He peered into the lab through the window set halfway up the door. His sister was working with a digital microscanner on the other side of the room, but her professor was nowhere to be seen.

He knocked quietly, hoping not to startle her, and she glanced up. A smile lit her face as she caught sight of him, and he put on his most plaintive expression. He saw her laugh, and she held up one finger. He nodded, gesturing over his shoulder to indicate that he would wait in the courtyard.

She waved in acknowledgement, and Andros headed out into the bright sunshine of a beautiful day. The kids playing tag across the way made him smile, remembering a day not so long ago when that had been him.

*And if Zhane has anything to say about it, that will be us again,* he thought wryly, wandering across the courtyard to the stone fountain in the center. He sometimes suspected his friend would never grow up.

Putting one foot on the edge of the fountain, he wondered if Zhane had finished his physics exam yet. If he got out early, Andros might not have time to spend with his sister after all. The two of them were becoming more than just good friends, and this warm day was exactly the kind that Zhane would love to take advantage of.

The weather was so good, in fact, that Andros had to wonder if it would last. It looked like spring, and it felt like spring, but winter had been reluctant to release its grip on the Keyota district this year.

*flash*

"You mean you *don't* know what you're doing?" TJ's voice demanded.

"I understand the theory," he retorted, struggling to coordinate the nav and pilot controls simultaneously. He shrugged off the springtime flashback to his home that the words evoked, trying to concentrate on the present. "It's just not something you get a chance to practice every day."

The Megaship shuddered violently, and he grabbed for the auxiliary nav console in an effort to stay upright. "Something's wrong," he said, before TJ could ask. "I think we're sliding into the wrong dimension."

"What!" The normally calm Blue Ranger sounded anything but. "What are you talking about?"

His morpher chimed, but he couldn't spare the concentration to glare at it. "TJ, talk to Cassie and Saryn for me, would you?"

He heard TJ signal Cassie, listening with considerably less than half his attention as TJ repeated "I don't know" in as many different ways as he could.

Even with DECA on the nav controls, Andros found himself hard-pressed to keep the Megaship on something resembling a sane course. The turbulent clash of one dimension on another was outside of the computer's scanning abilities, making maneuvering a risky operation for the most informed pilot.

Fortunately, the computer had no problem detecting realspace, and Andros suspected the only thing that got the ship out of the gateway at all was the fact that DECA was using the realspace signal like a beacon. The coordinate reader sprang to life a split-second after the scanners went normal again, and he lifted his gaze to the viewscreen automatically. Safe--but how many of them?

"Ashley," he whispered, wishing she could truly hear him. "Please be all right..."

*flash*

He froze. On either side of him, Zhane and Kerone were forced to halt as well, and they stared at him worriedly. "Andros?" Zhane asked. "What's wrong?"

The strange name was still on his tongue, and it was the only thing he could think to say. "Ashley..."

Zhane and Kerone exchanged puzzled glances. "What?" Kerone prompted. "What's 'ashley'?"

"Who," he muttered. "Who is Ashley?"

"Right," Zhane said slowly. "Okay. Who is Ashley, then?"

He frowned, irritated at not being able to remember. "I... don't know."

***

She flung the curtain aside and burst into the room she shared with Karen. Mirine was there, talking to her roommate, and both looked up as she grabbed her backpack off the floor by the far wall and snatched a windbreaker from her bed.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Karen demanded, not moving from her lounging position by the window.

"Out," Cassie said over her shoulder as she darted for the door. "Have a good afternoon guys!"

She threw the curtain out of the way again and raced through the student wing, taking the stairs two at a time. She heard the roar of a jetcycle starting up as she flew through the door, pulling her windbreaker over her shoulders as she went.

Saryn tossed his helmet to her, smiling in welcome. She grinned back, securing the helmet and flinging one leg over the back of his jetcycle. "Ready," she said in his ear, wrapping her arms around his waist.

The jetcycle leapt forward, following the pavement as far as it led, and the packed sand after that. Finally even that rudimentary trail disappeared, and they sped away from the terraformed border into the untamed desert.

She hugged him tighter, feeling the empathic caress of his mind against hers. She smiled again as the wind tore past them, knowing how much trust it took for him to be able to do that.

*flash*

"You'll always be my phantom," she said lightly, not sure how far that warm look in his eyes might lead if she wasn't careful.

"Can you promise me that?" he whispered, reaching out to stroke her cheek.

The intent expression on his face didn't fade, and she caught her breath at his touch. "Yes," she breathed. "I promise."

This time he smiled, but before he could answer the Megaship lurched hard to the side, as though something had broadsided it without warning. The jolt was enough to momentarily shatter both her balance and her sense of gravity, and when the world righted itself again she found herself in his arms.

"If I didn't know better I'd think you were doing this on purpose," she said breathlessly. "How do you always know to catch me?"

"Holding you is instinct," he murmured, not loosening his grip on her.

She squirmed a little, reaching for her morpher without upsetting Saryn's embrace. "Good instinct," she whispered, signaling Andros.

She felt him kiss her hair gently even as TJ's voice answered in place of Andros'. "Hey, Cass--Andros is a little busy right now. Are you guys okay?"

"We're fine," she assured him, trying to keep the smile out of her voice as Saryn kissed her again. "What about you? What's going on?"

"I'm all right," he answered. "I'd be better if *I* knew what was going on. Andros is trying to bring us out of the gateway, but that's about all I can tell you."

"Is it supposed to take this long?" Cassie asked. Saryn's lips brushed against her forehead and she tilted her head automatically, repressing a shiver when he took the gesture as invitation.

She heard TJ sigh. "Andros says no, not usually. But I'd never even heard of this gateway stuff until today, so we'll just have to trust that he and DECA know what they're doing."

"They--they do," she said, unable to keep herself from stammering as Saryn kissed her neck gently. "We'll be all right, TJ."

He sighed again. "Yeah, I know. I guess I'm just worried about Carlos and Ash. I'd feel a lot better if I knew *they* were all right."

"They're... um--" She hesitated as Saryn's fingers caressed her lips. She kissed his fingers quickly, trying to remember what she was saying. "They're okay too," she murmured, lifting her gaze in an effort to catch Saryn's eye.

"What was that?" TJ asked. "Sorry; I didn't quite hear you."

His mouth claimed hers as soon as she looked up, his kiss tender but too insistent to refuse. She wondered briefly what had gotten into him, but it felt so good that she couldn't interrupt. She was vaguely aware of TJ's voice again before she let Saryn's hungry kisses overwhelm everything else.

*flash*

The warm, water-laden air of the riverside jungle wrapped humid tendrils of breeze around them both, tugging at their hair and stirring the sparkles on the ground at their feet. It was the sparkles that did it, catching her attention from the corner of her eye even before the sudden gust of fresh air registered.

She pulled away from Saryn abruptly, staring around them in surprise before her gaze swung inevitably back to him. "Did--did you see that?" she asked uncertainly.

"What just happened?" he demanded at the same time, searching her eyes for understanding.

She shook her head, somewhat reassured that he knew what she was talking about. "I don't know," she murmured. "We were... on a ship?"

"In a gateway," he agreed.

"What--"

"An interdimensional bridge," he said, before she could finish the question. "It can connect remote points of the universe in seconds. There are only a few known gateways scattered throughout explored space, and there is no record of how they came to be."

"I'm guessing none of them are on Elisia," she said, glancing around again.

He shook his head. "No. How did we..."

"Get here?" she finished. "I wish I knew. The last thing I remember before that ship was being on your jetcycle, on our way here."

He nodded in silent agreement, and a word popped into her mind. "Phantom," she said suddenly, turning back to study him.

He frowned, but she saw the flicker of recognition in his eyes. "Why did you call me that?"

"It was your name," she said slowly. "Not the way Saryn is, but somehow..."

"Yes," he confirmed when she paused. "That was what I felt as well. And you... you were a--"

"Ranger?" she said tentatively.

He nodded, not taking his eyes off of her. "A Ranger. I have always thought you would make a good one," he added, smiling a little.

"But I wasn't Elisian." She tried to return his smile, but the thought troubled her. "How could we have been together?"

"We were not--as we are now." He paused, and she could sense him trying to catch and sift through the fleeting memories. "We were Rangers, both of us, but not for Elisia."

A team name flashed through her mind with startling clarity, and she felt his sudden recollection too. They gave voice to the words at the same time. "Astro Rangers..."

***

It must be the sun. He had heard of people hallucinating from heatstroke. In the middle of games, even--he should probably thank his lucky stars that hadn't happened to him. Not during this game.

He gave his head a shake and kissed Tessa again, soundly, trying to erase the odd sort of waking dream from his mind. It was fading quickly, and he made no effort to hold onto it. This was his day, and he wasn't going to let anything ruin it.

"Hey," she said breathlessly, smiling up at him when he finally let her go. "Your teammates are calling you."

His teammates--her words had a strange double meaning there for just a moment, but then he grinned back at her and slung his arm over her shoulders. "Then let's go," he announced cheerfully, hauling his petite blond-haired girlfriend across the field toward the rest of the team. There was nothing in any hallucination to compare to this reality.