Billy took an inadvertent step back as the glow of teleportation melted away. There was quite literally nothing in front of him. The drop from the edge of the cliffs to the ocean below was even sharper than it had appeared from the Rangers' vantage point, and he spared a moment to wonder just how thoroughly Cestro had memorized those coordinates.

The thought drew his attention away from the precipice long enough to look for the woman he had promised to find. After all, the faster they got out of here the sooner he could rejoin Cestro and the others. Their weapon, though effective enough when powered by the Zeo crystal, was completely untried on Aquitar, and he didn't want to be far away during its first, critical test.

The cliff on which he stood was empty.

He scanned the area again, though it was small and clearly incapable of hiding anybody. There was a faint trace to his left, a small patch of color that might mark the beginning of a path, and he moved carefully in that direction. How had she disappeared so quickly?

"Path," he decided a moment later, was a generous term for the tiny ledge that wound around and down the side of the cliff. He hugged stone to his left and tried not to look over the edge to his right, hoping none of the rocks on which he trod were quite as loose as they looked.

Once he got off of the small outlook on which he had been standing, he could glimpse some distance down the trail. It was clear for as far as he could see, but there was simply nowhere else for the Keeper to have gone, so he continued. His concentration was necessarily absorbed by the terrain underfoot, but it did occur to him that he was now in as much danger as the errant Aquitian whom he followed--perhaps more, given that she must know these cliffs significantly better than he. What would become of them if the weapon he and Cestro had constructed failed to hold the Hydro Contaminators back?

He glanced east just in time to see the first fiery limb of the sun poke itself above the horizon.

His foot slipped and he stumbled forward, heart racing as he reached blindly for anything with which to steady himself. The ground met his groping hands as he fell, and it took him several seconds to realize that his motion had been arrested. The narrow track he had followed down from the cliffs above widened into a small plateau here, directly across from the ceremonial falls.

On any other day, the incredible sight before him would have taken his breath away. Today he had none to spare, but he couldn't deny that the massive edifice was one of the most impressive natural phenomena he had ever seen.

Water billowed over the edge of the towering stone cliffs with a thunder that had been audible as far away as the Rangers' perch above, and this close it was a roar that growled through ears and into his bones. He couldn't help looking down, trying to glimpse the bottom of the thundering falls, but it was swallowed by mist and predawn shadow...

Sunrise was creeping down the cliffs even as he stared, and the whine of Hydro Contaminators would be all but inaudible in this din. He moved.

The trail he followed was now clearly marked with turquoise teardrop shapes, and it had broadened to a more respectable width. Unfortunately, with less attention needed to keep from plunging unfathomable distances, he had more free to worry about Cestro and the others. He was more relieved than awed when the path finally led into the tumultuous world of airborne water and liquid light that existed behind the falls.

"Welcome," a quiet voice greeted him.

He turned, startled in spite of himself, and found someone standing in the very spot he had vacated two steps before. His first impression of her was that she was young--far too young to be the person that logic said she ought to be. He bit back the impulse to ask where the Keeper was, though, for if there was one thing life as a Ranger had taught him it was not to judge appearances.

"Thank you," he said, hoping his voice would carry as well as hers over the pervasive rumble of water. Was there a proper response? His uncertainty was one more thing among many in the last few days that had reminded him how alien he was here. "I'm honored by your greeting in this sacred place."

She smiled slightly, but she studied him with all the curiosity that he was trying to hide. "This place is honored by your presence," she countered. "For all that you have not come to enjoy it."

He blinked. "No, I haven't," he admitted, taken aback. "I've actually come looking for the Keeper of the Falls."

"And you have found her." Her response was immediate but unhurried, agreeable without being expectant. He found himself wondering what sort of life this Keeper led that she could radiate such... "peace" was the only word he could think to describe it, but it didn't do her demeanor justice.

"I'm Billy Cranston," he said, pressing his fingers together in the Aquitian gesture of greeting. "I've been working with the Rangers to resolve the Hydro Contaminator situation."

"Situation?" she repeated mildly.

He shrugged uncomfortably. "We've, uh--we think we've developed a weapon strong enough to fight them."

"To what end?" she wanted to know. Her face was completely unreadable to him, even after the practice he'd had with the others.

"So we can stop them," he said, more flustered than he had reason to be. Why did he feel like he had to account for himself to her? "To keep them from irreversibly polluting your world."

"And you feel that a weapon is the only way to do this." She was staring at him, an odd look in her eyes, and suddenly he understood Cestro's earlier hesitation. The Blue Ranger's niece was a pacifist.

"If you have an alternative," Billy told her, keeping his tone as polite as he could, "the Rangers would be glad to listen. You must agree that we can't let the Hydro Contaminators win."

"There are no winners in a war, Billy Cranston. Force is no way to resolve an argument." The Keeper's hazel eyes seemed to stare right through him. "There will always be a stronger weapon. If not today, then tomorrow."

"We can't worry about tomorrow if it never comes," he protested. "If I could think of a way other than force to keep this planet safe, believe me, I'd do it. We all would. But the Hydro Contaminators..."

He tried to think of a phrasing that she wouldn't be able to argue with. "What they want is too different from what we want. We can't coexist, at least not in the same place."

She looked at him for a long moment. "People use that word a lot," she said at last. "'Different...'" Her tone was thoughtful. "I am different, as are you. We are all different, but we don't fight each other because we're different. We fight because we are the same."

He did his best to stay objective, to hear what she was saying. But that sentence refused to make sense no matter how he tried. "If we were the same, we wouldn't have to fight."

"No?" Her expression remained uninterpretable, but her words were enough to make him defensive. "What do the Hydro Contaminators want?"

"To take over the world?" he suggested, unable to keep a hint of sarcasm from coming through. Did she think they liked fighting this way? Cestro had probably been about to warn him when Delphine arrived.

"But why?" she insisted.

"They need the water," he said after a moment.

"All right," he added quickly, hoping to forestall her. "I see what you're saying. We're fighting because we both want the same resource. But they're going about it the wrong way."

"Is there nothing in your life worth killing for, Billy Cranston?" Her gaze seemed to mock him. "Your survival? The survival of your family? The survival of your entire people?"

"They attacked your world!" he exclaimed, more and more frustrated with her questioning. "They're poisoning your planet, and you're defending them?"

She didn't so much as blink. "Are you angry because you believe differently than I do?" she wanted to know. "Or because we believe the same thing?"

He opened his mouth to disagree, but her words were insidious.

"You," he said at last. He couldn't contradict her, but neither could he say nothing. Regarding her thoughtfully, he tried again. "You are one of the most aggravating people I have ever met."

She smiled for the first time since he had entered the cavern. "Many people tell me that."