More Important Stuff: This takes place in the same universe as my other vignette, Unspoken, but takes place much earlier.. in fact, as Mike is falling down the crevice. This is told from his point of view. This is now a series called 'Galactic Thoughts'.

And the strange thing was, I knew who was.

"Mike!" he was leaning, his hand out-reached for me. I couldn't take it, though. There wasn't time enough, and he wouldn't be strong enough to pull both me and the Sabre up. I made a split-second decision.

"Here, take the Sabre," I slowly lifted it up to him. He didn't want to take it, but he finally did. I told him how proud I was of him...and then I let go.

Yes, I let go. I knew that the crevice wouldn't stay open forever, and I didn't look forward to being crushed right in front of my brother's eyes. If he were going to see me, I wanted his last sight to at least be of me in one piece. I had never been afraid of heights, or depths, and as I fell farther and farther, I found myself thinking back and back.

Leo had followed where he wasn't supposed to again, he had followed me onto Terra Venture. He was supposed to have stayed at home, gotten a good job, and made something of himself. But as the light faded from above, and I kept on falling, I realized that perhaps "this"was his destiny. To wield the power of the Sabre and to fight against the new evil that was coming would give him the wisdom and maturity that nothing else possibly could have.

I had told him the truth. I had always been proud of him, and always would be. I knew that whatever he would become in the end, whatever would happen to him now that I wasn't there to protect him, it would be something that I would be proud to stand beside, should that be possible. He and Kendrix were going to make a fine couple one day. I could see the looks that had been passing between them, and she had been asking questions about him almost non-stop while we were on Miranoi. All that would remain would be for him to get over the shyness and ask her out. Or maybe she would ask him. . .we'd just have to wait and see.

"I wish I could be there to see it. I wish I could be there to see them all." The moment I had pulled the Sabre out, I had known that there was something strange happening. Evil had been defeated once, but like all evil, it would rise again. That time had come, it seemed. It was almost a shame that I had come so close to being in that battle, only to lose the chance now. I had grown up with the stories of the Power Rangers in my ears and eyes, and I had always wanted to be one, to make a difference in the universe. That's why I joined the GSA when it was formed after the end of the last war. If I couldn't be a Ranger, I could at least do like they had, and explore the universe.

Jarring pain suddenly ripped through me, and I thought for certain that this was the end. A single thought poured into my head: "so this is what it's like to die..."

"No."Another thought responded, and I realized with a snapping shock that I was not dead, and that something far, far stranger had happened. "We must be together now, or the wait of three millennia I have endured will be for nothing, and you will die."

"Who are you?" there was no question of refusal; I could see/sense everything this strange presence had been through in his life. I "knew"his pain and anger and desire for vengeance. I did not approve, but I understood.

Three words echoed around in my brain as I was, by necessity, subsumed into the depths. "The Magna Defender."