Unheard
by Starhawk

The sharp, numbing pain in his side filled him with a sense of dread. That had been no ordinary blow--Ecliptor's last strike had breached his armor, and another hit like that would drive him to his knees. His ruby pulsed, increasing the Power flowing through him until he thought it might burn him out, and somehow he managed to stay on his feet as Ecliptor's sword slashed at him once more.

The grayness on the edge of his vision told him he didn't have much time--consciousness threatened to desert him, and there was no way he could sustain this kind of Power surge for long. But it was the only thing keeping him on his feet, and he backed up, struggling with his ruby for the control that he was dangerously close to losing.

Then there was something hard and unyielding at his back, and there was nowhere else to go. Ecliptor raised his sword, and something in him rebelled. It could *not* end like this--he wouldn't let it, not when there was so much left undone. But the Power was pushed to its limits already, and he could do no more than stand, alone and helpless, before the evil he had spent his life fighting.

He thought the bursts of light were only a trick of his failing vision, but through the haze he saw Ecliptor fall back, and there was a sudden wall of color between him and the enemy. *Rangers,* he thought tiredly, but he could not even muster the strength to step forward and stand with them.

Ecliptor might have vanished into sparkles of green light then, but he wasn't sure until he felt a familiar and very welcome presence at his side. *Cassie…* He knew without conscious thought that it was her, feeling her own energy spark against his overcharged Power in a reaction he knew all too well. The shock was almost too much to take after what he'd been through today, and she caught his arm as he staggered.

The spark ignited within him at the physical contact, and he found himself leaning into her without meaning to. Gods, he had missed that feeling in the long months since he had seen her last. How could he have lived without it, he wondered, her touch restoring his awareness in a way Ecliptor's attack, coming on top of scores of similar battles, had not.

As always, though, she seemed to feel nothing, and he tore his gaze away from her as she asked, "Are you all right?"

Her voice was only concerned, the mild tone of worry reserved for a fellow warrior. "I'm all right," he managed, trying his hardest *not* to look at her. The desire to see her, touch her, speak to her, had never abated since that first day when she had teleported to the site of a battle he had not yet left, and he had felt the brush of her soul against his.

He had taken any excuse to encounter their team after that, but he had never been able to face them--to face *her*--for very long. He found himself utterly distracted by the melding of spirits that she seemed completely oblivious to, and he had to flee before he said anything to give himself away. At last he had been unable to take it anymore, for as long as he was within range, he *would* find reasons to see her, and he couldn't keep up the constant tug-of-war with his heart.

When he awoke from his Power-deprived coma to find her standing over him, he had thought she *must* have felt it this time. Her energy practically surrounded him, merging with his as his ruby came to life, and it had been all he could do to keep himself from pulling her close against him to hold for all eternity. But she had made no movement toward him, and he had done his best to respect her wishes, putting distance between them as quickly as possible.

Her call of "Wait!" had stopped him in his tracks, and he had hated the hope that flared within him, knowing it was doomed to disappointment. And it was--she had asked only, in the friendliest way possible, if they might see him again. She could have no idea how close he came to confessing right then. Her question had brought him to the brink of hopeless abandon, wanting to answer that she could see him every day for the rest of her life if she so wished.

He still did not know how he had found the strength to walk away.

The hunger for her was no less, no matter how far from her he got, but at least he felt secure in the knowledge that he could not act upon it. The longing became a permanent ache in his heart, knowing now what it was missing and demanding that she come and fill it with her gentle yet courageous presence. Knowing that she was out there still, fighting even as he did, made him continue, dreaming of a day when things might somehow be different.

Today was not that day. He managed somehow to answer their questions, trying and failing to ignore the addictive joy of a kindred spirit touching his. She continued to support him, believing him too injured to stand, and perhaps he was, he did not know. He didn't care, either. Not so long as she was holding him, being his strength, hope, and the love he had never thought he could feel.

He drank it in, knowing that all too soon she would be leaving him again--and he felt his heart sink as he heard Andros's communicator beep. It was DECA, of course, with word of yet another monster attacking their home planet. They had to go, and he knew what was coming. She would pull her arm away from him, as she had after freeing him from Havoc's prison, taking with her both his heart and the only strength that was keeping him on his feet.

He drew away first, but the abrupt dimming of her presence in his mind was almost as bad as the sudden outflow of Power, and he realized exactly how much he had been depending on her. TJ and Ashley reached for him as he staggered again, but he pushed his ruby relentlessly, refusing to collapse in front of her. He could barely hear himself talk over the muted roar in his ears, but he knew that Andros ended up with the activation disk for the Delta Megaship, and then their Gliders were all there, waiting to take her away.

She was gone as quickly as she had come, and only Andros remained, asking if he would be all right. Had he any energy left, he might have chuckled. Of course he would be all right… living without the other half of his soul, living with an ache in his heart that wouldn't go away and the horrible fear that she could one day fall in battle before he could get to her side… How could he be anything other than all right?

"I'll be fine," he told the Red Ranger, sarcasm lost in the exhaustion he knew was in his tone. "I'll guide you when you're close."

Finally the other was gone, and he closed his eyes as an overwhelming sorrow washed over him. The ruby took advantage of his momentary lapse, wrenching control away from him and stemming the tide of Power that threatened to burn out his senses without her here to mitigate it. He felt himself falling, but it didn't matter anymore. He tried to guide Andros verbally through the maze that was the Delta Megaship, but as the Power drained out of him, there was simply nothing left, and he could no longer fight his descent into oblivion.

He didn't know how long he lay, unprotected and unconscious, on the jungle floor of Hercuron. But by some miracle, he awoke alone and unharmed--or at least, no more harmed than he had been before. The intensity of the pain that stabbed at his side before he even tried to move told him how seriously injured he was, and he knew that without medical attention, the possibility that he might not see another sunrise was a very real one.

With Eltare conquered, Aquitar remained the only safe haven open to him. He refused to even think of Earth. In this state, there was no telling what he might say or do, and he couldn't risk the likelihood that he would find himself, unmorphed and uninhibited, in the presence of a woman he had dreamed of for months on end.

Neither could he bring himself to leave without a last word to her, however. He knew the Earth Rangers would return to Hercuron as soon as the threat to their planet was dealt with, honor bound not to leave him when he had so obviously been injured battling what they must consider "their" enemy.

Drawing out a second message beacon, he depressed the record button and planted the device on the ground in front of him. It had a short delay built in, enabling him to drag himself to his feet before the camera switched on. He was gasping for breath as the light came on, trying desperately to ignore the pain long enough to get a coherent sentence out.

"Rangers," he managed. "I knew you would return--" He winced, clenching his teeth as a wave of nausea engulfed him. This had not been a good idea. He ended the message as quickly as he could, letting gravity pull him downward to switch the "record" function off. It automatically deleted the last two seconds--the other half of the delay--and he found himself wanting Cassie with a sudden, sharp longing that took what little breath he had away. Somehow, it would all be better if she were at his side…

But she had a job to do. She had feelings that could not possibly reflect his, and she had a duty that would keep her from acting on them even if she did. Over the course of the past few months he had grown to bitterly resent her duty, thinking it might be the Power that *kept* her from feeling what he did. After all, his life force was tied into, even a part of, his Power, while hers was a separate and distinct entity--submissive to her Power for as long as she was a Ranger.

It was only a rationalization, an excuse for her indifference to him, but it gave him a place to focus his anger at the unfairness of it all. Without realizing what he was doing, he had reached out to touch the record button again, stumbling to his feet once more. "Don't worry, Cassie," he told the beacon, wishing he could believe, in some corner of his heart, that she *was* worrying about him. "I'll be okay."

*Okay…* An Earth phrase, that. How she had influenced him, without even knowing it. He couldn't stop talking at her, now, clinging to consciousness and the vain hope that this message would mean something to her. He said words that would make his heart soar, coming from her, and he told her he would see her again--he knew no matter how hard he tried, there would be no avoiding the pull of her soul on his.

But he was only rambling, pretending somehow that he could see her in front of him, that she would listen to what he wanted to say and smile at him, just once, in that breathtakingly beautiful way she had. That smile could sustain him for years, if only it didn't always leave him wanting so much more…

He dropped to the ground, placing a hand over the beacon and stopping the camera again. His wounds stabbed at him, and he could feel the tug of his ruby, trying to make him teleport back to his ship. But he couldn't forget the one time she *had* smiled at him, and the memory took over his mind, rendering him frozen and uncaring of anything around him.

His hand clenched on the message beacon, wanting that moment back now and forever. *Cassie,* he cried silently. He couldn't help it, unable to forget and not wanting the image to fade. He didn't even notice as the device's only button sank beneath his fingers, the red light covered by his hand. "I love you so much, Cassie," he whispered, voice choked as an unsympathetic breeze stirred around him. "Why can't you feel it too?"

He cried out as pain wracked his body once more, harsher and more unforgiving every time. His ruby won, this time, and the Power enveloped him, teleporting him back to his ship and keeping him awake long enough to lift off and lay in a course for Aquitar. Back on the surface of the now deserted jungle planet, the autostop on the message beacon turned the "record" function off. The device powered down, waiting until its proximity sensors activated it again.

Rangers were the first to find it, not that the sensors distinguished between Ranger and non-Ranger. One of them knelt in front of it, impatient for the message it held, and it finished loading the first recording even as she reached out to speed its progress.

A miniature hologram appeared to the side of the device, the static a result of the beating it had taken and subtle testament to what its carrier had endured. The hologram spoke, imitating with near-perfect accuracy the words and actions of the one who had been there before. The recording ended, and the Rangers remained in the clearing, demorphed and trying to comfort the one who had been so eager for the message.

They turned back to the beacon as the second recording finished loading, and the hologram appeared once more, this time with words that made the disconsolate Ranger smile. She waved a little at the device, trailing her friends out of the clearing before it could finish loading the last data stored in its memory.

The message played out nonetheless, speaking to a clearing empty of all but the uncaring wind. "I love you so much, Cassie..."