"I know why I'm here," Taylor said, tilting her head back and rubbing her eyes. With a sigh, she pushed her chair back and put her feet up on the table, stretching her arms out over her head. She laced her fingers together as she stifled a yawn.

The chair creaked under her and the Eagle Ranger put her feet down abruptly, glancing over at her companion. "But why are you trying to learn this, Princess?"

She lifted her gaze from the holoscreen in front of them, wondering if it would be undignified of her to imitate Taylor's stretch. "Because I want to be useful," she said simply, letting her eyes wander around the room.

The briefing room at Guardian Headquarters had been converted into a sort of impromptu study area, the table littered with projectors and reports from the past few years. Wes and Jen had brought them all up to date in a sketchy sort of way, but anyone dealing with temporal anomalies needed more information than that to be safe, let alone effective. So they were faced with the task of condensing four years of Time Force training into little more than a week.

As the only Ranger with nowhere pressing to be the next morning, Taylor had volunteered to start tonight. Or perhaps "volunteered" was the wrong word... Since Wes' day started at five-thirty in the morning, Eric was the one staying on as instructor. She wasn't sure exactly what she had gotten in the middle of by offering herself as a second pupil, but both Taylor and Eric seemed to welcome her presence.

"You're already useful." The Eagle Ranger was out of her chair now, pacing around the room as though searching for an exit she might have missed. "Not that I'm not glad you're here," she added with a wry smile, "but we can't ask more of you than what you already do. The wild zords depend on you, and making sure they're safe takes up a lot of your time."

"The wild zords survived on their own for thousands of years," she said quietly, watching the holoscreen without really seeing it.

There was a startled silence before Taylor replied. "Yeah, in hibernation. The wild zords take a lot of maintenance; you taught me that yourself! Isn't it enough that you devote your life to being their guardian?"

She smiled a little. "You devoted your life to the Air Force," she pointed out, still looking at the screen. "And here you are."

"That's different," Taylor argued, folding her arms. "I'm on leave from the Air Force. Against my will."

"Against your will?" she repeated. This time she caught Taylor's eye. "Do you not want to be here, then?"

"No," Taylor said with a sigh. "I do." She kicked one of the chairs on the other side of the table back and sat, arms still crossed. "It's just... this isn't quite what I pictured when the team split up two years ago."

"Why not?" she asked, studying the first Ranger carefully. Of all of them, Taylor had always seemed the most certain of her future. She knew who she was and what she wanted, and if she defined herself in terms of an organization, well, what Ranger hadn't?

Taylor shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know... it doesn't feel the same, somehow."

She didn't elaborate, and the princess hesitated. "The Power Rangers?" she asked at last. "Or the Air Force?"

Taylor didn't answer.

There was a beeping sound from the direction of the door, and the lock clicked loudly in the silence. The handle turned, and the door swung open to admit the leader of the Silver Guardians. She looked up with a smile of welcome, but Taylor didn't even turn her head.

Eric let the door slam behind him, depositing three coffee mugs on the table a moment later. He picked up one and passed it to her handle first, catching her eye with a deliberate show of courtesy. "Green tea," he said, inclining his head slightly. "No sugar."

"Thank you," she murmured, accepting the mug. He and Wes made an effort to acknowledge her title, and it was a considerate if unlooked-for gesture.

He set another mug in front of Taylor without a word. She didn't move, making no effort to even uncross her arms as he dropped into the seat beside her. It was the same place he had been sitting before he left to get coffee, but now Taylor glared at him as though he was purposefully crowding her.

Eric paid no attention. "Did you find what you were looking for, Princess?"

"I think so," she said slowly, forcing her focus back to the holoscreen. "There's so much information that it's hard to tell."

"I feel the same way most of the time," he agreed. "Time travel isn't an easy concept to grasp."

"It isn't the travel itself that confuses me," she said absently. Then she smiled a little and admitted, "Not that I understand how it's done, but I can accept that it's possible. It's the idea of changing the timeline that I can't quite believe."

"Happens every day," Eric pointed out. "Every decision we make affects the timeline. Just getting a cup of coffee changed my future--hopefully for the better," he added, with a hint of humor.

"But..." She looked over at him, frowning. "Isn't it possible that you were meant to get that cup of coffee? That, given the circumstances, getting coffee was the only choice you could have been expected to make?"

"You're talking about fate," Eric said flatly. "Predestiny."

"Perhaps," she agreed. "Do you not believe in fate?"

"No." He shook his head for emphasis. "I think that everyone has a potential that exists to be fulfilled, but that's the only kind of fate I accept. I don't believe that a set of unalterable events determines our future. Only we can do that."

"But unalterable events define our past," she pointed out. "Why shouldn't the future be the same way? Our future is someone else's past, after all."

"Time Force has proven that the past is no more certain than the future, Princess. Just because we remember it doesn't mean it happened."

She frowned. "I don't want to argue with you, Eric, but... the things I remember happening happened. I'm sure of it."

"There aren't many people still alive that could dispute your memories," he said blandly, and she looked up in surprise. "But if there were, I doubt you could agree on the exact details of any of them."

"Just because we don't remember something clearly doesn't mean it didn't happen," she told him, wondering if there had been some underlying meaning in his remark.

"Just because you do remember something clearly doesn't mean it did," he countered. "Jen remembers her fiance dying, but he didn't. Alex is alive and well. And he remembers Wes' father dying--that didn't happen in this timeline either."

"You're saying there's more than one timeline," she said dubiously.

"It's the only explanation that makes any sense," Eric replied. "Time Force calls it the multiverse theory. I think they stumbled onto it by process of elimination, myself. If there's only one timeline, then everything that will happen already has, and everything that has happened will."

"That's almost the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard you say," Taylor muttered, apparently tired of being left out of the conversation.

"And that's almost the most narrow-minded thing I've ever heard you say," Eric replied without hesitation. "Congratulations on making a bad perspective worse."

Trying to ignore them, the princess murmured, "So destiny does exist when there's only one timeline."

That seemed to throw Eric in a way that Taylor's remark had not. "Yes," he said after a moment. "I suppose it does."

Taylor shoved her chair back and stood up. "I'm hungry," she informed the room at large. Before anyone could reply, she had opened her growlphone and punched something into the keypad. Lifting it to her ear, she didn't bother to turn away as she waited for someone to answer.

"Hello," she said a moment later. "I'd like to place an order for delivery."

"You can't have food delivered here!" Eric exclaimed indignantly.

Taylor narrowed her eyes at him. "Watch me," she replied, turning just enough to indicate that she wasn't listening to him.

"Yes," she told the phone. "I'd like a french vanilla sundae with chocolate sauce and whipped cream, no nuts. Princess," she added, tilting the phone away from her face. "Do you want anything?"

She shook her head, trying to hide a smile at Eric's expression. "No, thank you."

"That's it," she told her growlphone. "That's right, just whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Taylor Earhardt? I'm at the Silver Guardian headquarters. Do you know where that is?

"Great," she said a moment later. "Someone will meet you at the gate. Thanks."

"You can't have ice cream delivered to the gate!" Eric looked outraged by the very idea. "This base is a secure facility!"

Taylor smiled so sweetly that it would have warned any sane person to clear the area. "There aren't too many people that will argue with the Eagle Ranger," she told him.

Eric's face went completely blank, and the princess wondered what he had heard in that remark. "I don't use my authority to order ice cream," he said stiffly, but Taylor was already on her way toward the door.

"Only because you didn't think of it first," she called over her shoulder. The door slammed behind her.

Eric sank back in his chair with a sigh. "I don't know how you lived with her for two years," he grumbled, staring at the tabletop. "Everything she does is trouble."

"Taylor has a good heart," she said gently. "She cares very deeply for those around her. She just doesn't always express it in the way you'd expect."

"Yeah, well, her attitude probably doesn't win her any friends in the military," he muttered.

"From what I've heard, her attitude is perfect for the military," she offered. "Just as your attitude makes you a success in your civilian militia."

"I don't have an attitude," Eric snapped. "I follow orders, and I do what it takes to get the job done. That's all."

She didn't bother to suppress her smile. "Just like Taylor."

He didn't glare at her, but she got the impression that it was a near thing. "Why all the questions about destiny?" he asked abruptly. "Something in your religion that disagrees with this time travel stuff?"

It was as close to disrespect as he'd shown toward her, but it was the question more than his tone that made her hesitate. "No," she said, glancing down at the table. "I don't have any problem with time travel. I guess you could say I've done it myself," she added wistfully.

Eric seemed to consider that. "You came forward, what? Three thousand years?"

She nodded wordlessly.

"And you've seen Jen's time, too," he said, almost as though he was talking to himself. "Or you will... That's a long time to sleep."

"Yes," she agreed quietly. "I find I can't face it again so soon."

"So that's why you're here." Eric leaned back and put his feet up on the table, rocking on the back legs of his chair. He sounded as though he'd just discovered a missing piece of the puzzle. Was everyone wondering what she was doing on the earth again?

"Do you have to sleep?" The question came out of nowhere, and she was startled into catching his eye. She looked away almost immediately, but she could still feel his gaze on her.

"If I understand correctly," he continued, "The first time you slept to preserve Earth's last hope against the Orgs. So why now? What are you waiting for now?"

"Why not?" she asked, before she could stop herself. "What purpose do I have but to carry on the traditions of Animaria? The Orgs are gone, true, but so are my people. My kingdom, my entire way of life is three thousand years in the past."

Eric let his chair fall forward with a thump. "I've gone farther back than that. Three thousand years is nothing, Princess. You could be back in Animaria tomorrow."

Her breath caught, and for a brief moment she let herself entertain the idea. It was a tantalizing thought... to have her life restored in less time than it had taken to vanish? How could she not consider it?

"I can't," she said at last, reluctantly. "It's over now--Animaria went on without the guardian of the animal spirits, and if I go back I'll change everything."

"So?" he demanded. "You think Jen's team doesn't change things every time they get in that Time Ship? In a multiverse there are infinite possibilities, Princess. Just because you weren't there in this timeline doesn't mean you can't be in another one.

"Besides," he added, seeing her waver. "The wild zords are already here, in the present. You wouldn't be affecting the outcome of the Org battle."

That was a persuasive argument, and she was sure he knew it. "I wish I could," she admitted finally. "I can't do it, but... thank you for making home seem closer than it did."

Eric just looked at her, and for a moment she thought he would try to convince her. But he only shrugged, reaching for his mug. "Suit yourself," he remarked, taking a swallow of coffee. "Need anything else from the databanks?"

She shook her head quickly, glad to be offered a new topic. "Thank you, no. I think this could keep me busy all night."

"It will, if you let it," he warned. "You have to be careful; I've gotten sucked into these things before."

She managed a smile, touched by his concern. Before she could reply, though, the lock by the door beeped. The beeps were followed by a buzz, and she saw Eric smirk. He made no move to get up and open the door.

The lock beeped again, and once more the buzz sounded. She assumed that meant an improper code had been entered and Taylor was locked out. She was getting to her feet to let the Eagle Ranger back into the briefing room when the locked beeped again, and this time there was a click.

She watched, surprised, as Taylor pushed the door open and walked in with a cup in one hand. Pulling the spoon out of her mouth, she shot Eric a condescending look. "Third try? You really are predictable."

Eric further surprised her by having no ready retort. Instead he glanced away, lifting his mug again as he reached for one of the reports on the table. The princess sat down again quietly, wondering how Taylor had guessed the code.

The next half hour or so passed in uncomfortable silence, which she tried to ignore as much as possible. Taylor had reclaimed her seat in front of the holoscreen, instead of across the table beside Eric, and she didn't bother to retrieve the coffee he had gotten for her. Instead she scraped the ice cream out of her "Dairy Bar" cup with great relish, her attention apparently focused on one of the projectors.

The princess managed to follow the history of time hole discovery and alteration for a significant amount of time after Taylor had set her cup aside. Eventually, though, she realized that she had gone from 2859 to the beginning of the thirtieth century without any memory of the intervening events. It was harder to watch a screen than it was to hear someone actually saying the words--or at least, that was the excuse she gave herself.

Lifting her head to look around the table, she found Eric staring moodily at the same report he had picked up when Taylor returned. Taylor was leaning rather precariously on the table, chin propped on her hand as she gazed at the projector. She looked like she was absorbing about the same amount of information as her companions, but neither she nor Eric seemed likely to call a halt to the session in the near future.

So the princess reached out and turned the holoscreen off, getting to her feet as they both cast startled looks in her direction. "I'm afraid I'm too tired to learn anything else tonight," she said firmly. "I don't want to interrupt either of you, but I should be going. Thank you for your help, Eric."

"I should go too," Taylor admitted, stretching her arms out in front of her before pushing herself up out of her chair. "I think I've watched this same scene almost twenty times now."

"Do you have a place to stay?" Eric asked. He was staring studiously at his empty coffee mug, as though it might answer instead of Taylor. "You've been living on the base for a while now."

"No reason I can't keep doing it," Taylor said, shutting the projector down. She was frowning, though, and she didn't seem particularly thrilled about the idea.

"You still have a place on the Animarium," the princess offered. "The warriors chosen by the animal spirits are always welcome in their temple."

Eric looked up at that, and Taylor, too, seemed surprised. "Is that true?"

"Of course," she said, smiling at Taylor's disbelief. "The eagle sometimes wonders why you do not visit him there. He prefers to see you in the sky, of course, but with your animal crystal you may walk onto the Animarium at any time."

Taylor gaped at her. "You know he's been coming to see me?"

She couldn't help but laugh. "How could I not? I do not miss the comings and goings of the very spirits I have been assigned to protect. I'm glad you have kept up your relationship with your animal spirit."

"You're not upset?" Taylor couldn't seem to get her mind around the idea. "But--you told us that the 'journey' was over! We all thought you were saying goodbye!"

Her smile faded a little, and she nodded reluctantly. "I was," she admitted. "I expected to return to the Animarium, and the sleep, for a very long time. But the animal crystals were not mine to take. I knew that if you ever needed them again, the animal spirits would answer your call."

Taylor shook her head, though whether in wonder or denial it was hard to say. "All this time," she murmured. Then she gave her head another shake, more decisively this time. "I think I'll take you up on that, then. At least for tonight. Tomorrow I'll try to figure things out, but right now I just need some sleep."

"There are some woods outside the first gate," the princess offered, drifting toward the door. "We should be able to find the path to the Animarium there."

"I'll escort you out," Eric said unexpectedly. He was right behind Taylor as she headed for the door, proving he wasn't quite as distracted as he had looked before.

"Don't trust us loose on the base?" Taylor inquired.

Eric caught the door she didn't hold for him. "Give me your keys."

"You wish," she retorted, not pausing.

His footsteps stopped. "Unless you want your car towed, give me your keys."

Taylor turned back reluctantly, and the princess waited. With an exasperated glare, she fished her keys out of her pocket and held them up. "One scratch," she threatened.

"And I'll be buying you a new car," Eric finished, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I know."

The Eagle Ranger threw the keys to him without another word and turned away, heading down the hallway without waiting for either of them to follow.

"Thank you, Eric." She gave him an apologetic glance that he didn't see because he was too busy glaring after Taylor. "Will we see you again tomorrow?"

"Ask me later," he said disgustedly. "Good night, Princess."

"Good night," she murmured, but he was already striding down the hall in the opposite direction.

She didn't catch up to Taylor until she passed the second security checkpoint. The guard hadn't taken her ID, and she wondered what that meant for the future. It looked as though they might be expected for some time to come.

Taylor was waiting in the shadows just beyond the gatehouse. "Sorry," she muttered, when the princess joined her at the edge of the floodlights' reach. "He's just so rude sometimes; I can't stand it."

There was little she could say that wouldn't be either insulting or untruthful, so she settled for, "Things will look better tomorrow. Do you remember the way?"

She thought Taylor smiled in the dimness. "Your path will be shorter."

There was no arguing with that. She led the way into the woods, Taylor close on her heels as the moonless night closed in around them. Almost as soon as the trees surrounded them they gave way to virgin forest, towering specimens that had never been cut and contained within them all the life of a land long changed. The Animarium was a last, wild refuge on a planet overwhelmed by human influence.

"I missed this," Taylor whispered from behind her. "There's no other place like it."

"Not anymore," she agreed quietly. She drew in a deep breath of pure, unfiltered air, lifting her gaze instinctively to the cliff Max had dubbed "Pride Rock". It was empty, of course, with Red Lion asleep in his den below, but it jutted against the star-filled sky like a symbol of the lion's defiant roar.

"Do you really keep track of where all the wild zords are?" Taylor asked, apparently catching her glance. "It must get overwhelming."

"They have patterns, even as we do." She took another full breath before moving toward the temple, anxious to sleep if not to leave the living night behind. "Many of them are content to remain here much of the time. Others are not, but they often seek out the same places from week to week."

"Who leaves?" Taylor wanted to know, brushing aside one of the trailing vines that clung to the entrance. Her steps on the stone were sure, despite the darkness.

"The Rangers' spirits are least content to spend all their days and nights on this island of what was." It was only to be expected, she supposed--they were bound to people of this time, now, and they wanted to live in it. "Your--"

She broke off as she caught sight of the fountain. It showed an empty den where there had been an animal spirit resting peacefully when she left. She tried to stay calm, but her heart contracted involuntarily and her mind began racing through a list of possible horrors.

"What's wrong?" Taylor wanted to know. She too glanced over at the fountain, but the sight meant little to her. "Princess? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she said, a little too quickly. "It's nothing. Just another animal spirit seeking adventure." The image in the fountain vanished, but Taylor wasn't fooled.

"Who is it?" She moved around to stand between the princess and the fountain, studying her more closely as her vision adapted to the starlight. "Whose wild zord is missing?"

There was nothing for it but to tell her. "The wolf is gone again," she admitted, staring past Taylor into the night. "Within the last few hours."

"Again?" Taylor echoed. "But you said that our wild zords come and go more than the others. Why does it surprise you that he's not here?"

"It doesn't surprise me," she said softly. "It just--worries me."

"Why?" Taylor moderated her tone a little, but her curiosity was obvious.

"Because he doesn't go to visit." That had been one of the few things the wolf had told her about some of his more dangerous excursions. "He goes when he's needed. And sometimes he... he comes back hurt."

She sighed, then added unnecessarily, "It worries me."

Taylor didn't answer. Glancing over at the shadow of the table in the dimness, she asked at last, "Have you heard anything from Merrick?"

She shook her head.

"Of course you haven't," Taylor realized. "He probably thinks you're asleep. I got a postcard from him once... I'll pick it up tomorrow so you can see it. The handwriting is cute."

"He can write now," she murmured, more to remind herself than anything. Taylor had taught her to read and write years ago, but it had been a tedious and sometimes frustrating process. "I wonder who taught him."

"My money's on Willie," Taylor declared. "I'll bet he started learning the day he realized everyone else could do it."

She tried to smile, but her gaze was drawn inevitably back to the fountain. It reflected only starlight now. Lifting her eyes to the hills beyond the temple, she searched in vain for a silhouette she didn't really expect to find. Sometimes the wolf let her know when he returned--

"Princess," Taylor said quietly. She glanced back at her, about to apologize for letting her attention wander, but Taylor just smiled. "Things will look better in the morning," she repeated, with such certainty that it was impossible to argue.

The princess did smile this time, nodding once. "Your room is much as you left it," she offered, looking back the way they'd come. "And you finally have it to yourself again."

"Just like old times," Taylor commented, tossing her head. It was a habit she had never lost, apparently, despite the fact that she wore her hair in a braid now.

Without a word of goodnight, the Eagle Ranger made her way past the fountain. Her arms were folded against the cool night air, but she paused at the bottom of the steps to tilt her head skyward. Tomorrow, the eagle would no doubt answer her unspoken summons. For now, though, she seemed content to see only stars above her.

"Princess..." The word interrupted her own contemplation of the night, and she found that Taylor had turned back to look at her. "Don't stay up all night waiting for the wolf."

She just smiled, making no promises. "Good night, Taylor."

Taylor's knowing look was her only answer. They told each other what to do out of compassion and old habit, not real expectation. The Eagle Ranger turned and walked slowly into the temple, leaving the princess alone in the clearing.