Evie and Audrey expected another day in their class as they sat around making dress designs for their next project. Evie looked to the brunette princess. "I think we should try shifting colors." She suggested.

"What?" Audrey asked. She had not exactly been paying attention though in truth she's not sure she would have understood anyway.

"You know, like the neon show Mal and I did for Lonnie's hip hop performance or for our…improved attire on the field." Evie explained, referring to their neon armor upgrade.

"Oh." Audrey blinked. "Sure, sounds good."

"Okay, what's on your mind?" Evie asked. She thought it was either her crush on Jay that both parties seemed to be doing their best to deny or her worry about Chad and how much he seemed to strike out at her.

Audrey hesitated. "I…was thinking about Jay." She admitted softly. "Just how well he was received by my parents. I wasn't expecting that, especially from my dad." She leaned forward a bit. "The way he seems to be with me…I never expected that from him when I first met you guys."

"Honestly, I never expected that either." Evie confessed. "I mean he's always been chivalrous, but not always so..." The blue haired girl struggled with a word that wouldn't sound so bad. "Empathetic." She finally decided on.

"Don't forget we've all changed." Audrey replied. "I mean I never thought Mal could ever be so…I don't want to say respectable but I don't really know what other word to use. I never thought I'd end up becoming the kind of girl I have, and I thought for a while you were almost like a less intense version of what I was."

"And the confidence both Carlos and Jane have built." Evie started. They were interrupted as Ally came in late to the classroom and set her books down. Both girls cocked their heads, it looked like as if she had been crying.

"Ally, are you okay?" Audrey asked her with concern. For a moment she wondered if someone might have hit her. She certainly felt like crying sometimes if she let herself think about it enough, and the fact her assailant was supposed to be her friend hadn't helped any.

"Yes, thank you." Ally responded though her voice was still down. "I just thought I'd hear from my mother before class." She sighed a bit. "She was supposed to have come back from Wonderland last night and she promised to call me first thing this morning."

"Did the conversation go okay?" Evie asked her.

Ally looked down. "There was no conversation Evie. When she didn't call I did only to be told she had not made it home." She revealed.

The two girls exchanged looks of concern. The first thought Audrey certainly had was Red Crimson casting the spell that might have killed her parents. She wondered if something like that had just happened to Ally's mother Alice Liddell.

"I don't know what to do." Ally said softly. "Of course, there is nothing that I can do except wait…and worry." With that she opened up her book to read up on sketching methods.

The eight warriors, Doug and Fairy Godmother met at the command center for lunch. They had not invited Jordan only because they wanted her to keep an eye on Ally but the genie girl never the less knew why this lunch meeting was happening.

The two girls had just told the rest of the team about Ally's predicament. They had all ranged anywhere from understandably worried to horrified. "What do we do about?" Mal asked automatically. "How can we help her out?" Ben couldn't help the pride he felt to his girlfriend be the first to volunteer.

"I wish I knew." Fairy Godmother said as she picked up a carrot stick. "Wonderland is…separate but apart from here." She paced a moment. "We hear things from them but not as much as we'd like to sometimes."

"Do you know why Mrs. Liddell would have been called to Wonderland?" Doug asked her.

"I'm afraid not." Fairy Godmother said softly.

"Sounds to me like the next best idea would be to go to Wonderland ourselves." Jay said as he picked up a hamburger he had been working on.

"It's not off limits." Ben supplemented as he picked up his own hamburger. "We could go there easily enough, but we have to decide who goes."

"What do you mean? Why?" Carlos asked him as he picked up a potato chip. Right on the floor below him Dude was eating some dog food and seemed to be listening to every word.

"Because in theory some of us have to stay here so that Auradon isn't left defenseless from Paradias." Jane answered for him as she stirred a carrot stick in her ranch dressing.

Evie had finished a bite of her chicken Caesar salad and then asked, "So who has to stay behind then?" She asked.

"Probably Mal, Jane and I." Ben answered. "You five are the main team, sort to speak."

"Historically accurate." Fairy Godmother started. "But not necessarily practical, especially in our case."

"By that logic it could also be the three of us that go." Jane said. "While you five stay here to defend Auradon."

"That isn't how that works." Fairy Godmother stated simply as she turned to the eight teens. "All eight of you are a team, regardless of when you came in." She looked from the original five to Lonnie who came in very shortly afterwards. "Or if you're not officially classified as a ranger," She looked to Ben, who was the Auradon Knight and hence fell into a unique but small category that was once referred to as ranger like allies, who acted and often morphed as rangers but were not rangers. "Or if you just came into the team." She looked to her daughter Jane.

The eight teens looked at each other and realized that she was right. Lonnie literally had to save Audrey and the isle teens out on their first mission. Mal had gotten her zord late despite being one of the original five and had used that dragon zord to help them after their megazord had been damaged. Ben had also gotten his zord late and had had to help them out too. Finally of course there was Jane becoming a ranger when the team had been tricked into surrendering their powers to try to save their parents and students.

"I feel bad that we can't help Ally then." Audrey said sadly.

"If you all feel that you need to help Ally find her mother than that is what you will do." Fairy Godmother said to them all a bit sternly. "I'll simply alert Alpha that we may require some assistance from one of their ranger teams."

"That seems kind of wrong somehow, to expect them to aid us because of a personal matter." Jay remarked gently.

"It's what we would do for them." Mal said.

"And has happened once before." Fairy Godmother added. "When the Space Rangers came here I was able to get some information for Alpha when I gave him information about us. It turns out that at one point one of their villains Master Vile, who was father to Rita Repulsa, reversed time and then the power coins were destroyed later. Zordon requested the rangers of Aquitar come to Earth to help out, which they did despite their own problems with a villain of their own called Hydro Hog."

"So regardless of what was going on here, they would send someone over to cover for us while we help Ally." Jane said with a small smile.

Mal smiled too. "Amber was right, we are part of a fine legacy." She reflected. "The one thing we have to discuss though." She looked to her team and Fairy Godmother. "Either we go and we swear not to use our powers or we have to make sure Ally knows who we are before we go so we can use our powers."

Each of them exchanged glances as they considered revealing their identities to another civilian. "That presents another thing." Audrey now said. "If all of a sudden Ally is in the loop and covering our secret, that might make Aziz even more suspicious."

"So it might be a two for one deal." Carlos noted.

Again they exchanged looks. Then they started to talk about what to do.

Aziz hugged Ally against him as she told him and Jordan about not being able to contact her mother in Wonderland. Jordan stroked her arm gently and frowned. She too wished she knew what to say but she was afraid that something horrible had indeed happened. Paradias had taught her that very early on that things in life were more dangerous than they first appeared, even she suspected in Wonderland.

"I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't get in contact with my parents." Aziz said to her as he stroked her hair a bit. Then he frowned. "No, I know what I'd do. I'd go to Agrabah, even if I had to do it on my own."

Ally pulled away a bit. "I can't just run off to Wonderland without knowing anything about what's going on. If my mother is hurt or something else had happened I probably wouldn't know how to help her." She replied softly.

"Then I'll go with you." Aziz told her simply.

"You said you talked to Evie and Audrey too." Jordan said. "We could ask them if they're willing to come with us too." She knew Aziz would be a bit suspicious about the sudden invitation but she thought there was a good chance that the eight warriors would want to help their friend anyway.

"I feel kind of bad to put anyone through this." Ally said shyly. "To drag everyone else into what might be my problem, if there is one at all."

"If there is a problem, then working together to overcome it is what friends do." Aziz reminded her.

"He's right." Jordan said simply. "It's a lesson I've had to learn myself recently." A lesson I learned from you two. She added silently. Seeing these two work to help those in need when the school had been in danger after Reviveslime attacked the first time was what made her realize the idea of friendship helping to overcome all the odds.

"I haven't seen them yet." Aziz noted as he looked around. "Where are they anyway?" He already found it weird that Mal and Ben had helped in the library when the soldiers and dark knight had shown up only to be replaced by the purple ranger and the Auradon Knight. He was doing his best to ignore every impulse saying that his two friends were behind the suits.

Jordan was relieved to put that fire out. "They had a meeting with Fairy Godmother over the trip field trip they had to take to the Badlands yesterday, but here they are now." She said and pointed to the eight teens as they came into the room. The genie girl waved them over and they came to the table.

"Feel any better?" Evie asked Ally.

Ally shrugged. "Perhaps a little." She replied as she looked at them all. "Aziz and I are going to go to Wonderland and find out what is going on, particularly with my mother." She took a deep breath. "I would like if you all wanted to go with me, but I obviously can't make you go."

Each of the teens automatically agreed to go with Ally which did indeed seem to make her happy. There was no discussion about their secret identities, making Jordan think they were going to try to do this without their powers. It was an admirable idea but depending on what was going on they might not have the luxury of keeping that secret from Ally and Aziz.

"Do we need to do anything special?" Audrey asked Ally.

"No." Ally replied simply. "But we won't be able to go until tomorrow morning. The door won't open until then."

"Where is the door anyway?" Mal asked. "I've heard of Wonderland of course, especially once we came here, but I don't know much about it. There's no one residing on the Isle of the Lost that used to live in Wonderland, at least so far as I know."

Evie and the two boys also confirmed the same thing, no one they knew living on the Isle of the Lost had once resided in Wonderland.

"I asked my mother about that once." Ally replied. "She told me that even though Wonderland is indeed connected to Auradon, the place plays by its own rules. Despite my mother having spent time there Wonderland is not under the standard rules of Auradon."

"I'm surprised that more villains didn't flee to Wonderland." Lonnie said.

"Some tried." Evie volunteered. "My mom was one of them. She said that Wonderland wouldn't let in. They wanted to basically remain neutral in anything between the two sides in Auradon."

"She's right." Ally seconded. "It wasn't until it was clear that Auradon had established the Isle of the Lost fully that Wonderland became so open with its borders again."

"Hey, are you sure we're even going to be welcome in Wonderland then?" Carlos asked dubiously.

"I doubt they'll even know who you are." Ally assured them. "Rather that's a good thing or not I suppose could be debated."

"Where's the entrance to Wonderland?" Ben asked her. He wasn't even fully aware of that, he assumed that was because of its relative neutrality to the rest of Auradon.

"In the forest, toward the mountains." Ally answered. "The best way to be ready for our window would be to camp out for the night."

"Camp?" Audrey asked. She'd never heard of it and despite all the progress they had made since becoming power rangers the isle kids couldn't help but exchange small smirks of amusement at her obliviousness.

"I've heard about but never done it." Ben said. "Sleeping out in the wilderness, making food by firelight."

"That doesn't sound too fun." Audrey noted.

Jordan waved it off. "There are some advantages to me being along. Can't do much about the sleeping in the wilderness but we can get whatever kind of food we want." She said.

"We camped a lot on the Isle of the Lost." Evie said. "It was a good way sometimes to get away from our parents and all of the other things that could go on. It's not that bad."

"And with a genie and more friends around it should be even better." Carlos added.

Audrey gave off a sigh but then shrugged. "Well if that's our best bet for getting into Wonderland then that's what we have to do." She replied simply. "And I'm guessing Wonderland isn't exactly crawling with first class inns."

"Certainly nothing that you would find here in Auradon." Ally replied.

"Okay," Ben said. He looked to Aziz Jay and Lonnie. "Let's get the gear we need in order to go camping for at least…tonight. We'll worry about Wonderland stuff when we get there. We already know it's not a desolate place after all."

The four of them got up to take care of it.

"I want to try again to contact my mother before we leave." Ally said, though her tone indicated she had an idea of what would happen. "Maybe we won't have to make the trip." She got up and left as well.

Jordan looked to the remaining rangers. "So is Doug coming with us? Are we telling them about you being power rangers?" She asked. She wanted to know what should be said or what couldn't be said.

"Doug is going to stay behind with my mother." Jane answered. "Just in case we either end up needing help in Wonderland or if something where to happen here."

"How does that work?" Jordan asked.

"Fairy Godmother says Alpha will send one of the ranger teams if they need help here." Mal replied. "We might have to repay the favor later on of course, but that's part of the legacy." She smiled. "How weird to say that, but kind of cool too."

"And the identity issue?" Jordan asked. If they were lucky it wouldn't be so difficult and they would be back without a problem. But if her worry was any indication, they might need their ranger powers before this was done. "Do we tell Ally and Aziz about that?"

That seemed to draw a bit more hesitation from the rangers before Audrey answered, "No, not unless we have too. We still have to worry about putting them in danger or trusting the wrong people."

"I trust them." Jordan insisted.

"We all do." Mal promised her. "But any danger we face will come from Paradias, or my mother, or Sermaya, or who knows what else. We can't control that but we can try to minimize it. Likewise they may not intentionally reveal our identities but that doesn't mean accidents can't happen."

"Don't forget that a lot of the reason Chad got into the position he is in now is because I all but spilled out our identities to him when I asked him to help us bring Ben back to us." Audrey said, feeling embarrassed about it.

"What if you guys have to morph?" Jordan asked. "Do you not do it to protect your identities or do you take the risk of revealing it?"

"We reveal it." Evie answered simply. "Keeping our secrets isn't worth losing any of us on this expedition, no matter how harmless we're hoping it'll be."

"And let's hope it is." Jordan said. "But if Ally hasn't heard from her mother by now I have a horrid feeling that it might not be so easy."

The group met again several hours later with the appropriate supplies. They had a few tents, sleeping bags for all of them, water bottles for all of them. Jordan promised she would make sure they had enough food. They then began their journey into the woods.

"You've never camped out before, huh?" Jay asked Audrey as they walked beside each other.

"Never." Audrey replied. "It's never appealed to me, I'm sure this information doesn't surprise you."

"No offense, but not really." Jay admitted. "You never struck me as the outdoor type."

From just ahead of them Mal laughed. "You can learn if you wanted to Audrey." She said. "Just like everything else. Truth be told I didn't think you would be into the kind of thing we're doing even if we gave you the chance right off. Too much work and too dangerous after all." That was her subtle way of inferring being a power ranger. That did get Ally and Aziz's attention a little though.

"You certainly would have been right in what seems like another life time ago." Audrey agreed with a small chuckle. "So many things have changed since you guys showed up to Auradon."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Carlos asked from behind him where he walked with Jane.

Audrey bit her lip a bit. "Sometimes I don't know." She admitted. "But most days I'd like to say that's a good thing."

"For what it's worth I think Paradias would have shown up regardless." Ben said as he held Mal's hand. "Which means the power rangers would have still been needed, but things might be different any other way."

"You guys seem to know a lot about the power rangers." Aziz noted with some suspicion and some amusement.

"We like the danger." Evie tried to tease with a fake sinister laugh. "We're still descended from evil after all."

Ally laughed a bit. "Oh, please." She replied. "Liking danger is far from being evil." She looked to Lonnie. "Otherwise you wouldn't have Auradon kids in this little danger club of yours too, including our fair king."

They continued along in comfortable silence. This was something that still amazed Audrey at times, that she could be so comfortable with everyone. She couldn't agree at all with Chad's actions but she had at one time understood the spirit of his protest. She already knew that if and when Ben brought over another set of island kids, she'd still feel a bit apprehensive. It was of course something that had been discussed before, and even her island friends had agreed the next time might not turn out so well.

As they got closer to the area that Ally indicated would be the best place to camp they were stopped as they realized that some of Paradias's soldiers were patrolling the area.

"What are they doing out here?" Jay asked.

"Trying to get into Wonderland maybe." Aziz suggested.

"Why would they want to do that?" Ally wondered. "In fact, would this Paradias even know about Wonderland?"

"If he didn't know when he showed up, he would after Chad joined him." Mal pointed out. "Not to mention my mother."

"We either can't camp out here or we're going to have to clear this area of these things." Jay said as he narrowed his eyes at a soldier. "I'm okay with the latter." He was sure at this point they could take out the soldiers even without moving.

"Is there any other place we can camp?" Ben asked as he tried to assess how many of them there were around.

"Nothing as close." Ally said and then retorted, "Besides what happens if they decide to expand their path?"

"Then we have no choice but to chase them away." Aziz declared, sounding determined.

"We don't even know how many there are here." Evie reminded. "Even with eleven of us they could overwhelm us." Especially if we don't morph. She thought.

"I might be able to magic them away." Jordan said with a pointed look at Mal. "But it's going to have to be a pretty powerful burst to do so, we're talking dragonic…I mean gigantic."

The purple haired girl resisted the urge to roll her eyes at what she saw as the lack of subtlety, but she got what the genie girl was saying. She would create a pyrotechnically impressive display for distraction while Mal could summon her dragon zord and take out the soldiers that way. "Alright then let's give it a shot." She decided.

"Keep an eye on them, let's make sure we're driving them all away." Audrey said to the group at large, her way of trying to keep Ally and Aziz from seeing Mal summoning her zord.

Everyone except Mal watched as Jordan weaved a spell that would do what she wanted as Mal brought out her dragon zord and whispered, "Soldiers in the woods, make them go away." The dragon zord flew out of the trees and into the sky.

Evie had kind of glanced that and said, "I think it's time for that spell Jordan."

Jordan nodded, waiting just a moment as she was sure she saw the flight pattern of the dragon zord as it zoomed around and unleashed it's stream of dragon fire. Jordan released her pyrotechnically impressive spell at the same time.

Almost at once the soldiers seemed to poof out of existence. "Check the surrounding areas." Audrey said to the group with a look at Mal. It was really a way for her to retrieve her dragon zord. "Make sure we have no stragglers."

"I'll go with you M." Evie volunteered quickly and started toward the right where the dragon zord would be waiting for Mal.

"Come on." Aziz said to Ben and they went to the left.

"Let's make sure somehow nothing slipped through the spell." Lonnie said to Jay, getting into the covering their backs act. The two of them moved ahead and as they expected found nothing. Aziz and Ben came back moments later saying they were covered.

Another minute later Mal and Evie came back with the lie that they thought one had survived and they had gone after it only to find out it was a deer running from the noise. It was really the cover for Mal to have recovered her dragon.

Ben, Jay and Aziz set up the tents while Mal, Lonnie and Ally got a fire going. Jordan set up a little mini bar that was pretty impressive looking but in reality the genie girl assured could give them whatever food they wanted for the night.

As they ate Aziz suggested, "I think we should play it safe and take guard shifts."

"It'll be better if we do it in pairs." Lonnie added as she picked up a chicken leg, courtesy of Jordan's min bar system. "Probably three shifts."

"Some of us won't have to take any shifts then." Carlos noted. "Who gets lucky?"

"Volunteers are the best idea." Mal said.

"We should probably avoid certain pairs taking guard duty at the same time." Jordan said pointedly. She didn't entirely trust that some of them would stay focused when it was really needed. This was primarily Mal and Ben as well as Audrey and Jay though she had some concerns about Carlos and Jane too.

"I'll take the first watch, I'm used to later nights." Mal said.

"I'll take watch with Mal too." Audrey said. Truthfully everyone was a bit surprised that the brunette princess would take a shift when she didn't have to, but as it had been pointed out she had changed along with anyone else.

"I'll take the second shift." Jay said.

"I will too." Ben agreed.

"I'll take the last shift." Ally said. "I'm not much of a fighter but that last shift would also be when we'd have to worry about any anomalies with getting to Wonderland and I'll be the one who will notice them."

"Good thinking Ally." Ben said with a small smile.

"I'll take the shift with her." Lonnie said. "It's a bit early than normal get but I'm an early riser naturally."

"It's settled then." Ben stated. "If anyone really wants to volunteer to help they can. Otherwise we leave for Wonderland at first light."