Two mugs of hot chocolate in hand, Zhane hesitated in the doorway and considered the Bridge's lone occupant. Ty hadn't answered his door this morning, and while that wasn't surprising in and of itself, DECA had confirmed that the Black Ranger was not in his guest quarters. Zhane had caught sight of him on his way to the holding bay, and he'd made enough noise on his way past that Ty could've escaped before he returned if that was what he wanted.

He was still here. Seated at the weapons' console, he was leaning back in the chair as he considered the planet below. DECA had routed the scanner feed of KO-35 to the main screen, and watching the continents pass idly below them could be mesmerizing. It didn't surprise Zhane, though, that Ty looked more disconsolate than anything.

Making his way to the front of the Bridge, Zhane stopped at the pilot's station and dropped into Andros' chair. He offered the second mug to Ty without a word. The Black Ranger barely looked up, glancing at the mug but not at Zhane, and shook his head. Zhane set it on the console in front of him, lifting his own mug as he leaned back in the chair.

KO-35 was peaceful this morning. At least, from orbit. Truth be told, there were times when he liked the planet better from orbit. Not a lot of times... he liked to be in the middle of things, as a general rule. You could learn more close up than you could from a distance. But sometimes, with everyone in his face like that, he forgot what it all meant. Up here it was easier to remember.

"Thanks." Ty's voice was hoarse, the sound of someone who hadn't spoken since he woke up and hadn't planned to change that anytime soon. He didn't bother to clear his throat, just kept staring at the screen as though he were reading something off of it.

"Sure," Zhane said neutrally. It didn't really matter what Ty was thanking him for. He was welcome to anything Zhane could do for him. If only he would let them do more. Astrea said that the best thing they could do was just to be there... but it was frustrating, the waiting. The uncertainty. The desperate need to help, somehow, and the utter inability to get inside his head.

They forgave him. Of course they forgave him. They all knew what it was to love someone that much, and they knew what it could make you do. Ty would be harder on himself than his teammates ever could be.

He heard Ty swallow. "I lost him again," he whispered, wrapping his arms around his chest. His gaze didn't waver, not even to blink.

"No," Zhane said quietly. "You lost him once. This time you got him back."

Ty didn't answer. Zhane sipped his hot chocolate, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. Sometimes people run to get away. He remembered the advice from his childhood, two phrases he had never forgotten. Sometimes they run to see if you care enough to follow them.

"You think he's still out there?" Ty asked at last. His voice was no less rough, but there was a plaintive note that said he was willing to put himself on the line just for that feeble reassurance.

"Yeah," Zhane said without hesitation. "I know he is."

Ty made a noise that could have been disbelief or cynical amusement. Zhane didn't know any more than he did, and Ty was perfectly aware of that. But there was no sense believing the worst when they would probably never know. If you had to make up an ending, why make up a sad one?

"It took me a long time," Ty muttered, eyes still on the screen in front of them. "I was finally... I could wake up in the morning and not want to die. I even forgot, sometimes. After the quest--sometimes I did things and I didn't think about how much he would have loved them."

He broke off abruptly, and Zhane glanced sideways at him. He saw Ty bite his lip, hard, harder than he should have, and he wished he could tell the Black Ranger that it was all right. But he didn't, he couldn't tell him it would be okay, because then this would somehow mean less. He knew what it was to have part of you ripped away, to not know why you were still breathing when it hurt so much just to continue.

He knew too, that one day you were glad you had. One day you looked back and were grateful that something or someone had made you go on when you thought you couldn't. But you never saw that day coming until it arrived.

"Now--" Ty's voice broke, and he barely got the words out. "Now I can't."

"Ty, that was not your husband." Zhane had turned to him before he realized what he was doing, setting his mug down and wishing he could grab Ty's shoulders instead. "He's still with you. He always has been."

He reached out, and Ty didn't flinch when Zhane put a hand on his shoulder. "The person Dark Spectre showed you isn't the same guy," he said quietly. "He's free. He's probably with the other you, now. But he's not your husband."

Ty swallowed hard, and there was a long moment of silence. Finally he whispered, "Maybe I want him to be."

Zhane hadn't felt this helpless in a long time. "You can do this without him," he said softly. "You can, Ty. You did it before."

"I don't want to!" Ty shouted, startling Zhane with the outburst. "I don't care whether I can or not! I just want him back!"

There was nothing he could say to that. Ty dropped his gaze from the screen at last, staring down at the console in front of him. He reached for the mug Zhane had set there, hand shaking as he tried to wrap his fingers around it. He almost didn't make it, and he had to use both hands to get it to his mouth. He took a hasty swallow, loose hair hiding his face as he bowed his head.

"I hate Kristet," he muttered, voice trembling as the words drifted over to Zhane. "With her stupid introduction, always using both names. I know already. I don't need to hear it every time."

"She's just trying to remember," Zhane offered gently, awkwardly. He didn't know how else to answer.

"I know." Ty lowered the mug, lifting his head with what was obviously supposed to be a calming exhalation. He even shook his hair back, fixing his gaze on the screen again. "I hate that I hate her for it. But I'm just Ty, now, and I every time someone uses their married name I wish--"

"You're not just Ty," Zhane insisted, trying to fill the gap. "You're still Ty Kennan. Just like you're Tixe; you just don't use that name right now."

"It doesn't bring him back," Ty said softly. Then before Zhane could answer, he sighed again. "Listen to me," he muttered, taking another swallow from his mug. "I'm doing it all again. I've been through this, I've done it. I got over it."

"Maybe you never really get over it," Zhane suggested carefully. "Some things must... bring it back. But--you have to believe. That you're not alone. That he's still with you. That we're here, too."

Ty let out a bitter laugh, slumping against the back of his chair again. "After everything I've done? I don't know how you can even say that."

"You think you're the only one who's done something stupid?" He regretted the word the moment it was out, but all he could do was keep going. "You think this is the first time someone's chosen one person over the rest of the team? It doesn't mean you're a bad person, Ty. It just means you care enough to be a good one."

"Rangers put the team first," Ty muttered.

"No, they don't. Rangers put the people they care about first, like everyone else. Usually it's the team," Zhane admitted, "but not always. Sometimes it's someone on another team. Sometimes it's someone who isn't a Ranger at all. We all make choices."

"Bad ones," Ty said softly.

"Yeah," Zhane agreed. "Bad choices, good choices... sometimes choices we don't know are good or bad until a long time later. We don't know what our choices are going to do when we make them. We just have to do what we think is right at the time, and see it all the way through."

Ty stared at the screen, ignoring his drink once more. "You wouldn't be so philosophical," he said steadily, "if you'd lost someone because of what I did."

He would not swear. Not aloud. But damn it all to hell, didn't they have enough people taking responsibility for the actions of evil without Ty getting in on the act? Kerone felt guilty because it was her troops out there causing havoc. Andros felt guilty because he should be able to save every planet he'd ever heard of--single-handedly, if possible. And Ashley felt guilty because she wasn't doing enough to support her teammates, whom she had always put before herself.

"Ty," he said evenly. "Quantrons killed those people. Not you. You were trying to save a life, not take it. Never at any point did you open fire on KO-35, its buildings, or its inhabitants. The forces of evil did that. If you could control them, this war would have been over a long time ago.

"You were used," he continued, when Ty didn't answer. "Evil uses people; it manipulates them into doing what it wants and it doesn't feel guilty about it. Only good people feel guilty. Ask Kerone. Do you think she feels guilty about the years she spent in the service of Dark Spectre? Do you thinks she doesn't know what happened under her command?

"She's not a bad person. She made some mistakes. But no one can change the past, and we can't anticipate the future. All we are is what we're doing right now. Kerone is doing good. Like you. Like me. We're good people, because right now, at this moment, we're doing what we believe in, what we think is good and right. That's all anyone can ask of themselves."

Ty lowered his gaze to the mug in his hands. He looked at it for a long time, without words, without even an expression that Zhane could see. But he didn't dare say anything else without some clue what Ty was thinking, so he kept quiet. Just be there for him, Astrea had said. Just let him know we haven't and won't give up on him.

She would know, if anyone would, what someone who had been through this needed. If she said he needed time and support, not space, then that was he was getting. No matter how hard he was to talk to right now.

Just like that, it dawned on him. That was exactly what he wanted from Andros. Time. Support, maybe, but really just time. He wanted the years without Andros back, he wanted the years ahead with him now, and to be honest it didn't really matter what Andros said. There was only one thing that was going to convince him they were actually together, and that was being together. Over time.

"Thanks," Ty said quietly, breaking the silence with a single word.

Zhane considered every possible way of responding to that, since "you're welcome" wasn't really appropriate but saying it was "no problem" would be rude. And was he really thanking Zhane, or just trying to find a way to get him to stop talking? He would wish for telepathy, except that he knew firsthand how little it helped.

"Drink your hot chocolate," he told Ty at last.

Was that the hint of a smile on the Black Ranger's face? Ty lifted the mug without another word, and Zhane followed suit. They sat there, watching the planet turn away beneath them, for some time.

He saved the deployment, wiped it clean, and redrew it. From scratch. He liked to start with a blank screen sometimes, because it was satisfying to build an entire wing deployment from memory and also because it impressed Zhane. He smiled a little, tempted to do it holographically, but a motion from the doorway distracted him before he could ask DECA for the matrix.

"Morning," Ashley offered quietly, watching him with evident amusement. "What was so important that it couldn't even wait till you'd gotten dressed?"

Andros shrugged, glancing back at the tactical board for a moment. "How do you know I'm not going to wear this today?" he wanted to know. "Maybe Kristet wants us to do pajama interviews. Maybe the Council would be more scared of us if we all showed up in sweats."

She laughed, crossing the holding bay to join him in front of the board. She gave it a cursory look before turning back to assess his outfit. She was already in uniform, of course, but he noticed she hadn't done anything with her hair and she wasn't wearing her jacket. That was as close to informal as Ashley had gotten lately, with Kristet always around.

"I think it's a great idea," she decided at last. "Pajama Day. We could start a whole new trend."

"Ty already has kids across the continent going barefoot," Andros reminded her. "And if I see one more person with that phoenix symbol of Zhane's..."

"Oh, please," Ashley scoffed. "Like your red cat isn't the trademark for several major corporations by now. They could do worse than a silver phoenix."

Andros gave her an offended look. "Are you saying Zhane's symbol is cooler than mine?"

She giggled. "Maybe," Ashley teased. "He's had his morpher longer than you, after all."

"Yes, he's mentioned that," Andros said, rolling his eyes. "Two or three hundred times since the quest. Thanks for reminding me; I'd almost forgotten."

"That's what I'm here for," she chirped, sliding her arm through his. "Want to have some breakfast?"

How could he say no? For once, their conversation was easy and spontaneous. Friendly. Normal. He couldn't remember the last time they had just kidded around, alone, without any of the others to ease the burden.

Was it really a burden to talk to her now? He had caught himself thinking the same thing about Zhane only a few days before: no, it's too hard, he deserves more than I can give right now. Maybe later.

You couldn't build a relationship based on "later." And only maybe later, at that.

"Sounds great," he told Ashley, putting his hand over hers as she drew him away from the tactical board. "For once I can beat Kerone to the table."

"Yeah, where is she?" Ashley asked, glancing around. "You don't suppose she's already been and gone?"

"She only comes to breakfast because we do," Andros pointed out. "She wouldn't disappear before we got up."

"DECA?" Ashley looked up at the nearest camera. "Is Kerone on board?"

"She is not," DECA replied immediately. "At my request, she and Kyril are engaged in unofficial reconnaissance on RS-42. They will, of course, report to Andros when they return."

She looked at him, and Andros shook his head in silent negation. That had been DECA's idea, not his. They had talked about setting up a base on KO-35's sister planet, but they had yet to get Council approval for a military operation. It seemed that DECA was operating on the theory that knowledge, in whatever form, was leverage.

"Thanks," Ashley said at last, opening the door to the Synthetron and then stepping aside to let him take a turn. "Is it nice to have Rangers that don't sleep, DECA?"

Andros smiled to himself, putting in his own breakfast request. The Synthetron hummed, almost inaudibly, and DECA replied with a puzzled tone. "Sleep requirements have little impact on a Ranger's performance, unless they are not met. Do you believe that I should prefer one individual's physiology over another's?"

They exchanged glances again, and Andros' smile widened when Ashley rolled her eyes. "I think she's making fun of you," he remarked, trying without success to sound noncommittal.

"Me?" DECA and Ashley both spoke at the same time, and Andros couldn't help chuckling. Ashley started to giggle too, and the light on DECA's camera blinked in silent amusement.

They sat down across from each other, shoving the readers to the other end of the table. He told himself not to reach out to Zhane, but the moment he thought of it he couldn't turn his awareness anywhere else. Awake and involved, the Silver Ranger's attention was elsewhere. Andros drew the line at interrupting, and this time his mind cooperated.

He caught Ashley's eye the second he turned his focus back to breakfast, though, and he saw her smile tentatively. "Is Zhane up?" she asked, a little too casually.

"Yeah." He returned her smile, trying not to let it matter. "Doing something on the Bridge, I think."

"He's not going to come down here?" Ashley looked both disappointed and apologetic at the same time. He didn't know what she was thinking, but she clearly thought she was somehow to blame.

"No, I didn't ask," Andros said quickly. "I just checked to see if he was awake. He probably didn't even notice."

Ashley frowned a little. He braced himself for another question about telepathy, something he was going to have to actually think about this early in the morning, but it didn't come. Instead, just as carefully as before, Ashley inquired, "Can I ask you something? About--Zhane?"

"Sure," he said automatically. "Whatever you want."

She hesitated, and that worried him. He was going to have to think after all. He reached for his drink, hoping this one wasn't going to be beyond him. He had a near total inability to think on his feet when Zhane sprang things on him, but his track record with Ashley was a little better.

"What was it like," she asked slowly, "before KO-35 was invaded? Between you and Zhane, I mean."

He put his glass down, trying not to choke when his throat closed up involuntarily. "What--what do you mean?" he managed. He shook his head then, adding hastily, "No, I know what you mean. I thought... you might ask that, someday."

"If you don't want to talk about it," she said quickly. "I mean, I know it's none of my business--"

"Yes it is," Andros interrupted. He glanced up at DECA's camera, but what about them didn't she know? She might as well listen. She had been there too, after all. "It's just--hard to explain, that's all."

This time, Ashley didn't say anything. She just waited, and for lack of anything better to do, he tapped his fork with one finger. "We were best friends," he told the fork. "That's what we always said, and we never called it anything more or less than that. It's only now, looking back, that I think we were probably closer than most best friends."

"How close?" Ashley asked quietly.

He turned his fork over, tracing the outline of it on the table. "Before KO-35 was invaded? We were just kids. I was eleven the first time Dark Spectre came, and I went back for Zhane because he was my best friend. It was only after we went to Rayven that his grandparents took me in, made us brothers."

"And he got his morpher," Ashley added, not as though she was trying to interrupt. More like she wanted him to know that she knew. He and Zhane had both told her stories about their history, and she had obviously listened.

Andros nodded once. "That was when things started to change," he admitted. "For four years, it was just the two of us. Four years. That's... that's practically forever, when you're that young. And we swore that it would be forever."

"We'll vow to fight as a team forever," Ashley repeated softly. "I've heard you say it."

"Yeah." His voice was just as quiet, and he made himself look at her. "I don't know if you can imagine what it was like back then. We lost so many people in the evacuation, and a lot of the ones that regrouped on Rayven settled down apart from each other. Cities, towns, even families were split up. We built new communities, but the old ones were gone and Zhane and I were just too busy to be part of it all.

"We couldn't make friends," Andros said with a sigh. "We didn't have classmates, not when the teachers kept pushing us through no matter how we did. We barely even had parents. Ma and Pa didn't know what to do with Ranger kids. The Council stepped in when we needed something, but the rest of the time, all we really had was each other."

He paused, and Ashley fidgeted. "Too busy?" she asked at last. "Did you have to fight, even on Rayven?"

"We weren't on Rayven that much," he told her. "Not unless we were in school. The Council sent us offworld whenever it could, getting involved with the Border, training, politicking, sometimes fighting. A lot of times, we ended up places where Zhane was the only person I knew, let alone talked to."

Ashley bit her lip. "I can see how that would make you... well, you'd have to be close," she finished awkwardly.

"Ash..." He found himself playing with his fork again. "We didn't analyze it. We didn't even talk about it. We just--we just were. We slept in the same bed. We held onto each other when we were scared. Or lonely. Sometimes it felt good... sometimes it was the only thing that kept us going. But it wasn't sex. It was just us, being together."

There was silence for a moment. Ashley seemed to be struggling with something, but all she asked was, "How come you never talked about it?"

Andros could only shrug. "What was there to talk about? He dated girls. I didn't want to. We weren't like that. We were just friends. We never talked about having a relationship because it never occurred to us. We just didn't think of it that way."

"Are you sure?" Ashley closed her mouth, as though she had blurted out something she didn't mean to ask. But then she continued reluctantly, "How do you know Zhane didn't think of it that way?"

Andros didn't answer, remembering Zhane's question that last night in the hangar. Pinned beneath the Silver Ranger, he had been blindsided by the truth of what the two of them together could do. Did you think about it? Zhane had demanded urgently.

"Maybe he did," Andros muttered. He tapped the fork against his plate absently. "If he did, he didn't tell me. He just--" He broke off, smiling a little without meaning to. "I don't remember when he started kissing me, but I remember the first time I realized what he was doing. Right in front of the cameras. I laughed."

Ashley gave him a wide-eyed look, some combination of amusement and mock-horror. "He kissed you and you laughed?" she repeated. Her tone bordered on reproachful. "What did he do?"

"Jumped on my back," Andros admitted. "We were just goofing off, and I carried him halfway down the beach like that. The reporters loved it. We were never that silly."

She gave him a small smile. "Not now, either," she murmured, almost as though she was talking to herself.

He just shrugged. Zhane liked publicity. Andros tried to stay out of its way.

"What about after the--after he woke up?" Ashley was staring steadily at him now, and he blinked. Her smile fading, she added, "Were you together then?"

Andros couldn't help frowning. "I was with you then. I've been with you since before he woke up."

"But you slept with Zhane," Ashley said, not as though it mattered. She was being deliberately calm about it, and it irritated him. He had already told her what was between him and Zhane: he had told her how they used to be, and she knew as much as either of them about what they were now. On top of that, he was almost certain she had asked him this before.

"When Zhane woke up, I was in a relationship with you," he repeated. "Maybe I didn't know what to call it when we were fifteen, but I know what that means now. If anything had happened between me and Zhane, I would have told you."

She closed her mouth, lowering her gaze to the table. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "You're right; you told me that. I guess... I just had to ask again."

"Nothing about Zhane changes my feelings towards you," Andros told her. "Nothing that we were before, and nothing that we are now. I still love you, Ash."

She looked up, and the last trace of irritation vanished when she smiled back at him. That was how she used to smile all the time. "I love you too," she promised. "I'm sorry I'm--I'm being so nosy."

"It's okay," he said, letting out a breath of relief. "We all have to tell each other the truth; Zhane's right about that. Did I... did I answer your question?"

"I think so." Her smile didn't dim, and her confidence was more reassuring than she probably knew. Everything between them had been so tentative lately. "I'll let you know if I think of any more!"

He grinned at that, relaxing a little more. "Maybe Zhane should get the next one," he suggested, hoping it wasn't the wrong thing to say. "We could switch off."

"I'm sure he'll be glad you volunteered him," Ashley said dryly. Then she got a thoughtful look, eyeing him speculatively. "Maybe I'll ask him when he fell for you. If he won't tell you..."

Andros hesitated. She might be kidding, but he didn't doubt she would do it if he didn't tell her not to. But... didn't he want to know too?

"Don't tell him I said I didn't know," he said at last. "In fact... probably the less you say about me, the better luck you'll have."

"But Andros!" Ashley batted her eyes at him, and he was struck by how much her innocent act reminded him of Zhane. "What happened to telling the truth?"

"It was your idea," he reminded her, a little indignantly. "Leave me out of it. That's all I'm saying."

She looked down, smiling a little as her expression turned more serious. "I was just teasing you," she told the table. "I already asked him. He said he doesn't know."

Andros considered that. "So," he said at last, "he won't tell you either?"

Ashley looked up, her surprised look fading to rueful amusement. "No," she admitted. "I guess he won't."

Sunlight slanted across the square, making shadows dance and lengthen among the deserted buildings. It was an eerie echo of KO-35, with the identical prefabs and similar layout, down to the fountain in the middle of the plaza. Even the passage of time hadn't noticeably altered its appearance.

Only the lack of people made this place the echo, while KO-35 was the active, growing colony. Both planets had been slated for colonization, and both planets were home to a foundation that could serve a large number of communities. Only one was still inhabited, still occupied and defended by the Kerovan defense force... still viable despite the threat that had scattered both populations scant years before.

"It feels strange," she said aloud. Her footsteps were the only human sound on the surface of this abandoned planet. "I didn't expect it to look so--normal."

"You haven't been here before?" Kyril asked, glancing sideways as he paced her silently across the stone paths.

"Not since we came back." Kerone paused. "Actually, if I was ever here before that I don't remember. I've been curious about it for a long time."

Kyril smiled a little. "But not curious enough to do anything about it?"

She shrugged. "I figured there was some sort of surveillance in place already. I mean, who leaves the planet next door completely unsupervised when you have velocifighters coming through every other day?"

"Who leaves any part of the system unsupervised no matter what?" Kyril countered. "It does seem unusual."

"I figured I'd be setting off someone's alarm system no matter where I went." Kerone stared up at the facade ahead, watching birds dart and duck between the eaves and a couple of open windows. "I wasn't curious enough to get the PD, the Council, and the rest of the Rangers involved."

"Yet here we are," Kyril remarked, glancing around the square as though to make sure soldiers weren't materializing from the shadows. "And I don't see anyone complaining."

"No," she agreed thoughtfully. "Which seems strange. Are we really that complacent?"

Kyril didn't even try to answer that, and they walked on in silence. They had done a sweep of the planet from orbit, covered the three largest settlements by Glider, and gone on to investigate one of the smaller towns on foot. This last was not strictly necessary, but the weather here was good and it was nice to get out and walk around for a change. She felt like she had been breathing recycled air for weeks.

A strange thing to object to, she mused, turning her gaze toward the horizon for a moment. She, who had spent most of her life aboard one space-faring vessel or another, now missed the sun and sky when she was locked away from it even for brief periods of time. She wondered suddenly what Zhane thought of the circumstances, and she was tempted with a sudden sharp longing to just reach out to him and ask.

"Why was it abandoned?" Kyril asked abruptly. "Or..." He hesitated, then added, "Maybe I should say, 'Why wasn't it recolonized?' You came back to KO-35 twice, didn't you? Why not RS-42?"

It was on the tip of her tongue to say "I don't know," but something made her stop and think about it. "Maybe there weren't enough people," she said slowly. "A lot of the colonists died in the first attack. Maybe there weren't enough left to populate two worlds."

Kyril was quiet for a moment. "Did everyone evacuate to Rayven?"

"I think so." Colony history wasn't one of her stronger areas, but you didn't live with Andros for very long without picking up some of the basics. "All the PD-escorted transports went to Rayven, anyway. Ty stayed on the Border. That was probably pretty common for people who had family out this way."

"But dangerous," Kyril said quietly, and she knew he was thinking of his own planet.

She nodded wordlessly.

"I suppose," Kyril said at last, "that people who had spent as long as they did together on Rayven might not want to split up again."

Kerone considered that. They had reached the middle of the square, and by unspoken consent paused at the edge of the fountain. It wasn't running, of course, and the stone basins had turned green with algae and moss. It was one of the only conspicuous signs of abandonment anywhere in sight. Even the paths surrounding the plaza were mostly smooth and unmarked--apparently this part of the planet didn't get cold enough to freeze.

"Maybe not," she agreed finally. "I think... I don't think Rayna survived the first attacks. Or maybe she did, but Zhane makes it sound like everyone on Rayven was following Kinwon by the time they tried to come back. And if Rayna is still around, I haven't heard anything about her. She's certainly not on the Council."

Kyril gave her an inquiring look as he turned his back on the fountain to catch her eye. "I'm sorry... Rayna?"

"Rayna Selmir led the colonists of RS-42," Kerone said quickly. It was funny; she knew so little that she just assumed anything she did know was common knowledge. The planet is named for her and the original 42 colonists that settled here."

"As KO-35 is named for Kinwon?" Kyril guessed.

She nodded once. "He was Kinwon Obekai when KO-35 was first colonized," she offered. "I don't know how he lost his partner, or even who it was. He's just Kinwon now, but the planet will probably remember his married name long after he's gone."

Kyril smiled, his gaze never leaving her face. "I like your tradition of taking a second name when you commit to another. Is there meaning behind it that you would share?"

"Probably," she admitted ruefully. She didn't miss the sudden shift in his phrasing, from casual to formal in the blink of an eye, but she didn't know him well enough to be sure what it meant. Saryn did it when he was uncomfortable, or angry, but Kyril didn't seem to be either.

"I don't know what it means," she added, when he kept waiting. "I was taken from KO-35 before I was really old enough to ask questions. You'd have to ask one of the others."

"Do you not ask questions now?" He was regarding her with disconcerting intensity, and she looked away before he could see her frown.

"I have other questions to ask now," she said. She knew it was an evasive answer, but it wasn't an easy question. The traditions of KO-35 weren't as important to her as her teammates were now. The past never took precedence over the present.

And yet... maybe there were things she should know. They were her people, after all. Weren't they?

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," Kyril said quietly. "I was only curious."

She caught his eye again, stung by his deliberate courtesy. "Do you know everything about your planet?" she wanted to know. "Why is it rude to ask ghosts about their life? Why do you think you should be grateful for something you sometimes resent?"

Kyril opened his mouth, then closed it again. For once, it seemed she had caught him out. And he was hard to surprise. She tried not to look too smug as he inclined his head in grave acknowledgement of her point. "I do not know," he admitted, and the smile was evident in his voice if not on his face. "You are correct."

She stepped up on the edge of the fountain, peering into the topmost basin as she avoided his gaze. She considered the design for a moment, then stuck her finger into the green water and swirled the strands aside. The spout where the water would well up was unclogged as far down as she could poke her finger, which wasn't very far.

Looking around the edges of the fountain, she spotted the solar collectors that had been set into the insides of the lowest basin. She moved back, kneeling on the outer rim and reaching into the murky water to scrub the nearest one off. It came clean with surprisingly little effort.

"How did you know?" Kyril asked, drifting idly around the fountain to mimic her actions on the other side.

She looked up, amused in spite of herself to see him push his sleeves up before sticking his hands in the water. "Know what?"

"That I resent it," he said matter-of-factly. He didn't look up, just concentrated on rubbing the algae off of the solar collector in front of him. She sat back on her heels and watched him for a moment, oddly glad to have his attention on something other than her.

"Just a guess," she replied at last. "You don't seem very happy. You do things because they're there, not because you looked for them. You're bored. And it's not because you're away from home," she added with some certainty. "I think it's the opposite."

He still didn't lift his gaze. "I think you're right," he said quietly.

She moved on to the next solar collector, looking up when the top basin started to drip. The water would still flow, then. It must have filled the top basin already, and a tiny trickle was running down the far side. She smiled a little, catching Kyril's eye by accident when he too looked up.

He flicked a few drops of water at her, and she ducked instinctively. "Hey!" She dipped one hand into the water and flung it in his direction, but she couldn't tell if the droplets hit him or went right through.

He looked down, as though he had in fact gotten wet, and remarked, "It's a good thing ghosts don't stain." To her amazement, the outline of his uniform shimmered briefly and transformed.

"You're a shapeshifter!" she blurted out. He was clad in Elisian casual wear, the effort apparently no greater than what it took to toss water drops in her direction.

He shook his head, though he seemed to be enjoying her surprise. "Not really," he confessed. "This is what I look like, and I can't change that. But I can change my clothes when I want to."

She lifted her hand with a flourish, transforming her own uniform in a shower of violet sparkles. He studied her, a grin tugging at his expression. "Saryn?" he guessed.

"We stayed on Elisia sometimes," she said, by way of explanation. "It was nice to be able to blend in. I got good at the clothes."

"You certainly did," he agreed emphatically.

"Don't be bored," she urged, shaking her hands dry as she stood up. "There's still so much left to do. Even I can see that."

"Even you?" he echoed. He joined her on the other side of the fountain, looking from her to the growing spill of water and back again. She felt his damp fingers twine through hers, and she let him take her hand without protest. "Especially you, I think."

Teleporting into the middle of an occupied space wasn't polite. It was just one of the many pieces of trivia she had picked up over the last few days, things she had never imagined knowing, let alone needing to know. When the Rangers teleported up to the Megaship, they were automatically diverted to the holding bay if it was empty, or the hallway outside if it was not.

It definitely wasn't empty, if the noise from inside was any indication. She stepped into the doorway and paused, still a little cautious about invading their space without warning. Would DECA have told them that she was on her way?

"You're late," Andros remarked from his place on the steps. He didn't raise his voice or make any effort to get her attention, but he didn't have to. Everyone else looked up when he spoke.

"Hey, Kristet," Zhane greeted cheerfully. Ashley and Kerone waved, and Kyril nodded at her in a brief acknowledgement. Ty, leaning against the jump tube deck at Andros' side, didn't even catch her eye.

"Good morning." She offered a smile, fairly sure that Andros did this to her no matter when she arrived. "I didn't realize you were still eating. I can work somewhere else if I'm interrupting?"

"Not at all!" Seated at the table with Zhane and Kerone, Ashley beamed at her. "Come on in! Want some breakfast?"

Shaking her head, she made an expression of regret. "I already ate, but thanks. Are you sure you don't want me to wait somewhere else? I still have some editing--"

"No, come listen to our latest plan to take over the world," Zhane urged. "You can help. Andros, you want her to set up on RS-42? She could be a planetwide news service all by herself. Think of the advertising!"

"I have zero executive experience," she informed him, setting her camera down on the table as she took a seat. She saw Andros give it a sharp look, but since the camera was off she ignored it. "I just cover the stories. I don't put them on the air."

"Here's your chance," Zhane said with a grin. "RS-42 doesn't have anyone else."

"It doesn't have anyone, period," Ashley corrected. "Who do you think the audience is going to be?"

"Do I look like a detail person?" Zhane demanded. "I'm an idea man. I just put 'em out there; I don't follow through."

"There's a slogan," Kerone remarked. "Least successful advertising campaigns, by the Silver Ranger."

The words actually made her think of the Council, but she wasn't quite confident enough to say it aloud. She still wasn't sure of political affiliations within the Rangers, and she wasn't going to risk offending them for the sake of being social. To her surprise, Andros confirmed her thought without even realizing it.

"No follow through," the Red Ranger repeated, shaking his head. "Sounds like the Council. Is it a better idea to get Marsie in on the idea now and present a unified front, or to wait for Kinwon to make some kind of decision before we do anything else?"

"The base on RS-42," Ashley added quietly, glancing at Kristet. "The Council still won't approve it."

"Go to Marsie." Zhane's recommendation was predictable. As far as she could tell, he never thought going through the Council was a good idea.

Ashley sighed, exchanging glances with Zhane. "Legally, we should wait for the Council. The Rangers are autonomous, but the PD isn't. We shouldn't ask for their help until the Council okays it."

Kerone shook her head when Andros looked at her. "I don't know," she said simply.

Were they voting? She wished she could turn her camera on, but as soon as the idea occurred to her she realized how wrong it was. Maybe this was how the Rangers made decisions, but it wasn't something the public should see. It would come across as too casual.

It looked to an outsider as though the Rangers didn't care enough about policy decisions to give them exclusive consideration. After all, here they were discussing planetwide issues over breakfast. But in reality, they gave these decisions so much consideration that there was no time when they didn't think about them. Even over breakfast.

"The PD can petition." Ty's harsh mutter surprised her, coming as it did after days of silence--at least in her presence. His voice sounded rough, as though it came from someone other than the Black Ranger she had seen on the news following the quest.

"Petition the Council, you mean?" Ashley's prompt was gentle, but her tone was enough to suggest that the others were no less surprised than Kristet by his participation.

Ty nodded. No one else spoke, waiting to see if he would continue. "Telling the PD isn't illegal," he told the deck. "Ordering them is borderline. But they can lobby for themselves if Marsie thinks it's a good idea."

There was another quiet moment, just long enough to see if he would add anything else. Then Andros said, "I'll call Marsie before the Council convenes today. She'll want the scans Kerone and Kyril got, either way."

"Kerone and Kyril were on RS-42 last night," Ashley murmured, in another aside to Kristet. She seemed to have made it her job to keep Kristet informed when Andros didn't bother. When she wasn't there, Zhane would take over, but he was somewhat less reliable when it came to pertinent updates. His idea of "important" didn't always coincide with hers.

"What about the Defense base?" Kerone wanted to know. "While we're on the subject, are we going to do anything to push that through? We could force them into violation of the mutual defense pact if we had to."

"We can't," Andros contradicted. "Reassigning an existing base would be the fastest way to meet the terms of the treaty, but the Frontier Defense won't accept it. They want an original structure or nothing."

"Do they have any official reason for that?" Kerone demanded. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"Pre-existing structures have been compromised by abandonment and subsequent exposure to the forces of evil," Kyril offered, speaking for the first time. He was over by the tactical board, working on something Kristet couldn't identify.

"In other words, no," Ashley said, rolling her eyes. "It's just an excuse to keep them from having to sign the treaty?"

Kyril nodded wordlessly.

"So the Defense isn't going to help us," Kerone said, glancing from Kyril to Andros. "Are we totally on our own, then?"

Kristet was very still. For once, the others seemed to be hanging on Andros' answer as much as she was. But, unexpectedly, it was Kyril who answered.

"No," he told them, turning away from the tactical board. "The Kerovan Rangers, and the Astro Rangers before them, have made many friends throughout the galaxies. They will not stand alone before Dark Spectre's wrath."

"You can't promise Elisian help," Andros said quietly. "You have your own planet to defend."

"Mirine won't let the team that saved her brother face Dark Spectre without reinforcements." Kyril's tone left no room for argument. "And I can't believe that Earth will not come to your aid."

"TJ would come if we asked him," Ashley agreed, glancing back at Andros.

"Aquitar still owes us for that Barox attack," Zhane added.

"Both Alliance planets," Kerone murmured. "Funny that we're counting on support from the other side of the League when we supposedly have a treaty with the Frontier Defense."

"Yeah," Zhane said wryly. "Funny in the way that it's not at all, you mean."

"Mirine will back you up," Kyril repeated. "No matter what the government says. Our team will be here when you need us."

"Who's Mirine?" Kristet whispered to Ashley.

"Saryn's sister," Ashley breathed in return. "She leads the Elisian Rangers."

Kristet could feel Kyril's gaze on her, and she knew he had overheard. Could he really speak for his entire Ranger team? And if something dangerous enough to require extrasolar Rangers did threaten KO-35, wouldn't Elisia's priorities lie somewhere closer to home?

She wasn't convinced, but Andros nodded as though he took Kyril's statement at face value. "Thank you," the Red Ranger said seriously. "We appreciate that."

There was a quiet moment, and then Ashley remarked, "You're so lucky Cricket isn't recording this."

Kristet blinked, glancing around at the others for some clue what she was referring to. Kerone just shook her head, but Zhane looked equally amused. "Yeah, for once I look more respectable than Andros. How often does that happen?"

That was all it took, for he and Ashley were the only Rangers in uniform. Kerone and Kyril were both dressed in clothes that had to be from offworld, while Ty wore a shirt that looked Kerovan but bore a symbol she didn't recognize. Andros, though... Andros' maroon sweatshirt and dark grey sweats looked too old to be a tracksuit, so unless she missed her guess he had come to breakfast in his pajamas.

Andros just shrugged, apparently unconcerned. "It probably happens about as often as your insightful comments in front of cameras," he told Zhane.

"Hey!" Ashley protested immediately. "That's too harsh. Zhane's insight is only for his friends," she added, smiling across the table at him.

Zhane shifted, and Kristet thought he glanced sideways at her. "I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered.

"Incoming message for Kyril," DECA interrupted, and they both looked up.

Kyril took a single step before catching Andros' eye. "Do you mind if I--?" He cocked his head toward the door, and Andros nodded.

As Kyril disappeared down the hallway, presumably to receive his message on the Bridge, Kristet offered, "I already know Zhane is smarter than he sounds."

Ashley laughed at that, and Zhane gave her a wry look. "Thanks," he remarked. "Am I smarter than I look, too, or is my intelligence somewhere between the audible and the visual?"

"Smarter than you pretend, then," Kristet insisted, refusing to be flustered. "Why do you want the media to think you're only in it for the entertainment value?"

"What else is there?" Zhane inquired, flashing a grin in her direction.

Ashley let out an exasperated sigh, but Kristet caught Kerone's smile. Andros and Ashley might find Zhane's act exasperating, but it clearly amused Kerone. Kristet wondered what Ty thought, but his gaze was still fastened to the floor. He hadn't moved from Andros' side, either, which she found interesting. She hadn't seen them together--well, ever, actually.

"What else is there, asks the person who almost didn't come on the Power quest." There was an understated challenge in Andros' voice, and Zhane reacted to it immediately.

"I already had the Power," he protested. "And if you hadn't been such a--" He broke off abruptly, and Kristet thought that the way he avoided her gaze was more obvious than if he had just looked at her to begin with. "If you'd been a little nicer," Zhane amended, his tone noticeably lighter, "the quest would have been a totally different thing."

"What did the Power quest involve?" Kristet asked, unable to resist. She didn't expect them to tell her, but she had to ask.

"It involved them, being like this the whole time," Ashley put in.

"Except when Ty said anything, when they would become even worse," Kerone agreed.

Andros didn't say anything, but Zhane was clearly ready to argue. "It had nothing to do with Ty," he informed her. "It was just Andros--and you! You and that silent spell of yours! How can you blame it all on us when Andros couldn't even talk half the time?"

"Would you rather I blamed it on you?" Kerone inquired. "I don't know why I was so nice to you. You could have saved us a lot of time by telling us what was going on with you from the beginning."

"Excuse me for not wanting to talk about it!" Zhane retorted. "I don't see you doing much sharing lately yourself!"

"See," Ashley said, just loudly enough to interrupt. "This is the problem with being on a team where everyone dates everyone else." She was looking at Kristet, but she clearly meant to talk over anything else the two of them might say. "Anyone can be having a lover's quarrel at any time."

Kristet tried not to smile, sure the response would not be appreciated. "I see that," she agreed, as gravely as she could. "It must make team relations difficult."

"No," Ashley said blithely. "Andros does that. The rest of us just try to work around his schedule: sulk, brood, get mad, repeat."

"You're only getting away with that because I'm in a good mood," Andros warned from behind her.

"Sometimes he throws those in just to confuse us," Ashley confided to Kristet.

A knock from the doorway prevented her from having to come up with a neutral response to that. The sound was so unexpected that it took her a moment to figure out what it was, and by then everyone at the table had fallen silent. She craned her neck to see Kyril, framed by the doorway and an expression she couldn't read on his face.

"Word from Raine," the Elisian Ranger told them. "Cassie's in labor."