Thanks to DD, DDMonorail, liziliza, TaliaVora, Ashley, Guest, and Kendall Morgan for reviewing and getting my butt in gear to finish this story/series. I hadn't intended to be gone for so long but we're back again!

2

"I can't help but notice you've been putting in a lot of work lately," Keeper said.

Kendall barely mustered a grunt in response, eyes roving over the tracking screen in front of her. Almost desperately—not almost, she knew she was desperate—her eyes bounced over the map, trying to make sense of the pings of energy that seemed to scatter around haphazardly.

"You gave the other rangers the day off," Keeper continued, as if Kendall has responded to him. "But when was the last time you've taken a break?"

"I don't need a break, Keeper," Kendall replied. She leaned back, taking off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes. Stars exploded in front of her and she briefly closed her eyes, waiting for it to pass. Her eyebrows pinched together, and she let out a sharp breath. "I—we—need to find Snide as soon as we can. Once we get an idea of where he's going and what he's doing, then we can relax." She opened her eyes. "A little."

Keeper watched her for a moment. He moved around the base to stand next to her. Silently, he tilted his head and watched her closely. "I know there are other reasons as to why you're working so hard," he remarked. Kendall looked at him out the corner of her eye but didn't respond. "You have the rangers' best interest at heart, you want to ensure that they don't get too consumed by this."

"They have every opportunity to unbind their bond with the Energems," Kendall reminded him. "You can do that for them if you'd like." She shook her head. "They deserve to have lives outside of all of this. The idea of being immortal is great but…look at Koda. He lives in a world that he doesn't know, he has to learn new things every day, his family is gone…"

"He's adapting well, with a lot of help from you," Keeper reminded her. "The rangers all learn new things every day and that's not something to be disappointed by. And he had a new family within the rangers."

"They shouldn't have to bother themselves with this," Kendall insisted. She sucked in a deep breath, giving Keeper a weak smile. "I can handle finding Snide. There's not much they can do to help me anyway; it's just watching a monitor and reading energy pulses. Hopefully being able to make sense of all this stuff." She rolled her eyes. "And you know how Chase gets about it, Tyler is easily distracted, and Shelby's just—"

"—I wish you would just speak your mid in the way you always you would have done previously. I know you have another sort of incentive that has been keeping you pushing forward with Snide over these past couple of weeks." Keeper watched as Kendall pressed her lips together. "We know Heckyl and Snide have split apart, there's nothing to say that they're together."

"There's nothing to say they're not."

Silence stretched between the two as Keeper took in Kendall's words. She may not have been right, but it at least was a possibility. And a possibility she couldn't ignore. She knew Heckyl and Snide had been able to separate, has seen it for herself. He was the Talon Ranger, now. But…there was always the chance that there may be something that would have them re-align. And what sort of a ranger would Heckyl be if he, while morphed, was able to merge back together.

Would he still be on their side?

Or would Snide be stronger than ever?

There was that risk. There was always that risk. It's why Kendall decided to watch Heckyl as close as she possible could. It wasn't as bad as, say, James who came and went on his digs, often taking Tyler—and most recently Shelby—along with him when the time came. But the Aqua Ranger was in battle when he was called upon and didn't have that sliding scale of nefarious potential she was trying to avoid.

"Your stubbornness is a trait I've always admired about you, Kendall. But this seems to be going even further into a sort of stubbornness that is detrimental that it is helpful." Kendall grunted once more, leaning back into the computer, putting her glasses back on as she watched the screen in front of her. "Is it wrong of me to assume that there's something else that's bothering you rather than knowing that Snide is out there?"

Kendall paused. She parted her lips, then closed them again, resisting the urge to look at her oldest friend and partner in everything that was Power Rangers. She still remembered the day they met, where she'd been overseeing a dig as a proprietor of the museum and had felt she was being watched. On one hand, she knew she was; the museum director was watching the dig closely, ensuring that the dig was cost-effective and would yield results.

It should have, Kendall knew that it was the place that the dinosaurs had died out. She'd studied it; having gone through so much of her schooling so rapidly, but it was something that had always interested her. The days of the dinosaurs. She studied what caused them to die out, pinpointed the location to being in present day Amber Beach, knew it was just the place for the museum to do the dig.

They were going to find something.

It turned out, that Kendall found Keeper. She had walked around the site, taking stock of everything, and found him in the bushes, watching her closely. Instead of being afraid, Kendall demanded what he was doing, watching their group. Wanted to know who or what he was. And things went on from there. He explained he was the reason the dinosaurs died out but that he now knew the Energems needed to be collected and found from pure-hearted people, and to be kept from Sledge.

Logically, Kendall knew it was something she couldn't ignore. An alien from another planet, another universe, wasn't something she could talk herself into believing to not be true. The proof was right there in front of her. So, they teamed up, and made a great team as the days went on and they found more energems, more power rangers, and more friends.

If there was someone who knew the truth about anything that Kendall was feeling, it was Keeper. He was the only person she could truly open herself to. Her family had been knocked out of that equation years before and weren't people she could even turn to when she needed advice or wanted to hear a 'happy birthday' from.

She should've known he would've known the truth without her having to say anything. It was annoying, but she should've known.

"You know, there's no word that directly translates to 'love' on my planet," Keeper continued. He passed his staff back and forth between his hands. "There are a lot of words and phrases that cover all other emotions but not 'love' because it is usually found to be too big to condense down into one word." He blinked slowly. "I can't help but feel that it's what's holding you back."

"I'm not in love with Heckyl," Kendall snapped. "I hardly know him. If that's what you want to talk about, talk to Tyler and Shelby. They can hardly look at each other without blushing and distracting each other."

It was why she had to have them work in separate parts of the Dino Bite café. Not that it mattered much, Tyler spent too much time goofing off with the other boys in the kitchen while Shelby was a bit too socially awkward for the customers she helped as a waitress. She couldn't imagine what it would be like if she switched them around—the boys would get on her nerves—or put them together—they'd only give goo-goo yes to each other and be too shy to do even something as basic as think.

"You have love for all the rangers," Keeper continued. "They've grown to be your family. You don't want anything to happen to them, I understand that. But looking for Snide on your own, making it so that you're driving yourself into the ground and keeping the rangers in the dark isn't protecting them."

Kendall put her lips together, swallowing hard. Oh. So that's what Keeper meant. Upon the realization, she felt her cheeks start to burn. Became a little hot under the collar as her embarrassment peeked through. She didn't get embarrassed by much, she pushed the emotion out of her body years before, hadn't come close to it since then.

But what struck her then made her want a hole to open beneath her and for herself to be sucked into it. Nevertheless, she thought about what Keeper was saying. There was more than enough to prove that the rangers had become her family. She cared about them deeper than she'd thought was possible. With each new ranger she met, she kept them at an arm's length until, in some way, they'd made her way into her heart and set up camp.

"I can take care of myself, Keeper, I always have." Kendall shrugged. "It's easier that way." And it seemed like the better option with the way things had been going. It made it easier to protect her heart, for one thing. Made it easier for her not to worry about anything but the task at hand.

And the task at hand was finding Snide. Not because, maybe, she'd find Heckyl with him, but that the sooner they were able to take down Snide, the better things would be. For everyone. Not just her. Not just Heckyl.

You have to stop thinking about that! Kendall scolded herself. Thankfully, her attention was diverted by the sound of the computer starting to beep and blare. Turning her attention away from Keeper, Kendall focused all her attention on figuring out the reason for the pulsating, frantic beeping that attacked her ears. Her breath escaped her when she realized it.

"It's an energy signature," Kendall remarked. She leaned close to the computer screen, trying to get a pinpoint lock on it. Her heart hammered against her chest. The energy signature showed to be nearby, in the woods. The first time in a long time that it had come close to where they were. It usually stayed far away, probably for Snide to regain his energy before returning to finish off the rangers. "It has to be Snide! I need to go!"

"It'd be best if you contacted the rangers," Keeper suggested.

Kendall shook her head. "There's no time." She raced to the wall and grabbed her Energem from it. It gleamed in her palm. "I can do this on my own. It's morphin' time! Dino Charger! Energize! Ha! Unleash the power!"

A/N: I was going to update Strength in Numbers but I've had a lot of people ask me to update this lately and I re-read the story, remembered what I was going to do, and here we are! It's not an action-packed chapter because I needed to set up something else first, but I hope you all enjoyed it nonetheless. So, once again, I come back with a short chapter, but longer chapters are coming now that I remember what I was going to do! Thanks guys!

~Avalon