The monster alert was not his idea of a good way to wake up. Always a bad omen, the shrill alert ripped him from a peaceful sleep that had been unattainable for days. But duty was just that, and he put a hand on Cassie's shoulder to ease her transition into the conscious world.

"What's going on?" she mumbled, barely half awake as she rolled away from him and sat up to give him room. Clad only in her pink nightshirt, she was already reaching for her jeans as he slid past her. "I thought we were monster free for a few days."

"Perhaps Astronema has remembered who she is." His tunic was only slightly less wrinkled than the clothes he had worn to bed, but California mornings were cool and he wasn't going without it. "Who's on the surface?"

"Andros and Ashley," Cassie answered, skipping through the doorway as she pulled her sandals on. "Maybe Zhane. It must be bad if they didn't have time to call us."

He followed her down the hallway at a run, joining TJ in the lift and holding the door as Carlos charged in behind them. "DECA says it's in the park," TJ informed them. "Andros and Ash are already on their way."

That was all they had time for before the lift discharged them outside the Glider holding bay. Cassie squeezed his hand and he nodded to her, watching the three Astro Rangers swarm the jump tubes. He reached up to wrap his fingers around his crystal and the Megaship vanished in a flash of ruby-tinted black.

Andros was morphed. Zhane was under fire. Ashley's teleportation must have been simultaneous with his own. The source of fire was--civilian?

The details of the scene registered reflexively in his brain, and he saw Andros and the civilian turning toward each other at the same moment. Both had weapons drawn, but the civilian had obviously anticipated his target. Andros had no such advantage, and he was a fraction of a second too slow.

"Andros!" His shout served neither to warn Andros nor distract the civilian, but he thought he had reached the Red Ranger in time to avoid the weapon's blast. He was wrong. Electric fire wrapped around them both as they fell, and the Power deserted him.

The next thing he knew, Ashley was hovering over him with a worried expression on her face. He knew something was wrong even before she asked, for the Power was a steady but distant force that lent no aid as he struggled to sit up. He tried to brush off her concern, looking around for Cassie instinctively--

Something blew up in his face. He winced, felt Ashley thrown into him, fought to stay upright as he registered several distressing facts simultaneously. His vision was blurred by the green afterimage of the explosion. Two of the Astro Rangers were down. And he was clutching Ashley tightly to his chest.

He felt her wrench away, saw the bright light of her weapon pierce the haze in front of his eyes. His desert-adapted vision should have been able to handle the fireworks, but he flinched away from the light when his eyes started to tear. Brilliant purple surrounded the place where his attention had been inevitably drawn, and when it dimmed and vanished there was nothing there.

He was on his feet before he knew what had happened. He might be reeling from sensory overload, but TJ and Carlos needed help. Ashley was bent over them, and she lifted her head to catch his eye before perusing the rest of the battlefield. He followed suit automatically, the awareness of something missing in the back of his mind as he sought Cassie once more.

The world stopped as rage flared fast and harsh against the background of uncertainty. His fists clenched and angry strength poured through every fiber of his body--

But there was no Power. It should have reacted to such intense emotion: singing, recoiling, something, *anything* but the emptiness he felt and that was all that made him hesitate long enough to process what he was seeing. It was *Saryn* that Cassie was kissing--it was him!

She let him go, an adoring smile on her face as she stared up at the imposter wearing his form, and he half expected his blaster to appear on his wrist. He barely heard the teleportation behind him, though he saw "Saryn" lift his head and say something to the others. Then the blue eyes of his own mirror image caught his stare.

Still too aware of Cassie, he saw her stumble back as her confusion blossomed in his mind. Her eyes were closed, as though trying to deny the lie they told, and for one terrible moment he thought he would see a stranger reflected in her gaze when she looked up. His heart constricted painfully--but there was something missing.

Cassie opened her eyes and looked straight into his soul. "Saryn?"

Fighting the urge to yank her away, pull her out of the reach of the person wearing his face, he nodded once. It took all his control to stay still. When he saw "Saryn" look down he did the same, and suddenly Ashley's concern made sense. But there was still something missing.

It tickled his thoughts more and more insistently as their situation became clear, and finally he admitted that it wasn't just jealousy at seeing Cassie with... Andros. "Saryn". It didn't matter. He didn't like this at all.

"It must have been sent to bring Kerone back to the Dark Fortress," Cassie was saying. "Maybe someone there thought Zhane had kidnapped her or something..."

His fists clenched involuntarily as the name rippled through his mind. It was Zhane that was missing. It was the Silver Ranger that had left this rift in his heart, and it was as painful as it was disconcerting. He wasn't Andros--he didn't even *like* the carefree Kerovan. And yet there it was: Zhane's absence was making him uncomfortable.

"You're right," Andros agreed, and for a moment the conversation was lost on Saryn. Then the Red Ranger added, "We have to get them out of there."

"Zhane, at least." The words were out before he knew what he was going to say, and he tried to cover it up when two surprised gazes turned toward him. "We do not know whom your sister is loyal to at this point, Andros."

It nothing more than a flicker, a leftover impression from Andros' subconscious, or perhaps... He sighed softly as a more likely explanation occurred to him. Perhaps a feeling so strong that it was indelibly written into Andros' physical reactions. Which meant that if they couldn't find a way to switch themselves back, the familiar could be alien for a long time to come.

He wondered what exactly his body was telling Andros. Which secrets traveled with his mind, and which were rooted in something more corporeal? He wasn't sure there was any satisfying answer to that question.

He did know, however, that when Kerone said the spell was reversible he was more relieved than he had been in a long time. He didn't miss the fact that, aside from Cassie, Zhane had been the only one to recognize the change in the two of them. Ashley had been under some pressure at the time, of course, but the Silver Ranger called "Saryn" by his real name after only the briefest hesitation.

He didn't pull away when Zhane reached through the violet sparkles to take his arm, but inwardly he flinched. If this didn't work...

Then Cassie's arms were around him, and he heard the Power roar in his ears as the magic faded. His crystal protested the sorceress' intrusion even as it succumbed to Cassie's presence, quieting to a grumble as her spirit touched and tamed his own. How much of that was him and her, and how much was the Power?

He didn't know, and right now he didn't care. He had reached for this solace in the corridors of the Dark Fortress, taking her hand in an effort to center his thoughts on her instead of someone he barely considered a teammate, let alone a friend. It hadn't worked then, but now the feeling was his to claim and he wasn't going to waste any time.

"Thank you," the Red Ranger had said, but the words didn't begin to cover it. As Cassie's arms tightened around him, Saryn realized that for the first time in years he was truly grateful to be who he was.