Luke's eyes burst open, finding himself surrounded by mist, with what looked to be a mausoleum stood in front of him. "Hello?", he called out as he stepped forward, entering the building. "Is anyone here?"

Suddenly, from within one of the coffins, a humanoid alligator wearing a turban and robes burst out of one of the coffins. "You killed me!", he growled.

From another coffin, a werewolf in arctic gear emerged from another coffin. "You killed me!", he snarled.

Finally, a rhino man with a tartan scarf burst out of a third coffin. "You killed me!", he snorted.

The three then approached a now-terrified Luke, as the figure of the evil Chimera Ranger appeared. "You can't hide from the darkness.", he cackled.

And in the real world, Luke was shaken awake by the nightmare. With the lack of any extra rooms at the moment, he was sleeping on one of the couches, while Sir Caesar and Jeremy slept on the floor in sleeping bags. And the former of the two was snoring pretty heavily. "It was just a dream. I know that.", Luke assured himself. "But why did those zombies feel so vivid?"

The next day, after everyone had finished up with breakfast and headed out to their jobs, Luke chose to sit down with Jeremy to discuss his dream. "Hmm, interesting.", Jeremy surmised. "The figures you saw in your dream are fairly good descriptions of the three I came here with, and got merged into your body all those years ago."

"I knew it.", Luke commented. "But why am I dreaming of them haunting me?"

"Well one theory comes to mind.", Sir Caesar commented as he came over. "Part of them still exists within your mind, presumably as a result of you sharing a head space for 10 years. And they were made manifest by your guilt over being partially the catalyst for their death."

"That's… pretty morbid.", Luke could only comment. "How do you suppose I fix that issue?"

"That, I can't say anything beyond, 'look inside yourself'.", Sir Caesar answered. "Now if you'll excuse me, Jeremy and I have jobs to do around the zoo area." He turned and walked off.

"Our Animan forms make for remarkably cheap zoo mascots.", Jeremy explained, as he removed his DNA cloak, and moved to join his former mentor.

Up in space, aboard the Arrowhead, Archris watched as his generals fumed over their latest defeat. "We had our own powerful Ranger who could send the Power Rangers running.", Keldor growled. "And in the end, the Rangers end up snatching him to their side."

"And worse, he was the brother of the Red Ranger.", Cuborg added. "That certainly helped their drive to save him."

"And all we have to show for his presence is a piece of knowledge that doesn't help us." Ignoblia brought up a visual of Knockout, crouched in the hangar of the ship. "The growth coins don't wear off. The Rangers have been doing us a favour with the grown monsters all this time."

"All of you, calm yourselves!", Archris yelled, as all of them stopped and stood at attention. "Now then, I have a plan to recover the Chimera Ranger, and make sure he won't slip out of our grasp again. But since Knockout is currently ill-suited to the task, I shall make Keldor carry it out."

Keldor was shocked by this, but quickly composed himself. "Of course, Master. But in order to achieve the task faster, I shall request the aid of Cuborg."

"Why not.", Archris decided. "With two of you lamebrains working together, this plan might actually work."

"Forgive me for asking.", Cuborg spoke up. "While I am willing to aid Keldor in the task you assigned him, I must know what said task actually entails."

"In order to capture one Ranger," Archris explained, "we must capture all the Rangers."

Down on Earth, Tora was once more working hard at the counter of the thrift shop. "Adrien's out again?", Trunks sighed. "How does he still work here?"

"Apparently, he was able to negotiate getting three days a week off.", Tora answered him. "I probably should've seen if I could get time off as well when I first signed up here. Instead, I'm full time."

"Don't like your job, huh?" Keldor then teleported into the room. "Don't worry, I can ensure your termination."

"Like hell you will!", Trunks announced as he and Tora took out their Morphers.

But before they could use it, a pair of Bacteri appeared and grabbed onto the pair. Keldor then took out a pair of red disc devices, which he attached to the two Animen, teleporting them away. "Two down.", Keldor noted as he went and changed the sign at the front door from "open" to "closed".

Just down the street at the daycare, Marina watched as one of the kids fell and scraped his knee, before going over to help him up, applying a band-aid to his injury. "There. I wouldn't take this off for the rest of the day though." But the kid continued to cry. "Hey, it wasn't that bad an injury."

"You're right." Marina looked up to see Cuborg standing above her, with a group of Bacteri accompanying him. "Perhaps we can make it worse."

Marina instantly stood up and called out. "Alright kids. Recess is over early. Get back inside." She then ushered all the children into the building, before confronting Cuborg. "Alright, what's the big deal? Why'd you attack me when I'm on the clock?"

"Keldor told me I'd find you here.", was the answer she received from Cuborg. "And we've been tasked with gathering all of you Rangers."

"Well I'm going to have to leave your collection one short.", Marina said as she morphed. "Primal Spirits, Awaken!" She then pulled out her Primal Saber and used it to slash through the group of Bacteri.

But as she charged towards Cuborg, he merely threw the same disc that Keldor had used on her comrades towards her. "As much as I'd love to beat you up, I still have a mission." And as Marina reacted to what was happening to her, she was teleported away. "We"re one step closer to recovering the asset."

Back at the zoo, Luke had gone to both Johnny and Lenny, who were in the process of cleaning out the panther cage. "So you've been advised to essentially go on a spiritual quest.", Johnny surmised. "Well Bro, I'm not quite sure I have much experience with that sort of thing, beyond that one time."

"And that was me going on it.", Lenny added. "All I can offer from that experiences is that you need to focus on where you want to go inside your mind."

"I'll bear that in mind.", Luke nodded. "Sorry if I disturbed you."

"Believe me, you simply distracted them." All three then looked up to see Keldor and Cuborg standing above them. "We're going to be providing the disturbance."

"Keldor and Cuborg both attacking us?", Lenny questioned.

"Whatever the reason, we're taking both of them down here.", Johnny added, as the two leapt up and morphed.

But before they could launch their attacks, Keldor fired a shot from his blaster, while Cuborg unleashed a slash with his sword. As Johnny and Lenny were knocked back, Keldor then threw two discs at the two Rangers, teleporting them away. "No!", Luke cried out. "What did you do to them?"

"Relax, they'll be fine.", Cuborg assured him. "We've merely placed them under our captive eye."

"Though how long they remain there depends on you.", Keldor stated. "If you turn yourself in to be returned to our service, then we'll let them go free. But if you try to resist, or do anything foolish, then they'll be keeping you company when we conquer Earth and dump you all on a desert island. You have two hours to make your decision, and come to this address." He threw a card with an address written on it at Luke, before he and Cuborg teleported out.

"So now I've got two things to do. Make peace with myself and figure out how I'm gonna save everyone from captivity.", Luek thought. "No pressure then, but I should get some help." He turned and ran off.

Elsewhere, Johnny woke up to find himself in a cage. His first instinct was to assume he had simply fallen asleep in an enclosure, until he saw that not only were Lenny, Tora and Trunks in the next few cages, but Marina was in what appeared to be a fish tank. All of their DNA cloaks had either been removed or deactivated. "Nice to see you're awake." Johnny turned around to see Keldor approaching. "Now I can talk to you."

"Like we have anything to say to you.", Trunks commented.

"Yeah, I'm not particularly fond of your sense of humour.", Marina was next to speak, her voice gargled by the water. "But then again, you are a minion of Archris, so I shouldn't expect less."

"Archris doesn't control me like his lapdogs.", Keldor insisted. "If it weren't for me, you'd have been defeated long ago. I only told Cuborg that you were currently at the zoo, Johnny and Lenny, but not that you are based there. I also made sure that you weren't checked for Cubezords when we brought you here."

The Rangers were confused by this. "You mean, you're keeping us from being crushed by Archris in one fell swoop?", Tora questioned.

"Why?", Lenny added.

"Because you could stand a chance of defeating Archris.", Keldor answered. "But not yet. I'm planning to try and keep this conflict prolonged until I decide the time is right. And then, I will enlist your help in taking down Archris once and for all. Believe me, you will want to take this offer."

"Really?", Johnny asked. "You aren't really doing a good job of pitching a team-up to help you overthrow your boss right now. Especially with the argument that we should keep this battle going."

"I admit, it was a long shot getting you aboard.", Keldor shrugged. "But it was a good way to pass the time. Cuborg and I are about to switch guard duty." Cuborg then entered, carrying a bandolier that had the 5 Primal Morphers and 4 DNA Cloaks hanging from it. He handed it off to Keldor, who responded by patting him on the back. "I don't expect you to consider my offer. But you can at least remember it." With that said, he fully left the room.

"This is bad.", Marina stated. "How can we get out of this one?"

"Right now, we can't risk physically breaking the cages.", Johnny informed her, as he put his hand on his ear. "Right now, we can only hope that Luke saves us."

Back at the Zoo, Luke had explained his situation to Jeremy while the latter was on break. "I see. Well you're at quite the impasse. You can either give yourself up, and go back to serving Archris for the rest of your natural life, or refuse and condemn your brother and his friends to their demise, which is as good as serving Archris. Or at least, that's what you've been offered."

"I know.", Luke nodded. "I know I have the third option of saving them. But who knows if I'll be able to do that before it's too late? We don't know what Keldor and Cuborg will be doing to them."

"Well whatever it is, they won't find what they're looking for.", Jeremy informed him, as he demonstrated the 12 Cubezords playing in a small fish-tank like box, with even the Rhino Zord joining in. "I borrowed the Zords to perform a social experiment as to whether my reprogramming of the Rhino Zord had taken. So far, it seems to be getting on really well with the rest."

"That's nice to know.", Luke nodded. "But for now, I am going to have to resolve the whole inner peace thing in a couple of hours if I'm going to save the others."

Jeremy smiled at this. "I think I know someone."

Some time later, the two had travelled to Stevie's house, and she had sat the pair down as she prepared a bubbling brew. "I got this recipe from a healer near Nepal.", she explained. "He told me that it would let me interpret my own dreams."

"Wow.", was all Luke could say. "Nepal, huh? You've certainly been around."

"Well, what else was I supposed to do?", Stevie asked, as she presented him with a cup of brew. "The man I was supposed to marry disappeared, presumed dead. I needed to find a new way to spend my life. I mean, you're back now, but you don't seem to know what you want to do. That's why you came here."

"Alright. I suppose you're right.", Luke said as he drunk the contents of the cup. "Hey, what exactly is this supposed to-?" He the collapsed into unconsciousness at that moment.

Luke once more awoke within his subconscious. Only this time, the colours were much brighter. And the alligator man burst forth once more, only this time, he was a lot friendlier. "Eh, Lukey-boy. My man. How you been doing?"

"Do I… know you?", Luke asked.

"No, we have not, how you say, really talked.", the Alligator answered. "I have been in your head for a decade, but you wouldn't talk to either me or the other guys."

"Wait, 'other guys'?", Luke questioned. "Your two friends are here?"

"Well aren't you perceptive." Luke turned around to see the wolf man. "We do have names, you know. I'm Were and the guy you were talking to is Al. The rhino among us is Rhine, but he's taking his time to show up here."

"Well excuse me, for trying to skip the personal deats and get in some small talk.", Al growled at his friend. "Sorry about this Luke. It gets kind of irritating when you only have two people to talk to for a decade."

"I'm sorry about that.", Luke blurted out, bowing. "I mean, it has been my body you were trapped in, and I deliberately tried to block you out so I could think. It's all my fault."

"In what way?" Luke then turned around to see the Rhino man - Rhine - walk up. "We didn't ask to be mixed together during a teleported malfunction. And we couldn't have factored in you standing right there. Heck, for all we know, there was a chance your brother could've become the beast."

Luke was shocked to hear this. "You're right.", he realised. Just before your light hit us, I was tempted to move in to try and shield Johnny from it, and because I didn't, I ended up with you inside me. And now my brother is in danger once more, and it's up to me - to us - to save them."

"That's the spirit.", Rhine assured him. "You need to accept our help to save your brother's team of Rangers. Show that you can be as good an ally as you were an enemy."

"Which we know for a fact that you can do.", Al added. "After all, there are 4 of us in one body, and thus 4 different fighting styles to switch between."

"Yeah, we're a lot better than a regular team of Power Rangers.", Were exclaimed. "Our whole team is one guy, which means he can more easily combo our moves to do battle with that Archris guy and his cronies."

"You guys…", Luke said, not sure how to take their easy acceptance of their situation, before deciding to accept it. " , let's go and save our friends."

"Right.", the three Animen said as Luke regained consciousness.

Back in the real world, Jeremy and Stevie went to tend to Luke. "Well, how did it go?", Jeremy asked. "Did you find inner peace?"

"Oh I definitely found inner peace." Luke smiled. "And made some new friends."

Some time later, Luke found his way to the warehouse where Keldor and Cuborg were based. "Well, look who dragged himself in.", Cuborg commented. "What's your answer?"

"Indeed.", Keldor added. "Are you in, or are you out?"

"Oh I'm definitely out.", Luek insisted. "And if you want to execute my friends, then you'll have to go through me to do it. It's Morphin' Time!" He took out the Hunter Morpher, pressing down on the button and setting the cube to the rhino face, as the image of Rhine appeared behind him, mimicking his movements. "Predator Spirits Awaken!" He then pressed the button again, causing the spectre of Rhine to merge into him as he turned into his Ranger form. "The Bestial Triumvirate, Wild Fury Chimera Ranger!"

"You have chosen… poorly.", Cuborg stated,

"But we're not going to overpower you.", Keldor assured him, as he pressed a button, causing the cage holding Johnny to open. "Pick up your Morpher, Johnny. And then we can make this a fair fight."

"If you insist.", Johnny nodded as he ran and picked up his Primal Morpher - the only one without a DNA cloak hanging from the same ring - and initiated his own Morph. "Primal Spirits, Awaken!" He transformed into the Eagle Ranger, before undergoing another Morph. "Primal Change: Gorilla!"

"Johnny, you focus on freeing the others.", Luke urged. "I'll handle these two."

"Got it.", Johnny nodded, as he moved towards the machinery, trying to figure it out.

"You think you alone can face us?", Cuborg asked. "It's your funeral."

And thus, a fight broke out between Luke and his two opponents, whose attacks he was able to swiftly avoid. Johnny quickly joined in, having reverted back to Eagle. "Turns out the turn-off sequence takes 5 minutes to conclude.", Johnny explained. "So I'll be helping you." He said this as he had pushed Keldor back, before engaging him in a sword fight.

"Alright.", Luke nodded, as he continued fighting Cuborg. "I'll take big and ugly, while you deal with his friend."

"Who are you calling ugly?" Cuborg grabbed onto Luke and threw him forwards. He then tried to slam his fists into his foe's chest, but Luke kicked the attack back, before rolling aside.

"Quickly, Lukey-boy.", Were's voice urged. "Give my powers a shot."

"Right.", Luke said as he reset his Morpher with the wolf face. "Primal Change: Wolf!" In his new form, he used the Reel Blaster to shield against Cuborg's punches, while he got some kicks in. He then moved backwards and fired. "Bait Blast!"

"Let's see how you like this!", Cuborg growled as he smashed one of the concrete tubes nearby. But Luke was able to move out of the way using super speed, before moving forward to fire directly at his foe's chest.

Meanwhile, Johnny was fighting Keldor using his agility and swordsmanship. "You mess with my friends, and you mess with me.", Johnny stated. He then delivered several slashes to Keldor, before kicking him back.

Keldor rolled all the way back to where Cuborg was now standing, with Luke briefly getting a hit in on him. "Only you could fail to terminate a human.", Cuborg stated, as he stepped forward. "I shall dispose of two humans with one pair of hands."

"I'd like to see you try.", Luke retorted as he reset his Morpher with the alligator head. "Primal Change: Alligator!"

"Yes, it is my turn now.", Al celebrated inside Luke's head.

"Primal Change: Gorilla!", Johnny called out as he transformed once more into the Gorilla Ranger. Cuborg then ran forward, beginning another match. "Now you're facing two brothers at once."

"And blood is always thicker than armour.", Luke added as he swung his Reel Spear at Cuborg, hitting him with it, before the latter caught it. Johnny then kicked Cuborg hard enough to make him lose his grip. When Luke swung the Spear into Cuborg's arms, the two Rangers worked together to push Cuborg into the wall using the Spear. "Now let's do a double punch." The two brothers then removed the Reel Spear as they punched Cuborg square in the chest. And then again in the shoulders.

"This is my chance.", Keldor decided as he moved in to attack amidst all the chaos.

"Oh no you don't.", Johnny called out as he leapt to the side to grapple with Keldor, while Luke continued to fight Cuborg. The two then used their strength to throw the two villains to the other side of the yard. "Alright, now let's end this."

"Alright.", Luke said in response as he reset his Morpher to the all three faces mode. "Super Primal Mode, Unleash!"

The two villains subsequently got up. "This isn't good.", Cuborg noted.

"You got that right.", Luke nodded, as he unleashed his attack on the two. "Final Hunt!" The force of this attacked sent both villains reeling. "Super Primal Charge!" He then set off running towards the pair.

"You're indestructible.", Cuborg was told as Keldor pushed him in front of the attack. "So you can protect me." Sure enough, Cuborg took the full brunt of the attack, sending Keldor backwards, with most of the damage having been deflected by his ally's remains.

Keldor then stood silent as Cuborg reassembled himself from his remains. "I could swear I got that guy.", Luke complained.

"Yeah, he does that apparently.", Johnny informed him.

"Why you!", Cuborg growled with anger at Keldor. "Why did you kill me?"

"I k-knew that you would return.", Keldor uncertainly assured his ally, as he once more patted him on the back. "Now then, let's retreat." He then teleported away, before Cuborg could do more than threaten him.

"Is it me, or does he seem angrier than before?", Luke asked.

"He also seems to do that.", Johnny explained. "Before I blew him up the last time, he spoke like some kind of Omega Supreme knockoff."

It was then that the other Rangers appeared, having finally been freed from their prisons and recovered their Morphers and DNA Cloaks. "I see we still have Cuborg to deal with.", Lenny stated.

"No, I think I'm done for today.", Cuborg answered him. "And you can keep your Chimera Ranger. I've got a little surprise still in store for you." He then laughed, before teleporting out.

"I think he was more personable without emotions.", Tora decided, her voice filled with dread.

Back on the Arrowhead, Cuborg teleported up aboard from Earth. "Boy, those Rangers are really starting to irritate me!", he growled.

"Calm yourself.", Archris insisted. "Go and perform some diagnostics."

"Yes, master.", came the reply from Cuborg, who calmed down and left.

"Now then, Ignoblia. It seems that the snake we sent into the grass to deal with our spiders has turned on us.", Archris continued, as if Cuborg hadn't just burst in. "Send down Knockout to make an example of him."

"Gladly.", Ignoblia nodded. Frankly, she was tired of Knockout taking up space on the ship.

Soon enough, Knockout came flying down, riding on a pair of Archris's battleships, the Pyra-Fighters. More Pyra-Fighters were flying shortly behind him. "It is time for a rematch.", he shouted. He leapt off the Pyra-Fighters and landed on the ground.

The Pyra-Fighters then fired on the Rangers, scattering them. "Well, this guy is my problem.", Luke realised. "So that means I need to be the one to solve it." He took out his Hunter Morpher, pressing it twice and spinning around to the rhino face. "Cyber Cubezords, rollout!" The Rhino Zord quickly arrived, with Luke taking his seat within it, as he rode towards the Pyra-Fighters. "Time to take a bite out of the action." He transformed into his Alligator form and landed in the Alligator Zord as it was jettisoned. "You're not so tough." He leapt up and had the Alligator Zord devour several Pyra-Fighters, who exploded within its belly. "And again." Luek then switched to Wolf form to pilot the Wolf Zord. When three Pyra-Fighters flew towards it, the Wolf Zord transformed into its cube form to unleash a sonic wave that destroyed two and sent the next two crashing to Earth.

"Hey man, I thought we were on the same side.", Knockout cried out.

"Not any more.", Luek informed him as he returned to the Rhino Zord and form. "Cyber Cubezords, combine!" He pressed on his Morpher 3 times, before spinning around to the three animal face. The Zords once more came together, this time on the side of good. "Hunter Megazord, ready!"

"Bowling Attack!" Knockout transformed into a ball and went rolling towards the Hunter, who merely stopped him mid-roll.

"Time for you to be sent down the gutter.", Luke stated as he kicked Knockout back, before launching smaller cubes from his shoulders, that assembled into a set of pins.

"Sweet, more targets for me.", Knockout squeed as he turned into a ball and bowled them all over. "Strike!"

But when the smoke had cleared, Luke had separated his Zords for the purpose of forming another pin with them. "I'm sorry, the most you got was a spare."

Knockout was so shocked he dropped his maracas. "Come on!"

The three Zords quickly combined again and launched a flurry of punches that sent Knockout backwards. "Let's end this." Luek rotated the cube section 360 degrees to trigger his Megazord's final attack. "Apex Annihilation!"

Knockout took the attack and fell down, exploding. "Looks like you got a 300 game."

"I guess I'm top of the food chain now.", Luke commented as he placed his arms over his steering wheel, the current fight at an end.

Back aboard the Arrowhead, Ignoblia was minding her own business, when she was accosted by Keldor. "What is Keldor, really?"l he asked, his voice filled with anger.

"I-I'm not sure I understand." Ignoblia pleaded.

"Don't play the innocent.", Keldor snapped. "During the last battle, I planted a device on Cuborg to analyse the circuit that regulates his resurrection by sacrificing him to test it. The results found something shocking. Theirs is no circuitry of any kind within Cuborg's body."

Ignoblia seemed confused. "What are you saying? That Cuborg isn't a robot?"

"Exactly.", Keldor informed her. "If anything, I found traces of organic matter within his chassis. Organic matter that had grown after his resurrection. And both before and after, his central cube seemed to contain an unusual artefact, giving off radiation that allowed his body to reassemble. That seems to be the source of his resurrection and his increase in biomass."

Ignoblia now seemed concerned. "And what are you going to do with this information?"

"For now, nothing.", Keldor answered her. "But I can make use of this radiation for a new purpose. With a little help from an old friend." With that said, he turned and walked off. Once he was gone, Ignoblia breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that she had stirred him away from seeking answer to trying to exploit his findings successfully. She and Archris couldn't afford to lose control of Cuborg before the time was right.

Back at the Savannah zoo-house, the Rangers were once more celebrating, this time it was the fact Luke had fully joined the team. "How did you set up for this so quickly?", he asked.

"Oh,w e jsut reused the decorations from last night's party.", Marina admitted. "We just took the banner down."

"But, that doesn't make things any less worth celebrating.", Trunsk pointed out. "After all, Archris mows not to mess with you in particular now. If he tries, then we're going to be there to help you. Just like you were there for us today."

"And it seems your Zords share similar feelings.", Jeremy informed them, before showing the 9 Zords playing together again. "They say that the Rhino is a pretty cool guy, for someone who was built by Archris."

Lenny was confused. "Wait, you can understand them?", he asked.

"Yeah, it's possible to learn what the Cubezords are really saying.", Tora informed him. "I actually took that elective for a few weeks, but didn't pass it. So I'm pretty rusty."

"Let's hope you're not rusty at dancing.", Johnny said. "Because it's time to party!"

And so, taking the hint, the Rangers decided to leave the technical talk for another day, and focus on savouring their current success.