Altered Fate

After his older sister left for work, Nick locked himself in the bathroom at his sister's apartment and, clinging to his baby blanket, he began to cry. Why is her voice so familiar? He wondered. I've never met Udonna before—I shouldn't recognize her voice, but I do. It's like I heard her talking to me before this adventure—like in a dream or a memory of a dream or a dream of a memory. But I couldn't have. We never met until that day five months ago. I'm sure of it. But then they do say a child will recognize its mother's voice—there's no way she's my mother. She never would have abandoned me if she really was my mother.

Madison entered Rootcore and asked, "Udonna—is Nick here?"

"He never showed up to work and that's not like him," her twin sister, Vida, who had accompanied the blue mystic, added.

"No, none of us have seen him today," Udonna murmured. Daggeron and Clare were busy helping Woodland Village with the rebuilding process from its destruction—when the rangers lost their powers and good magic was wiped from the land, the village was utterly decimated—to put it nicely.

The three women looked at each other. Something was seriously wrong. "We will find him," Udonna vowed. No one hurts one of my rangers—well, technically they're not really mine—but that's beside the point—and gets away with it. I will find Nick and alert the others.

Xander suddenly called the two girls. "Good news—Nick's sister just stopped in and told me where to find Nick. Bad news—Nick's not coming out of the bathroom."

The two Rocca girls exchanged glances and joined the yellow and green rangers in an effort to get the red ranger back.

Xander knocked on the door and said, "Come on, Nick. It's us. We just want to talk."

Nick opened the door and looked at his friends. Then he bit his lip and said, "You guys are going to think I'm crazy."

"No we're not," Chip blurted out. "You guys don't think I'm crazy."

"No, my situation's totally different from yours, Chip," Nick murmured.

"What do you mean?" Vida asked.

"This is going to sound weird, but I think I met Udonna before," Nick whispered.

"What?" Madison asked. "Why do you think that? What makes you say that?"

"I feel like I heard her voice before—somewhere or somewhen, and I don't know if that's true or not," Nick explained, as a fresh round of tears started streaming down his face.

"Is that why you've been trying to avoid her?" Madison hesitantly asked.

Nick shrugged and replied, "I guess so."

Xander glanced at the other rangers and said, "Nick, I think it might best for you—and Udonna—if the two of you talk and you explain the problem to her."

Vida, Chip, and Madison all nodded in agreement. Nick nodded and said, "Alright. But first, I should probably clean up."

"Alright, we'll walk you to Rootcore and no chickening out, either," Vida added.

Nick nodded in gratitude. A half hour later, the five teens arrived at Rootcore.