She clapped her hands over her ears as the roaring sound grew steadily louder, and she could only stare in amazement as Ecliptor vanished. One moment he was there, talking to her, reassuring her, and the next he was--gone. The Dark Fortress faded from existence as though it had never been, replaced by an unfamiliar environment as quickly as though she had been teleported away against her will.

She stared around her, trying to shake the bizarre feeling of being woken up from her life. She was all too eager to believe that the last few minutes had been nothing but a nightmare, but she couldn't remember falling asleep anymore than she could identify the setting in which she now found herself.

"Where *am* I?" she demanded aloud. She could hear her own voice clearly, despite the fact that the thunderous roar that seemed to come from all around her had not abated in the least.

"Something has happened," a voice replied uncertainly.

She turned without thinking, on the defensive at the first sign of company. Delphinius stood only a few paces away, looking around them with a wariness akin to her own. "What are you doing here?" she asked, following his gaze with a frown. "And where is here?"

The cavern stretched away from them in all directions, a dim and somehow liquid light playing across the damp stone and moss. Waist-high plants lifted broad and shiny green leaves up toward the meager light, waving lazily in a breeze she couldn't feel. Humidity hung so heavily in the air that she could almost see the water droplets before they collected on her skin and eyelashes, and she was sure that this was no place she had ever visited before.

"These are the Eternal Falls," Delphinius replied, and tilted his head to stare upward.

She glanced up, not particularly curious but wondering what had caught his attention. The source of the incredible pounding noise became instantly clear as she realized what she was seeing.

"Eternal Falls" was not just a pretty name. Sheet after sheet of clear, frothing water thundered down from the cliffs above, forming the semi-transparent ceiling of the "cave". She followed the water's fall with her eyes, staring in amazement as it simply vanished over the side of a ledge not fifty meters away. Her entire perspective shifted as she began to understand that they were not underground after all, but far higher than she had imagined.

She realized after a moment that her mouth was open, and she closed it quickly, shooting a look in Delphinius' direction. He was paying little if any attention to her, searching the area in which they stood as though he expected to find someone else nearby.

"Why are we here?" she asked. She was no more clear on that than she had been before, though she was significantly more awed. "We were in the Rysian system, and Dark Spectre's ship was destroyed…"

"The Dark Fortress had appeared," Delphinius said, turning back toward her with an intense look that startled her. "And we teleported to the Megaship."

He seemed to be looking for confirmation as much as she, so she nodded. "You and Cetaci left Zaal to take care of Aura. Then there was some kind of pulse wave, and Andros and Zhane accused me of being a traitor--"

His eyes narrowed. "Zhane did not. He was in the Medical bay with the rest of us from the time I teleported there to the time…" He frowned, suddenly. "I can not recall his presence after Cetaci left."

"Left for where?" she asked, diverted. Why would the White Ranger have abandoned Aura when she had been so insistent about being with her teammate?

"She left to investigate the pulse wave," Delphinius said slowly, his frown deepening. "In Mireth… but Cestria was in Mireth." He stopped, giving her a thoroughly confused look. "Was she not?"

"If Cetaci left the Megaship, I didn't know about it," she told him. "But I do know Cestria didn't leave Mireth. And none of the Aquitian zords went to investigate the wave."

"The wave," Delphinius repeated, not taking his eyes off of her. "It was the wave, wasn't it."

"This isn't real," she guessed.

He shook his head slowly. "It cannot be. The Eternal Falls are on Aquitar, and neither the Megaship nor Zaal has the power to get us here from Rysia."

"So when did it *stop* being real?" she wanted to know. "And how do we get out of this--whatever it is?"

"We have to find the others first," Billy said, and she blinked. She hadn't seen him approach, but there he was, hand in hand with Cestria and looking only slightly the worse for wear. "If we leave without them, they'll have to find their way back on their own."

She eyed him suspiciously. "What do you mean, 'leave without them'? Do you know where we are?"

"You're in my… nightmare," Cestria said quietly. "I apologize for drawing you into it."

"Your nightmare?" she repeated, glancing around again. It didn't look so bad to her.

"It does not always look like this," Cestria said, as though that were all the explanation she needed. The Yellow Ranger did not look around, almost as though she was ashamed at the state of this place that she had brought them to. "Did either of you see something you fear just before you arrived here?"

She and Delphinius exchanged glances. She wasn't sure she wanted to answer that, but Delphinius admitted, "Yes. You think these…" He gestured around them, leaving no doubt about what he meant even before he finished the sentence. "These 'nightmares' were induced by the wave?"

"That's the theory," Billy put in. "We won't know for sure until we get out of here."

"Maybe not even then," Cestria murmured, staring steadily down at the ground.

"Hey--" Billy put a hand on her shoulder. "This hasn't happened, Cestria. I promise you."

Watching the two of them, she couldn't help but frown. "Delphinius said this is Aquitar. There's no way we could have gotten from Rysia to Aquitar in just a few seconds."

Billy shot her an unreadable look. "It's her fear, Kerone, not yours. Of course it seems more real to her than it does to you."

She drew back, stung, but said nothing. She hadn't meant to dismiss Cestria, no matter how unwarranted her distress seemed, but neither would she snap at Billy for defending her.

"You said we could find the others," Delphinius said, looking over his shoulder as though he expected to see his teammates coming up behind them.

Cestria nodded, her gaze still on the ground. "We four are all I can sense here, but the others may have been pulled into Aura's nightmare. I think I can get us there as well, though I am afraid she will not thank me for it."

It was on her tongue to ask "why not?", until she remembered Andros' accusing words. "You're either good or you aren't. And you obviously aren't." She wouldn't want anyone else in her "nightmare", either. So she asked only, "Why would they be with Aura?"

"The same reason you are with me," Cestria said. "I don't understand why it happened, but we are the team's strongest telepaths. If I somehow projected what I am seeing onto you, I am certain Aura has done the same, however unintentionally."

"But you can control this?" Delphinius wanted to know, motioning to their surroundings. "You can find the others and end these… nightmares?"

Cestria hesitated, lifting her eyes to study him. She was still careful not to look around, though. "I can end *my* nightmare, because it is mine and I am aware of it now. I think I can find the others, also, but I will not be able to end Aura's nightmare for her. Only she can do that."

"Then let's go," Billy interjected. "The sooner we find her--and everyone else, hopefully--the better."

Cestria nodded reluctantly. Her eyes slid closed, and for a moment the only noise was the overpowering sound of water as it crashed against stone. Then, slowly, the unsteady luminescence started to dim and the roaring began to echo, as though it were coming from farther and farther away.

The next thing she knew, she was standing outside, and she had a moment to wonder why Aura's "nightmare" was a beautiful summer night on Earth. But it didn't take long for the wrongness of the vegetation to set in, and as soon as she looked up she knew they were on Aquitar again.

Instead of the clear, bright darkness of Earth twilight, the night was dark and fluid as currents of water caught and swirled around the dome that enclosed this particular "meadow". The sharp sparkle of starlight was absent, replaced by the softer glimmer of ocean phosphorescence as sealife played above the transparent dome.

The luminescence blurred, and she lowered her gaze abruptly. To her surprise, the rest of the dome was just as unfocused, and she rubbed her eyes in an effort to clear them. Nothing happened, but a moment later the dome solidified again of its own accord.

She looked around, puzzled, and her eyes widened as she saw double. She frowned, shaking her head. Not double… Andros and Ashley were there, and she could see them perfectly clearly. It was only Cestria, Billy, and Delphinius who seemed to have identical twins. Cetaci was there too, and Carlos.

The dome seemed to shift, her vision reorienting itself in a way she couldn't begin to describe, and she put out her hands to balance instinctively. As before, her surroundings seemed to lose focus, widening as they blurred into each other, and she frowned. Billy, Cestria, and Delphinius remained as clear as ever, though their doubles faded. Ashley and Andros exchanged glances, also sharp, and Carlos didn't change.

"She's losing consciousness," she heard Billy say. "She can't keep this going."

"What's going on?" Andros demanded, as the dome came back into clear view again. "Where are we?"

Cestria glanced at him, but when she spoke it was to Billy. "I did not expect this. She isn't even coherent enough to understand us, let alone take control of this. I fear that when she is completely unconscious, we will all find ourselves back where we started."

"That explains why I keep seeing flashes of the Eternal Falls," Billy muttered. "So we'll go back to your nightmare, and they'll go…"

"To their own?" Cestria finished. "I wish I knew. And where are the others?"

"What are you talking about?" Ashley interrupted, pulling Andros closer to the Aquitians and Kerone. "Did the wave do this?"

"Saryn," Kerone said suddenly.

Cestria caught her eye, comprehension flashing across her expression. "Of course. He is that strong, if in a different way."

*Not so different,* she thought, but she didn't say it aloud. She supposed that if Saryn wanted everyone to know he could walk through their minds at his leisure, he would have told them before this. She wasn't going to be the one to tell his secret.

"They are with Saryn, then," Delphinius said.

This time when the dome faded she found herself, as Billy had observed, standing below the thundering wall of water once more. As quickly as it had come, it flashed away, and she was again in a blurred version of the meadow dome. "Can you take us there?" she asked Cestria.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Andros and Ashley exchange glances, but they just didn't have time to explain this. Not if they were to get out of Aura's nightmare before it collapsed completely. She didn't know what would happen to them if they were still here when that happened.

"I… maybe," Cestria admitted. "I do not know him as well as I know Aura, but I believe I can see what he sees if I try. And what I see, it seems, you also see. But--I hesitate to do this, even more in his case than in Aura's."

This time, the dome vanished without warning. It didn't blur, or fade, it simply disappeared and she was back at the Eternal Falls with Delphinius, Cestria, and Billy. She saw Cestria close her eyes, though whether in dismay or an attempt to reach Aura again, she couldn't tell.

Either way, she heard Carlos' voice before the setting wavered once more, and they were again in the disintegrating meadow dome. She couldn't make out Carlos' words, but suddenly her preoccupied mind realized that he wasn't alone. He was seated on the floor some distance away with Aura cradled in his arms, and it was to her he spoke.

"We don't have much of a choice," Billy was telling Cestria. "Aura won't be awake much longer, and maybe with Saryn's help you can keep us all together. If we're separated…"

"Who can will themselves awake without someone to tell them they are dreaming?" Cestria said quietly, and she and Billy gazed at each other for a long moment.

The distorted dome was barely even recognizable as what it had been when she arrived, and when it flickered again Cestria took a deep breath. "Saryn," she whispered, closing her eyes. As what was left of the meadow dome started to brighten, Kerone realized she wasn't sure if the other had spoken aloud or in her mind.

The light overwhelmed her surroundings, an odd transition after the way Cestria's nightmare had faded into the darkness of Aura's. But when the sun-bright whiteness resolved itself into something her eyes could comprehend, she found herself somewhere infinitely more… *solid* than the place she had been before.

Where the world Aura had created had been gentle and shifting even before it started to lose cohesion and blur into something unidentifiable, this one was hard and unforgiving. No liquid patterns of light fell across the harsh stone floor on which she found herself. Instead, sharp sunlight angled through the arched windows to strike the floor and walls with a bitter scorching heat.

Saryn turned away from the window nearest what she assumed was a door, his eyes wide as he caught sight of them. His reaction was quite possibly the last thing she had expected. "Get away," he whispered, backing toward the door. "Get away from me."

Crystal pink shards glittered on the windowsill he had just left, as though someone had set a gemstone there and smashed it to pieces. She was startled to see tears in his eyes as he retreated from them toward the only exit she could see. This place seemed as harmless to her as Cestria's had, yet he reacted as though there could be nothing worse.

Before anyone could stop him, before even his long stride could carry him through the door, the curtain over the doorway was flung open and the rest of their teammates burst through. She sought out Zhane with her eyes, breathing a silent sigh of relief when she found him safe. His gaze locked with hers and his lips quirked as though he knew what she was thinking, but Saryn's startled cry prevented any explanation.

"No!" The Phantom Ranger stumbled backward, eyes flickering across them all as though he couldn't trust them to stay where they were. "You can't be here!"

The panic in his voice was something she had never heard from him, and she couldn't help but wonder what he was seeing.

He saw Cassie when she stepped forward though, there was no doubt about that. He backed away from her until he was against the wall, and Kerone couldn't keep her heart from going out to him at the terrified look on his face. "*Please* stay away," he begged, not taking his eyes off of Cassie.

Cassie only shook her head, not hesitating. "You know I can't," she told him firmly, pulling him away from the wall and wrapping her arms around him in a fierce embrace. "It's all right," she murmured, barely loud enough for Kerone to hear. "Everything's going to be okay now."

For just a moment, Saryn froze. Then, slowly, his arms found their way around her and some of the awful stiffness drained out of his posture. As his eyes slid shut, a single tear leaked through, and Kerone turned away. "Everyone's here?" she asked Cestria quietly, glancing around the room.

Cestria shook her head, motioning unobtrusively to her left. Kerone followed her gesture, only to find Carlos staring back at her with a worried look on his face. "Aura," he murmured, when he realized she was paying attention. "She's gone."

"Unconscious," Cestria whispered. "The Megaship does not have the facilities to support her in her condition. We have to get her back to Aquitar as soon as possible."

"We have to get out of here first," TJ put in. Kerone looked around, to find nearly everyone listening in on their quiet conversation.

"Yes," Cestria agreed, speaking a little louder as she too realized that they were the center of attention. "It is up to Saryn to send us back."

"No," Saryn said, taking a step back as they all turned toward him. "I can't. I do not know how."

"You do," Cestria told him gently. "Only leave this. It is not real; it has no power over you."

"It is real," he insisted, glancing around apprehensively. "It happened."

"No," Cassie said. "It *didn't* happen, not like this. This isn't real. Reality is the Megaship, where we beat Dark Spectre, and where we're all still together. You still have us, Saryn."

"That is real now," he said, his gaze fixed on the windowsill. "This is real then."

Cassie reached out, as if to cover the shattered crystal with her fingers, and a strange flicker danced across her hand. Kerone blinked, glancing over at Zhane, and when she looked back Cassie held a whole, unbroken crystal in her hand.

She offered it to Saryn, not seeming particularly surprised. "It wasn't real then, either," she said softly. "You've made it into this, but the truth is that they loved you, and they still do. They wouldn't want you to torture yourself over it, because it *wasn't your fault*."

"Then why did they leave me?" he whispered, staring into her eyes and apparently oblivious to anyone else in the room. "Why are they gone, if I did nothing wrong?"

"They were Rangers," Cassie replied, just as quietly. "They gave their lives for something they believed in. Not for you. Not because of you. They saved Elisia, Saryn. What else would you ask of them?"

"To forgive me…" He trailed off, unable to finish, and she lifted her hand to his face.

"They do forgive you," she murmured. "*You* have to forgive you now."

The hard lines of the room started to soften incrementally, and Kerone held her breath as she watched the sunlight's sharp edges melt into something gentler. She looked up at the whisper of air beside her, and she felt Zhane's hand slip into hers as his blue eyes caught her gaze. She smiled a little, seeing the acceptance she hadn't known she questioned in his expression.

The cockpit of Delphinius' zord reformed around her, and Zhane's presence vanished from her side. She reached out for him quickly, startled to find herself alone again after the last few minutes. *Zhane?*

*Hey,* he said, sounding almost as disconcerted as she felt. *Astrea?*

She felt the smile tug at her lips again. *Yeah. Did we--are we back?*

*I guess…* There was a brief pause, as his focus was distracted by some outside stimuli. *DECA says yes. Andros wants to call roll anyway.*

Her comm channel lit up before he even finished, and Andros' voice overrode the intership chatter. "Everyone sound off," he ordered without preamble.

Def-1 brightened on her screen, and she heard the wry voice inquire, "Again?"

"Yes, again," Andros said impatiently. "Mega V."

Rocky's voice came back immediately, and she wondered about it. She remembered losing contact with the Mega Vs right before the wave overwhelmed her own zord, yet none of them had turned up in anyone else's "nightmare". And here they were, apparently none the worse for any experience they might have endured on their own.

She answered absently when her turn came, still pondering the seeming selectivity of the wave. She wished she could join the others on the Megaship, just to reassure herself that some semblance of reality had indeed reasserted itself, but she contented herself with hearing the others' voices as they checked in.

She wasn't sure she could take another experience like that, and she kept an eye on the scanners in case there was any sign of a recurrence. She was sorely tempted to contact Ecliptor and tell him to let the remaining Parikat fleet be.

***

Zhane took a deep breath, glad for Astrea's reassuring presence in his mind. He wished he had had the courage to hold her a few minutes ago, instead of just taking her hand. But he hadn't dared, and now he had to settle for her distracted awareness just close enough to hear, but too distant to touch.

He would gladly have given Andros a bear hug, too, but his best friend, like Astrea, was just too far away. His voice over the comm was steady and sure of itself, but Zhane could feel his friend's distress. He could hear the whisper of Andros' link with Ashley in the back of his mind as the two of them passed reassurances back and forth.

As the last of the zords checked in, Andros' terse acknowledgment was the only outward sign of the turmoil Zhane knew he was feeling. Whatever Andros had seen had shaken him badly, and he was still trying to get his defenses back up.

He wasn't alone. Linnse was the only one in the Medical bay who seemed remotely normal, demanding to know what had happened with her usual lack of subtly. Zhane did wonder briefly what she had seen while they were all… elsewhere, but the bruise on his arm and the way he had had to pick himself up off of the floor when the Medical bay replaced Saryn's stone room gave him a clue.

Saryn himself didn't seem to be in very good shape, and Cassie had scrambled off of the patient bed to put her arms around him as soon as they "woke up". She held him now, stroking his hair and letting him lean against her as he cried silently.

It was an eerie and somewhat discomfiting sight, and Zhane looked away, trying to give them privacy. No matter where he looked, though, there were similar scenes of emotional distress. It was an uncomfortable reminder of the demons they tried to suppress from day to day.

Even Cetaci, whom he had always considered cold and more than a little distant, wore an expression of bewildered loss. She looked up as Delphinius put a hesitant hand on her shoulder, and to Zhane's surprise, she let him pull her into an awkward embrace. Her shoulders started to shake as they clung to each other, and he pulled her a little closer, turning his head to rest it against hers.

Zhane saw TJ watching them, too, though the Blue Ranger's gaze slid away as soon as he caught Zhane's eye. There was a sparkle of teleportation and TJ turned as Cestria appeared beside Billy. She laid one hand on Aura's chest, and, as with Delphinius, an odd glow flared around her hand.

Aura didn't stir this time, and finally Billy grabbed Cestria and forcibly pulled her away. The glow vanished as soon as the contact was broken, and Billy said sharply, "You won't help her by hurting yourself."

"We have to get her to Aquitar," Cestria murmured, her voice oddly breathy.

"It's half an hour to Aquitar," Carlos protested. "Can't you do anything for her here?"

"I have done the only thing I can," Cestria replied, stumbling a little as she tried to step away from the patient bed. Billy caught her arm, supporting her, but she continued before he could chide her again. "Her condition is deteriorating too rapidly for us to be able to treat her further here."

"Shouldn't she be awake, though?" Billy asked quietly. "At least semi-conscious? You did more for her just now than anyone has…"

Cestria lifted her gaze to his, and even Zhane could see the concern there. "You do not believe she is still--"

She didn't finish, and Billy didn't answer.

"Still what?" Carlos demanded. "What's wrong?"

Cestria did not answer, and Carlos didn't move out of her way as she reached past him to lay one hand on Aura's forehead. Zhane saw Cetaci shift, turning her head to watch Cestria, but she didn't step away from Delphinius. "She's still seeing the dome," Cestria murmured. "Why didn't the wave let her go with the rest of us?"

"She wasn't in Saryn's nightmare when it dissolved?" Billy guessed, offering a puzzled shrug when she glanced at him. "What do we do? Can you draw her out the way you did the rest of us?"

Cestria shook her head slowly. "She's too strong. I can no more change her nightmare than I could change Saryn's. I will go after her, but she must overcome it herself. In the meantime, we must get her to Aquitar."

"The Megaship can't go anywhere right now," Linnse put in, sounding distinctly annoyed at being ignored.

"You'll have to take the Aquitian zords," TJ agreed, speaking as soon as Linnse paused. "We'll follow you as soon as we get the engines back online."

"That may take a while," Billy said. "I should stay…"

"You should all stay," Cestria said, putting out one hand to brace herself against the patient bed. "I will take Aura to Aquitar, but I do not wish to split the forces that are gathered here. This area of space will become dangerous very quickly once word of Dark Spectre's defeat gets out, and I do not want to leave any of our teams vulnerable."

"What about you?" Billy countered.

Cestria shook her head. "We will be in hyperrush from here to Aquitar. There is no danger to us."

"I'm going with you," Carlos said abruptly. "You can't pilot Mireth and bring her back at the same time."

"You can not pilot Mireth either," Cestria pointed out, straightening a little and making an attempt to stand on her own. Billy didn't let go of her.

"But I can go after Aura," Carlos answered.

Zhane gave him a startled look, but Billy beat him to it. "Carlos, you'd be inside something that Aura is completely convinced is as real as this. You can't just tell her, 'this is a dream; wake up" and expect her to do it. It was as hard for me to convince Cestria as it was for Cassie to make Saryn listen."

Carlos reached down and brushed his fingers lightly against Aura's dark hair. "That's why I'm the one to do it," he said softly.

Cetaci stirred a little at that. "Are you?"

Carlos looked up, returning her stare with a steady gaze of his own. "Yes."

Cestria caught Billy's eye, then glanced over at Cetaci. Cetaci nodded once, and Cestria turned back to Carlos. "I will fly Mireth," she agreed. "I know Aura often speaks to you telepathically. Once I reestablish that link, it will be up to you to convince her that what she is seeing is not real."

***

He had never seen the part of Aquitar that Aura's mind had recreated when the wave hit the Megaship, but he couldn't for the life of him imagine why it would scare her. The meadow in which he found himself was beautiful, and he thought he could lie in the grass and watch the phosphorescent patterns play through the "sky" all night long.

He turned slowly, looking for Aura, and found her standing a little distance away with her teammates. He frowned, disconcerted to see the same people he had left behind only a few moments before. *Not real,* he reminded himself, and he shook his head wryly. If *he* couldn't remember that, he was going to have trouble convincing her.

She shook her head, almost as though she was echoing him. Her ponytail swung as she moved, and he wondered suddenly what she looked like with her hair loose. A vague image formed in his mind, of a memory he shouldn't have, and he pushed it away hastily. "You'd like to, wouldn't you…"

He started toward her, wondering what her teammates were doing in something Cestria kept calling a "nightmare". *The same thing Karen was doing in yours?* his mind suggested, unbidden, and he tried to ignore it.

"I am a Ranger," Aura was saying as he got closer, not seeming to notice him at all. "That has not changed."

It was a relief to see her on her feet, no matter how strange the situation. Even if he didn't understand what she was saying, he was glad to hear her voice, glad to know she was not so unreachable as her still form seemed in the Mireth cockpit.

"You are not the same person who joined our team," "Cetaci" told her. "You are not the fighter we once knew."

Carlos froze, surprised. "How can you say that?" he asked without thinking. "Aura's a better fighter than anyone I know!"

"Cetaci" gave him a disapproving look. "You are human."

"Yeah," he said, frowning. "So?"

"Humans are not an inherently brave or valiant race," "Delphinius" offered.

Suddenly remembering that he was talking to *her* hallucinations, Carlos shot Aura an indignant look. "Thanks a lot!"

Her expression of dismay surprised him, but her reaction was strangely familiar. "You shouldn't be here," she said quietly. "Go, Carlos. Leave us."

*Just like Saryn,* he thought, wondering a little. "Look," he said, turning back to "Delphinius", "Aquitar isn't exactly a planet of determined warriors itself. I don't know why you're judging humans based on our ability to fight."

"To fight is to protect," "Cestria" said. "It is a worthy goal."

"Protecting is," he agreed. "But there are other ways to do it. Sometimes fighting is unavoidable, I'll give you that. We're Rangers; we do what we have to. But I hope that when people look back on my life, they won't remember me for how well I do or don't fight."

"That's because you are weak," "Cetaci" said, scowling at him like an angry child. "Earth is a marginal member of the League at best. What right does one such as yourself have to claim Aura's heart?"

He swallowed, not sure how to answer that. He still wasn't sure how he felt about *having* Aura's heart, if it came to that. The revelation about her feelings had been as unlooked for as it had been unexpected, and he had been trying to work out his own reaction ever since.

"My heart is my own," Aura said suddenly. "Where I give it is none of your affair, Cetaci."

It finally occurred to him that he wasn't helping anything by treating her "teammates" as though they were real. He wanted, instinctively, to respond to their accusations. But that wasn't how one should treat hallucinations. He wouldn't make her see that this was all a nightmare by participating in it himself.

"Aura," he said, turning toward her with the intent of ignoring the others. "You have to listen to me for a moment."

She glanced at him, and the indifference in her expression troubled him in a way he couldn't explain. "You do not need to say anything. You have made your feelings clear. I am defending my own feelings, not you, so you will have no obligation."

He got the feeling that she expected him to be happy about that. "Look, Aura, this isn't real. Do you remember the Rysian system, and Dark Spectre? We were on the Megaship just a little while ago. This is Aquitar, right? How could we have gotten here from Rysia so quickly?"

She lowered her head, closing her eyes as a slight frown marred her calm expression. "I remember defeating Dark Spectre," she agreed at last. "But that does not make this any less real. My teammates do not think well of me right now."

"That's not true!" he protested. "Your teammates respect you. They care about you as much as you care about them, and they would never say these things to you. You must know that."

She looked up, her eyes sweeping across her "teammates" before resting their troubled gaze on him. "I would not have expected them to be so vehement either," she admitted. "But the fact remains that they are. My status as an Aquitian Ranger is in question because of my feelings for you."

"No," he said, startled. "You'd never be kicked off the team for something like that. That's ridiculous!"

She didn't answer, and he winced. She would remember all of this later, and he didn't want her to think he was making fun of something that obviously frightened her and was, to her, a very real possibility. "Look, it isn't that I think it's silly. It's just that our feelings make us stronger, not weaker. We're stronger for loving someone, whether they return that love or not."

"I don't feel stronger," she confessed, gazing back at him. "I feel…"

"What?" he prompted gently.

She looked down again. "Lost," she whispered. "You should go."

"Why should I go?" he asked. He tried to remind himself that she would not appreciate his hand on her shoulder right now, no matter how tempting it was.

She gestured to one side. "So that they may decide what is to become of me."

"No!" he exclaimed, frustrated. "Don't you understand? This isn't real; they aren't deciding your fate! Your real teammates would never do that to you, Aura. Your real teammates are your friends no matter *what* happens. That's what it means to be a Ranger."

"That is what it means to you," she agreed. "My team is not your team."

He sighed. "I'm not saying it is. I'm just saying that I know how close you and your friends are. They would never turn on you like this."

"It is for my own good, I suppose," she said quietly, and his eyes widened. He should have realized that if all of this was a creation of her own mind, she must at some level believe it.

"You really think this is wrong, don't you," he breathed. "You think you shouldn't love me."

"I don't want to love you!" she burst out. "What is the joy in feeling something that is not reciprocated? Maybe you are right that loves makes two people together stronger, but I assure you it only makes *me* more alone!"

"Not alone," he said, with as much force as he could muster. "You've never been alone."

"What do you know of it?" she demanded. "You are not hopelessly in love with an alien. You do not have to listen every time he talks about his girlfriend and how wonderful she is. You do not know what it is to have your teammates' stifling sympathy every time you turn around, but not be able to talk to them because neither of you would know what to say."

Taken aback, it was a moment before he could make himself respond. "They're not doing it on purpose, Aura. Your teammates care for you."

"I know they care for me!" she shouted. "It is not their care I want! I do not want them to be cautious of every word they speak around me! I do not want Billy and Cestria to avoid me when they are together for fear of upsetting me! I do not want everyone constantly watching, waiting for me to fall apart!"

There was a space of maybe two seconds when he could have said something, could have retorted with something that made her stop and reconsider. But he was too surprised by her outburst, too startled to see her shout to be able to formulate any kind of coherent reply. He had never seen her angry before. She was always so calm, sometimes with a slight smile or a tinge of wistfulness, but never so dramatic.

Aura turned away from him. "You are right about one thing," she muttered. "This can't be real. My teammates wouldn't do this to me. They know I am doing it to myself."

He didn't like the sound of that, but as the meadow dome started to fade away he found he couldn't move. The paralysis didn't release him until the Mireth cockpit wavered into view around him once more, and he felt Aura stir in his arms. Somehow he didn't think she was going to be happy about waking up there after what had just happened, but her eyes snapped open before he could move.

She stared around the cockpit, probably trying to orient herself, and he couldn't help stiffening as her eyes found their way to his. She said nothing, pushing herself away from him as she struggled to sit up. He kept himself from helping her only by the greatest force of will, and Cestria breathed a sigh of relief when she glanced over her shoulder.

"We are in orbit around Aquitar," she told them, not seeming to notice that Aura was avoiding his gaze. "I was uncertain what the best--"

"I must rehydrate," Aura interrupted, pushing herself unsteadily to her feet. "I will join you in the command center afterward."

She staggered, resting her arm against the cockpit wall as she reached for her communicator. Her hand was shaking, and it was clearly a major effort just to stay upright. Then she was gone, engulfed by a red teleportation stream that seemed oddly out of place in the White Ranger's zord.

Cestria turned an accusing gaze on him as soon as she was gone. "What have you done?"

"Me!" Carlos glared back at her. "I didn't do anything! She yelled at *me*!"

Cestria cocked her head. "What did you do to provoke her?"

He threw up his hands. "Why is automatically my fault? Have you considered the possibility that she's just plain crazy? I've never seen her blow up like that!"

Cestria actually frowned at him, something he had never thought to see. "You feel justified in shouting at me, yet you would condemn Aura for the same action toward you?"

"She doesn't *do* that," he insisted, trying to moderate his tone a little. It wasn't Cestria that he wanted to be shouting at, after all. "I've never heard Aura get upset like that!"

Cestria eyed him. Her tone was positively icy as she replied, "Perhaps you do not know her as well as you think."

"What's to know?" he retorted, and regretted the words as soon as they were out. "Oh, man, I did *not* mean that the way it sounded. It's just--" He floundered for a moment. "She's just so withdrawn all the time," he finished awkwardly.

Cestria stared at him for a long moment, then shook her head. "I will take you at your word that you meant no insult by that," she said at last. "You simply do not understand."

"Then explain it to me!" he exclaimed, frustrated. "I want to understand!"

"It is not my place," Cestria said with a sigh.

"Then who's place is it?" he demanded. "Who's going to tell me? Aura doesn't want to even talk to me now, and you can't honestly think Cetaci would tell me anything."

Cestria didn't answer immediately, and he thought she was going to start giving him the silent treatment too. At last, though, she said, "You see only what you want to see. You give no thought to the circumstances behind it."

It was his turn to sigh irritably. "I think we've already established that I'm not a nice guy. Can we get to the part where you tell me what's going on around here?"

"You should know," she told him, voice cold.

"Why should I know! What, am I psychic now too?"

"Cassie understands," she informed him.

"Yeah, well maybe that's because Saryn tells her anything she wants to know," Carlos shot back. "At least she can get answers when she wants them!"

Cestria frowned at him again, and he narrowed his eyes. He was well aware that he wasn't endearing himself to her, but he was tired of being on the periphery of the Aquitian team. They were perfectly willing to accept his help, but when it came to anything else he was always a visitor, a guest just passing through. He knew it wasn't that way with Cassie, and it frustrated him that he was expected to intuitively understand something that Saryn had probably explained in agonizing detail to his teammate.

"If it is an answer you want," Cestria said at last, "it is that we are the same as you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

Her voice was no more forgiving as she told him, "If there is one thing living with Billy has taught me, it is that your people and ours feel things the same way. This is a truth that you have yet to learn."

"Stop telling me I don't understand," he said, trying not to glare at her. "Cestria, please just tell me what it is that I'm not getting!"

She regarded him for a moment, then tilted her head to one side. "Cetaci is your age," she said, startling him with the non sequitur. "Aura and Billy are not much older."

Carlos considered that, trying to stay calm this time. He shouldn't have gotten so upset, but the feeling wouldn't fade and she still hadn't answered his questions. "So?"

"We run our world," Cestria said. "We do not administer it, but we do more than just fight for it. The world government looks to us. Can you imagine what that is like?"

"It's--" He shrugged a little. "It's a lot of responsibility, I guess."

"It is a lot of responsibility," she agreed. "Do you truly not understand how important it is that we not be seen as children by the rest of Aquitar?"

He frowned at the cockpit wall. *It was an act,* he remembered thinking. *Her constant composure was an act, like the façade so many Aquitians wore--* But what did he know about Aquitians, really? Only what he had learned from their Rangers.

He glanced over at Cestria in startled comprehension. "You're saying she's distant because you all are. Because you have to be."

Cestria's lips curved gently. "Aura is many things, but I assure you 'distant' is not one of them."

He blinked, wondering how many signs he had overlooked if what Cestria said was true. He couldn't help but remember Billy's surprise that he hadn't known of Aura's feelings for him. After all, "everyone else" had known. "The rest of the team, at least." They knew each other better than they let anyone else know them, and it had surprised Billy that Carlos didn't know that.

"You saw the food fight she started this morning," Cestria reminded him. "Was that the Aura you think you know?"

He sighed, only just beginning to realize how much he had missed. "It's an Aura I'd like to know better," he admitted. This time he was too preoccupied to see Cestria's smile.