Shimazu edged along the rocks that guarded the cliffs. It was fortuitous that he had found them once again, that class that those meddlesome girls had kept him from attacking. His master's nephew was not there... This was a problem... but he could wait. He had waited this long. He could wait again.

He watched as they just stood on the edge of the cliff. Were their eyes closed? What sort of fighting training was this? Well, whatever the case... when the ex-Ranger appears, he would attack. And if he chose to stand with those others with his eyes closed... all the better!

An hour passed. Or was it 20 minutes. It was almost dizzying to watch the three stand on the cliff's edge. Sometimes it looked as if they were standing still. Sometimes it looked as though they were swaying each time the waves crashed against the rocks below. He was getting tired of waiting. He inched closer.

Hiro's voice carried just barely above the surf. "Do you hear that, my students?"

"The waves again?" Cy was trying to catch up.

"The footsteps?" Mei Lien whispered.

"Precisely."

Cy concentrated. There were indeed footsteps barely audible over the waves. His sensors separated out the sounds, identifying the anomaly, calculating the distance. The steps were tracing the rock edge, approaching slightly.

"Should we investigate, Grandfather?"

"Hmmm... I believe it would be-"

"Sensei?" Mei Lien whispered.

"We should return to the Academy at once!"

The old man's voice seemed slightly panicked to Cy. He was curious because the steps were receding, probably alerted by his grandfather's raised voice. Cy looked at Mei Lien. She glanced at him, her face was creased with concern. Both fell into step behind their teacher.

"What of the steps?" Cy whispered to Mei Lien.

"Perhaps this is his plan?" Mei Lien shrugged.

"No. The spy will wait. The Academy is of concern now. Something is not right. My intuition tells me we should return at once." The old man seemed hurried. Cy couldn't remember seeing him walk so quickly before now.

Uncle?

If Marah had to make a list of the last people she ever expected to suddenly appear at the Wind Academy, her Uncle Lothor would top the list. Well, there was Ashlee Simpson or Dennis Rodman. Okay, so who knows where Dennis Rodman would show up. But yeah, Uncle topped the list.

It had been a totally normal day till then. Kapri and she had finished their ninja homework, and she had been hoping to find Dustin. His classes for the day were done too, and she was going to the track with him to watch him practice some jumps.

But Dustin hadn�t come back yet from the big multi-element class in the woods. Actually Shane and Tori hadn�t come back either. The students had, but the teachers were nowhere to be seen. She wondered if she should be worried. Normally she wouldn�t be. But Cam was looking for his dad too. And they�d told Cam not to worry, that Sensei was a way powerful ninja and could take care of himself. But you know, this made four people gone. At what point should they start worrying?

Because there had been a lot more monster attacks recently. And they�d handled them all pretty well so far. But they knew there were like generals out there too. Like Shimazu. Cam had so not been happy when she and Dustin had told him about that.

But yeah, Uncle at the Academy with new evil guys kinda topped Shimazu in the woods with two Wolfblades.

So when Uncle had shown up, Kapri and she had been surprised. Uncle had two big guys with him that she�d never seen before. Big, strong, and way ugly. They just started blasting things in all directions.

Then as if in answer to her frantic thoughts, Dustin, Shane and Tori appeared. And in quite a spectacular fashion, as heroes should. Only this entrance was a little more destructive in the explosive kind of way than usual.

Marah and Kapri ran past Lothor and his goons to reach the Winds. She was amazed that Uncle just let her pass. Something seemed very wrong about that. He wasn�t one to let opportunities literally slip past him like that.

But Dustin was here now, and that made everything better. They�d talked about how she should tell him if she had any more visits from family and old friends. It had sounded funny at the time, even though it wasn�t. And it was way serious now. She wouldn�t have to tell him Uncle was back, because he was here to see it.

�Thank goodness you�re here! Look, Lothor!� she said hurriedly as she ran up, grabbing his arm. But Dustin just shrugged her off and kept walking without missing a beat. And Marah thought she had felt something on his arm. Something that hadn�t been there for many months.

�We know. Isn�t it great,� Shane remarked. There was a coldness to his voice she didn�t like. She had been right. There was something way, way wrong here.

The Winds had walked up to stand next to Lothor. And if that wasn�t bad enough, the something she had felt on Dustin�s arm she could now see clearly. And it wasn�t just a toy or something, because they morphed.

The Winds had their morphers back, functioning and everything. And they were working for Uncle, because they were attacking the ninja students.

No no no no. This was just wrong. Or an alternate universe like the one Tori had gone to. Dustin could NOT be evil.

Only he was. She just couldn�t believe he was doing this willingly though. She just had to do something to help him. Like the way he had always tried to help her.

A brisk walk later, the three arrived at the Academy outskirts. They hurried through the empty training fields.

"I wonder if Flesh-bro has found Dad yet..."

"You would think. It's not like the Sensei to stay hidden for long, or be in communicado with no note, right?" Mei Lien answered.

"Let's hope," Hiro whispered as he panted.

They worked their way up to the main field. A flurry of sounds caught all three of their attentions. They ducked and peered into the field. The sight of students being sucked into a bottle was terrifying. The sight of Lothor standing there was even more so. The most terrifying sight was that three Rangers demorphed to become Shane, Dustin, and Tori. The three Sensei stood with Lothor. Without watching another moment, Hiro grabbed the other two. They turned to him. He shook his head and mouthed the words "Let's go now."

Moments later, safely outside Academy grounds again, Hiro finally seemed to find his voice again.

"There was nothing we could do at that moment. For some reason, Tori, Shane, and Dustin are working for Lothor. There is more at stake here than I had realized. We must seek other options, in order to help." He turned and walked into the woods. Cy looked at Mei Lien. She fell into step.

"But?" Cy whispered to no one, shrugged, and followed.

She knew Kapri had to be thinking the same thing she was. Get away.

�Cause they could fight, and most likely do a bit of damage. But this would be Ranger Powers they would be going against. And on top of that, they were seriously out-numbered.

And what good would it do if they were captured? Which, you know, they probably wouldn�t be. Uncle would have something worse in store for them. Uncle would capture the ninja students for sure, but them? Oh, he had to just hate them for what they�d done. They�d be on his hit list for sure. If he had things like hit lists.

They needed to get away. They needed to find Cam. Cam would know what to do. He always did. Their cousin would know how to help Dustin and the others.

Uncle had pulled out some ugly jug and was sucking the ninja students into it. Same idea as Choobo�s bubbles that students got sucked up to the ship in last year. Probably a lot more claustrophobic and crowded though. Yeah, she didn�t want to be in there.

Kapri and she had just started to run in front of the teaching platform. Almost to the gate, almost homefree. And Uncle chose that moment to whirl around and turn the student-sucking jug on them.

Oops.

She tried bringing up that they were family. For all the good it did. Kapri had a better idea and mentioned that they could help. Oh, that was good! If they were with Uncle they could find out just what was going on and they could figure out how to fix it all.

�Like you did last time?� Lothor growled in response to Kapri�s offer to help.

�Yeah!� Marah answered brightly.

�No!� Kapri countered.

�No?�

�No. Seriously��

Oh, now she got it. Marah had meant how they�d worked with Uncle originally. But Lothor literally meant the last time. Like the whole Abyss mess. Which was so not right of him. He was the one who betrayed them, not the other way around. But Uncle still had his hand on the jug lid, so now was not the time to argue over semantics.

Kapri had made a comment about they could help �cause they were ninjas. It startled Marah out of her thoughts enough to go along with her and make a chopping movement as a demonstration. Which unfortunately hit Kapri. Or maybe it was fortunate. Because if Uncle believed they weren�t a threat, maybe he wouldn�t dispose of them.

Maybe was right. Uncle changed his mind. Then he changed them. In a quick ninja switch they found themselves back in their alien looks. And in Lothor�s army on a trial basis.

She looked down at her clothes, then up at Dustin. The Winds were unmorphed now, gathered around Uncle, and glaring.

This wasn�t right. It so wasn�t right. They had to do what they could to help the others. She had to do what she could to help Dustin.