Disclaimer: Saban owns the Rangers. “Her Man” is by Gary Allan from his album Used Heart For Sale.

Author’s Note: If you have not read, “What She’s Doing Now”, you just might get lost in this fic. I hope you can find your way out again. *grin* PHANTOM received Cassie’s message, left the PRLG Rangers behind and is on his way to Earth. That’s intro enough. *grin* Many thanks to Starhawk the comedic mountain prophet for the proof and advice. The title of this fic is her fault. *grin*

There was something he was supposed to be doing. He knew that. But whatever it was was so far from his mind that he didn’t care that he couldn’t quite remember it. There was some place he was supposed to be. He knew that too. And the thing he should be doing was dependent on him being where he was supposed to be. But he didn’t care about that either. It did not bother him that he could remember neither the place nor the task. He had more important things to worry about. More important to him, the most important thing to him ever in his life, but in the grand scheme of things it was insignificant. So he was ignoring the grand scheme too. The others would not be pleased when he did not show up at wherever it was he was supposed to be. And that pleased him.

For he had always done what they wanted him to do. He had always followed the orders of those above him. He had gone to the worlds they had instructed him to and he had helped whomever had needed his help. But he had been waiting for this time, the time when good was victorious and he could make his break away for his own life. The war was over; evil had been destroyed, or so they thought. He knew better, he had seen that evil still existed. But he was not going to report it. He did not care about that anymore. As far as they knew, the days of warriors to battle against evil were over. And he was tired of not being able to live his own life. Now he was going to do what he wanted to do. And what he wanted to do was find her. Nothing and no one would stand in his way this time. She had left him the message as an invitation to find her, and that’s what he intended to do.

I go where I am needed -- and stay for as long as I am needed. His words to her echoed back to him as he thought of those he had just met; the obviously inexperienced team of Rangers who had stolen the MegaShip. If he had been still thinking of his duty, then he would have realized that ‘where he was needed’ was with the group of children he had left behind on that far away alien world. They were going to get themselves killed, he thought. But he couldn’t be responsible for the welfare of every person in the galaxy anymore. That was too much to ask of one person and he had done it for too long. For far too long he had had been forced to ignore what was important to him, to her. And for once he was going to do what he wanted to do and not what was expected of him, as irresponsible as it seemed.

His deeply ingrained devotion to his duty nagged at him to turn the starfighter around and head to the rendezvous point where he should have met the others, but he ignored it also. No, he was sure they had not been pleased that he had not shown up. Glancing at the starfighter’s chronometer he saw that he should have been there hours ago. They would start calling for him soon, he knew that. They would want to know where he was and why he wasn’t there. They always wanted to know why he was late.

The first time he had ever missed a strategy meeting was when he had gone ‘where he was needed’ on an assignment to Earth and had encountered her. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to leave her. He returned to Earth many times to help them through their hours of need, and he was always late in returning, never quite able to make himself leave her presence.

Finally he had had to force himself to concentrate on his duty. There were other planets and other people that needed his help, but he had left his heart behind on Earth. His reputed comrades thought he had finally put the ‘Earth girl’ behind him and was once again focused on the mission that they had laid out for him. But he knew the truth, that he could not be without her for long and that his duty had come to mean less and less to him as every day passed that he was without her.

Only when he had been called to defend Eltar had he had something to keep his mind off of her. And when Eltar fell and Zordon was captured, he threw himself into the search for the great being of good. But that only led him to encounter her again. It broke his heart to leave her with only that message beacon on Hercuron, but he was too badly injured and he knew that if he stayed he would never leave her. He knew he couldn’t do that; the search for Zordon was too important to ignore.

But now it was finally his time, his chance to follow his dreams. And he wasn’t going to let her go that easily. Abandoning duty and peers, he was disobeying direct orders, turning his back on those above him, those who had kept him from her. Starting today, he would be free. Starting today, he would finally be living a life of his choosing. For today he was leaving on a mission of his own.

He checked the computer and pulled up the program he had set in motion the day the war had ended. It was a calendar set to Earth time; his countdown to her. Three Earth months had passed from VE Day (Victory on Earth) to the day he had finally landed on her home planet and had conducted his unsuccessful search of the MegaShip and Angel Grove. His duties had delayed his arrival substantially.

Upon leaving the Earth to search for her elsewhere, he had kept up the appearance of fulfilling his appointed tasks while he continued to search for her. If they thought he was following their orders they tended to give him more leeway. It was easier to work with them, than to fight against them. He knew he would be making a break for his freedom soon; he was just biding his time until he found her.

From the time of his departure from Earth, his discovery of the pilfered MegaShip, until now had taken another three Earth months. It was far too long, he knew. He did not like leaving her waiting and wondering. That had been something his duty had forced him to do in the past, but no more. She was more important to him than anything. He would keep his promises. When he had found the stolen MegaShip on that alien world and had received her message, he knew that he had to return to Earth. Her message had shown him where she was and that she was willing to give him another chance; a chance he would not pass up. He knew the time was upon him to make his stand, to live for himself. And that’s what he was doing now.

They thought that since he needed the power ruby to live that it would hold him to them. That since his life force was linked to the stone they had granted him that he would be loyal to them, like an obedient lackey. They were wrong. If they wanted to take the ruby back, essentially to kill him, for his betrayal, then so be it. Even as he could not live without the ruby, he could not live without her. For her he would risk it. For her he was going to make his escape.

He dropped out of hyperrush when his sensors registered the starfighter’s arrival at the programmed destination. He looked to find himself exactly where he wished to be, amidst a graveyard of ships. Since evil had fallen, some of the more warlike races had taken up arms and had begun fighting amongst themselves for control of the worlds that had been ravaged by Dark Spectre’s forces. This had been the site of one of the most recent and ferocious battles. This place would do nicely for his plans.

He carefully piloted his starfighter through the wreckage of the many ships that had been destroyed, some within just the last few hours. If his superiors managed to track him this far, he planned to lose them here. He fully intended to let them think he and his starfighter had been destroyed in one of the attacks here. Both of the warring factions were making constant scouting runs back and forth through this sector, and the battles that broke out were numerous, as the surrounding debris proved. So it was very likely that he could be fired upon. If he was, so much the better. Then the stories would start about his starfighter being sighted in the area. And when he disappeared, assumptions would be made. He didn’t really care how they thought it happened, as long as they believed he was dead.

A yellow light appeared on his communications console accompanied by an annoying beeping, signaling an incoming message. He stared at it, knowing the time had come. They were looking for him, as he knew they would. He had been gone too long. As much as he admired their mission to work for peace, he hated their methods. He would never have his own life if they had any say in the matter. And they thought they did. They thought they controlled him, owned him. He would prove them wrong.

His eyes shifted from the communications console to his calendar still pulled up on the screen. Each second that passed without her was like an eternity, as he watched the LED numbers mark out the time. He knew this was it. There was no turning back as soon as he pushed that button. Once it was pressed a series of events would be started that he could not take back. Even if she rejected him, he knew he could never return.

He did not hesitate for even a moment as he quickly pushed the button to his right. Looking out the canopy he saw his starfighter’s flight recorder and locator beacon shooting out into space. He watched until they became lost in the battle relics surrounding him. Then something caught his eye off to the left; a wing of fighters for one of the warring planets.

He knew the approaching fighters knew who he was. He and his starfighter were known throughout the galaxy. He was either hated or respected, but he was known. They recognized his starfighter immediately and advanced on him quickly, each pilot wanting to stop what they believed to be his intervention into their war, to take the credit for disposing of him. He smiled quietly, for it was working out just as he had planned. It was almost too perfect.

He waited until they were dangerously close, never moving or returning their fire. When the lead ship was upon him he activated his cloaking device and veered out of the way. As he headed away from the attacking ships he reached up and switched off his radio, cutting off all communications. The yellow light went off and the annoying beeping ceased, the message never heard, its receipt never acknowledged. He was through with answering their calls and following their commands.

The confused fighters behind him were searching for him in vain. When news of his disappearance spread through the galaxy, he knew that they would gladly take credit for his death, even though they knew they hadn’t killed him. And their claims would never be able to be proven one way or another. His flight recorder would be found at the battle site, along with the locator beacon his superiors had used to track him. And any search for his starfighter’s wreckage would prove fruitless as the ship debris around him was largely unidentifiable as it continued to be damaged in the constant battles. He left the sector behind, knowing that his vapor trail would be safely hidden considering how many ships were entering and leaving that area so often and so quickly.

He returned to hyperrush once again and resumed his course to Earth, at peace with his decision. He had served them during their battle against evil, knowing he was doing good for many. He was saving lives and fighting for the freedom of countless worlds. Though after he had met her, he knew he was living for one thing: the day evil was destroyed and he would be free to leave that life behind and finally live a normal life with her. But when the war was over and evil vanquished, he realized they had no intention of ever letting him go. They did not care about him or her. They only cared that they had someone to do their bidding. But no more.

He turned on the message beacon that sat on his console, watching her message once again, getting lost in her beautiful eyes. He looked at the mountain range behind her and tried not to think about just how large an area it was. The difficulties of finding her were the farthest thing from his mind at the moment. He was filled with the sheer thrill of his new-found freedom, and any doubts he had about finding her were drowned out by the fact that he now had a starting point to begin from. He knew in his heart that they would be together soon.

His starfighter automatically dropped out of hyperrush in her solar system, the Earth growing closer and closer. He looked down at the calendar again as it patiently ticked away the time that they were apart. Soon it would stop, he was sure. His countdown to her would be over. I go where I am needed -- and stay for as long as I am needed. As he flew past Mars he heard his words echoed back to him once again, only they had new meaning to him.

He was going not ‘where he was needed’, but where he needed to be. And as for ‘staying as long as he was needed’, well he knew he needed to be beside her forever. If she would still have him. There was only one way to know. And he would never stop searching till he found her. He prayed the last six months of waiting had not hurt her as much as he suspected they had. He would make it up to her. He would do anything to make her happy. The calendar’s internal clock faithfully continued to count as the starfighter approached the Earth. His countdown to her was finally nearing its end. Or was it just beginning...