"This is ridiculous," Zhane muttered, trying to look over Astrea's shoulder as she peered around the corner. "Tell me why we couldn't just teleport onto the Bridge in the first place?"

"Because thanks to your impromptu rescue attempt a few weeks ago, Ecliptor will have rigged an alarm system around the primary operation areas. I doubt we can teleport directly onto the Bridge without the entire Fortress knowing about it."

He put a hand on her shoulder and leaned closer in an attempt to see what she was seeing, but she quickly disabused him of that notion by elbowing him--none too gently--in the stomach. "Back off," she hissed. "You're distracting me."

"What are you *doing*?" he demanded, and she shot him a glare.

"If you'd be quiet for a minute, you'd see." She turned back to the corridor off of which theirs branched, and proceeded to do absolutely nothing.

Nonetheless, she stepped out into the corridor a moment later and motioned for him to follow. He did, warily, and glanced over his shoulder out of habit. He stiffened--a quantron had come around another corner at exactly the same instant and was heading straight for them.

"Come *on*," Astrea whispered, grabbing his arm. "It isn't seeing us, but it can *hear* us, so be quiet."

"We're invisible?" he guessed, shooting another look over his shoulder. The quantron seemed complete unconcerned with their presence, turning down the corridor they'd just come from without so much as a twitch of its serrated Q-blade.

"No," she said, eyes darting across the walls as they walked. "We look like quantrons. At least to most of them."

"*Most* of them?" he repeated, not sure he liked the sound of that.

Another quantron stepped out of a branching corridor into theirs and stopped in its tracks. Zhane tensed, for even with the limited expression a quantron possessed, this one seemed to be staring right at them.

Astrea took her hand off his arm and extended her fingers, turning her palm in the quantron's direction. He thought he saw a brief flash of purple across the quantron's visor, but it was gone too quickly for him to be sure.

Then the quantron continued down the corridor as though nothing had happened, and Zhane caught her hand as she let it fall. He turned her hand over, palm up, and saw nothing. "What did you do?" he demanded.

"Some of the quantrons are programmed to recognize anomalous behavior in their fellow soldiers," she answered calmly. "That one is one of the more advanced machines, and it isolated us as possible intruders."

"You didn't answer the question," he said, as she pulled her hand away. "What did you do?"

She actually looked a little smug. "The advanced quantrons were all programmed by me. They have a magical failsafe embedded into their intelligence matrix, making them loyal to me above all others."

His eyes widened as she started walking again. "Your own private army," he breathed, staring after her.

"Exactly." She looked over her shoulder and cocked her head, and he blinked.

Hurrying to catch up, he asked, "So they're still loyal to you, even now?"

She nodded. "They'll obey the commands of others, but no matter how they're reprogrammed, the override can't be deleted. It's magically triggered--it can't even be detected with electronics."

He shook his head, impressed.

"I didn't become the princess of evil because of my looks, you know," she murmured, as another quantron passed them without a second glance.

"I can see that," he said, trying not to freeze as a half dozen quantrons appeared at the other end of the hallway. She gave him a wry look, and he realized that probably hadn't been the best choice of words. "Not that you couldn't have," he amended hastily.

She stepped deliberately to the side of the hallway as the quantron troop approached, her back to the wall, and he imitated her. The quantrons marched past, and he wished his heart would stop pounding. No matter what she said, he couldn't completely trust something he couldn't see, and her spell was apparently invisible to both of them.

She crossed the hall as soon as the troop was out of the way, and he realized with surprise that they were standing just outside the Bridge. He moved away from the wall himself to catch up with her, and was caught off guard when she simply strode through the doors, without announcement or hesitation.

He tried to follow with the same determination, but it was hard not to falter when Ecliptor's imposing figure looked up from one of the main nav consoles and fixed his gaze on them. "You," he ordered, pointing a finger in their direction. "Come with me."

He turned without another word and stalked toward the back of the control center, where Astronema's private tactical room had been located. Zhane saw her grimace at his tone, but she did as she was told without question and he forced himself to follow.

Walking into the room, Ecliptor motioned them behind the secondary screen that shielded it from the main control area. Turning toward Astrea, he put one hand on the hilt of his broadsword and inclined his head. "My princess," he said, keeping his voice low.

"Ecliptor," she returned. "I was unavoidably delayed."

He made no comment on Zhane's presence, in fact avoided even looking at her companion. "It was not unexpected," he said, taking what looked like nothing so much as a cubical paperweight from the middle of the room's strategy table.

He offered it to her, and she traced her finger along one edge. The "paperweight" split diagonally down the middle, revealing a data disc concealed inside. "Thank you," she said, snapping the pieces back together and raising her eyes to his.

He gestured over her shoulder, and Zhane spun. A quantron turned away from the doorway on its way back to its post, and a violet glitter sparkled momentarily across its visor.

Startled, Zhane turned his gaze first on Ecliptor, then Astrea. She raised her eyebrow at his expression. "You didn't think the bracelet I gave Ecliptor was just a decoration, did you?"

He couldn't think of anything to say. She must have known she would have little use for her "army" when she left the Dark Fortress--but it could protect Ecliptor where she could not.

Apparently giving up on his response, she looked back at Ecliptor. His attention had not wavered from hers, and when he caught her eye again, he said, "There is something else."

She frowned, absently stuffing the "paperweight" into her jacket pocket. Zhane blinked--she hadn't been wearing a jacket a moment ago, and the casualness with which she pocketed the information she was risking so much for surprised him.

Seeming to take her silence as question enough, Ecliptor continued, "I must tell you that the Phantom Ranger was killed shortly after his capture. The ship that took him considered him too much of a security risk, and though they have been severely reprimanded, the fact of their action remains unchanged."

Astrea tilted her head to one side. "The Phantom Ranger has been captured?"

Zhane tried not to roll his eyes. Saryn was on Aquitar, had been for weeks. There was no reason for him to have made an unscheduled trip to the edge of the Earth Rangers' galaxy when two other Ranger teams already had the evacuation under control.

"Last shift," Ecliptor told her. "His starfighter responded to a falsified distress call."

He reached out to the only solid wall in the room and punched some kind of code into a little control panel. A section of the bulkhead slid open, and he removed something from the space within. A glitter of red caught Zhane's eye as Ecliptor offered the object to her without a word.

Saryn's ruby rested in Ecliptor's outstretched hand.

***

"I don't understand how you can be so calm about this!" Zhane's voice continued to rail at her over the zords' intership comm frequency. "Is this just another part of the war to you?"

She glared at the comm panel. She knew he was feeling the effects of being closed inside his zord again, so, with an effort, she bit her tongue and stayed silent.

As hyperspace yawned open around them, though, their gateway out of Rysian space, his wrath did not abate. "How can you just ignore what this means? If you're so tactically minded that you can't even consider what it will do to the team, at least you must know that we've lost an incredible warrior!"

She clenched her teeth, punching the hyperrush controls with more vehemence than they required. Just because he was scared didn't mean he had to insult her.

There was a brief pause, and when Zhane's voice came back, he sounded much calmer. Frighteningly calm, even, and his words chilled her when he asked, "Do you even care?"

That was the last straw. "Of course I care!" she snapped, dropping one hand to the inner pocket of her denim jacket. She could feel the ruby's energy through the thin material, although there was no sign of it from the outside.

"Well, it certainly doesn't show," he muttered.

Her eyes narrowed. "*I* don't show it? How can *you* write him off so easily? Have you no faith in the person that he is?"

There was a startled silence from the comm link. "What do you mean?" he asked at last, the animosity now gone from his tone.

"Zhane, he's the Phantom Ranger," she said. He didn't seem to have much confidence in his teammate. "He doesn't give up, and he's impossible to kill. Everyone from Dark Spectre down knows that."

"He's a living being," Zhane protested.

"He's a *legend*," she said firmly, cutting him off before he could finish.

"He isn't invincible! He has weaknesses, just like everyone else--maybe he and Cassie fought and he took off to sulk!"

She tried to picture that, and found it utterly impossible. "Is it so easy to believe the worst of your teammates?" she countered, and to her surprise he had an immediate answer.

"Is it so easy to believe the best of heroes?"

She didn't know what to say to that. At last, she touched the place where the ruby rested and declared, "Cassie will know. We'll go to Aquitar and find out the truth from her."

"What makes you think she knows even as much as Ecliptor told us?" Zhane demanded.

"Cassie will know," she repeated. Of that she had no doubt.

***

"You were missed last night."

Cassie blinked, TJ on her heels as she stopped just inside the doors of auxiliary control. She was surprised by the lack of a greeting, and even more so by the subtle accusation in the White Ranger's cool voice.

"I tried to call," she said uncertainly. "Linnse wouldn't put me through."

Cetaci's eyes narrowed. "Linnse responded to your signal?"

"Yeah," Cassie said, exchanging glances with TJ. "Your comm system accepted it, and then Linnse asked me to identify myself."

"Linnse is authorized to use the comm system for Defense message traffic only," Cetaci declared. "She should not be intercepting signals coded for Ranger business."

Cassie couldn't tell if Cetaci didn't believe her, of if the other Ranger's anger had actually shifted. "I called maybe four hours ago to... explain. She said Phantom was unavailable, and that she'd tell him I called."

Cetaci studied her. "She said nothing else?"

Cassie shook her head.

"Then you do not know." Cetaci's accusatory expression had faded, and she actually looked sympathetic. "The Phantom Ranger responded to a distress signal from one of your Mega Voyager zords yesterday afternoon. He left for the Rysian system and hasn't been heard from since."

Cassie stared at her, feeling her heart clench. "But none of our zords has sent a distress signal."

"So we determined when we lost contact with both him and the original signal," Cetaci agreed. "I fear he has been captured by Dark Spectre. As displeased as I am with Linnse for overstepping her authority here, I cannot believe she said nothing to you."

Cassie swallowed, her mind desperately trying to sort events into some sort of order. "She and I--don't get along as well as we could."

"Your status as an active Ranger gives you priority on all Ranger-related Aquitian channels," Cetaci said sternly. "Do not let her intimidate you, Cassie. You outrank her."

Before she could reply to that, Cetaci had turned away. "Delphinius," she said, motioning to the Ranger nearest the comm console. "Contact Cestria for me. I want her to summon Linnse."

"The offworlder?" Delphinius tilted his head, no doubt reminding her that it wasn't polite for a telepath to simply "summon" someone without good reason. Especially someone unused to dealing with telepathy.

"Yes, the offworlder," Cetaci snapped. "I want her here."

Delphinius looked down at the comm console for only a moment before motioning to *her*. "Two of the Astro zords are requesting permission to enter the system."

She joined him, looking over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of the scanner display. "Clear them for system entry and dome access," she said. "Cassie will want to speak with her teammates."

Cassie nodded, but Cetaci didn't look for confirmation. "Confirmation sent," Delphinius reported. "I am paging Cestria."

"Have you been to your room yet?" Cetaci asked, shooting a glance in Cassie's direction.

Cassie frowned at the non sequiter, forcing her mind to stop worrying about Saryn long enough to process the question. "I--no, I haven't. I thought he would be here, so I came to control first. Why?"

Cetaci shook her head. "You should go," was all she said.

Two teleportation beams lit the auxiliary control room, one a violet shimmer and the other a shower of silver sparkles. Before Cassie could wonder what they were doing on Aquitar, Kerone had caught her eye, and the serious expression there made Cassie freeze. Somehow, the day was about to get worse.

"I need to speak to you, Cassie," Andros' sister said calmly. Her tone did nothing to alleviate the cold fear that had settled around Cassie's heart, and it was all she could do to nod and gesture toward the hallway.

Zhane caught TJ's arm when he made a move to follow, and Cassie took a deep breath. *Whatever it is,* she promised herself, *I will *not* fall apart. I won't.*

The corridor was deserted save for the two of them, and Cassie halted just far enough from the doors to auxiliary control that they couldn't be overheard. She turned to Kerone, searching the other's gaze but not able to bring herself to ask. It was as though, by asking, she would bring this news upon herself.

"Where's Saryn?" the blonde-haired girl asked, without preamble.

Cassie swallowed, barely having had time to take in the information herself. "In the Rysian system--he was captured by Dark Spectre last night."

The other girl looked at her intently. "You know he is there, then. You have heard from him since?"

Her nightmare replayed itself suddenly, taking over her mind for the space of several seconds, and she knew beyond a doubt that it had been more than a bad dream. "I know he's there," she said softly. She hesitated, then shook her head. "But I haven't heard from him."

"Not at all? Not even here?" Kerone asked, tapping her temple.

Cassie looked at her in surprise. The feeling of noise persisted, mostly buried by her other thoughts but ever-present nonetheless, and she wondered how Kerone could have known. Their bond was hardly a secret to the other Rangers, but no one else knew exactly how strong it was. "I--I can feel him, yes. How did you know?"

The girl actually sighed a little. "I did not know," she admitted. "But I am relieved to hear it. I hoped Ecliptor was wrong when he said..."

She trailed off, looking uncomfortable. "Cassie--" Reaching into her jacket pocket, she pulled out her closed fist and held it out. "Ecliptor gave me this."

Kerone uncurled her fingers slowly, and Cassie could only stare. The world darkened, narrowing to the single stone that glared accusingly up at her, silently reprimanding her for not being there. "No," she whispered, and she felt a hand on her arm.

"Cassie, it's all right," the other girl was saying soothingly. "He's all right; you told me so yourself. This has to be a trick--one good enough to fool Ecliptor, but still, a trick. If there is one thing evil excels at, it's deception."

Cassie reached for her hand, her own fingers trembling, and Kerone let her take the ruby without a word. The moment she touched it, her hand clenched into a fist around it and she closed her eyes.

"No." Energy flared the instant her skin touched the stone, and she could feel Saryn's raw Power flicker through her. "It's real--it's his ruby."

She reminded herself to breathe; she would do him no good if she suffocated herself. Hopelessness was not an option--Kerone was right, he was alive. He *had* to be. She would have known, otherwise.

And she had his ruby. That was something; it could still have been in enemy hands. "Thank you," she managed, opening her eyes. "Without this..."

She made her fingers relax, and forced herself to stare down at the ruby in her hand. She could find him. She had brought him back before, and she would do it again.

Looking up, she realized finally that Kerone had not answered. The other stood stiff, staring over Cassie's shoulder, and Cassie whirled.

"Traitor," Linnse hissed, her icy blue glare trained on Cassie from only a few feet away. "I warned him that you would betray him, but he was too blinded by emotion to listen."

Her heart stood still, given pause by the viciousness in Linnse's expression. She could not tear her gaze away, held riveted by the other's conviction. Her fingers tightened on Saryn's ruby, as though it could give her strength, and Linnse saw the movement.

"You had it planned from the beginning, didn't you? You and your pet princess of evil," she said disgustedly, her eyes flicking to Kerone.

"Don't think I don't recognize you," she added, when the other girl glared at her. "You may have been able to fool the Aquitians, but I'd know you no matter how you choose to appear."

"I am not *fooling* anyone!" the former princess of evil shot back. "I am who I am. And I do not aid others in the betrayal of our teammates!"

"*Your* teammates?" Linnse sneered. "I don't care what name the princess of evil goes by now, but Phantom is *not* one of you."

"Kerone, stop," Cassie said quietly. "Linnse, neither of us betrayed Phantom. He was captured last night when he responded to a false distress signal and has been reported dead within Dark Spectre's monarchy. His ruby came to us through one of Kerone's spies."

She didn't know where the calm words came from, but they were on her tongue and she said them before she could analyze them. Saryn's ruby dug into her palm as Linnse gave her a malevolent glare.

"The distress signal came from one of your zords," the other woman snapped. "Who do you claim *sent* it?"

The ruby felt like it was burning against her skin, but she did not look down. "I'm a Power Ranger, Linnse," she told the Eltaran coldly. "Maybe that means nothing to you, but the Power doesn't choose traitors. I don't need *your* opinion, and I certainly don't have time to stand around listening to your ridiculous accusations."

She spun, about to walk away, until she remembered Cetaci's odd words in control. "Have you been to your room? ...You should go."

With a sigh, she caught Kerone's eye. "There's something I have to do. Delphinius is in auxiliary control--would you ask if I can borrow his starfighter?"

To her mild surprise, Kerone nodded. "I will. But--"

Cassie waited.

"May I give you something?" the other girl asked.

She hesitated, struck by the odd note in Kerone's voice. "Yes," she said at last. She had never doubted that Andros' sister could be trusted, not since the other had helped Saryn reverse the evilyzer spell.

Kerone held out her hand, palm up, and Cassie took it without hesitation. A violet glow enveloped their clasped hands, and she closed her eyes involuntarily as knowledge of what she was being given flooded into her mind.

"Two spells," Kerone murmured. "One for you, one for the starfighter. Don't forget."

"I won't." She opened her eyes, and found Kerone staring back. "Thank you."

"What are you doing?" Linnse demanded suspiciously, finally finding her voice again.

"None of your business," Kerone snapped, rounding on the woman. "If I had wanted you to know, I would have told her out loud!"

"I'm going to find Phantom," Cassie remarked simply. She caught sight of Linnse's speechless expression as she turned to head for the lift, and she couldn't help a tiny glimmer of satisfaction.

The lift was waiting for her when she reached it, and she stepped inside. "Level two," she told it, fidgeting impatiently as it hummed to life. She couldn't imagine what Cetaci thought was so important, but she knew better than to ignore the White Ranger's "advice" by now.

The lift let her out in the almost-operational control room, and she walked quickly over to one of the side exits. Touching the keypad by the closed door, it slid open for her, and she tapped Saryn's code into a panel at the other end of the hallway.

The door opened onto darkness, and, unwilling to wait for it to register her presence, she waved her hand in front of the motion sensor. As the lights came up, she looked around warily, not sure what to expect. The room looked perfectly normal--except for a glitter from the workstation.

Curiously, she went over to the small computer terminal. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared down at the little shieldsphere, so like the one Ashley had given Andros not so long ago. She remembered admiring the little device, remembered Saryn's hand on her shoulder as she watched Andros play with it...

She swallowed. A delicate coral heart shape floated within the sphere, deep pink and crimson merging into patterned swirls along its entire length. She reached out to touch it, saw the etching along the edge of the sphere's base, and realized the sphere itself was as elegant as the fragile object it protected.

With trembling hands, she laid Saryn's ruby down on the desktop and picked up the shieldsphere. The heart tumbled end over end as she tilted the invisible globe back and forth, and light glinted off the etched lines of the base.

Not just a pretty pattern, she thought, looking closer. It looked like--words. She held the base at an angle, and she realized it wasn't the writing that was hard to read. She rubbed her tearing eyes impatiently, blinking to clear them.

The words sprang into sharp relief when she looked again. "Forever loved," the sphere's base said simply, and underneath was the inscription, "one year".

"One year?" she whispered, rolling the sphere into her other palm and trying to puzzle that out. A year ago... she cast back. Junior year, her first time trying to be a normal student with the Power always there in the background. And then, only a few weeks in, things had gotten even more complicated when--

"Oh," she murmured miserably, sinking into the chair beside the workstation. She stared without seeing at the complicated gift, knowing with a sudden certainty why he had been so eager to see her the night before.

The two of them had never officially dated, and so had nothing that the average person would consider an "anniversary". But one year ago yesterday, on the nineteenth of September, she and Saryn had spoken for the first time.

Meeting him had thrown her life into turmoil, wreaking havoc on her heart--in more ways than one--and bringing her more sorrow and greater joy than she had ever thought she could feel. It was a day she had thought she could never, ever forget.

"Saryn," she whispered, feeling a tear slide down her cheek. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

He must have been planning something, something the Aquitian Rangers had known about. That would explain Cetaci's coldness when she arrived this morning. After all her complaints about them not being "normal", he had gone out of his way to do something both ordinary and wonderful for her, and she had brushed it off.

"Why didn't you *tell* me?" she asked again, lifting her tearful gaze and appealing to the empty room.

*Cassie.*

Cestria's whisper-soft voice broke into her reverie, and she tried to force her thoughts into something coherent enough for the telepath to pick up on. *Yes?*

*Cetaci has asked Darian to let you take your starfighter, and he has agreed. It's ready for launch anytime.*

For a moment, she couldn't answer. Though she had sometimes thought of the starfighter she flew as "hers", she knew it belonged to the wing. She had never considered that they would let her take it for her own personal use--and out of the system, at that, where she couldn't be called on in the event of an attack.

*Thank you,* she managed at last, pulling herself to her feet. She didn't have time for self-pity. She had been wrong, and she would never be able to make up for it if she didn't get a move on *now*. *I'll be at the launch bay in minute.*

She put the shieldsphere down and reached for his ruby. Gold links trailed behind it as she picked it up, and she shook her head. She would never understand how that worked.

Sliding the chain over her head, she tucked his ruby under her t-shirt and headed for the door.

***

"Could someone please tell me what's going on?" TJ demanded, just as Kerone walked back into the control room with Linnse right behind her.

"Cassie needs a starfighter," Kerone said, ignoring him. "And your friend arrived while we were in the hallway." She gave Linnse a scornful look. "In the future, perhaps she could consider her accusations more carefully before she makes them."

"Get Darian to release Aq-24," Cetaci told Delphinius.

"What does Cassie need a starfighter for?" TJ was one breath from dragging Kerone back into the hallway and not letting her go until he had some answers. Something more than "Ecliptor had Saryn's Power ruby", which was all Zhane had told him.

"She's going after Phantom," Kerone said.

It was probably better for him that she had answered without him putting his plan into effect, TJ decided, seeing the way she looked at him. Kerone was mad about something, and making her turn her displeasure on him suddenly seemed less wise.

"But what does she need a starfighter for?" Zhane asked, obviously more willing than TJ to risk life and limb by getting her attention. "She has a zord."

Kerone just stared at him. "As I recall, *you* were the one complaining--loudly--about taking a single zord into the middle of Dark Spectre's fleet."

"Linnse." Cetaci's sharp tone cut through the conversation, but Zhane didn't seem fazed.

"And a starfighter has a better chance?" he demanded.

Between their argument, and Cetaci's just-starting tirade against the field commander of the Defense, TJ knew he wasn't going to get any answers. He did briefly wonder what would happen if Kerone and Cetaci ever got into a fight, since they seemed to have similar stubbornness and decibel levels, but that was the extent of his participation.

There was nothing to do now but wait it out.

***

The noise pounded into his skull, overwhelming every effort he made to shut it out. Anger, fear, and hatred pressed into his mind, threatening to make him insane with the sheer weight of their malicious intent.

The only thing that seemed to help was thinking of her, and he concentrated on her sweet face to the exclusion of all else, struggling against the tide of emotions to hang onto the one thing that gave him purpose. If there was anything worth living for, anything worth keeping his sanity for, it was the hope of her.

He had long since ceased to be aware of the cell into which he had been thrust, and he knew the absence of his ruby was slowly draining his life force away to nothing. He knew too that without it he was entirely too recognizable, despite the years since he had been a public figure, and that whoever was holding him probably wanted their own personal hostage.

They must not know that without his ruby he would not be of use as a live hostage for long. Or perhaps they didn't care--a dead Eltaran was still worth something, to those that knew the planet, and giving his ruby up to their supervisors would assure that belief in his death went unquestioned.

His empathy, though, they could not possibly have reckoned with. No one but his teammates had known of it, and it was the empathy, which he could no longer control without the energy to even keep his eyes open, that would be the end of him in this wretched prison.

His mind cried out for peace, hammering against the walls of sound that seemed to be closing in from all directions, and it made no difference. There was no escape and no refuge, no help for it but to suffer through the agonizing din of other beings' most negative emotions.

*Cassie,* he thought desperately, counting himself lucky to even be able to remember her name at this point. Her calm and somewhat understated mental presence, despite her flamboyant façade, had always been a welcome counterpoint to those around her.

He needed that quiet but unyielding strength now, needed it more than anything. He knew he could not survive this much longer, but something in him refused to buckle. Somehow, he endured, long past the point when he thought the unending noise would drive him beyond any hope of return.

Or was he already beyond that? He was hallucinating, of that he had no doubt, but it was the most welcome hallucination he had ever had. Cassie was near, her free and loving spirit reaching for his and drowning out the loudest of the voices as she came closer.

For that simple dulling of the static that raged in his mind, he would be forever grateful. It couldn't be her--it was his mind, slowly losing touch with everything that mattered--he knew it, and he didn't care. It should have frightened him that nothing seemed to matter anymore, but fear took energy, and energy he did not have.

All he wanted was the quiet. It was slowly sneaking into the edges of his consciousness, a blissful relief as the mental weight began, almost imperceptibly, to lighten.

Then he could feel someone beside him, someone come to take him away, and he made no effort to move. He could hear Cassie, and that was the only thing that meant anything now.

"Saryn," an odd voice whispered, shaking him gently.

He moaned involuntarily, not wanting to leave the dream. But the voice would not be put off, and the shaking grew more insistent. He forced his eyes to open, knowing the distorted voice should mean something to him but unable to recognize anything more.

He tried to squint at the dim figure beside him, and as its outlines resolved themselves more sharply he sighed and let his eyes slide closed again. Another hallucination, this time of himself--the Phantom Ranger was kneeling at his side, trying to shake him awake.

***

"Damn it, Saryn," she hissed, seeing him drift back into unconsciousness. "You are the most stubborn person I've ever met. In everything."

She tugged his arm around her shoulder and pulled him to his feet, keeping her other arm firmly around him as she staggered toward the door. The trek back to her hangar bay was looking a lot longer all of a sudden, but the Power coursing through her started to compensate by the time she'd taken a few steps. It was dangerous to be morphed in the middle of such an overpowering enemy force, for she would be that much easier to track, but she had no choice--Saryn was clearly not capable of walking.

There were fewer quantrons on these lower levels, but there were enough to give her serious pause. Each time she heard footsteps, she glanced down automatically. Sometimes her right palm would glow, and she would continue on, holding it out to the quantron when the being stopped to regard her and displaying Astronema's infamous diamond symbol.

More often, though, the violet glow was absent and she would be forced to take cover as best she could until the danger had passed. One quantron proved to be a little too suspicious for its own good, and she was forced to leave Saryn while she ambushed the mechanical being and disabled it. Another quantron happened along while she was hiding the first, and for one sinking moment she thought she was going to have to fight her way off the ship.

But the second quantron responded to the shimmering diamond outline on her palm, and it sounded no alarm. It continued down the hallway and disappeared, and she stowed the disabled quantron in a storage locker.

With their nerve-rackingly slow pace, it seemed forever before they made it back to the bay where her "velocifighter II" was stowed. It could have been hours after the time she arrived or it could have been days, but they were there, and the prisoner transfer bay was still thankfully empty. She made her way over to her disguised starfighter, resting tandem with Saryn's captured ship.

If her fighter had actually been one of the second generation velocifighters, equipped for minimal cargo and passenger transport--in other words, the transfer of stolen goods and prisoners--she would have put Saryn inside without another thought. But the illusion that Kerone had woven for her before she left was nothing more than a shift in wavelengths and ID codes, and there was no room in the starfighter for a second person.

She was depending on his ship. If it had been too badly damaged, she was going to have to improvise, which meant stealing another ship. A velocifighter, no doubt, which she wasn't sure she could slave to her starfighter. Back on Aquitar, that hadn't seemed important--she had figured he would be conscious and able to pilot himself, rather than having to link the computer system of whatever ship he was on to her own.

But luck was with her, and his ship powered up on command. She started the preflight and reached for the comm, intending to complete the slaving process while the preflight was in progress.

She hit the wrong button, and a small flash of pink light took her by surprise. His comm didn't have a holomatrix unit, and yet that was exactly what she seemed to have activated. Her eyes widened as a tiny image of herself twirled on the console, arms over her head and a peaceful smile on her upturned face.

The preflight chimed, and she blinked, realizing she'd been staring for several seconds. She linked the comm system to her own starfighter and slaved the computer system as Billy had taught her, trying not to be too distracted by the image on the console. She had no idea how to shut it off.

Finally, she left the cockpit and returned for Saryn. There was no way she would be able to lift him into that space, even with her morph--another factor she had not considered.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes and teleported. It might set off half the alarms on the ship, but there was nothing else to be done. She settled Saryn as quickly as she could, fastening restraints around his limp body and praying his unconsciousness wasn't a symptom of something worse.

She noted distractedly that the image of her was gone now, and she stroked Saryn's cheek as she leaned over him to seal the cockpit. There was no point in not teleporting now, so as the cockpit seals flashed green, she checked the ship slave once more and then sent herself directly into her own starfighter.

It was on standby, flashing a confirmation of the starfighter slave from this end, and she powered the engines up. Her ship slid forward across the deck, the bay doors recognizing her fake ID codes and opening in front of her.

To her immense gratification, Saryn's ship mimicked her forward thrust, engines firing even as hers did as her starfighter slipped out into the welcome blackness of space. A warning flared on her console, and she grimaced. It had taken them this long--she had been luckier than she had any right to, when it came right down to it. Now it was a race between her navcomp and their targeting scanners.

Laser fire burned past even as her computer flickered confirmation of her hyperspace vector, and she threw their ships into hyperrush as fast as the engines would comply.

***

"I don't understand," Carlos was saying. "When was he captured, again?"

"Late evening, by your time," Aura murmured. She was leaning against a console next to him, listening as Cestria tried to explain the sequence of events to the Astro team.

"Why weren't we told then?" Andros wanted to know.

"At the time, there was nothing to say that the signal wasn't real," Cestria said. "Clearly, we should have confirmed with your team first, but we did not."

Carlos frowned. There was more to that than she was saying--it wasn't like Phantom to just rush off without knowing what he was rushing *into*. Information might not stop him, but he always had it.

"Incoming starfighters," Billy interrupted, and Carlos swung around. He wasn't the only one--Billy had the attention of everyone in the room.

"ID..." Billy hesitated, then a grin broke over his face. "One of them is Phantom's."

Ashley's clap was audible over everyone else's muted exclamations of relief, and he saw Andros reach out to hug her. Carlos caught the grateful gaze of the Aquitian next to him, and he returned Aura's smile.

Then an oddly distorted voice came over the comm as Billy let the lead starfighter link in with the control computers, and Carlos frowned. It was Cassie's voice... but it wasn't. Familiar, but only when he was listening for it--he didn't know what to make of the sound.

"I have Phantom," she told them, and from where Carlos stood he could see the tactical display tracing her path to one of the orbiting stations high above Aquitar. "He's unconscious--can you lock onto him and teleport him to the Medical bay for me?"

"Done," Billy responded, doing something to the panel in front of him.

"I'll be there as soon as the fighters are secured," she said. "Thanks, Billy."

"Congratulations, Cassie," he answered. "You did it again."

Carlos didn't understand, but Cassie must have. "As long as I don't make a career out of it," she said lightly. "I'm still planning to sing, you know."

Billy laughed. "We'll meet you in the Medical bay."

"Right."

The comm link cut off, and Carlos turned to find most of the team already out the door. He caught Aura's eye and she straightened, moving to lead the way out of auxiliary control. Cestria reached the door before they did, and Billy was right behind them. Carlos had a moment to wonder if it was wise for control to be completely abandoned, before he decided that since *he* wasn't going to stay behind he'd better not say anything.

A healer was just entering the infirmary from the other side as the Rangers crowded inside, and Andros and Cestria were already at Saryn's side. Carlos barely got a glimpse of his unconscious form lying on a patient bed before a dark glow momentarily brightened the area by the doorway.

His eyes widened as the Phantom Ranger teleported into the Medical bay.

He looked from Saryn to Phantom in utter noncomprehension before seeking out Aura with his eyes. She was right next to him, and he felt a little better when she looked almost as startled as he felt.

Then Phantom did something he had never done before--he reached up and twisted the helmet that concealed his features, breaking the seal and pulling the helmet up off over his head.

Their Asian teammate shook her long dark hair free, letting it fall over the Phantom Ranger's armor with complete unconcern. "How is he?" she asked worriedly, stepping in front of Billy to join Andros and Cestria at Saryn's bedside.

Carlos could only gape at her. "Cassie?"