The Rangers all came into the museum, dumping their luggage as they arrived. Most of the visitors had already left, and there were only a few staff finishing up ahead of closing time. Even though their Zords flew much faster than commercial flights, New Zealand was a long way away, and so they were all exhausted as they arrived. Allison was the first to come to greet them, seeing them arrive in the door from the cafe. She ran across, throwing herself into Chase's arms, almost knocking him off balance.

"Wow, now THAT is the way to be welcomed home!" Chase responded with a laugh as he held her.

"You guys are back! How was New Zealand?" She asked them.

"It was definitely tiring. We could use a vacation to recover from it." Ivan told her. "Though it was a productive trip."

"It's so good to see you guys back. You have NO idea what kind of stuff has been going on since you left!" She rushed out. They all just laughed a little.

"Allison, we've been gone about a week. What could possibly have changed?" Shelby asked her. Just then, Kendall came past, seeing that they had arrived.

"Good, you're back. We've got a lot to talk about." Kendall told them.

"Ken...uh...Ms Morgan, we only just got back." Shelby responded with a tired groan. "Can this wait until tomorrow? I still have to hear the lecture from my dad before bed."

"Believe me, there is a LOT we need to catch up on." Kendall told them. "Allison, can you send Claire home and then come downstairs? The rest of you, come with me."

"I guess there's no rest for the wicked." Riley muttered as they followed Kendall, leaving their luggage exactly where it was.

"I prefer the term 'virtuous' personally." Ivan chipped in as they headed for the Dino Lab, leaving their luggage exactly where they had dropped it, knowing that it would not be disturbed in the slightest.

Up on Sledge's ship, Wrench was busy assembling his re-animation machine in his lab. Fury was still seething over their defeat in New Zealand. It was yet another blow to his credibility in the eyes of his partner he could ill afford.

The Rangers were becoming more and more tiresome the longer this campaign went on. It seemed like every time they made a move, these children somehow seemed to find a way to counter it. Whenever they tried a brute force attack, the Rangers could match them in power, often finding some new level of energy that they didn't know they had before. Any time Wrench attempted to utilise his technology, somehow the blonde one would find a way to counteract his codes or create a device that could counteract his own. Even intellect seemed to fall foul. Puzzler had managed to trap them for a while, but the Green Ranger had ended up beating him at his own game.

Something else troubled him as well. He didn't say it out loud, but he had noticed that his own power was waning. While his kind were a long-lived species, they were not immortal. The same things that affected others also affected his kind. It would happen a lot later than it would for others, but the fact was that he would age, and that came with the same pitfalls for him as it did for everyone else.

On Sledge's ship, they existed in a stasis state of sorts. Time literally had no meaning. It was how Sledge had been in business so long. It was how all the prisoners on his ship were still alive even millennia after their natural life spans. It was just one thing that added to the horror of ending up as a prisoner of Sledge. Once they were captured, prisoners knew it was no mere threat that they were there forever. Not even old age would bring them release. The problem Fury had was that unlike Sledge, Poisandra, even Wrench...what little of him was still actually biological, for over 65 million years, he had been on Earth. He had aged, and it was beginning to tell on him.

He had been alright stranded on Earth, at least for the first few million years. Food was plentiful, and while it didn't compare to many of the planets he had visited, the climate was perfectly comfortable. He had hoped that the power of the Energems would sustain him, but the Earth was so much larger than he ever suspected, and he arrived long before the age of computers or global positioning. Even written maps were millions of years away. His natural longevity managed to carry him until the humans infected the Earth, and started to build things that he recognised as progression towards the technology he was used to, but as time went by, he started to notice that he would get just a little slower than he used to be, that things would seem just a little heavier than he was used to. It was only as he started getting pains in his hands and elbows, even when he hadn't been doing anything that he realised the problem, the one issue he couldn't do anything about. He was getting old.

The Egyptians were the most useful ones he found in his time. They feared him when they saw him, but unlike others that either fled or tried to fight him, for all the good that ever did, they seemed to fall to their knees and worship him! He figured out later that they worshipped cats, and figured his appearance had worked coincidentally in his favour. They unwittingly gave him another idea though, he witnessed sacrifices, and he realised that while their belief in them was largely superstition, they gave him an idea. It took some time, but eventually he figured out how to take the life energy of another as his own. It was nowhere near as effective as an Energem would be, but it allowed him to postpone his suffering for a time.

He released his grip on his sword, resting it against a work bench and began to relax his hand. He still didn't really understand how Ivan had survived so long inside him, but he knew it had to have something to do with his Energem. Even separated from it, the limited power Ivan had absorbed had lasted for centuries longer than any other life force, and Ivan still had the strength to struggle and cause him problems. He had no doubt in his mind that getting an Energem would return him to the power his allies believed he still had. Until then, all he could do was spend time in the ship, use his power sparingly, and hope beyond hope that no one knew that his power was declining. He didn't need his old power, just the perception of that power.

"Are you finished with that yet?" Fury asked Wrench. The cyborg just glared at him. "That thing is the only reason Sledge isn't putting us in solitary!"

"These things take time you know, it's not like I'm setting up a waffle iron!" Wrench said sarcastically in response.

"Well hurry up and get on with it!" Fury snapped at him. "The sooner you finish this, the sooner Sledge can let us in on his plans for this thing!"

"Are you finished yet Wrench?" Sledge demanded as he arrived, carrying a case. Wrench just cowered under Sledge's gaze.

"I...I...It will take at least..."

"I expect it to be ready in half an hour!" Sledge told him. "You will need all the time you can get to condition the prisoner to be under our control."

Sledge put the case down on the work bench.

"I expect to hear that the clone is alive and ready to begin breaking within an hour." He told them as he turned and left the lab. "Now if you'll excuse me, my fiancée has just discovered wedding registry websites, and I have to find out what she expects, since I doubt there'll be many guests once we're finished with this planet."

As he left, Fury couldn't help looking to the case, and opened it, looking inside. There was the DNA sample that they would need, along with some restraints, and a very familiar-looking device.

"Is that...?" Wrench asked. Fury just nodded. "You've got to be kidding!"

Back at the museum, the Rangers were assembled around the central table in the Dino Lab. Allison came in, carrying a tray of food for them all. She figured that after such a long journey, they could probably all use something while they had this meeting. As she sat by Chase, she noticed that Koda hadn't yet launched himself at the tray and grabbed as many Bronto Burgers as he could fit in his hands. She initially worried that he might be ill, but seeing the look on his face, he seemed more shell-shocked than anything else.

"Alessandra...know?" He asked Kendall. While they were away, Alessandra had indeed stumbled upon their secret. When she discovered the Dino Lab, Kendall and Allison had felt like there was really nothing they could do other than tell her.

"She found the Dino Lab. We really didn't have much of a choice." Allison told them, handing around drinks. Kendall took Koda's hand gently, looking to him.

"We told her about the Ranger thing, but that's all." Kendall told him. "We figured that it was your place to tell her everything else."

"So she not know I cave man?" Koda asked her. The others just looked to him, seeing he was clearly worried about the prospect of telling his girlfriend what he really was. While Koda was a homo sapien, and every bit as capable of learning to adjust to life in this time as anyone else, they all knew that there were certain difficulties he would always have. He didn't exactly have a birth certificate or social security number, which would limit his options severely. While he was slowly but surely starting to come around to figuring out the idea of how money worked, even if he did occasionally misjudge the value of things like the time he paid $20.00 for a chocolate bar, it wasn't like he could apply for a credit card, or a mortgage. There wasn't much point in teaching him to drive since he would never be able to provide documents for a driving license, much less register a car in his name.

More than that, he already knew that people saw the way he looked and heard the way he talked and would make judgements about him. As much as his friends loved him, he always worried what others would think, how much worse it would be if they knew that at one time the height of technology to him was fire.

"Koda, you are one of the kindest, most generous people I've ever known. You would give the shirt off your back if someone asked for it." Shelby said in a reassuring way. "That girl is so lucky to have you."

"Yeah man, there's nothing to worry about." Chase told him.

"What if she..." Koda started to say, looking noticeably upset. Kendall just leaned in closer.

"Koda, Alessandra loves you." Kendall assured him. "I seriously doubt that's going to change."

"Alessandra say that?" Koda asked her. Kendall just nodded, at which Koda smiled a little. He was still clearly a little worried about talking to her about the truth about himself, but he was happy to hear what she had said.

"I think it's pretty clear man." Chase agreed. "You know, to anyone with a couple of working brain cells."

"You'll be fine." Shelby assured him. "We can be there if you want."

"No, I talk to her." Koda told them. "Thank you."

"On a connected note, the T-Rex slide is now permanently sealed!" Kendall said, looking to the others. "Since we've already had two accidental security breaches through there, I thought it was about time we dealt with that."

"So...how do we...?" Chase started to say, only to earn himself a glare from Kendall. It was largely his fault they needed to use the T-Rex slide in the first place. They did have a key lock on the elevator, but Chase kept misplacing his keys.

"I've installed a biometric security system in the elevator." She informed them. "Unless you somehow manage to misplace your fingers and your retinas, I think even you should be able to get access Chase."

"That's probably a good idea." Riley conceded. "Once is an accident, twice is a concern."

"Next, I'd like to call out a well-deserved thank you to our newest supervisor, Allison." Kendall said, patting the Australian on the shoulder.

"You're a supervisor?" Tyler asked, as Allison showed them her name badge and nodded. "That's awesome!"

"You have no idea how much help it's been letting her take care of things in the cafe." Kendall told them.

"That's really kind of you to say." Allison replied. "There's been a few bumps..."

"I'd have been surprised if there weren't." Kendall assured her. "Allison has very kindly taken a lot of the responsibilities from the cafe, meaning I can now concentrate more on our...extra-curricular work."

"Hey, how does it feel knowing your girlfriend out-ranks you?" Riley teased Chase. He just chuckled as he pulled Allison closer.

"As long as we remain equal when we punch out at the end of the day, I'll be fine." He responded, kissing her softly.

"Now, I know I've been promising it for a while, but finally we're going to have the first round of interviews for more staff." She told them. "Hopefully that should help free us all up a little more, but I really do have to thank all of you for everything you've done."

"Hey, it's all in the name of the cause right?" Tyler asked her. Kendall then looked to the middle of the table, where the Purple Energem was sitting.

"Now, we do have one last item of business to discuss." She said, bringing their attention to it. The Rangers all looked to it, thinking about what they had in their possession. "I sent you to New Zealand to find the Purple Energem. Now you've done that, it's created some more issues for us."

"None of us knew it had bonded to anyone." Tyler chipped in, carrying on the train of thought. "An unbonded Energem is a dangerous thing, but when it was bonded, we had a Ranger to deal with."

"Not to mention a pretty sick Zord!" Shelby added.

"I know there were some reservations when we found out about Albert, but I know I wasn't the only one that was hoping once we knew we would be bringing back an Energem, a Ranger AND a Zord." Ivan told them. "Though I believe it was a certain Mr Meatloaf that said 'Two out of three ain't bad'."

The other Rangers just stared at him, causing Ivan to shrug his shoulders.

"What, am I not allowed to be knowledgeable of modern popular music?" He asked them. "I believe I found it in Chase's I-pod under 'classics'."

"That aside, we have an Energem and a Zord, and that's pretty good going." Tyler conceded. Kendall took a deep breath as she prepared for the next part.

"Although it does leave us with one problem." She said as she reached out for the Energem.

"NO!" They all called out, leaping forward to stop her. With the exception of anyone bound to one of its brothers, they knew that the Energems had a habit of repelling anyone they didn't see fit, and doing so quite aggressively. When Kendall had tried to bond to the Pink Energem, she had ended up in a hospital. However, as Kendall seized it, they noticed to their astonishment that nothing happened. In their experience, Unbonded Energems did one of two things when someone touched them. Either they would bond to them, in which case they could fully expect a flash of light, and for Kendall to get a series of flashbacks relating to the spirit of the dinosaur housed within, or they could expect to be peeling her off the floor. This time though, it seemed to do neither.

"How...how did you...?" Chase asked, looking a little concerned by this. "How did you know that would work?"

"I wasn't actually positive, until now, but Keeper did warn me this could happen." Kendall told them. "Albert gave up his power willingly; the connection wasn't severed by his destruction. As a result, the Energem's natural defences haven't returned."

"So anyone can handle that Energem?" Tyler asked her. "Not just one of us with an Energem?"

"It appears so." Kendall told them sadly. "And that makes it incredibly dangerous. That power undefended could fall into the wrong hands."

"So, what are our options?" Chase asked.

"To re-activate the Energem's defences, the last bearer would have to be destroyed, but I think we can all agree that isn't an option." Kendall explained, clarifying that she was in no way considering the idea of killing Albert just to make the Energem safe. "So the only other option we've got is to find someone else to bond with it."

"Well THAT's going to be easy." Riley said sarcastically, throwing his hands up in the air. "We still don't know what these things look for in the people they bond with."

"We know they look for heroics." Tyler said as he looked around the room. "I guess the one positive to come out of what's happening to Amber Beach is there's no shortage of opportunity for people to perform acts of heroism."

"It is true; there is no lack of opportunity for heroics in this city." Ivan agreed. "Though one act of heroism does not a hero make. Things were the same in my time, and if there's one thing I've learned, it is that anyone can do a heroic deed when they have no alternative. A true hero is one who would consistently perform those acts."

"It also presents us with a problem." Riley added. "Like you said, there's no shortage of heroics in this city. We can't be everywhere at once. How do we even find someone that has done something heroic?"

"Maybe we can set up an accident." Chase suggested, causing everyone to stare at him. "You know, pretend someone's in danger. Like...run a car at one of us. When someone saves them, we try the Energem and see if it bonds."

"You want to risk killing one of us on purpose just to see if someone saves us?" Shelby asked sceptically. Chase could see that everyone else was having much the same thoughts.

"Well...we'd be there for the act at least." He said defensively. Tyler just shook his head.

"Let's call that plan B shall we?" He replied. As he looked back to Kendall, she was staring at the Energem in her hand. He could see she was deep in thought about something.

"A hero...?" Kendall mused, looking to the Energem. She suddenly got a thought, and a smile crossed her face and she started gathering her things. "I have an idea!"

"You do?" Chase asked. "Then tell us!"

"You guys hold down the fort here for a couple of days!" She told them.

"Wait, what?" Allison called out. "What about the interviews?"

"I have an interview guide on the desk in my office." Kendall told her. "Just ask the questions on it and use your best judgement."

"What?" Allison called out. "Isn't that above my pay grade?"

"I trust you!" Kendall called out as she got to the elevator, pressing the button to head back up to the main floor. She looked to the Energem once more and smiled. She was disappointed it hadn't chosen her, but with each passing Energem, she was becoming more and more able to accept that her path was clearly not as a Ranger. As much as she wanted the power, she had the next best thing. If she was right, they would soon have their new Purple Ranger!

Fin.

A/N: Well, that's it for this story, but don't worry, the next one is beginning very soon. I hope you enjoyed this. Coming soon, the Rangers will search for their Purple Ranger!