The sun still beat down on his back, but it was lower in the sky than it had been when he crashed. The breeze had picked up a little, but still couldn't be called anything more than a breeze, and the heat was intense.

Zhane sighed, running a hand through his damp hair and regarding the port stabilizer critically. Astrea had volunteered to switch off with him, for the environmental systems in the cockpit made it about twenty degrees cooler inside. But he still couldn't face climbing in there again, so he continued to do the exterior work while she repaired the zord's system interface.

They were minor repairs, really, and could have been accomplished in half the time on the Megaship. But the zords had only a minimum of repair equipment and few replacement parts, and the only way they were managing as well as they were was due in large part to her sorcery.

*You know, all you have to do is say the word and we'll come get you,* Andros reminded him, evidently picking up on Zhane's frustration. *The Rysians and the Cai are both long gone from that system--the Megaship could come in and just blast its way through.*

*Don't tempt me,* Zhane answered wryly. *But your sister is still determined to meet Ecliptor, and *I* sure can't change her mind.*

There was a brief pause, and Andros admitted, *I'm not sure I like the idea of her meeting him, no matter how helpful he's been. It sounds like the perfect trap, to me.*

*Me too,* Zhane agreed. He tilted his head, trying to wipe the sweat off his forehead with his arm. The wire junction he had been holding so carefully separate slipped, and a shock stabbed through his fingers. *Ow!*

*Are you all right?* Andros asked immediately.

Zhane nodded, though he knew his friend couldn't see it. *Yeah. Trying to rewire the stabilizer controls.*

Andros was quiet, probably letting him concentrate as Zhane used a pair of insulated pliers to retrieve the junction. His welder was already on the lowest setting, and he applied it to the junction with a little more concentration this time.

The metal melted into place, and he withdrew his hands. It stayed even when he tugged on the cluster from farther down the wiring, and he flipped the welder off. Taking new insulation from the repair kit, he used the pliers to prod it into place and thought, *Did she tell you what this information is that he has for her?*

*She didn't tell me anything. She just showed up in Ashley's zord and said she was going after you--I didn't even know why she was there until DECA told me later. And DECA says Ecliptor didn't tell her anything about what the information was. Kerone just seemed to think it was important.*

Zhane sighed involuntarily. *I asked her earlier, but she just told me to mind my own business.*

He could hear Andros' amusement when his friend asked, *Did she really say that?*

Dropping the pliers, he fished around for the repair kit's sealant. *Close enough that you wouldn't know the difference. I've... I've been thinking about trying to get her to take me when she goes to the Dark Fortress.*

Uncapping the sealant, he waited for Andros' reply. It was slow in coming. *Are you sure that's a good idea?* the other asked at last. *As much as I don't like the idea of her going alone, you might put her in more danger by going with her.*

*I know,* Zhane confessed. *But I can't stand the thought of taking off without her, and then having to wait for her to come back to the Megaship.*

*I know the feeling,* Andros said pointedly, and Zhane smiled a little.

*Well, I probably won't be able to convince her to let me come anyway, so I doubt it will matter.* Snapping the access panel back into place, he announced, *Done. And it's about time, too.*

*How much more do you have to do?* Andros wanted to know.

*Nothing, once your sister gets the interface calibrated again. She seems to think I sabotaged it deliberately, to make more work for her.*

*Did you?* Andros asked, and Zhane's eyes widened.

*Very funny! Of course I didn't!*

*Whoa, calm down,* his friend said, amusement giving way to surprise. *I was just kidding.*

Zhane paused, knowing he had reacted too strongly. It was her fault--spending so much time with her was making him defensive. He couldn't seem to say anything right, and there was no one else around to take the pressure off.

*Are you guys doing all right?* Andros asked, sounding suddenly concerned. *I mean...*

*Yeah,* Zhane said with a sigh. *I know what you mean, and yeah, we're doing all right. I just keep annoying her somehow, and I don't even know what I'm doing.*

Andros didn't answer right away, and Zhane turned to lean against the zord's hull. Gazing off toward the horizon, he frowned a little. He had been able to see until the sky met the planet's surface in this direction a few minutes ago, but now the line looked strangely blurred. Heat haze, he guessed, and slid down to sit on the ground, his back against the port thruster.

*I'm going to talk to Kerone, okay?* Andros' voice came back at last. *I won't say anything about you; I'll just ask her how she's doing.*

*Here, wait a sec and I'll get her attention,* Zhane offered. *Listen--you'll see what I mean.*

*All right,* Andros agreed. He quieted, but his presence in Zhane's mind did not fade.

Shifting his focus to the girl inside the cockpit, Zhane asked, *Astrea?* As soon as the word was out, he winced--he had been trying to call her Kerone around Andros. But it was too late now, and he tried to keep his tone completely neutral as he continued. *Andros is wondering how you're doing.*

*I'm working as fast as I can!* she replied, with some asperity, and it was all he could do not to throw his hands up in the air and appeal to his friend.

*That's not what I meant,* he tried to explain. *He's just wondering how you are.*

*Stuck on an uninhabited planet with a Ranger who won't even come into the cockpit to explain the interface system to me?* she suggested, and he fell silent.

*Kerone?* Andros asked, when Zhane said nothing more.

There was a brief pause, and her focus vanished from Zhane's mind. Andros kept his thoughts open, though, and by concentrating on his friend he could hear her reply. Her mental voice was completely unreadable, and all she said was, *Yes?*

*How are you?* Andros inquired idly, as though he had not just overheard her previous response to the question.

*I'm fine,* she answered. *Mega V6 is nearly ready for liftoff, if Zhane's finished with the stabilizer.*

*He is,* Andros told her. *You're finished with the interface, then?*

*Almost.* She didn't elaborate, and Andros didn't ask her to.

Instead, he wanted to know, *How's Zhane doing?*

Zhane rolled his eyes. So much for "I won't say anything about you." But he listened as closely as Andros for the answer.

*I wish I knew, Andros!* To Zhane's surprise, her tone sounded dismayed. *He's barely spoken to me since we split up to do repairs.*

It was all he could do to keep from exclaiming and giving away his presence in the mental conversation. "I haven't spoken to her because every time I do she snaps at me," he muttered.

*You're not doing the Astronema thing to him, are you?*

Zhane blinked. He had no idea what his friend was talking about, but it was a reference Andros' sister seemed to recognize. She sounded almost amused when she answered, *Oh, I hope not.*

*He's just trying to help, you know,* Andros reminded her gently.

*He'd be more help if he could *show* me how to fix this interface instead of just explaining it,* she retorted, and Zhane winced.

Staring toward the horizon again, where the heat haze was rippling wider and closer, he wished it could have been Andros who had found him. Better than that, he wished he hadn't crashed at all. He would give a great deal to have kept Astrea from finding out he was claustrophobic.

*He can't help it, you know,* Andros said sternly.

*I know, I know.* There was a pause, and then she added, *But he didn't have that problem when we were little, did he. What happened?*

Andros hesitated. Zhane said nothing, but he knew his friend was torn. Finally, Andros just said, *It was during the first evacuation of KO-35. You'll have to get him to tell you, though; I don't know the details.*

Zhane smiled a little, resting his head against the hull. Andros knew exactly what had happened--he had been the one to find Zhane afterward.

*But he won't!* she cried. *I just know it, Andros. Whenever I try to ask him something important, he just makes a joke and ignores me!*

"And whenever I try to ask you something, you say it's none of my business and ignore *me*!" he exclaimed aloud, just barely keeping himself from thinking it.

*He does that, Kerone,* Andros told her mildly. "You know that; it's just his way of protecting himself."

Zhane was glad there was no one there to see him blush--if it had been anyone else, he would have killed Andros for saying that. But then, if it had been anyone but his sister, Andros wouldn't have said it in the first place. He knew, probably better than Zhane himself, how his best friend felt about her.

*Are you sure he's not trying to keep distance between you because you're doing it to him, too?* Andros asked, and Zhane closed his eyes.

That, of course, was the problem. No matter how *he* felt about her, he couldn't read her at all. One moment, he was sure there was some feeling for him in her gestures--the kiss at the beach, her frequent smiles, or the way she'd been holding his hand when he woke up. The next, she'd be talking about their "friendship", and how much it meant to her that they *were* friends.

*Doing the Astronema thing?* Her voice was unusually timid, but it drew his mind back to the conversation like nothing else.

*Yeah,* Andros agreed, sounding fond. *Doing the Astronema thing. He's a terrific person, Kerone--he'll open up to you if you let him.*

*Maybe you're right,* she said at last. *I'll... remember that.*

*Good,* Andros said, sounding satisfied. His concentration wavered for a moment, and when he came back, he told her, *I have to go--will you be okay?*

*Of course,* she replied immediately. *No one on the planet can see us, and no one in orbit can track us. What could happen?*

*Never ask that,* Andros advised dryly. *I'd rather you didn't find out. Be safe, Kerone.*

*You too,* she said, and through Andros, Zhane could feel her focus shift away from the conversation.

*And you, Zhane,* Andros added, the words louder now that they were directed at him. *Be safe--will *you* be okay?*

*Yeah,* he said slowly, not sure how to thank his friend for letting him eavesdrop. *Andros... that really helped. Thanks.*

*You're welcome. Just never, ever tell her I did that!*

Zhane grinned in spite of himself. *I won't. I owe you.*

*You always do,* Andros reminded him lightly. *Let me know when you lift off.*

*Right.* His friend's presence retreated to a bright glow just beyond what his eyes could see, and Zhane pushed himself to his feet. He was going to have a talk with Andros' sister.

He walked around the end of the compact thruster and levered himself up on top of it. He had found that it was possible to climb the zord from the back, if one put one's mind to it, and the startled expression on Astrea's face when he first appeared at the escape hatch without the aid of her teleportation had been well worth the effort.

This time, as he pulled himself up and straightened to walk over to the hatch, he glanced out toward the rapidly approaching heat haze. It looked darker than it had at first, and as he squinted at it, he wondered if he could actually see something moving in that strange air mass.

*Air mass?* he thought suddenly, looking more closely. If it was moving air, not just heat--

"Oh, this is not good," he muttered, dread taking sudden hold in his heart. "Astrea?"

He strode over to the hatch and rapped sharply on the hull. "Astrea, I think you should see this..."

He heard her mutter something that he probably wasn't supposed to overhear, but a moment later she appeared at the bottom of the ladder that led up through the escape hatch. "What is it?"

He motioned to her to come up, still staring off across the desolate expanse of sand and stone that surrounded them. "Just trust me on this one."

She sighed, but he heard her sneakers on the ladder a moment later. He turned back just as she reached the top, and wordlessly offered his hand. She glanced over her shoulder as she reached out to take it, and she froze midmotion.

He clasped her hand anyway, and she gave her head a shake and let him pull her up the rest of the way. "We're going to have to secure the zords," she said, giving both of them a cursory glance. "Did you finish with the stabilizer?"

"Yeah, it's ready to go," he said, gaze riveted on the massive dust storm that was sweeping toward them across the plains. "Is there any way we can lift off?"

She shook her head. "The interface is close to being done, but not that close. We're going to have to wait it out."

He heard what she did not say--that they would have to wait it out inside the zords. There was no other option, of course; the cliffs would provide little to no shelter, and to remain outside in a storm like this would be suicidal. But to be inside, for him at least, might be almost as bad...

"Astrea," he said quietly. "I can't--"

"It'll be okay," she interrupted, pausing the checklist that was clearly running through her mind. She put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile, then pushed him gently toward the back of the zord. "Go make sure that access panel is locked shut, all right? I'm going to check Mega V4, and I'll meet you back here in a minute."

"But I--"

"Don't think about it," she ordered. "Just do it. I'll be right back."

He saw her gaze drift toward the oncoming storm, the stiff breeze whipping her hair around her face. Then a violet shimmer spread over her entire form, outlining her for a brief second before she vanished.

"Don't think about it," he muttered, climbing down over the back of the zord and hitting the ground hard. "Sure; easy for *you* to say."

He checked the stabilizer's access panel, but since he hadn't expected to return to it before they left, it was already locked down tight. He hesitated then, his eyes drawn inevitably back to the rushing sand and sediment caught up in the gale that howled across the plains toward them.

He could hear the storm now, a dull roar that escalated in intensity with each passing second, and the closer it came the more of the horizon it seemed to engulf. He supposed it wouldn't seem to surround them until it was on right top of them, but it looked like it might wrap around the two zords at any second and tighten the circle until there was nothing left.

"Zhane!" He heard Astrea's shout from somewhere above him, and when he glanced up he saw her gesturing urgently to him from the top of the zord. "Come on! We have to get inside!"

He swallowed, but he put one foot on the thruster and obediently hauled himself up the side. She caught his hand as he reached over the top, and he accepted the help gratefully. The wind gusted around them as he stood, and she kept her grip on his hand as she pulled him toward the escape hatch.

Sand stung his bare skin as they made their way across the zord, and suddenly a shimmer of violet sprang up around them. The shield dulled the wind and blocked most of the dust, but he balked when she pushed him toward the ladder.

It wasn't much of a choice--stay out here in the storm, or retreat to the safety of the zord. But with the screen completely obscured by blowing sand he knew he wouldn't last long in the cockpit, and he *really* didn't want her to see him fall apart.

Frozen next to the escape hatch, he simply couldn't make himself move.

***

He couldn't do it. She could see it in his expression, and they didn't have time to waste. Without another thought, she threw her arms around him and closed her eyes, picturing the interior of the Mega V6 cockpit.

She saw the strangely silver-streaked purple flash across her vision, and the wind dropped off sharply, the sound muted by the zord's heavily insulated hull. Letting go of Zhane, she turned and grabbed the ladder's rungs, climbing hand over hand to the escape hatch. Her fingers found the handle, and she wrestled against the ever-increasing wind until, with a last violent tug, the hatch slammed shut.

She twisted the handle until the electronic sensor flashed green, indicating it was not only locked but sealed as well. With a small sigh, she pushed herself away from the ladder and jumped the short distance to the floor. Nothing would be coming through there until it was opened again from the inside.

She glanced over at her companion. He was standing where she'd left him, leaning against the starboard bank of control panels with his eyes closed. "Zhane?"

"I'm fine," he answered. His tone was perfectly normal, though his face looked a little pale and he did not open his eyes.

"Are you sure?" she asked tentatively, not sure what she expected. After all, she had flown with him before, and he had been all right then. He rode the lifts on the Megaship without complaint, too, and that space was at least as small as this.

"Yeah," he said calmly. His eyes still did not open. "No problem."

"Okay," she said, wondering if she had overestimated his reaction. Maybe it was just the memory of the crash that had made him look so afraid before. "I'm just going to finish up the interface, then."

"Right," Zhane agreed, nodding once. "Maybe we can lift off once the storm blows over."

She studied him for a moment, but aside from the fact that he wouldn't open his eyes, he seemed to be fine. She shrugged slightly and turned the pilot's chair toward her so she could sit down. Letting it swivel forward again, she bent over the main console and picked up where she had left off when his knock interrupted her.

The recalibration prompts guided her through the last steps of the procedure, and she thought she almost had the system back online when she heard movement behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Zhane seating himself on the small amount of floor space at the back of the cockpit.

She bit her lip to keep from asking if he was all right again, and she turned back to the interface. As she tried to complete the recalibration, though, the system froze, flashing a single, uninterpretable command up at her. She did everything she could think of to get around it, but it remained stubbornly unresponsive.

*Computers,* she thought with disgust. Much as she didn't want to ask for help at this point--she had gotten this far on her own, after all--it seemed she had no choice.

"Zhane?" she asked, suppressing a sigh. Turning in her chair, she saw him cock his head in her direction. "The interface is recalibrated, but I can't get the system to come back online. It keeps giving me the same error message, over and over."

"Can it wait?" he replied, his tone even.

She blinked. "Well, I guess so. We can't take off in this storm anyway, but you're the one who wanted to get it running again as soon as possible."

He just nodded, and she waited for him to explain.

When he did not, she frowned and looked at him more closely. Was he--shivering?

"Are you cold?" she asked curiously, at a loss to interpret his reaction.

He cracked one eye open at that and looked up at her, then closed it again just as quickly. He shook his head.

Now truly puzzled, she slid out of the pilot's chair to sit on the floor beside him. "Is something wrong?"

He swallowed, and when he spoke, his voice wasn't quite as strong as it had been before. "Maybe you haven't noticed, Kerone, but I'm not exactly at my best right now. I'd really rather not talk about it."

The "Kerone" took her by surprise. He rarely used it when they were alone together, seeming to prefer the name she had given herself when they first met. She found it pleased her to hear it, for she knew when he said "Astrea" that he meant it as a term of affection. For him to have switched back to her real name was unexpected and strangely discomfiting.

"All right," she said at last, leaning against the wall as he was and staring straight ahead at the pilot's console.

After a few minutes, though, she realized he wasn't going to apologize. She shot a sideways look at him, remembering Andros' words: "Maybe he's trying to keep distance between you because you're doing it to him, too."

Zhane didn't have anything to apologize for. He had only told her he didn't want to talk about something, and here she was sulking over him shutting her out again. Not that he hadn't been doing the same thing to her earlier--*It's no wonder we can never talk to each other anymore,* she thought, with a flash of amusement.

"Zhane," she tried again, keeping her voice quiet. "Is there anything... I can do?"

"You can stop asking me questions!" he burst out, reaching up to scrub his face with his hands. "I'm fine, all right? I'm perfectly fine!"

Her eyes narrowed, but then he ran a hand through his hair and let his head fall back against the wall, and the expression of despair on his face cut through to her heart. He was far from fine, she realized, and he couldn't be held responsible for anything he said.

"I just want to help," she insisted, pulling her knees up to her chest and turning a little to face him. "Do you want to talk--about something else?"

"No."

The word was curt, and his refusal should have been enough to deter her. But something wouldn't let her give up. "Zhane... I can't just watch you suffer," she said, studying his profile for any sign of understanding.

His eyes snapped open, and the desperate look in them startled her. "You think this is easy for *me*? I feel like I'm being buried alive in here and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it!"

She couldn't tear her gaze away from his, and she wished suddenly that she could just reach out and hug him. He was shaking harder now, and the temptation to hold him was instinctive, no matter how unwelcome she suspected the gesture would be. His was a fear she could not understand... and she couldn't remember ever feeling this helpless.

He tilted his head back against the wall again, turning his dismayed gaze toward the ceiling. A second later, though, he jerked his eyes away with a wild-eyed stare, and she looked up automatically. The ceiling looked perfectly normal.

"I hate this!" he cried, startling her. "I can't control it, and I *hate* it!"

She swallowed hard, aching to do something, anything, to ease his fear. She knew what it was to be utterly terrified of something that no one else was troubled by--years in the service of Dark Spectre had taught her to turn that part of her off. But the price for being fearless was that you felt very little of anything else, either.

He twisted his head to one side, eyes squeezed shut, and she stiffened as she felt the glow in her mind that was him start to flicker. "No," she breathed, knowing without being able to say how what he was going to do.

When Mega V6 went down, Andros said he had "talked" to Zhane. But she had seen it from Zhane's point of view; he had not been coherent enough to form any kind of sentence. Andros must have felt what she was feeling now--the flare as Zhane's mind tried to protect him the only way it knew how. He was going catatonic.

"Zhane," she said sharply, reaching out to take his hand. She had seen it from his point of view... the thought gave her inspiration. "Zhane, listen to me."

He didn't move, and she grabbed his other hand too. "I'm going to show you a game. You have to trust me--do you trust me, Zhane?"

For the longest moment, he did not respond. Then she saw him swallow, and, incrementally, he nodded. She let go of his right hand to uncurl the fingers of his left and lay them against her own. "Hold your hands up," she said sternly, when he didn't seem inclined to do so by himself.

Laying her left palm against his right, she closed her eyes and deliberately cast back, searching out the beginning of the memory she was looking for.

*No.* Zhane's thought rang through the scene. In his desperation to escape the zord's cockpit, he was strong enough to take control of her "game" and throw them back farther into her memory.

*Zhane!* She gave him a mental shove, trying to push him back a little. *Stop messing with my memory!*

*You didn't see it the way I did...* His tone was wistful, but at least it had lost the panicked edge.

She hesitated, but he had done it to her twice now. Before she could change her mind, she *pushed* against their mental beach--

Zhane said nothing when her own focus drifted back to that moment just before he'd given her the shell, and the memory replayed once more. But she felt his presence in her mind fading, and awareness of her own self began flowing back to take its place.

She opened her eyes, and found him watching her even as he had been on the beach two nights ago. He had let his left hand fall, but his right hand was still firmly pressed against hers as remnants of the memory dissipated between them.

She shifted, tangling her fingers in his and tugging lightly on his hand. He obeyed without a word, eyes fixed on hers as she leaned toward him. At the last moment, though, they fluttered closed, and she kissed him gently.

"Astrea?" he murmured, as she pulled away. He kept his eyes closed, and she was reminded of his reaction when she'd first teleported them into the cockpit.

"What's wrong?" she asked worriedly, wondering if they should escape back into memories of more open places for a while.

"Is this--" He forced his eyes open and stared at her intently. "Is this all just a game, to keep me distracted?"

She caught her breath, feeling as though she'd been slapped. Reality reinstated itself with a violent thud, and she found herself right back where she'd started: a telepathic sorceress, with the ability to keep her friend from hurting himself when claustrophobia drove him to the edge. Nothing they'd shared or remembered had to mean anything more than that.

"Is it..." She tried very hard to keep her voice steady. "Is it just a game to you?"

He shook his head slowly, his entire attention focused upon her. "It was never a game to me. But now--" He hesitated, stumbling over his own words as much as she had. "Now... it could mean something. If--if we wanted it to."

"Do you--want it to?" she asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Do *you*?" He wasn't going to give her the easy way out this time. She would have to choose, and choose before he told her *his* feelings.

But she knew his feelings, didn't she? Andros had told her, and she had seen them for herself time and again. Their memory "game" was just the latest in a string of similar incidents. It was her own feelings she wasn't so sure of.

She looked at him, and knew only that she didn't want him to turn away. If she said "no", he would look away, make a joke, and things would continue the way they had for the past two weeks. Did she want to keep pushing him away?

But what if she said "yes"? What would change? Would anything? Would he, as Andros had once suggested, want to go back to being only friends in a few weeks anyway?

Was it worth the risk either way?

"Yes," she whispered, watching him carefully for his reaction.

He just gazed back at her, not moving, and she withstood the scrutiny as best she could. She had made her choice. She hated this feeling of dependency, the feeling that it all hinged on his response, but she knew there was no other way to get to where they were. She had to trust sometime, and she was going to start with him.

As he continued to stare at her, though, she felt herself fidgeting. "Well?" she demanded at last, reasoning that no one had said she had to be *patient* and trusting. "What do *you* want?"

He started to smile, and she got the irritating feeling that he had just won some contest she hadn't even been aware of. But his next words banished any resentment she might have felt. "I want you to kiss me again," he confessed. "It's all I've wanted since that night at the campfire--do you remember?"

How could she not?

She felt his palm press harder against hers, and he caught up the hand he had released as well. "I want to show you," he murmured. "Can you make it happen that way?"

Wordlessly, she nodded, and they were plunged back into his memories.

*I still can't think of a single thing,* his voice said softly in her mind, and she swallowed hard. It was strange to see herself through his eyes, to know--to really *know*--how much of his joking was just a cover for the feelings he tried to conceal.

The beach once more started to give way to the stark confines of the Mega V6 cockpit, but she barely even noticed. All she could see was the expression on Zhane's face, and all she could feel was the sensation of his fingers entwining with hers. It had been a long time since she'd had prolonged human contact, and she was still getting used to it again--but she found that his was as comforting as it was unusual.

He let go of her right hand, as he had before, and reached out almost tentatively to touch her face. Once, on the park swings in Angel Grove, he had tried to brush her hair away from her eyes. She had jerked away, not wanting to know what he would read into her expression.

But this time there was nothing to hide, and she let him do what he had not been able to then. His fingers touched her temple, tracing her hairline and tucking the blonde wisps behind her ear and away from her eyes.

She let him stare for a moment longer, charmed by the obvious delight on his face. Then she leaned forward and kissed him again, delighted herself by his sudden surprise.

"You did ask," she reminded him softly, her face lingering near his. " 'I want you to kiss me again,' you said..."

"And again," he murmured, making no move to pull away. "And again--forever might be just about long enough, I think."

She ducked her head, giggling at his contemplative tone, but he caught her chin and turned her face toward his again. "You don't know how long I've waited to see you look at me like this," he whispered. "Don't look away."

Her amused smile faded into one of simple contentment, and she gazed back at him as the storm that raged around the two zords began to subside.