"The fighter wing does as much good for Aquitar as the Rangers," Delphinius interrupted, turning away from his conversation with Andros.

"In its own way," Cetaci allowed. "But there are plenty of fighter pilots. There are only five Rangers."

TJ couldn't read the Aquitians' more subtle expressions as easily as he could another human's, but there was no mistaking the angry glare Delphinius gave Cetaci. "There are not plenty of fighter pilots. People willing to risk their lives in battle with no Power to protect them are not so common as you seem to think!"

"If the people who do have the Power to protect them would do their job, the fighters would not need to risk their lives," Cetaci retorted.

"The Medical bay is on this level," he said. "Cestria, can you help Cetaci?"

The sudden flash of a black teleportation streak made the question unnecessary, as Delphinius appeared in the small room. "The Zaal zord has been--" He cut off as soon as he saw Cetaci, and he strode across the room to help Cestria. "You should be in the Medical bay," he said sternly.

"You should be more careful," she answered, her tone sharp despite the obvious fatigue in her voice. "Your zord is not a starfighter."

"Cetaci, please," Cestria murmured, helping the leader of her team to her feet.

Carlos shot a worried look at Aura, who was leaning on him more heavily with each passing moment. Billy caught his eye, and the Blue Ranger looked irritated. Without turning, he said, "Cetaci, you weren't there. Delphinius did what he had to."

"So did Cestria," Cetaci answered. She shrugged off Delphinius's attempts to help her, but she let her second-in-command guide her toward the door. "But her zord is still intact."

*It is not our team that is the problem,* Aura answered, and he could almost hear the irritation in her thoughts. *Cetaci and Delphinius used to be lovers, before the Rangers came between them. They still care for each other very deeply, I think, but they cannot seem to keep their feelings and their duties from clashing.*

Carlos just stared at her, not sure what to say to that. He had assumed the two Aquitian Rangers had some sort of past, but no one ever mentioned it in his presence until now. Even Cassie, whom he suspected knew something about them, had been strangely close-mouthed. He wondered if she had been sworn to the same silence Aura had just asked of him.

"Cestria ordered Delphinius to break off, during the Barox attack," Aura continued quietly, when he said nothing. "The hunter's ship was put under enormous stress by his pursuit, and in all likelihood would not have held together long enough to reach the ocean floor had Delphinius pulled up while he still had time.

"So Cestria ordered him out. He would not go, and finally it was too late." She paused, regarding him solemnly. "Cestria did not report him, nor will the rest of the team tell Cetaci what he did."

He wouldn't take the chance, Carlos realized. Delphinius wouldn't allow even the slim possibility that the ship might survive long enough to damage the dome where Cetaci was, even if it meant his own life. "But... if she knew," he began.

"She must not know," Aura cut him off. "I would like to think, as you do, that she would be touched by such a gesture. But I have seen her react often enough to know that she will only be angry with him for such a foolish risk. So we keep it from her."

Cestria stepped in front of her to add the visual from Billy's current location to the display. "This is only a drill," she said quietly. "The well-being of this team should come before training sims."

Cetaci positively glared at her. "Contact Delphinius," she said icily.

Cestria pushed something on the control panel and straightened up, turning to face her teammate. "No."

"Then I will," Cetaci snapped, reaching for the comm console.

To Carlos' infinite surprise, Cestria caught her hand. "You are behaving unreasonably," she told her leader.

"Let me go," Cetaci insisted, twisting away from the Yellow Ranger. She sounded suddenly more like a plaintive child than a determined commander. "This team answers to my orders, not yours."

Cestria hesitated, and the glance she gave Carlos and Kerone said she was very much aware of their presence. "I would not say this now," she said quietly, "if I thought you would listen at any other time. But this--" She made a small gesture toward the comm system, leaving no doubt about what she meant. "This is not about the team. It is about you and your relationship with our Black Ranger."

Cetaci's eyes were wide as they darted from Cestria, to Carlos and Kerone, and back again.

"Delphinius has been miserable since you joined the team," Cestria continued, ignoring Cetaci's obvious distress. "Yet he continues to act impartially, while you do not. Perhaps..." Her voice dropped a little, and she said quietly, "As much as it pains me to say this, perhaps you were not the best choice for leader."

Anguish lanced through her head the moment she touched his skin, and she couldn't keep from crying out. Delphinius flinched, pushing her away, and she shoved him back harder than she'd intended. Cetaci laid her hand across his forehead again, holding him down and gritting her teeth against the shared pain.

She was no healer, despite the fact that most civilian telepaths on Aquitar entered the medical profession. It was the only place they were truly accepted--but she had been a scientist by both training and desire, and she had refused to give that up. Nonetheless, she understood enough about their bond to know how to soothe what she had already done.

Her mind crept back into his, pressing gently against the places that had been scraped raw when she tore away from him. She felt him tremble a little, but she couldn't tell if it was an instinctive reaction to what she was doing or something else.

"Why didn't you say something," she muttered at last, angry with herself for causing this and with him for hiding it. It had never been this bad before.

His eyes slid open and he caught her hand as she started to withdraw it. "Because I knew you'd come," he whispered, staring up at her.

She curled her fingers into a fist and punched him in the chest. "I hate--"

"You hate me, I know," he murmured, pulling her other hand closer to him and ignoring the half-hearted blow. He spread her fingers and ran his thumb gently across her palm. "Don't talk. Just close your eyes."

"I am the White Ranger," she said evenly. "The Power chose me to lead this team."

"And this team chose to relieve you of your duties temporarily," Delphinius reminded her. "I have heard no further discussion of the matter. Do you now overrule a decision made by the rest of the Rangers?"

"I do what the circumstances require," Cetaci replied stiffly.

"And who decides what is required?" he demanded. "You? Do you answer to any authority but your own, Cetaci?"

She spun, pinning him with a glare that made Carlos wince. "Whose authority would you have me answer to? Yours? Is that why I was chosen, really? Because your aunt thought you could control me, and if she couldn't pass the Power through inheritance she'd settle for the next best thing?"

There was dead silence for a moment, and Delphinius narrowed his eyes at her. "Do not project your scheming onto my family."

"Then don't question my place as leader!" she retorted.

"Start acting like one and I will consider it!"

"Stop it!" Aura cried. Her face was pale, but she leapt to her feet, still clutching the blanket Tideus had given her around her shoulders. "Why do you fight like this, day after day? You love each other! How can anything be more important than that?"

"Cetaci," he repeated.

She stopped suddenly, not bothering to return the ball at all this time. It bounced out of the court and off into the dimness, but she didn't turn around. "'Start acting like one'?" she demanded of the wall.

He sighed. He had hoped that maybe they could at least greet each other before one of them mentioned the scene in the control room. "I really hate this," he muttered without thinking.

Her racket clattered to the floor as she spun around, her angry gaze locking with his. "Do you think I enjoy it? Do you think I like it like this? What do you want from me, Delphinius!"

"I want you to love me again!" The words were out before he had time to think about them, and he could only stare at her in horror as the reality of what he'd just said sank in. To admit that was to openly acknowledge the hold they still had on each other, and that was something they had both been trying to deny for what seemed like forever.

She swallowed, not taking her eyes off of him. "You think I ever stopped?"

A flash of black caught her eye, and she heard Delphinius on the ladder behind her. "Get back," she hissed, seeing the glint of silver behind Cetaci as she ran.

He paid no attention, clambering up beside her as she drew his blaster. Siting down the barrel, she picked off three of the pursuing quantrons before Cetaci reached the zord. She continued to fire as the former Aquitian leader leapt onto the back of the zord and hauled herself up, a feat Kerone found impressive even in the midst of her concentration.

Delphinius ducked back into the zord, and she motioned for Cetaci to go after him. The White Ranger actually hesitated, but for once she did what she was told. Kerone fired once more before grabbing the edge of the hull and swinging through the hatch.

She staggered a little as she hit the deck, and Cetaci steadied her. Delphinius put a foot on the ladder and reached for the hatch, slamming it shut behind them. Holstering his blaster without comment, she slid into the pilot's seat and ignited the thrusters again. The real trick now was getting out.

"Damn you!" She had been expecting Delphinius to explode, and she tried her best to tune it out as she eased the zord out of its impact site.

"Damn you and your invincibility!" Delphinius shouted. "What were you thinking! You must have known when Carlos and Aura were away, so why didn't you come back?"

"I--I found something," Cetaci answered, sounding the slightest bit shaken at his vehemence. There was a pause and the sound of movement, and then she added, "One of the aliens used one to cut us all off from the Power."

"Damn you for always being the hero," she heard Delphinius mutter, and there was a waver in his voice that she had never heard from an Aquitian. If it had been one of her teammates, she would have said he was crying, but she didn't dare turn around and find out.

When she turned to leave, though, Delphinius was right in front of her and he made no move to step aside. "You know why I did it," he said, searching her expression.

"Because you're stubborn and contrary and you think you're always right," she muttered, looking away. "Get out of my way before I change my mind about demoting you."

"Go ahead," he said. There was a resigned note in his voice this time. "It won't change anything."

She shot a look at him out of the corner of her eye. The same thing she heard in his voice was on his face, and it troubled her. At least it did until he caught her looking at him, and his look turned to one of irritation. "That ship was trying to take out the Command Center, Cetaci."

"Trying!" she shot back, provoked. "It never would have made it, and you know it!"

"That is easy to say now," he growled. "At the time I could not take that chance."

"You could have been killed! The chance wasn't worth your life!"

He stared at her for a moment, and she glared back at his solemn and unreadable expression. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet and he said only, "It was to me."

*But it wasn't to me!* she cried, clamping her mouth shut to keep herself from uttering the words aloud. Instead she turned her head to the side, fighting to ignore his intensity and trying desperately to suppress the turmoil of her own emotions.

Any success she might have had was swept away the moment she felt his fingers brush her cheek. "Cetaci," he said softly, then stopped.

With a frustrated cry, she flung herself into his arms and buried her face in his shoulder. "I hate you," she choked, her fists clenching as he hugged her awkwardly in return.

"I know," he whispered. To her chagrin, he sounded almost... amused. He rested his head against hers and rubbed her back soothingly. "I hate you, too."

Her shoulders stiffened, and he knew he had offended her with his careless words. "I'm still waiting for you to tell me what you want," she replied coldly.

"I want you to put aside your pride!" The words were out before he could stop them. How much simpler would things be if she could be just a little less stubborn every once in a while? "For once, try to think of the team first."

"Put aside my pride," Cetaci mused, her voice unusually quiet.

Expecting a more abrasive response, he was caught off guard by the thoughtful echo of his remark. He frowned warily. "It's not so much to ask."

"Look around you, Delphinius," she said, her voice tinged with disbelief. "Do you even remember this station?"

His eyes flickered toward her. Though he often tried not to, he remembered. The memories came despite his best efforts, and he remembered the days when this lab could be lit at any hour of the day or night. He remembered her laughter echoing off the walls, and he remembered chasing her around the field chambers with no thought in his head but what he would do when he caught her.

He remembered how the doors could be locked from the inside, and how the windows could be darkened until they were opaque. "Of course I do," he muttered. She wasn't paying attention, and he let his gaze linger for a moment on her shadowy figure. "It wasn't that long ago."

"It was another lifetime," she answered emphatically. "I gave this up to be a Ranger. I gave up my friends, my work... you... everything that mattered. And still you ask more."

"Did you give me up?" he couldn't help asking. "Is that what happened?"

"What would it take for us to be together again?" he asked softly. He swallowed hard at the look of surprise on her face, knowing that if she walked away now he might never be able to look her in the eye again. "I--I can't promise I can do it," he managed, forcing the words out past his pride and his rising fear. "But I have to know."

She stared down at him for a long moment, no expression to replace the surprise on her face as it faded.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she sank slowly to the floor with him. "I can't believe you just did that," she whispered, her gaze not leaving his.

He swallowed again, wondering when his throat had gotten so dry. "Tell me what it would take," he repeated, as steadily as he could. There was no turning back now. "Please."

"I... I don't know," she murmured at last. She glanced down at her fingers as she twined them together, but he didn't look away from her face. "Maybe..."

She didn't finish the sentence, and finally he brought himself to ask, "Maybe--what?"

She looked up again, and the undisguised wistfulness in her eyes took him aback. "Maybe it would take me being able to ask *you* what it would take."

He smiled, just a little, and hoped this wasn't the wrong moment. "I didn't ask for a miracle," he teased gently.

She gave him a dark look, but the corners of her mouth quirked upward. "Delphinius," she said, very softly. She met his gaze without flinching, her soul bare behind her blue eyes. "What would it take?"

"Cetaci's child would be Aquitar's first choice to lead the Rangers in her place one day. And the world knows she would never have a child with anyone but Delphinius. Thus her 'successor' involves a child they do not have, and one that she has no intention of having any time in the near future."

He raised an eyebrow, not missing the specific pronoun. "And Delphinius?"

Aura shrugged again. "I do not know how he feels about it, but he would never disrespect her wishes in the matter. Still--" She caught his eye, inviting him to share the humor. "He has been teasing her almost nonstop since the subject was broached."

He grinned, wishing he'd been around for more of it. "That does sound like them," he admitted. "When Cestria said that he made a mistake, I guess I thought it was more serious."

"Oh, she demoted him," Aura said carelessly. "She didn't appreciate an insinuation he made regarding the 'worthiness' of his genes versus hers. It was a frivolous thing to alter his rank for, but then, it was a ridiculous remark for him to make in the first place."

"Man!" he exclaimed. If there were ever two people that deserved each other, they were the two. It was funny, really--from a distance. "Isn't his rank sort of an important thing to be changing on a whim?"

"It used to be," Aura agreed. "But she's demoted him three times since the Honor ceremony. Neither of them seems to take it seriously anymore. He started out as the fifth-ranked Ranger on the team, so it was never more than a formality, but now it's just... an obnoxious gesture, to remind him that she's the White Ranger and he isn't."

The door to the living quarters slid open before he could retort, and her curiosity about Cetaci was satisfied when the White Ranger came through to join them in Control. Their team leader strode up to the console from the other side. Bracing her hands against the panel, she looked Delphinius straight in the eye and announced, "I hate you."

He returned her gaze without flinching. "Do you expect me to react to that in some way?"

"I expect you to explain the message that was on my vid terminal this morning," she shot back. "What point is there in directing such information to me in particular, rather than to Control itself?"

"No one in Control cares except for you," he informed her. "Besides, it doesn't apply to anyone else. I thought you'd want to see it first."

Cetaci narrowed her eyes at him. "I will never have your child." With that, she spun around and headed for the lift, disappearing into it without another word.

Aura felt Carlos lower his head to look at her. "What was that about my friends?"

She hid a smile, trying to keep her expression blank as she looked at Delphinius. He caught her eye as though he expected her gaze, and he gave her an innocent shrug. "I hope you don't assume that I am to blame for that outburst."

"She didn't say she hated me," Aura retorted. "What have you done this time?"

"Who was your copilot?" Zhane asked curiously.

"Copilot?" Delphinius repeated, deadpan. He said it so seriously that for a moment Zhane wondered if he had found some way around that rule.

"Another Ranger," Andros surmised aloud. "Or those reporters wouldn't have left so quickly."

Delphinius pretended to consider the remark. "The problem I am having is only one of semantics, I think. 'Copilot' implies some degree of assistance on the part of the person you are flying with."

"The same way 'pilot' implies a degree of skill," a voice replied acerbically. "You work on your job and I'll work on mine."

Every time Zhane came to Aquitar, he told himself he wouldn't let the relationship between the White and Black Aquitian Rangers surprise him. And every time he came, the mere fact that Cetaci and Delphinius were still together would make him break his word. So he wasn't overly startled to look up and see Cetaci leaning over the edge of the pod's cockpit, watching the conversation with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Although 'copilot' may not be exactly the right word," Dephinius said, as though she hadn't interrupted, "I believe you do have an equivalent in your language. I am only trying to remember it."

It was one of the few times Zhane had seen an Aquitian Ranger at a loss for words, and he couldn't help but think Delphinius was exaggerating his difficulty. He was sure of it when the Black Ranger said suddenly, "Handicap... Yes, that's it. I had a handicap, not a copilot."

"It hasn't impaired his ability to rationalize," Cetaci said, to no one in particular. "If only making excuses were a more respected profession."

"There is no need to rationalize victory." Delphinius' tone was mild. He was still looking at Zhane, but he was clearly addressing his teammate. "As anyone acquainted with the feeling of being victorious knows."

"Strange that you're so good at it, then," Cetaci retorted.

He felt compelled to point out, "You can't really think you'll ever be a liability to your friends, no matter how much things change."

Aura's expression sobered a little. "There is a difference between the team and my friends, Carlos. The team is something that we do. Friends... that's something that we are."

He smiled. "Very poetic."

"But true," she countered. "With the exception of Cetaci and Delphinius, who are as likely to kill each other as marry, we will never stop being friends. But for each of us there will come a day when we realize someone else could give more to the team, and one by one, we will step aside."

Delphinius didn't even look up when the door opened, but Cetaci gave them a passing glance and Carlos tried to stifle a laugh. One of the White Ranger's favorite rules was "no sitting on the consoles!" yet there she was, perched on top of a status console with her feet dangling below, ankles crossed and swinging slightly as though she didn't have a care in the world. Out of uniform, not even wearing her color, she looked less like the leader of the Rangers and more like a teenage girl playing hooky with her boyfriend.

"What are you doing?" Aura asked curiously.

"Thank you," Carlos said aloud, eyeing Delphinius' intense concentration with no small amount of suspicion. The only reason the two Rangers hadn't managed to take over the world yet was because they spent more time arguing with each other than anything else. He was a little worried about what they might be able to do if they ever coexisted peacefully for more than a few minutes at a time. "I was wondering whether I should ask that."

The Black Ranger didn't answer, which only made Carlos more nervous about what he was doing. Sure, it looked harmless enough. It looked like he was drawing a tattoo around Cetaci's wrist with a pen. But Carlos had found that the more innocent these particular Rangers looked, the greater the chances were that they were up to something sinister.

"Delphinius is practicing his artwork," Cetaci answered for them both. "The two of you are leaving early," she added, before either of them could reply. "Are you on your way to the Eternal Falls already?"

He and Aura exchanged glances. "Well, Aura's driving," Carlos said at last. "So we have to leave time for at least two flit violations on the way."

That drew a response from Delphinius, though he still didn't look up. "They won't stop a Ranger," he muttered, his concentration apparently not enough to keep him from defending pilot "creativity."

"Yeah, and you're as bad as she is," Carlos informed him. Delphinius wasn't big on flits, but his fighter menaced the spacelanes on a regular basis.

Delphinius lifted his pen and drew back for a moment, studying the design he was creating. "There was a time," he mused, "when I would not have considered that the compliment that I do now." He turned to catch Aura's eye, and there was a smile on his face when he inclined his head in her direction.

Cetaci lifted her hand when he looked away, inspecting the design for herself. Carlos recognized Aquitian lettering when she turned her wrist, and he tried to get a better look at it without being too obvious. It was hard enough to read their alphabet when it was printed on a screen in front of him.

"I will endeavor to live up to your expectations," Aura was telling him gravely, and Carlos snorted.

"Live down to them, you mean. Your piloting has taken years off my life," he accused. "I have to be a Ranger, because it's the only thing more exciting than going places with you. I've been desensitized to adrenaline."

"As I have been desensitized to the human tendency to complain about things they clearly enjoy," Aura replied. "It's an annoying but inevitable consequence of close association."

"Careful," Carlos warned. "Billy's at the Eternal Falls too. Our numbers will be even. You won't be able to get away with comments like that."

Aura gave him an amused look. "You say that as though you allow me to get away with them in any circumstance."

"Back home, we call that 'asking for it'," Carlos remarked. "I guess that's an Aquitian tendency."

"I suspect it's a Ranger tendency," Delphinius interjected dryly.

Cetaci made a sound of disbelief. "Considering the disposition you started with, there's nothing you can do to convince me that becoming a Ranger made you more reckless."

"Given that my alleged recklessness is second only to yours, I have no doubt that's true," Delphinius agreed.

They managed to make it out of the control room without the sounds of an argument following them, which was more than Carlos had expected. Cetaci must be in an unusually good mood today. Or maybe Delphinius had some ulterior motive for not provoking her. With them it was almost impossible to tell who started it, but the rest of them tried to enjoy the rare moments of peace.

He asked Aura about the letters on Cetaci's wrist while they traveled to the launch bay, but she hadn't been able to read them either. She did identify the wrist design itself as a school tradition--something like exchanging class rings, if he understood what she meant. Not something adults typically did, but then, Cetaci and Delphinius were nothing if not atypical.