"Nathan, be careful up there," came a boy's voice as an eight-year-old Nathan was climbing up a tree, soon looking down to see an older boy looking up at him. His green eyes shined with worry despite the disheveled auburn hair on his head, looking more of a fiery red in the setting sunlight. "You're grabbing too many small branches while you're pulling yourself up! One of those could break."

"I'm not as heavy as you are Eric," Nathan replied in a laugh as he kept climbing, looking back up to the tree above with a grin. This was one of their favorite past times when they were away from their parents, climbing up the trees to try and catch a good look at the mountains near their hometown. Nathan couldn't climb the trees as well as Eric, but he could still get away with some things thanks to his smaller size. "I can almost see the top anyway. If you don't hurry, I might beat you up there."

"I'm serious, you're going to get hurt if you move too fast," Eric shouted back as he kept his gaze up at Nathan worried. Then, as if on command one of the branches Nathan was holding onto snapped, scratching his hand and making him start to fall as Eric immediately ran under him. "Nathan!"

"I'm alright," Nathan responded, albeit halfheartedly as he was trying to keep himself from losing his grip on the other branch he was still holding. As he was trying to reach for another branch, he soon heard the sound of grunting under him before Eric was beside him in a rush, grabbing Nathans free hand and placing it on a narrow crevice in the tree.

"Didn't I tell you to not try to grab everything that sticks out when climbing this," Eric sighed as Nathan looked at the boy, noting how he was currently holding himself with only one branch and a few crevices while holding his own hand. "Seriously, I don't want to end up an only child because you weren't careful."

"I had it," Nathan pouted in response, only getting a smirk from Eric before the two started climbing the tree together. After a bit, however, they ended up on separate large branches each at the top, both looking over their fence and into the valley near the city, where the sun was now sitting perfectly over. "How did you manage to climb up so fast, though?"

"Simple, my little brother was in trouble," Eric responded with a smile, leaning forward on his branch to look at Nathan. "If I couldn't help you there, then what kind of big brother would I be if I just went and let you fall?"

Nathan couldn't think of anything as a response, simply looking back at the valley as Eric giggled. There was only two years in between the two for their age, but Eric had always acted in helping Nathan. Even during the first day of school when Nathan was getting bullied at lunch, Eric had stepped in with his usual smile and seemed to dissipate the situation instantly without any fight. "…thank you," Nathan simply spoke, making Eric smile over at him. Frustrated, Nathan changed the subject. "School was tough today; they gave us Math and English homework for tomorrow..."

"Sounds like fun," Eric responded, getting a glare from Nathan as he just looked ahead with a smile. "I'm having to set up a history project that's due on Friday, it's supposed to be something based on our family history. I was hoping on grabbing something from our family from Zandar, preferably during the same period as when the Stone of Zandar was found."

"That stone from that story about the knight who disappeared," Nathan asked, looking at Eric as the boy looked back over. "You really like reading over that story, but I don't think you'll find anything for our family with it."

"That's because you don't take to studying as well as me," Eric laughed it off, soon looking back over to the valley. "I was looking over our family crest with dad to see if we could find something, and we found that it actually traces back to a few years after the stone was found. Who knows, I might find something out about our ancestors from that time too."

"Probably just another thing of boring words on it," Nathan sighed, making it Eric's turn to glare over at him. "Why are you so interested in those knights anyway? It's not like you can see or be them now."

"Maybe, but I think they have a good story to tell, especially when looking at the stuff about Sir Ivan before he vanished." Eric responded, shifting his sitting position on the branch as he did so. "I bet you'll even grow to really like him when you grow older, even if we can't ever meet him."

"No way, I'm not reading all those books you have," Nathan responded with a shout, covering his ears as Eric laughed again. The two stayed like that for a while, talking on school and other things until the sun touched the floor of the valley, then they climbed back down.

-Nathan, present, Zandar-

Nathan shook his head awake as he looked around, finding himself on a bench in one of the major parks of the area as he looked to the north, the castle in full view as his mind wandered to the memory he found himself dreaming. 'That's right, Eric's always been like that,' Nathan confirmed to himself as he collected himself, picking himself up and looking at his watch. Two hours till sunrise, then he'd be heading to the castle to take the box to Prince Philip. However, his mind continued to return to that memory, and more importantly to Amber Beach where Horn was causing a commotion at the zoo Eric was working at. 'I suppose I should give Zika a call then, shouldn't I?'

He then looked down at his right hand, where the scar from the tree branch breaking was still barely visible. When they got home afterwards their dad gave them an earful when he found the injury, though it wasn't bad enough to need stitches. However, it seemed to remain on his hand like a small reminder of how close he was to ending up worse if Eric hadn't been there. "If only I was faster in getting home," Nathan muttered to himself, closing his hand before he pulled out the communicator with his left, turning it on. "Thirteen years of being gone just to watch you all die…"

-Zika-

Zika had just cut down the last of the Stingwingers near him when he noticed his communicator was going off, looking around to make sure there weren't any remaining creatures he hadn't seen before he turned it on. "It's Zika," Zika spoke as he sheathed his sword, soon walking back to the path he had walked into the room by. "I've cleared the south side of the zoo, heading back to the Diner now."

"Sounds like things are under control over there," came Nathan's voice, making Zika stop for a moment before he continued walking. "I wanted to hear about how the situation is over there."

"It's good, Eric cleared out a majority of the people before the Stingwingers could get a hold of them, and even took a good amount out without a weapon this time," Zika spoke, soon hearing what sounded like a sigh of relief come from Nathan's side as he continued to walk. "I did meet up with him when he was in a tad bit of a bind, and gave him that sword my father made for your student to give it a test run."

Zika could practically feel the tension which came next from the communicator, Nathan's voice clearly showing agitation in his next words. "You gave him something to fight with," Nathan asked, the words sounding like they were trying their best to not break into worry.

"It was either that or have him try fighting them without any weapon, especially since he was still fighting the creatures three on one," Zika responded, soon hearing Nathan sigh again, this time in annoyance as it was Zika's turn to be serious. "Besides, if he's anything like you told me, he would've ran in without anything just to help."

Nathan's silence was palpable as Zika began to hear fighting further ahead, the sign of blaster fire apparent as he increased his pace. "…If he gets hurt because of this, I'm blaming you," Nathan finally spoke, making Zika laugh as he did so.

"Then would you have preferred he charge in without a weapon," Zika responded, soon stopping momentarily in his run before his voice turned serious. "I saw the aftermath of how he was fighting the Stingwingers with only a broken set of batons, and he lives up to the praises you gave him when you talked about before this timeline. I say give him a chance to do what he wants to help and see how well he does."

"I can't lose my brother again," was Nathans only response from the comm, the words coming out with fear showing while Zika started walking again. Then, after another moment of silence, Nathan spoke again. "…Look, we'll talk more on this after you guys deal with the situation, okay?"

"Sure, chances are Furio has completely meant for this to be a distraction anyway since Horn's the only one here," Zika responded, soon seeing a laser blast shoot from the hallway he was heading towards as he drew his sword.. "The Stingwingers are too scattered and were more focused on grabbing people than taking anything, so I'll be having the rangers look into potential reasons after this."

"Fine, good luck," Nathan responded before he cut out his mic, leaving Zika to find Kendall slashing her sword down into a Stingwinger, several others scattered and sprawled on the floor.

"Looks like I missed the party," Zika spoke as he looked over the area, Kendall only looking at him before she started running past him. "Where are you going now?"

"To Eric, he started fighting Horn immediately after handing me back my blaster!" Kendall responded as she soon turned a corner, vanishing from sight. That caught Zika by surprise, making him lift his hand to rub the back of his helmet as he looked over the area.

"Okay, maybe Nathan will have a valid excuse to get mad at me this time," Zika muttered to himself before he spotted the blue bow on the ground, the blade like structures on the edges glinting from the windows above as he walked over to it. "Well, I didn't expect to see you here…"

As he reached out for it, however, he soon heard a buzzing behind him, making him spin around to slash a Stingwinger that had managed to get behind him, blasting it back. At the same time, however, he heard the buzzing, making him turn to see another one having grabbed the bow and fly off, soon out of sight as Zika looked at the area it went off at. "Nathan's going to have a field day with everything that happened when he left…"

And with that simple statement, he ran off in a dash after the Stingwinger, leaving the situation to the rangers as his focus went to the monster, and the weapon it had in its hands.

-Kendall -

Kendall ran through the hallway as she remembered what she saw of Eric, her gaze soon seeing what looked to be a cut and crushed path from the fight between him and Horn as she continued to move forward. If she wasn't sure of how well he could fight before, she was all but certain now. More importantly, her mind went back to the reason for him choosing to go after Horn. 'He got mad when the people who were being hurt by this were called a distraction, just like how he was deciding to run back into the cave to find me despite how hurt he was,' Kendall thought as she turned a corner, following the path of destruction as she kept her pace. As she did so, her communicator went off, making her pull it out before seeing Riley on the other side.

"Kendall, we got the rest of the people out of the zoo, so that leaves only Eric unaccounted for," Riley spoke, only adding to Kendall's worry as she ran along the path of destruction.

"He went after Horn as soon as I saw him," Kendall responded as she took a right, going deeper into the building as it changed into the museum section, the portraits which usually held posters of the exhibits having been cut along the path. "He looks like he's gone towards the exhibits, so try to get there as fast as you can."

"Alright, I'll send a message to the others so we can try to corner him," Riley responded before the communication cut off, and with a good kick into the ground Kendall took off into a sprint, trying to reach Eric and Horn before something she wouldn't like occurred.

-Eric-

Eric's mind was in overdrive as he was fighting Horn, his blade seeming to direct the rhythm of the fight like a waltz as he parried and redirected each strike he could. Any blade strike slid off the side of his sword with a simple change in the angle of his block, while any strike with the mace he outright dodged as he continued to move. Then, with a sudden shout, Horn managed to swing a heavy hit to Erics side that he was forced to block with the side of the sword, tensing his legs so that he slid back towards the wall while his entire body shook from the blow, sweat practically pouring off him as he watched Horn move for another swing at him immediately with the mace, the angle too wide for him to not exploit.

"Stay still," Horn shouted as Eric was moving around his attack again, landing another slash as he watched the monster fall forward into the wall and onto the ground, its agitation apparent as it tried to scramble up from the ground. As Horn turned to him again, Eric was resting on his sword panting, his mind feeling like it was spinning as he tried to catch his breath. In terms of skill, Eric knew he was the better of the two with how much he had been exploiting the attacks Horn threw at him, and especially with how he was controlling the flow of the fight up until this point. His stamina, on the other hand, was the true impairment here, and he knew he was at its edge.

"Last thing I need… is to lose my step," Eric panted out, pushing himself back up as he took another stance again. He hadn't been fighting the monster for that long, but the speed of the fight had increased rapidly after Horn started using both the sword and mace, and it had taken every muscle and instinct for him to dodge up until this point. Adding the fact of how far the two had moved from the initial starting point, having traveled all the way to the exhibits, and he was honestly surprised he was still standing. "Have to say though… I've done my ancestor proud… even staying up to this point..."

As he finished that statement he rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding another strike from Horn as he threw the mace at him, clearly tired of having missed him so much. At the same time, he felt as if his ears were suddenly muffled, putting a pit in his stomach as he recognized the feeling from his time training. 'And there goes my blood pressure, and right when I can't take a moment to sit and rest…' Eric thought to himself as he picked himself up, looking in the direction he had come from fighting Horn as the monster gripped the sword again. The path was completely covered in slashes in certain exhibit posters and with a few spears from the caveman exhibit having been cut by a stray slash from the monster Eric was fighting. He was honestly impressed that he even managed to keep the damage minimized to that amount by having Horn chase after him. However, he already knew he didn't have many more dodges left, especially since the muffled sound was getting worse, making the area quieter to him. More than likely, he was going to pass out even if he tried to keep his pace in the fight. 'No matter how I look at it, there's no way I'll be able to keep the pace this point forward… Guess I'll have to bet it all.'

Eric then sighed as he picked himself up again, making Horn look at him confused as he noticed him stop panting. 'Imagine a calm breeze that blows through you, focus it in the center of your chest and let it spread,' Eric thought to himself, remembering his training again as he forced himself to calm his breathing. 'Let it build like a fire is guiding it to expand and grow faster, rushing through your body like a gale…'

"What, did you get some kind of second wind," Horn asked as Eric closed his eyes, focusing on his own heart beat as he took a new stance, this one resting the sword on his free arm as he crouched back. Hearing Horn's statement after his thoughts, Eric couldn't help but chuckle. "Are you planning on attacking now?"

"Of course, it's not like I can keep up with you much longer anyway if I only defend," Eric responded, surprised at how hoarse his voice was starting to sound as he opened his eyes, the calm in him seeming to swirl through his body like a warm breeze as he drug the blade back along his arm, the blade seeming to glint as Eric's eyes started to blur from exhaustion. Then, in one jump he started to aim for a torrent of swings, pouring every bit of his strength into the fight as he forced himself to focus, the feeling of the wind within growing even more as it felt as if it finally reached his fingertips. If Horn moved to block one side Eric's blade seemed to snake, feinting in the direction before spinning and landing on the other side, a torrent of sparks flying as he felt every muscle in his body screaming at him. It wasn't until he jumped back again, however, that he noticed how little damage he actually did, the monster more staggered than anything else as he saw it moving as if it was talking now. However, his hearing had already gone by this point, making him sigh as he took the same stance as before, a numbness starting to kick in at the same time.

'I guess this is my last strike,' Eric spoke to himself as he drew back his weapon, focusing on the feeling of calm that seemed to now even reach the blade in his hand, now focusing on a move he was taught by his master as he felt as if everything within him began to focus towards the blade. Eric always imagined his focus for this move as a light blue glow, and even now he felt as if he was seeing that same glow coming off the weapon despite how the world seemed to be spinning around him. He guessed that it was just a hallucination from his blood pressure dropping, noting the fact that his hearing was now all but gone while he barely felt the blade in his hand. 'One thing's for certain if I get out of this, though. I now know my current limits…'

He heard a muffled sound come from Horn as he jumped forward, Eric only managing to mouth the words of the move as the world seemed to shift into a blur of colors around him. He felt the numbed feeling of contact from the blade, but couldn't discern anything else as he fell forward into a roll. Then, as he slammed into a wall, his world became dark.

-Horn-

'What was that,' was all Horn could think as he was sent sprawling to the side, the sword he had been using now broken in half from blocking that strike as he looked at Eric, the man unconscious with the sword he had used still barely being held onto as he laid on his back. He couldn't tell what had happened, but the fact that the sword he had gotten was broken so easily sent a shiver down his spine. Not only that, either, but the blade almost looked like it had scorch marks on it in the area that Horn had blocked the attack at, the metal warped at the breaking point. 'He's not a ranger, how in the world did he…'

"Eric!" came a shout from his left, making Horn turn just in time to see several blaster shots hit into him, sending him sprawling back. As soon as he picked himself up he saw the culprit, the purple ranger from before, now placing herself between the two. "You're not going to touch him."

As Horn was about to state a retort, reaching into his cloth for another weapon, he heard the sound of thunder which boomed through the area, along with it Furio's voice in his mind. 'Horn, we have the device, fall back immediately,' Furio commanded, Kendall looking around to see what the cause of the thunder itself was. This began to set Horn off more, remembering the fact that the bow he had worked so hard to steal was too far away from him to grab again. More than that, the person responsible for him dropping it was knocked out on the ground, with only one ranger blocking his way to him.

"But he's right there!" Horn shouted, only to get another boom of thunder which echoed through the room. This one didn't have words follow it, but the statement was apparent: fall back now or suffer the consequences. With this in mind, Horn whined before he turned and fled, taking one of the only open exits he could reach as the alarms still sounded off around them. Then, as the lightning of the teleporter started to pull him up, he felt an urge to scream as he thought back to the man he had been fighting, and how irritating it was that he could only land a single hit that was blocked.

-Zika-

The Stingwinger didn't go too far before Zika caught up with it, striking it down as it was about to stand still. That was the one thing Zika was thankful for out of everything else, the target for the Scorpion Stinger's teleporter was required to remain still before anything else. As he watched the bow land on the ground, he walked over and picked it up, looking at the design. At a simple glance it probably would've looked like an oversized bow, but the further detail showed both ends being akin to silver and blue blades seeming to be tied together by a string, a yellow handle meeting at the center with a black ring sitting in the middle.

"No doubt about it on what it is now," Zika muttered to himself, looking it over as he did so. "All those centuries of not knowing where this went, and it was with Horn the entire time…"

As he looked at it, his communicator went off, making him sigh as he clicked it on. "Zika, it's Nathan," came Nathan's voice, a sound of concern still on it. "What's the situation?"

"Well, there's good news and bad news," Zika spoke as he looked over the bow. "For the initial bad news, Eric decided he'd fight Horn one on one."

"What?!" Nathan shouted through the device, making Zika shake his head from the reverberation as he did so. "What about the Rangers."

"The Purple Ranger was heading to help him out last I checked, but I had to focus on something else that took a bigger precedence," Zika responded as he looked at the bow.

"What was more important than going after Horn?" Nathan started, trying his best to keep from shouting again but clearly failing as Zika gripped the bow.

"Horn had Marianne's Bow on him," Zika responded, and this caused Nathan's side to stop talking. After he waited to make sure that Nathan was now listening, he continued. "I don't know what exactly happened, but I found the bow lying by where I met the Purple Ranger. Granted I can't exactly use it to it's full ability, but the design is too similar to pass on the chance it isn't."

"…No wonder they couldn't find it," Nathan finally spoke as Zika imagined him putting his head in his hands. Then, hearing an audible sigh from the communicator, Nathan continued. "Look, keep the bow on you for as long as you can, but also help the Rangers with whatever information they need. It's almost morning here so I'll be having breakfast before I head over to the castle."

"No worries on that, though I do need to ask if I still have to keep quiet on Eric being your brother," Zika responded, only getting silence from Nathan in response. Then with a chuckle, he put the bow on his shoulder. "Got it, I'll let you explain it if the time comes, though I am interested to hear how Eric's fight with Horn turned out."

"Fine, just be sure to tell me if he ended up okay," Nathan responded before he cut off the communication, making Zika shake his head as he turned back to the zoo, his mind going back to Eric's initial reaction to holding the sword when he drew it. It wasn't the grip of a beginner, so it seemed like he trained in it like Nathan said he did in the original timeline. However, it seemed stronger than some hobby that started as a kid, as well. "I wonder what training he went through to have a good grip like that…"

As he started to walk to the zoo, however, his mind immediately went to Furio. 'If he was focused on getting this bow out of our hands, then he's probably watching me now,' Zika thought as he turned and walked to the city. 'Maybe I should take a little detour before returning to the Rangers…'

-Furio-

"THAT NUISANCE!" Furio's shout was apparent as he slammed his fist into the chair, causing the viewing screen to flicker as he watched Zika walk off with the bow. At the same time, Horn and Starcog were standing to the side, Horn nervously shaking as Furio continued his rage, turning to Horn. "How could you lose that bow so easily?!"

"I was surprised by that guy who suddenly attacked me, how was I supposed to guess he would immediately go for it," Horn asked, only seeing Furio shake more as he started pacing towards Horn, making him scurry back with worry. "More importantly, why are you so worried over it? Didn't you say I could keep it nine hundred years ago?"

"That's because I was certain that you could keep a hold of it with your love of weapons," Furio shouted out, making Horn hold up his hands in defense before Starcog finally got in between the two.

"So what if he lost the bow, didn't you already make sure that it couldn't be used by anyone on Earth decades ago," Starcog spoke, his statement making Furio stop as he looked to the starfish-like monster. "Even then, it's nothing without its counterpart even if it finds someone to connect to. The blade's been lost for centuries, and there hasn't even been any records for it that remained when you last checked, correct?"

"Maybe so, but that doesn't mean they can't find someone worthy of it," Furio spat back as he looked back at the screen, watching Zika walk off before he grunted in frustration, looking back to Starcog. "What of the device?"

"It's right here, but it'll take some time for me to integrate it into the Scorpion Stingers scanner," Starcog responded, Horn sighing in relief behind him for the change in subject. "I still need to map the energy patterns from the seal, as well, but afterwards we should be able to start tracking the key."

"Good," Furio spoke, soon turning back to the screen to find Zika had vanished from it. Then, with a sigh, he looked back to Horn. "I have another mission for you, Horn, if you want some revenge. How do you feel about going after that man you fought?"

"Really?!" Horn asked, obviously surprised on the situation. Then, hearing a laugh come out of the creature, Furio got his response. "I'd be all too happy. But what if the rangers pop up again?"

"Then you should go after him when he's not around that many people," Furio responded, looking back to the screen again as he sighed. "He doesn't seem like that much now, but that move he used in your fight was concerning. Better to end him now than to let him grow…"

"Of course, Furio!" Horn responded as he started bowing, moving out of the room. "I won't let you down, I'll find the perfect opportunity and deal with him immediately!"

With that Horn turned and left the room, leaving Starcog and Furio as the starfish-like monster turned to him. "I'm surprised that you let him keep the bow for so long." Starcog spoke, making Furio grunt in annoyance as he walked back to his throne.

"His greed for weapons usually defines how much he can keep them," Furio responded as he sat in his chair, pressing a few of the buttons on it as the viewing screen started to rewind back along where the screen had seen things. "Did anyone see you when you left that lab?"

"Sadly yes, though it was only a few people. They'll eventually hear about it because of that." Starcog responded as he turned to the screen as well, the image soon stopping on the point Eric had attacked Horn, the blade seeming to shimmer in a blue glow so faint that it could've been considered nonexistent if it wasn't for the broken blade it was breaking through. "If I may ask, Furio, why are you so worried over that man? It's not like he can do anything against us."

"The last time I left someone like him alive, they were chosen by the Rhino Galactabeast." Furio spoke as he looked at the glow coming off the blade, and in particular the design of the black handle. "You remember the reason I asked Treacheron to lend you to me, right?"

"To make sure we could deal with any mishaps." Starcog replied, making Furio nod as he waved his hand at the screen.

"We already have the addition of five more Rangers hampering our progress in opening the gate." Furio continued as his gaze was on the man. "The last thing we need is to cause another one of those knights to appear because we were lax. Is that understood?"

"Of course Furio." Starcog bowed, keeping his head low as Furio looked at him. "Then perhaps I may be able to do something to help these issues later when I've finished working on the device? There's been a plan which has been in my head since we went to the mountains that I've been dying to try."

"So long as it doesn't impair your job," Furio responded, making Starcog bow deeper before he stood straight, walking out of the room as Furio looked back to the still frame of the fight. As he did, his mind trailed back to nine hundred years ago, his grip tightening on the throne.