Sapphire was walking through the neighborhood by herself. Just admiring the sights, like the birds in the sky. Just then, she spotted a boy who had a black jacket and short, brown hair. "Emerald!" she called happily. The boy perked up and saw her coming, "H-Hey Sapphire." The two of them had formed a solid friendship since she showed Emereld kindness on his first day when everyone else stayed out of his way, due to him looking intimidating. Ever since then, the two of them had become good friends. "So where are you going?" Emerald asked.

"Oh, just walking around, that's all." Sapphire replied.

"Well, you wanna go to the mall?" Emerald suggested.

Sapphire raised an eyebrow, "You want to go to the mall. That's something that I would suggest."

Emerald shrugged, "Everyone's different."

"True. Alright, let's go."

The two friends headed off to the mall, unaware that some pairs of eyes were watching them from afar. At the mall, Emerald and Sapphire went into some clothing shops. Emerald liked all the 'bad boy' attire, but Sapphire said, "You don't have to always look like a bad boy, you know." and she picked out some happier looking clothes for Emerald and paid for them with her own money.

"Sapphire, you don't have to do this for me." Emerald stated. Sapphire smiled, "I want to do this, Emerald. You're my friend." Emerald gave her a little grin, but it turned into a frown when he saw what looked to be a plant, specifically a bush, moving closer to the store. It stopped and few feet from the store. "Emerald, what is it?"

"I think I'm crazy but I think that bush just moved closer to us." Sapphire looked at the bush and sighed irritably. "And I bet I know whose in there." she marched over to the bush and pulled it apart, revealing Sunset, Rainbow, Rhymey, Buddy and Fluttershy all wearing bush hats. ".... Um... hi Sapphire." Sunset greeted nervously. Sapphire growled at them.

Emerald came up to them, "What are you doing here?"

"Being helicopter friends. That's what." Sapphire grunted. Unfortunately, ever since she befriended Emerald, Sunset and the others, save for Lightning, had become like helicopter parents; following her everywhere she went with him from afar. It really bothered her and told them not to worry about her multiple times, but as teenagers, they were stubborn. Emerald decided to head home after thanking Sapphire for the clothes while she had a little talk with her friends.

At the Prison Tower, Keto was presenting his new plan to the Sirens. "Behold, Bounty." The monster beside him had a head in the shape of a lasso with ropes with knots on the ends of them for hands and he was wearing cowboy like attire. "I'll rustle up 'em rangers licktysplit."

"And what power does he have, shrimp?" Marla asked.

"He releases ropes that can bound people together, neutralizing their powers. With the rangers bound and powerless, we'll destroy them easily." Keto explained.

"Marla, Bronc, go with them to help." Aria ordered.

"Yes mistress." Bronc replied.

"Let's go catch us some rangers, yee-haw!" Bounty exclaimed. Marla and Bronc were not impressed but nonetheless, teleported away with Keto and Bounty.

Sapphire and the rangers went to the base where he and his wife sighed. "Again, rangers. Really?" Celesto said.

"We were just watching out for her." Sunset objected.

"Guys, I told you, I can take care of myself." Sapphire reassured.

"What if the minions appear?" Rainbow asked.

"I have my magic and powers to defend myself. Stop being helicopter friends, please." Sapphire begged. Sunset and the others sighed. "Rangers, I know you care for her very much and are protective of her, but there is such a thing as being too protective." Celestia stated. "You have to loosen the leash you have on her and let her go on her own."

"Alright. We promise." Sunset said. Just then, their morphers began blinking red. "Trouble" Twilight said. "The signal is coming from downtown."

"Let's go guys." Sunset snapped. The others nodded and headed to the park via jump tubes.

Downtown, Bounty was and the minions were blasting anything in sight; lampposts, benches and the sidewalks. Bounty used his powers to bound people by their arms and feet so they couldn't get away. "Hahaha, whose next?" Bounty asked.

"You are!" a voice said. The four monsters turned and saw the rangers, morphed and ready to fight. "Like moths to a flame." Keto snickered. "Let's get 'em!"

"Lingos, Attack!!" Marla ordered as she made a small swarm of Lingos and they charged the rangers. Buddy and Rainbow kicked and booted the Lingos, "Take that!" Rainbow said.

Sunset, Fluttershy and Rhymey punched the Lingos while Sapphire blasted them with her magic. With the swarm dealt with, they headed for Bounty and the minions. "Time to rope some cattle." Bounty said and he launched a rope at Sunset and the others. "Lookout!" Sapphire cried and she pushed them all out of the way, getting herself caught. The rope came around her waist and it deactivated her suit.

"Sapphire!" Rainbow cried.

The villians laughed. "Prefect." Bronc said.

"Now to keep her fro getting away." Bounty said and he roped the minions as well combining all the ropes into one! Now it was a single rope with three nooses! "What are you doing?!" Marla exclaimed.

"Keeping the cattle from getting away, that's what missy." Bounty said.

"Let Sapphire go!" Sunset growled.

"Hahaha, no way missy." Bounty replied.

SQUAWK!

"What was that?" Rainbow asked.

"Look!" Buddy pointed to the sky and everyone saw a large metal... bird? "Is that a Zord?" Rainbow questioned. They saw the metal bird coming down. "I think it is.... and it coming RIGHT FOR US!" Fluttershy screamed.

"Duck!" Sunset cried. The bird swopped down, the rangers and Bounty ducked out of the way but the bird grabbed Sapphire and minions roped, taking them into the air. "WAAAAAHHHHH!" they all screamed.

The rangers and Bounty looked up and gasped. "Sapphire! NO!" Sunset yelled. The rangers and Bounty could only watch as the bird flew away with Sapphire and the minions. "Aww shoot, it got away." Bounty grunted and he teleported back to the tower.

"Ooooh, now what?" Fluttershy questioned.

"Let's get back to the base, fast!" Rainbow suggested.

"Right." They all rushed over to jump tube and they went to the base.

Meanwhile, the Zord was still flying through the air with Sapphire and the minions in it's talons. The three minions tried to pull the rope of our it's grip, but it was too strong. "Great, now what?" Marla grunted.

"Keto, use you mugic on this thing." Bronc said.

"I can't. The rope neutralized my mugic." Keto replied.

"Perfect." Marla growled. "Hey! Animal Ranger, do something!"

"O-Okay." Sapphire started to swing back and forth and back and forth, gaining enough momentum to throw herself onto the Zord's talons. "Let's see if my animal powers still work." She concentrated and she changed into a phoenix. Luckily, her animal shape shifting was natural being that she had all the animals DNA codes in her blood. She fired a fir blast at the talon, making the Zord squawk in pain, releasing the four. The weight of the four minions yanked Sapphire down, she tried flapping her wings to slow down, but their weight was still pulling them all down fast and unfortunately right into the ocean!

SPLASH!

The four of them crashed into the water and resurfaced a few moments later. Sapphire saw the Zord flying away and gave a sigh of relief. "Zord gone. Good."

"But what about us! Now we're lost in the ocean!" Marla said. "I am not swimming back to he tower like the last time!"

"We don't have to. Look." Bronc pointed to an island a few miles away. "I am not swimming all the way over there." Marla whined.

"Stop whining!" Keto exclaimed in annoyance. Before the two could bicker anymore, they all felt something tugging on their rope. "What the-?" Suddenly a peach colored dolphin came up from underneath them and started swimming towards the island. "Animal Ranger?!" the three minions exclaimed. The dolphin's head rose above the water. "Hehe, need a ride?" she teased.

She swam all the way to the island and beached herself. The three minions dismounted her and Sapphire changed back into her human self. She tapped her morpher to see if it still worked, but it sparked and started smoking. "Morpher's dead. Great." The four looked at the trees ahead. They heard all kinds of jungle noises coming from the forest. ".... Should we go in?" Marla asked.

"Well, anything's better than being out in the open." Bronc said. "Maybe the Sirens will come looking for us."

"Maybe..." Keto added. "Well... we better get walking." he said.

With that, the four of them walked into the forest where who knows what dangers lied on the island.

Back at the base, Twilight was trying her best to track down Sapphire. "Anything Twilight?" Celesto asked.

"Nothing sir, her morpher must be damaged somehow." Twilight replied. The rangers were all getting really worried. "Not good. That Zord could have taken them anywhere in the world. How are we gonna find them now?" Rainbow questioned.

"Maybe you can use her dragons?" Spike suggested. "I mean they do have a track record of amazingly finding her."

"That is true.... let's give it a try." Sunset said. "Sapphire's counting on us."

"Right." The others said. Soon the five of them were on the dragons. Sunset was on Midnight. Buddy and Rainbow were on Flameclaw and Rhymey and Fluttershy were on Smoke and Fire. "Alright gang, spread out and see if you can spot them." Sunset ordered and they all took to the air.

"Please be okay, Sapphire." They all thought.

On the island, Sapphire and the minions were still trekking through the forest. "Ugh.. how much further?" Marla whined. "My feet are killing me." Keto groaned at the sound of her whining and covered his ears with his wizard hat. "There's a cave up ahead. We can rest in there." Bronc said.

The four of them entered the cave and sat down to rest their feet. "Well... looks like we're gonna be here for a while." Sapphire said.

"Here?!" Marla exclaimed.

"We can't exactly walk around the island forever." Sapphire added. Marla groaned. "Oh stop whining! At least there's no animals on this island." Bronc grunted.

GROWL.

At the sound of a growl, Sapphire and the minions froze. "... Please tell me that was one of your stomachs?" Sapphire asked the minions nervously.

"Nope." They all replied in unison. They all heard the growl again and turned towards the inside of the cave. They began to hear footsteps and saw two claws and a large mouth appear. It was red with black stripes on it's body and it looking like a large version of Flameclaw. What came out of the shadows was a Titan Wing Monstrous Nightmare And it wasn't very happy to have four strangers in it's cave. It snarled at them, baring it's teeth. Marla eeped and hid behind Sapphire. "W-What is that thing?" she squeaked.

"T-Titan Wing Monstrous Nightmare." Sapphire stammered.

"And it doesn't look very happy." Keto whimpered. The Nightmare snarled at the four of them. "What do we do?" Bronc questioned.

"... RUUUUN!" Sapphire cried.

The four of them dashed out of the cave with the Nightmare hot on their tail. "What is wrong with this thing?!" Keto cried.

"Territorial!" Sapphire yelled.

"Less taking, more running!" Marla screamed. The four made it into a clearing which unfortunately, was homed by a light green Zippleback, a purple Deadly Nadder and a red Triple Stryke dragon! "Oh greez." Sapphire whimpered. All the dragons roared at the four of them and blasted them with their fire, sending them flying backwards.

"I have a feeling this isn't over." Keto said.

"Yep." Bronc agreed. The four heard the dragons roars again and shot up rushing away. The Sapphire and Bronc reached a cliff but Marla and Keto bumped into them, sending them all down the cliff. "Woah! Ooof!"

The four dragons were still coming after them. "Come on!" Sapphire exclaimed. The four of them ran away again, "Gah, I can't run for much longer." Marla said.

"Keep going!" Bronc snapped.

"But if those things catch up with us, we're goners!" Marla added. Just then, the four of them were cornered by ravine with a river down below. "A ravine! Great." Keto whimpered. The four dragons caught up with them and roared in anger at the four. "Oooh, now what?" Bronc added in fear.

Sapphire looked between the river and the dragons and got an idea. "Hold on you three." she said.

"Huh?" She jumped over the ledge, dragging the minions down with her. "YAAAAHHH!" In midair, Sapphire changed into a orange Deadly Nadder and let the minions land on her back. "Oof." Flapping her wings, she flew into the air away from the four dragons, but they weren't finished yet. The purple Nadder followed them. "Animal Ranger, we got one behind us." Marla said. Sapphire turned and saw the Purple Nadder. It fired it spines at her, but Sapphire swerved to the right, dodging the attack. "Hold on, you three." she said. Marla grabbed Sapphire around her neck, while Bronc put his arms around her and Keto did the same with Bronc. Sapphire dove into the trees at blinding speed with the Nadder right behind. Swerving in and out of the tree, fluently, she flicked her tail, sending spines at the purple Nadder. The Nadder blasted the away with it's fire.

Keto looked behind, "It's still after us!" he cried. Sapphire knew she had to think of something to lose the Nadder and fast! Suddenly, she saw another cave a few miles away. "Perfect." She turned around to face and Nadder and fired at it. The Nadder countered with it's own fire, creating a large cloud of smoke. Just what Sapphire needed. With the Nadder losing sight of them, she dove for the cave and swiftly entered.

The Nadder flapped away with cloud and looked around for Sapphire, but no luck. The Nadder warbled and flew away in a huff. With the Nadder gone, Sapphire peeked out of the cave. "Phew... it's gone." The minions leaped off of her and she changed back into herself. "That was way too close."

"You're telling me." Bronc agreed. ".... Um... thanks for the save... back there."

Sapphire smiled. "No problem."

Marla flopped onto the floor. "Ugh... I'm so hungry." her stomach growled emphasizing her statement. Bronc and Keto's stomachs growled too and the boys groaned. Sapphire looked at little sad and looked towards the entrance to the cave. She saw some fruits hanging from a tree. Grinning, she quickly dashed out the cave, to the minions' confusion, "Hey, where are you going?"

Sapphire didn't reply but instead came to one of the trees and climbed it with ease, thanks to her animal abilities. She grabbed about ten fruits with her magic, scaled down the tree and went back into the cave and gave them to the minions. "Here." The minions looked at her confused, they hesitantly took the fruit and ate it, much to Sapphire happiness. There were three fruits left and the minions were about to grab them when they froze and looked at Sapphire.

They began to feel... weird again. Marla used her long, pink hair to grab the fruit and offer it to Sapphire, much to her surprise. "A-Are you sure?"

The three minions nodded and Sapphire took the fruit, "Thank you." and she ate it.

".... No...um... thank you, Sapphire." Bronc stammered.

"For what?" Sapphire asked, confused.

"Well... it's just..." Keto stammered.

"No one had treated us so....." Marla trailed.

"Nice before?" Sapphire guessed. The three minions nodded. "After everything we did, why are you being so nice to us?" Bronc asked.

"Well... you're my friends."

"Friends?" The three replied in unison.

"Well... yeah. You don't have to be evil, you know." Sapphire stated. "A new friend can come from anywhere. That's what I think." The minions began to have mixed feelings about Sapphire. Even though she was the enemy, she treating them... nicely and uncruelly, which was the exact opposite of hoe Vulcan and Nacluv had treated them.

The three shook it off and Marla scoffed, "W-Whatever, we're bitter enemies!"

Sapphire smirked softly, "They'll come around... eventually." Just then, the four of them heard some breathing in the cave. "What's that?" Bronc questioned.

Sapphire began walking slowly down the cave and lit the tip of her horn, lighting up the whole cave. Sitting in the far back of the cave were two dragons. A purple Zippleback and a turquoise Deadly Nadder with pink feet, belly and nose, blue and red wings with some blue spots.It's tail has blue and red stripes and it's eyes are red. They were both asleep but the light woke them up and they growled at the four. "Oh geez, not again." Marla whined.

But Sapphire, could sense something was different with these two. "No... wait." Looking closer, she saw that they had multiple scars on their faces. "What?" Keto asked.

"These dragons... they have scars on their faces. Look closely." Sapphire said.

The minions squinted at the dragons, "The rangers' right. They are banged up a little." Bronc agreed. "What happened?"

Sapphire sighed sadly, "If I had to take a guess.... hunters."

"Hunters?" Marla questioned.

"Yes... people sometimes capture animal to use them in fighting, like dog fighting. People train dogs to fight to the death. They use bait dogs to help train fighting dogs and if they survive, they toss them to the streets." Sapphire explained. "I believe something very similar happened to these dragons."

Marla, Bronc and Keto were surprised. The Zippleback and Deadly Nadder growled at the four. The minions looked at each other and slowly approached the dragon with Sapphire following. Keto and Bronc went for the Zippleback while Marla went for the Deadly Nadder. The dragons roared. "Shh... it's... it's alright." Keto cooed.

"We... just want to... help you." Marla added. They reached out their hands to the two frightened and abused dragons. "We know how cruelly you two must have been treated, we understand. We were treated badly too, but we promised we won't let anything harm you both again." Bronc explained. The dragons calmed a little and looked at each other and back at the three minions. They stepped forward and....

.... nudged their heads into their hands. Trust had been established. The minions looked and gasped softly. "Looks like you three have two new dragons now." Sapphire smirked. The minions actually... smiled at her. "Come on, we better get moving again."

The minions nodded and they all walked out of the cave with the two dragons following them. Suddenly, the purple Nadder, red Triple Styrke and Titan Wing Monstrous Nightmare burst into the sky and roared down at them. "WAH!" Sapphire cried. The four ran away again, "They found us?! How?!" Marla cried. Just then, the wild Zord appeared in the sky diving right for them. The four skidded to a stop. "There a Zord in front of us and three dangerous dragons right behind." Keto whimpered.

The Zord and dragons got closer to the four who now stood back to back. "What are we gonna do?" Bronc asked. Sapphire could fight them but the rope wouldn't let her get far and without her magic the attacks would not be as powerful. The Zord and dragons got closer. "This looks bad." Sapphire whimpered. The four of them gulped softly.

Just then, a plasma blast stuck the Titan Wing Monstrous Nightmare, stopping it in it's tracks and Midnight appeared flying above. "Sapphire!" The rangers cried. "Sunset, everyone!" she called back in joy. The Nadder and Triple Stryke continued to charge but the purple Zippleback and colorful Deadly Nadder leaped in front of the minions and blasted them with their fire attacks, making them roar in pain. The Zord stopped diving and just hovered in the air. The Zippleback and Nadder bashed the Triple Stryke and other Nadder away and they two wild dragons ran away. The four of them gave a sigh of relief.

Sunset and the rangers landed and rushed over to Sapphire, "Sapphire, are you alright?" Sunset asked.

"Yes.. I'm okay. Thanks to you guys."

"Now let's get this rope off of you." Buddy asked. Smoke and Fire blasted the rope, making it shrivel, freeing her and the minions. "You're free." Fluttershy said.

"So are you minions." Rainbow growled.

"Yeah, yeah, we're leaving." Marla scoffed. Marla mounted her Nadder and Bronc and Keto mounted their Zippleback. "When did they get dragons?" Sunset asked as the dragons flew in the air and out to sea. Snowflake, Midnight, Smoke, Fire and Flameclaw all tackled Sapphire in a dragon hug. "Aww..hehehe okay you guys, hahaha, yes, I missed you too." she laughed.

The rangers smiled at the scene. "Come on, let's get you home, Sapphire." Sunset said.

Squawk!

"What about the Zord?" Rainbow asked.

"I've got this." Sapphire said. The Zord calmly flew down to Sapphire and landed. Now she could get a good look at it. The Zord was an Eagle. It had a white underbelly and was blue with light blue tipped feathers. The Zord bowed it's head and Sapphire touched it with her morpher. The Zord glowed for a moment and squawked majestically. "Another Zord... tamed." Sapphire declared. The rangers grinned and the mounted the dragons while Sapphire rode on the head of the Zord and they all headed back to Mystic Island. Their home.