Irreversible
by Starhawk

"Incoming transmission from Aquitar," DECA announced, and Carlos looked up in surprise.

"Open a video link," he said automatically. It was early for Cassie to be calling--she usually didn't contact them till evening.

He blinked as Cestria's face appeared on the screen. "Cestria," he greeted her, puzzled. "How are--"

"Aquitar is under attack," she interrupted. "The Dark Fortress has entered orbit, and the Phantom Ranger wished you to know that Cassie has engaged the enemy with the rest of our fighter wing."

Carlos just stared at her, a thousand things flickering through his mind. Foremost among them was the thought that a teammate was in danger, and Earth was not. "We'll be there as soon as we can," he said, already working out the time it would take to reach the besieged planet.

She merely nodded, and the transmission cut off. It was an uncharacteristically abrupt gesture from an Aquitian, as much as her interruption of his greeting earlier. But she certainly had reason, and he put the thought out of his mind as he snapped his communicator open.

He punched in Andros's code, but there was no response. Impatient, Carlos signaled Ashley's morpher instead. *This is no time to be cute, guys,* he thought, annoyed when she didn't answer hers either.

But he knew they wouldn't pull a prank like that. The sound of their communicator was one that every Ranger learned to take seriously very quickly, and he could not imagine either of his friends ignoring it.

When TJ's voice answered his hail, he couldn't help sighing in relief. "At least someone's around," he muttered out of frustration.

"Carlos?" TJ inquired curiously. "What's going on?"

"You'd better get back here," Carlos told him, already trying to decide where Ashley and Andros could be. They had conveniently forgotten to inform anyone of their plans, so they could be just about anywhere.

A moment later, a shower of blue sparkles appeared on the Megaship's Bridge, and TJ lowered his hand from his morpher. "What's up?" he repeated, sounding worried this time.

"Astronema's attacking Aquitar," he said. "It sounds like Cassie's right in the middle of it."

Under his breath, TJ said something that sounded suspiciously like, "Leave it to Cassie…" He didn't question that they would go; he just went to the nav station and started the preflight. "Where are the others?"

"I wish I knew," Carlos answered, glancing at the viewscreen as though he could see all the way to Aquitar. "Andros and Ashley aren't answering their communicators, and I haven't tried Zhane yet."

"I'll get Zhane," TJ said, reaching for his communicator. "You go find the two lovebirds."

Carlos's lips quirked, and he punched DECA's linkup code into his morpher. "DECA, lock on to the Red and Yellow astromorphers and teleport me to their location."

"Astromorphers located," DECA replied, and his world turned to shimmering night.

The bright sunlight made him blink as he rematerialized in the middle of the beach, next to an abandoned blanket. Giving it a dismissive glance, he did a double take as he caught sight of a muted red wristband sticking out from underneath one corner.

Carlos reached down and pulled Andros's morpher from its hiding place, finding Ashley's beside it. *What the--* Neither of them would just abandon their morphers, unless…

His gaze tracked toward the shoreline. *Of course.* Andros's bright red shirt leapt out at him from the water's edge, where he and Ashley were sharing what looked like a rather passionate embrace.

Carlos sighed. *They had to pick today to relax…* Ashley would never forgive him for interrupting them, but some things were just more important.

He jogged across the beach toward them, thankful it was nearly deserted. He hadn't been thinking when he told DECA to teleport him blind, but he had been lucky. No one appeared to notice his sudden arrival--except for Ashley, who pulled away from Andros as he approached.

She looked about to say something, but his concern must have shown on his face for she let him speak first. "Astronema's attacking Aquitar," he told them, breathing harder than usual. "Cassie's fighting with the others."

It was a condensed version, but they both seemed to understand. "Let's go," Andros said immediately, taking Ashley's hand and pulling her across the sand with him. They took off, with Carlos following, and skidded to a halt by the blanket.

Andros snatched their morphers up, passing Ashley hers, and she threw the blanket over her shoulder before flipping the catch open. Carlos glanced over his shoulder, and when he caught their gazes again, the three of them exchanged nods and teleported out simultaneously.

***

"Aq-one, incoming velocifighters!"

"I see them," a tinny voice answered, as the intership chatter over the fighters' comm links underlaid the normal hum of the control room.

Cetaci had opened a comm channel between the fighters and the command center as soon as the Dark Fortress appeared, warning the wing of its presence. The wing commander had acknowledged, and the Rangers' leader had left a one-way link open ever since, a muted but ever-present reminder of those risking their lives with no Power to protect them.

Phantom was glad of the link, more for the reassurance it provided than anything else. As long as he could hear what was going on, he felt somehow closer to it--to them. Cetaci and Aura had joined the fighters above Aquitar, their zords leading the defense that kept Astronema from getting any closer to their homeworld, while he was forced to watch from the command center.

Cetaci's Second, Cestria, was there as well, rerouting atmospheric traffic and grounding anyone still on the surface. She had said nothing about the open comm link that echoed in the background. He even saw her cock her head toward it from time to time, and it was only then that he realized that she was listening for Billy the same way he was straining to hear Cassie's voice among the overlapping comm signals.

"Phantom, what's the velocifighter distribution?" Cetaci's tense voice demanded, and he called up the appropriate schematic, uploading it to both zord terminals. Coordinating surface to air information flow would normally be Cestria's job, but the attack had been so unexpected that she was kept busy making sure the civilians were safe.

"Aq-22, behind you!"

His head jerked up at the sound of Cassie's voice, unmistakable even with the low volume of the comm transmission. He found himself looking in Cestria's direction, and saw her glance back. "Aq-22" was Billy's fighter.

"I see it, Aq-24." Their conversation was swallowed up by a flurry of position checks from the wing's leading edge, and he had to force his attention back to the incoming attack data.

"It gets easier," Cestria said softly, and he looked around again to find her bent over her own console once more. She shot a quick smile in his direction when he turned. "You just have to trust them to be as careful as you would be, in their place."

He froze for a moment, hoping Cassie would be more careful than that. But he knew the Yellow Ranger was right--Cassie's judgment was as good as his, and he nodded to show he understood.

A fourth comm signal vied for their attention, and Phantom found the Earth Rangers' request to enter the system flashing across the comm console as the Megaship streaked through the sensor web and on into the inner solar system. He sent an acknowledgment anyway, glad they hadn't waited for it.

"The Astro Megaship is entering Aquitian orbit," he told Cetaci, sending the signal to Aura's zord as well and overriding the fighters' comm channels momentarily to let them know.

"Confirm," Cetaci replied shortly, and he saw Cestria look up. He knew the Aquitians had not been particularly happy about calling for reinforcements, but he had argued that the Earth Rangers deserved to know when one of their own was fighting against the forces of evil.

Some of Cetaci's irritation probably came from the fact that they could use the Megaship's help. The unfortunate timing of Astronema's arrival had caught two of the planet's Rangers in starfighters--unable to transfer to their zords without the possibility of their unmanned fighters burning up in the atmosphere behind them.

The Aquitians were, frankly, outnumbered. The fighter wing was keeping the velocifighters occupied, but the two zords were only barely holding the Dark Fortress back. It was a stalemate, and all Astronema had to do was wait, for she could keep this up longer than they could.

The Megaship, though, came in from deep space with weapons blazing, and it was obvious the advantage had shifted. With the Aquitian zords backing it up--Cetaci might be proud, but she wasn't foolish--the Earth Rangers' battleship was managing to inflict some damage on the flagship of Dark Spectre.

Astronema could see what was happening as well as they could, and he frowned as a second wave of velocifighters launched from the Dark Fortress. The first wave had been decimated by the fighter wing, but there were enough left still that the next round would not be so easy to defeat.

Then one of the new velocifighters fired. "Cestria!" he heard Aura yelp, even as his gaze swept across the readouts, wondering if the laser blast's discoloration had been his imagination.

It hadn't. The blast's energy was skewed compared to normal curves, but what the readings meant, he had no idea. "The blast was less electrically disruptive than previous velocifighter fire, but its advantage is undetermined," he told Aura and Cetaci, knowing they could tell that much for themselves.

"It could be anything," Aura muttered, her zord diving under the Megaship and heading for the velocifighters.

"Yes," Phantom agreed reluctantly. He could tell them nothing else until they actually saw the effects of the beam on a ship--which all of them would rather avoid.

The new round of velocifighters had engaged the fighter wing, and the oddly colored laser blasts came more frequently as they dove between the Aquitian ships. But there were plenty of ordinary blasts to avoid as well, and the fighters were pushed to their limit just keeping each other out of the line of fire.

"Someone tell me what those lasers do!" Darian's voice demanded, no longer routed only through the intership comm channel that was still being picked up in the control room.

Cestria finally joined Phantom, and he assumed the rest of the planet was as secure as it could be. "We can't tell you because we don't know, Aq-one," she informed him calmly. "You will know as soon as we have any information."

"They're not coming from all the velocifighters," one of the other pilots observed, voice small and distorted over the intership channel.

"Isolate and target the anomalous fighters first," Darian commanded, his words still coming over two different comm frequencies.

Aura's zord was already in the middle of the fray, and Cetaci's broke off to engage the velocifighters as well. The Megaship was left alone to drive the Dark Fortress back, but it did seem to be having an effect. Phantom turned his attention back to the fighter wing.

The Aquitian fighters were rallying around the zords, obviously used to working with them, and the velocifighters were disappearing off the tactical map one by one. Billy's voice came over the comm channel again, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Cestria look up. Obviously, though it might get "easier", it was never truly "easy".

"Aq-17, close up," he was exclaiming, over top of another fighter's call for assistance. Aura's zord spiraled after the distressed fighter, while Billy and his partner went after another velocifighter.

Scanning the tactical readouts once more, Phantom saw the Dark Fortress in retreat. The Megaship was harrying it away, out past the orbit of Aquitar's only moon, and there were less than a dozen velocifighters left--

"Aq-24, break off!" Darian's voice boomed across the room. He hadn't cut off his double comm link, and Phantom felt his heart clench as he saw "Aq-24" riding dangerously close to one of the remaining velocifighters.

"I've got it, Aq-one!" a voice answered confidently, a voice he knew all too well.

"Cassie, no," he whispered, watching her streak closer--and then time started to slow as he saw the velocifighter flip end over end, dumping speed at a rate impossible for a living pilot. He knew what would happen then, but, powerless to stop it, he could only stand frozen in place as "Aq-24" tumbled past her target and wound up directly in front of the ship she had been chasing.

For one heart-wrenching second, nothing happened. Then, one of the bizarrely colored rays crept from the velocifighter's laser array, reaching for and catching the fighter that had tried to destroy it. The little fighter seemed to twist in the beam's grasp, the moment stretching into an infinite expanse of time as the laser burned through Cassie's shields.

The resulting brilliant explosion snapped time back to normal, and he heard his mind screaming out her name, over and over again until he no longer knew or cared whether anyone could hear him.

He didn't even comprehend what was happening as he saw an Aquitian fighter sail through the debris, heard Darian's urgent voice repeating, "Aq-24, respond. Aq-24, can you hear me? Please respond."

The bright red of a wounded ship showed on the tactical screen, surrounding a fighter tagged "Aq-24", and there was one less velocifighter on the grid, but it took a moment that felt like an eternity for those details to penetrate the icy numbness that had clamped onto his mind.

"Cassie," he whispered again, hesitant but wanting more than anything to believe that it was her, that her ship had not been the one to burst into a final, fiery light.

"I have her." Aura's calm voice overrode Darian's transmission as her zord closed in on the unresponsive fighter. "Teleporting now."

Phantom clenched his hands on the console in front of him, ignoring the returning Megaship's request to know what was happening. The battleship picked the few velocifighters that remained out of the Aquitian sky, and the fighter wing started to regroup, surrounding Cassie's damaged and now empty fighter before it could spiral out of control into the atmosphere.

"She's here," Aura announced a moment later. "Unconscious--I'm sending her straight to the Medical bay."

Darian's voice was still audible underneath it all, directing the wing in the retrieval of the unmanned fighter while the zords returned to their base, and the Megaship was signaling the command center again, but Phantom ignored it all as he headed for the control room door. Cestria's voice stopped him short.

"Where are you going?" she asked, her voice saying she knew very well, but it was stern enough that he turned instinctively.

"To the medical bay," he answered, his mind not even focused enough to notice how pale she looked all of a sudden.

"No, you're not," she said. Straightening, he saw her grip the console firmly. "You have duties, and the healers can take better care of her without you getting in their way."

He could only stare at her in surprise. Cestria had never spoken to him like that. She was the Aquitian team's heart and soul, the compassionate one who always understood. But now she was glaring at him as forcefully as Cetaci might have.

She sighed, seeing he was not convinced. "Phantom, you nearly deafened me just now. I had no idea you were that strong, but you can *not* go down there now and do that to the healers the moment you see her."

He shook his head, not understanding and only concerned with going to see Cassie to convince himself that she was really still alive. "I do not--"

The glow of teleportation briefly illuminated the control room, and Andros's voice asked, "Is everyone all right?" There was a note of distinct impatience in his tone, and it was probably only with the greatest strength of will that he kept from demanding answers straight out.

Cetaci and Aura arrived at that moment, however, and the White Ranger had no such compunction. "What happened?" she asked without preamble, focusing immediately on Cestria.

"That's what we want to know!" Carlos exclaimed. "No one would answer our comm transmissions!"

Cetaci shot him an annoyed glance, and went to Cestria's side. Grasping the girl's elbow gently, she led her over to a chair and pushed her down. "What happened?" she repeated, more calmly. "Are you all right, Cestria?"

Cestria nodded, putting a hand to her temple. "I will be," she said. "It was--"

Cestria had never been anything but friendly to him, but all he could think about was Cassie. About to use the distraction to slip away, he paused as the command center's alert started to blare away. Everyone looked up, and a sudden brilliant flash of pink light appeared in the middle of the control room.

She stood there, glancing about the room as though she'd never seen it before, and he closed his eyes in mute relief. There were no words for it, but he knew that his reason for living had just been restored. "Cassie," he murmured, joy in the very sound even as it was almost buried underneath the shrieking of the alert.

"No," the figure in pink replied, calmly lifting her astroblaster. Siting down the barrel, she pulled the trigger and silenced the alert system with a single shot. She didn't even bother to brace her firing arm, making the act of random destruction seem almost casual. "But you can call me that if it makes you feel better."

***

There was only one question on TJ's mind anymore: *What in the name of everything good is going *on* in this room?!*

From the moment one of the Aquitian fighters had been hit and the command center had stopped responding to the Megaship's comm signals, things had only gotten more insane. First Cetaci treated them like intruders instead of fellow Rangers--Rangers who had just helped save Aquitar, at that--and then she seemed to forget they existed.

As if things weren't confusing enough, that blasted alert had had to start screeching at them, and then someone who looked just like Cassie appeared and started shooting control panels, unhindered by the Aquitians.

TJ had come to the conclusion that this was all an incredibly bizarre dream, and at any moment he would wake up and wonder what he could possibly have eaten that would cause such a hallucination. And then he would swear off of whatever it was forever.

"Cassie, what are you--" Phantom was the first to break into the suddenly stunned silence, cutting off as the person who looked like their teammate swung her blaster in his direction.

That was when TJ decided that there must be something seriously wrong with his mind if he could dream something like this up. "I'm ready to wake up now," he muttered under his breath, to no one in particular.

The person in pink laughed, sounding enough not like Cassie to be strange, and just enough *like* Cassie to be frightening. "Oh, but it's not a dream," she assured them, blaster not wavering from its first Ranger target as she stared Phantom down. "Is it, *Saryn* of Elisia."

TJ heard Carlos gasp, and he thought Ashley did too. He was too caught up in his own shock to be sure--and if this was a figment of his twisted imagination, he wanted out *now*.

He glanced around the control room, seeing his teammates grouped, with him, off to one side, while Aura was closer to the main screen. Cetaci was at her side, standing protectively in front of Cestria, while Phantom was clear across the room. The armored Ranger stood stiff in the doorway, visor turned toward Cassie's face.

*Cassie?* TJ repeated incredulously to himself. *What the *hell*…*

"No, not a dream," she reiterated, walking slowly toward Phantom. "A nightmare, maybe--but not one you'll ever wake up from."

She was about three steps away from him when the only thing that could have happened to make the situation more confusing did. Two more teleportation beams lit the control room, a blue and a black water molecule shape appearing in front of the main screen.

Cassie spun, weapon still raised, turning her back on Phantom for just a split second. It was a brief moment, one that let him spring forward--but not quite long enough. She turned back in time to catch him in the chest with the muzzle of her astroblaster, and even as he reached for it they could all hear the distinctive hum of the weapon powering up.

Phantom sagged a little, raising his hands to the side in defeat. "Nice try, *Saryn*," she sneered. "But I'm faster than you and you know it."

"Cassie," TJ said, stepping forward. This was completely insane. "I don't know what you think--"

"Don't move," she hissed over her shoulder, turning so she could see them all but not letting her blaster leave Phantom's chest. Reaching out suddenly, she pushed Phantom backward, and all of a sudden his armor started to blur.

*She didn't push him,* TJ thought in shock. *She took his ruby…*

Indeed, Cassie clutched something in her hand, and Phantom's morph failed completely as she stepped back. He was Saryn once more, as he had been for those few days on the Megaship, and Cassie's blaster was now resting firmly against his unmorphed chest.

The look on Phantom's face was no less than one of anguish, and he stared at Cassie as though she had just betrayed everything he had ever believed in. *And she has,* TJ thought, unable to believe what he had just seen. He could not even begin to fathom what had made her do that--obviously, she was under some sort of outside influence, but to reveal Phantom like that would take more spite than he had thought she could ever express, possessed or no.

And possessed was a good word for it, he thought, watching her expression twist as she glared at them again. "Don't move," she repeated. "Or I *will* fire."

The Aquitians hadn't said a word in all this time, and TJ risked a glance back at them. Billy stood behind Cestria now, hands on her shoulders as he stared at the tableau before them. Aura looked perfectly calm, standing between Cetaci and Delphinius, but he couldn't help remembering what Cassie had told them about the Aquitians' telepathy.

*How much are they really communicating?* he wondered, wishing again that he had that talent that Andros and Zhane seemed to share.

"You won't," Phantom said suddenly, his words choked but understandable. Only at the sound of his voice did TJ realize how much this was really hurting him.

It still wasn't real to TJ--he was waiting for the explanation that would make all this another one of Astronema's tricks--but obviously, to Phantom, it was *very* real. Cassie was really standing there, before him, threatening to kill him with a Power-enabled weapon.

TJ wished he could reassure him, remind him that this couldn't really be their Cassie… but a thought flickered through his mind before he could stop it: what if it *was*?

"And what makes you so sure?" she demanded. In a move too quick to follow she lifted the blaster and fired over his shoulder, smirking in satisfaction when he flinched. "It's as easy as that, *Saryn*."

He shook his head. "No, *Cassie*, it isn't." His words were a little clearer this time, and he put the same emphasis on her name that she used on his, managing to sound almost defiant despite the pain in his eyes. "You are, somehow, still my Cassie. And we are linked--you can no more kill me than you could kill yourself."

TJ had no idea whether that was true even for the real Cassie, let alone for this--person. But as he did the only thing he could do--wait--he heard Andros shift quietly behind him. He didn't dare glance over his shoulder, but he chanced a look in the Aquitians' direction. They were as calm and motionless as before… except that Cestria was now staring directly at Ashley.

Andros shifted again, but Cassie did not look at him. She was instead glaring at Phantom, her face a study in frustration as she locked gazes with him. The entire room was deadly silent, and Andros's slight movement was unmistakable. Cassie started to turn toward him--

Another alarm went off, this one higher pitched and wailing over a much greater range. Phantom took advantage of Cassie's momentary lapse to knock her blaster out of her hand, just as a wall-mounted mechanism hummed and swiveled in her direction.

The purple discharge caught her full in the back, and for a moment, her startled expression made her look just like the teammate they had always known.

Then Billy's calm voice spoke. "Command center intruder protocols deactivate," he announced, and the mechanism settled a little in its wall brace.

Cassie's eyes slid closed, and Phantom caught her as she fell.

***

For a moment, no one moved. Ashley was torn between a sigh of relief and the exclamation of shock that she hadn't had time for when Cassie first drew her astroblaster. She could only stare at Saryn, eyes closed with some private pain as he held her friend's limp body close to him, while her mind tried desperately to put the events of the last few minutes into some kind of logical context.

Then she felt Andros fumbling for her hand, and her focus latched onto something she could at least understand. "Took you long enough," she murmured, squeezing his hand.

"Easy for you to say," he replied, his indignation muted in the quiet room. "Telekinesis is hard enough when you can't *see* what you're doing. I didn't even *know* what I was doing."

"So that *was* you?" TJ asked, turning toward them. "What happened?"

"The intruder alert system won't fire on Rangers," Billy spoke up. "But that's a failsafe that can be bypassed--if you know what switch to hit."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Carlos demanded, but Billy shook his head.

"It's really hard to do. The controls are inside the firing mechanism, so you can't get to them unless you know how to disable the intruder protocols. And no one does except the Rangers themselves."

"It was Billy's idea to see if Andros could do it," Cestria interjected. "Telekinetically."

TJ nodded his understanding. "You told Andros, and he changed the protocols to recognize…"

He glanced in Cassie's direction and trailed off, and Ashley shifted uncomfortably. "No," Cestria said, sounding slightly puzzled, and Ashley knew her secret was about to be out. "Andros blocks anyone he doesn't know. I told Ashley, and *she* told him."

Carlos choked. "What?"

There was a muted flash as someone morphed, and they all turned to see the Phantom Ranger lift Cassie as though she weighed nothing at all and cradle her in his arms. "I'm taking her to the Medical bay," he said quietly, and the two of them vanished in a dark glow.

"We should go too," Cestria said, standing, and Ashley nodded emphatically. She wasn't going to wait around for Phantom to tell them what had happened--they might *never* know, at that rate.

"The Medical bay is two floors down," Cestria told the Astro Rangers. "The lift is this way."

"Are you sure you are all right?" Cetaci asked again, as Billy took Cestria's hand and led the way across the control room.

"I'm fine," she said, but Ashley missed the rest of her answer as Carlos caught up with her.

"*You* told Andros?" he demanded quietly, but loudly enough for TJ, Andros and Zhane to overhear.

She nodded, seeing Andros give her an odd look as they all piled into the lift. The doors slid shut, adorned with the same simple design that climbed across the control room walls. "You didn't tell them?" he asked, and she this time she shook her head.

"Medical bay," Billy said, as Ashley tried to explain.

"I've been able to talk to Andros--the way Zhane does--for a while now." She shrugged uncomfortably. "I guess it just never came up."

TJ just rolled his eyes, but he gave the impression of throwing his hands up in exasperation. "That does it. You were right, Carlos; this whole team *is* psychic."

"Is that bad?" Cestria asked innocently, and Ashley couldn't help smiling a little.

"No, that's not what I meant," TJ said hastily, glancing at the Aquitians. He was saved by the opening of the lift doors onto a corridor directly across from the Medical bay.

"That is not possible," Phantom was telling someone tonelessly. "Lasers are electronic in origin."

The Aquitian to whom he was speaking gave the impression of exasperation as they all filed into the room. "I am not saying the beam was magically generated. I am saying it had a magical component, and it is that component which has altered her brain waves."

"What?" TJ demanded, even as Ashley felt Andros's hand slip out of hers. She glanced over her shoulder, and he shook his head at her as he hung back.

She frowned a little, and then she heard, *I'll just be a minute.* Looking around covertly, she realized that Zhane hadn't followed them into the Medical bay either. She nodded slightly, wondering what was up.

"What do you mean, her brain waves were altered?" Carlos was asking, apparently oblivious to their teammates' absence.

"The lasers," Aura murmured, and Ashley shot a sharp look in her direction.

"Lasers?" she prompted, and Aura glanced in Cetaci's direction.

The White Ranger did not give any sign that Ashley could see, but Aura continued, "Her fighter was hit by one of the second-round velocifighters. Some of the second round had--strange weapons."

"What does 'strange' mean?" TJ asked impatiently.

"We don't know," Cestria said, before Aura could answer. "Phantom and I were in the control room, but all we could tell for sure was that they were different. Less disruptive than the normal lasers--but that was all we knew."

"They did not *have* to be physically or electrically disruptive," the as-yet unnamed Aquitian told her. Ashley could only assume he was a doctor of some kind. "They were built with a sorcerer's influence. The beam disrupts a pilot's brain waves, turning them against their own wing. Hit someone with one of those, and they'll cause as much destruction as any velocifighter."

"More," Delphinius interrupted, quiet shock in his voice. "Because no one would be expecting it from a fellow fighter."

"But Cassie was unconscious," Aura said suddenly, breaking into the sudden silence. "What is the use of her altered state if she is not capable of operating her ship?"

Ashley shifted, staring at the prone form on the medical bed and not sure she liked the Red Aquitian Ranger's single-mindedness. Cassie was their friend, not just some anonymous fighter in someone else's battle plan.

"It was intended for use against Aquitians," the unidentified person replied. "It is not surprising that it would affect humans differently."

"Not differently enough," Billy said, his eyes on Cassie as well. "She threatened Phantom's life in the control room."

The unnamed Aquitian nodded. "She was most aggressive toward me when she regained consciousness here. I can only conclude that the weapon did, ultimately, have the effect it was designed for--it merely took longer than it would have on one of us."

Stepping into the room with Zhane at his side, Andros surmised, "She's evil."

***

Andros had known something was wrong when Zhane hesitated outside the lift, back in the control room. One glance at the crowded lift had told Andros what the problem was, but his friend had joined them without complaint.

Zhane had stood perfectly still through the ride down to the Medical bay, but Andros had seen the tension in his stance. Everyone else had been too concerned with Cassie to notice that, although he was the first one out of the lift when they reached their destination, he was the only one who didn't immediately enter the Medical bay.

Letting go of Ashley's hand, Andros stopped in the doorway to look at his friend. Ashley looked back, but he just shook his head and promised silently to join them in a minute. She must have understood, because she turned back to the argument without further comment.

"Are you all right?" Andros asked quietly, noting the paleness of Zhane's skin even in the oddly lit Aquitian hallways.

Zhane took a deep breath, leaning against the wall. He nodded mutely, and Andros just waited with him for a minute, listening to the conversation within the Medical bay.

"Man, those lifts will drive me over the edge someday," Zhane said suddenly, a ghost of his usual smile on his face.

"Not that you have far to go," Andros kidded gently, and Zhane made a face at him.

"Look who's talking," he retorted, his normal cockiness back in his tone. Then the façade faded again, and he added quietly, "It doesn't help that we're underwater."

Andros frowned a little. "You don't have that problem in space…"

"Yeah, but space can't crush you. Water can."

Andros just nodded, knowing his friend didn't need logical explanations about either the dangers of space or the safety of these Aquitian cities. Claustrophobia wasn't logical, and Zhane wasn't proud of it. But he had no control over it, either, and Andros refused to upset him by trying to explain again what the other already knew.

In the Medical bay, he could hear Billy telling the Aquitian healer about Cassie's actions in the control room. He looked over at Zhane, and found his friend listening as well. Zhane's gaze flickered to his, and his friend nodded. The two of them stepped unobtrusively into the doorway as the healer nodded in agreement.

They all seemed to be coming to the same conclusion. But to Andros, there had only ever been one explanation for his teammate's aberrant behavior. "She's evil," he said, voicing the thought that had to be on everyone's mind.

"No," Phantom said, speaking for the first time since they had arrived. But he was looking at Cassie, and the word did not seem directed at anyone in particular. It was only his way of trying to deny facts that none of them could ignore.

"What can we do?" Ashley asked finally, glancing from Phantom to the Aquitian healer.

The healer cocked his head. "This is not a medical condition. This is an alteration of her mental processes, and its cause is not scientific in origin. There is nothing I can do."

"There are other sorcerers," Phantom said suddenly, not looking up.

The healer seemed troubled by that comment, although his face was expressionless. "Any sorcerers willing to help a Ranger would not be the sort to have experience with the magic of evil."

"Isn't there some way to change her brain waves back?" Andros wanted to know. "Even if it was done magically, isn't there some way to undo it *without* magic?"

The healer looked at him. "Even if I were capable of altering brain waves, I would have no template to work from, nothing to try to change them back *to*. Her original brain wave patterns are gone, overwritten by whatever changes the laser beam made, and there is no way to retrieve them."

He hesitated, then shook his head. "I am sorry, but even if she could be returned to the side of good, she would not be the friend you knew."

Phantom finally looked up, his visor turning to face the healer. "What are you saying?" he asked, his voice dangerously quiet.

Billy stepped forward, putting himself in Phantom's line of sight--and conveniently in front of the healer. "Phantom, you know what he's saying," the Blue Aquitian Ranger said softly.

Andros closed his eyes for a moment, wanting nothing more than to deny it himself. Nothing--except the possibility of having the teammate he had come to love and respect back. *This can't be happening,* he thought, feeling Ashley step closer to him.

Glancing over at her, he could see tears shining in her eyes. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he let her lean against him, taking some comfort in her presence. He couldn't ignore the feeling that this was all somehow his fault--Cassie was a member of his team, after all, and he should have found a way to keep her safe.

"I know that Cassie is not as she was," Phantom answered Billy, his voice low. "I do *not* accept that she never will be again."

"There is nothing--" The healer cut off as Billy glared at him.

Andros saw Cetaci step forward and touch Cestria's shoulder, nodding toward the patient bed. The girl's eyes flicked toward her leader, then back to the shadow that still had not left Cassie's bedside.

"Phantom," Cestria said gently. "Maybe we can find a way to help Cassie--but… in the meantime, she's going to have to be moved to someplace more secure than this."

Ashley's fingers clenched on his arm, and he knew what she was thinking. A containment cell. Something in him rebelled at the thought of imprisoning their friend, but he couldn't help remembering the deadly seriousness on her face as she armed the blaster she had pointed at Saryn.

Cestria was right--Cassie needed to be someplace where she couldn't hurt anyone. But he didn't have to like it.

Unfortunately, Saryn didn't like it either, and he was far less willing to see the necessity of the situation. "No," he said simply, stubbornly.

"Phantom," Cestria tried again, but he only turned his back on them.

"I wish to be alone," he said, voice strained but somehow even.

The healer spoke again, his tone more subdued this time. "She could wake at any time," he reminded them.

"I can--restrain her," Phantom said, voice breaking as his control slipped.

"Can you?" Billy asked quietly.

Phantom turned his head a little, not quite looking over his shoulder at them. "Yes," he whispered. "Please, leave."

Andros looked at Ashley, who had her hand over her mouth and was staring fixedly down at the floor. He tightened his arm around her--she didn't look up, but she let him pull her toward the door without protest. He could feel Zhane shadowing them, and there was too much stir behind them for the three of them to be the only ones moving.

They filed out of the room silently, leaving Phantom to mourn alone.