just...I've known Odious and Cosmo too long." He told them. "I know they love playing games."

"But what he said, he knows..."

"He knows a lot, and a lot of it is convincing, but I'm not convinced all of it isn't stuff he couldn't have figured out elsewhere." Mick told them. "His account of what happened, he could have learned that from anyone that was there, including Galvanax or Odious or Ripcon."

"What about where he hid the Ninja Steel?" Preston asked him.

"You inadvertently broadcast that on a Buzz-cam remember?" Mick reminded him.

"Well, what about where he's been?" Calvin asked.

"Exactly, what HAS he told us about where he's been?" Mick asked him. Calvin suddenly fell quiet as he realised he was right. He really hadn't told them anything of consequence. "Look, maybe I am being paranoid. I'm living proof that unlikely survival stories do happen, and I'll be made up if it turns out I'm wrong and this is real. I just think it might be a good idea to wait a while before we trust him with everything. If he is on the level, then we should have nothing to worry about."

"Hey, you've known those guys a lot longer than we have; I'll take your lead on it." Preston answered. "I just hope that this is real."

"Yeah, I do too." Mick admitted. "I've never wanted to be proven wrong so much in my life."