The city was grey and cold this time of year, even when the meager sunlight filtered down to the streets. Now, with darkness closing in around them, the chill wind seemed that much more hostile and what shelter they had did little to protect them.

Huddled on the lee side of what had once been a commuter skyport, the rebels were hunkered down in the shadow of the old capitol building. It loomed against the night, blotting out the few stars that shone between the clouds. Rumor had it that the final assault was coming--the capitol building would soon fall to the freedom fighters, and Eltare would rise, strong and unfettered, from the dust of the evil that now held it hostage.

Hungry, tired, and buffeted by the frigid wind, it was a hard thing for most of them to envision tonight.

"It's your turn by the fire," a voice said.

Saryn looked up, not surprised to see a fellow Ranger standing over him. "It is not," he said evenly, trying to keep his teeth from chattering. He had been keeping track of the rotations as closely as anyone else.

"Yes it is." Jenkarta stared back at him, his expression inscrutable in the flickering shadows of their single fire. "Stop being noble and take the damn seat, Saryn."

He didn't bother to argue further. He took Jenkarta's place next to the fire, ignoring the stiffness that seemed to set in every time they stopped moving for the day.

Jenkarta crouched down nearby. "The North district's rough this time of year," the other commented idly, wrapping his cloak a little tighter around his shoulders. "Especially for the desert-born."

"Yes," Saryn agreed reluctantly. He hated being a liability, but rumor indicated that Elisians made up almost a quarter of the forces now laying siege to Eltare. To turn a street fighter away because of cold susceptibility would be to drastically reduce their numbers.

The warmth was only just beginning to penetrate when the sound of laser fire reached them over the whistle of the wind. The low murmur of voices ceased within seconds, and Saryn reached silently for his weapon. All around him, the others were doing the same.

One of the perimeter guards vanished in the direction of the sound, and Saryn's eyes locked with Jenkarta's as they waited. The sound of laser fire came again, closer this time, and it was the sentry's voice that yelled, "Break!"

Saryn lunged to his feet, swinging his pack over his shoulders and hefting his weapon. The encampment had flown into action with that single word, but the warning came again, and again, and Jenkarta shouted, "Fall back to J sector!"

They scattered like ashes on the wind, the fire still burning behind them as they ran. The sound of pounding boots on pavement announced the enemy's proximity, for the rebels were silent on their feet. A blast struck the building ahead of him and Saryn flinched, but he didn't slow down. Stopping to return fire would only bring an entire contingent down on him--if the sentry had thought that they could fight and win, she would have said so.

After weeks of running a map of the city was indelibly printed in his mind, and he could have found his way into J sector under air bombardment. Their next rendezvous would be at the old alley theater, and as that had been the official word as soon as they settled in for the evening, he assumed Jenkarta intended to keep it.

Or he so assumed until a woman in rebel gear swung around the corner just ahead of him and opened fire. He threw himself down without thinking, rolling over one shoulder and coming up with his weapon trained instinctively on her. But she was picking off his pursuers as they skidded out from under cover at the other end of the boulevard, and his target site tracked to follow hers.

"Get back!" she shouted at him. "Go!"

It was her territory and he obeyed without hesitation, diving around the corner that had sheltered her. In a moment she was right behind him, pushing him out of the way and yanking open what looked like a maintenance access to the basement of the building. "In," she ordered succinctly.

It was a longer drop than he had expected, and he landed awkwardly in the damp darkness. There was a loud slam from somewhere above him, and he saw a pinpoint light flick on. It shone briefly on the access while she did something to it, possibly locking it behind her while she perched on the small lip his haphazard tumble had completely missed.

Then the light went out and she leapt down, landing rather more gracefully than he had. "You're from red group," she said, making it a statement rather than a question. "The last one for that route, I think. The 'tron were too close on your heels for anyone else to be coming down that way."

Her weapon was trained on him, he realized suddenly. There was little light for his eyes to adjust to in this windowless, subterranean alcove, but he could almost feel the target lock. Yet she made no attempt to interrogate him--

The pieces fell together in his mind and he barely had time to damp down his own empathic echo before he felt the whisper-soft scan come searching. Someone else's empathic signature slid across the surface of his mind, verifying the lack of hostile intent before vanishing back into the quiet.

A tiny green flicker from the vicinity of her wrist told the rest of the story. She wasn't alone any more than he was; she was part of a larger resistance cell that must be based in J sector for the night. They must be pulling red group off the streets as they came in, and their empath was double-checking everyone who entered. Had Jenkarta known they were here? Two groups were rarely in such close proximity, even in the capitol city.

"Ledeyan vouches for you," she said, her voice a little friendlier this time. "You'll be safe with us tonight; the 'tron have never penetrated this part of the underground. Sorry you got rousted," she added, flicking her pinpoint light on again. She did something to the light and it went widebeam, illuminating a decent-sized circle on the hard floor between them.

"So am I," he answered, with tired humor. "Thank you for assisting us."

As soon as he spoke, she flipped the light up to shine directly on his face. He winced a little and she moved it away again, shining it upward so that it cast a dim glow over the both of them. Her face was shadowed but visible, and he could see an expression of utter shock on her face.

"Saryn?" she breathed, not as though she expected him to answer.

"Yes," he replied anyway, a little wary. He had received everything from condolences to congratulations since revealing his identity, though here on this planet of legends the rebels tended to greet him with calm that bordered on indifference. It was a welcome change, and in some ways he did not look forward to leaving it behind.

"I heard you were alive," she said. Now her voice was oddly neutral. "I didn't believe it."

He didn't know how to react to that, but this time she seemed to expect some sort of response. "No?" he asked at last.

"No," she said. "And you know why? Because," she continued, not waiting for him to answer, "I thought that if you were really alive, then of course you would have contacted me. The Rangers aren't exactly low profile, you know; I wasn't hard to find. And wasn't it the least you could do? Don't you think you owed us that much?"

He stared at her in the dim light, wondering who she could possibly be to accuse him of neglecting her. He did consider the possibility that she was unstable, but she had mentioned the Rangers--the Power didn't tend to choose people with a predilection for insanity.

The silence stretched out between them, and finally he gave up. "Who are you?" he asked bluntly. He didn't have the energy to play games right now.

"Who am I?" She stared at him. Her eyes were blue enough to be striking even in the shadows, and for an instant they seemed distantly familiar. But the flicker of memory was gone before he could pin it down, and she was once again just a blonde-haired freedom fighter from someone else's resistance cell.

"Who am I," she repeated, her tone disbelieving. "Who are *you* to forget, Saryn? Who were you to run away, all those years ago? Who were you to abandon us when we needed you the most? Who were you to let us think you had *died*?"

"You... are Elisian?" he guessed, trying to suppress the anger her words evoked.

"Yes." She sounded disgusted. "I'm Elisian." She yanked her jacket back and shone her flashlight on the dull but recognizable embroidery adorning her shirt. "Do you know what that symbol means, Saryn? Or have you forgotten what that is, too?"

It was the sunburst logo of the Elisian Rangers, and his anger drained away as quickly as it had come. "If you replaced one of my teammates, then you have every right to be upset," he said quietly. "Their loss has haunted me as well, and if it is any consolation I will carry that guilt to my grave."

There was a quiet moment. She lowered the flashlight beam to the floor, letting the pool of light fall across the space between them. "You really don't remember, do you," she said, her voice unsteady. "You honestly don't recognize me?"

He gazed at her, trying to find something, anything that was familiar. The distress in her eyes roused some protective instinct in him, and he thought that it somehow confirmed her words. He must have seen her before, somewhere--but where, and when? *And who?* his mind demanded, disturbed by the sudden haziness of his memory.

"Gods, Saryn." She let out a half-chuckle, though the laugh sounded strangely despondent. "I was only seventeen, but I haven't changed that much!"

He hadn't lowered his empathic shields since he had arrived on Eltare, preferring the blindness to the feeling of desolation from the city around him. But now he felt something despite that, something that he could only call "familiar"--it had no other label, at least not one that he could call to mind.

He reached out and laid his palm on her forehead. She closed her eyes, not seeming at all surprised by the gesture. Her turmoil was glaringly apparent as soon as the contact was made, and he could feel too her pain and despair at a half-healed wound that had just now been torn asunder.

He soothed the hurt away as he had so many times before, from skinned knees to lost pets to the death of their father. There was a pain that only unconditional love could dispel, and in that brief moment of understanding he didn't know which of them did more for the other.

"Mirine," he whispered, staring at his younger sister in wonder. A rush of memories assaulted him, as though a long-closed floodgate had burst open. No longer was "home" just a word, a planet that he and his teammates had died to defend. Now home was a place where he and his sister had chased lizards and burned their feet, dug for water in the town square, and gone caving when the sun was too high to play outside. It was a place where they had watched the eclipse and celebrated birthdays and fallen in love... it was the place where they had grown up. Together.

She opened her eyes, looking back at him with a gaze as blue as his own. "You do remember," she said softly, searching his expression.

"You're the Pink Ranger." He remembered meeting her now, remembered being introduced to all of the new Rangers. Not as Saryn, of course... but how could he have forgotten that time of upheaval and chaos, when the Border was in disarray and the Defense was too new to exert any authority? "Thank you," he said, lowering his hand carefully. "Thank you for giving our people the hope they so desperately needed."

"It wasn't enough," she said, a little sadly. "We couldn't keep our planet free."

"But our people are. You, me, the others... we are what matters. A planet is just a place. Freedom--and family," he added, smiling at her, "are intangible and undefeatable."

She gave him a wavering smile, and his role as protector reasserted itself with a vengeance. He drew her into a fierce hug, and he felt her arms go around him. "I'm so proud of you, Mirine," he whispered. "There's no one better to hold Jenna's crystal."

"Thank you," she whispered back, the waver still there in her voice. "I'm so glad you're here."

"So am I," he said, squeezing her harder. Now that she was here, in front of him again, he couldn't imagine what had prompted him to shut out the part of his life that had been her. He had wanted no ties to the past, he remembered that much... but why? Why hadn't he let her help him? Why hadn't he been there to help *her* when she and her brand-new teammates had had to take on the Ranger powers alone?

There was a flicker of red in the darkness, and she pulled away from him abruptly. "I'm late reporting in--if we don't get to Ledeyan soon he's going to send someone to find me. Probably several someones."

"Lead the way," he suggested, reluctant to let her go but mindful that she had her own life now, even as he had his.

"I think you'll be surprised," she warned, as she lead the way out of the basement with her single light. "This isn't exactly a one-night camp."

He considered that for a moment, suppressing the urge to ask about her life beyond the Eltaran siege. Putting it together with the rumors that had been running rampant among red group for the last few days, he surmised, "You're preparing for an all-out attack on the capitol building."

"Yes," she said simply. "Tomorrow. The building will be left standing, but anyone inside after zero seven hundred local time won't be leaving again."

He didn't ask for details; she either didn't have them or shouldn't be giving them out. But he did wonder that she knew that much--usually only the section leaders had timetables. Even group leaders like Jenkarta didn't know much more than where and what.

His eye caught the dim fall of light ahead in the darkened corridor, but it didn't prepare him for what he saw when they rounded the corner. Lanterns were strung from above, all with rigged foils to keep the light focused in the center of the converted basement. They illuminated a scene so different from red group's earlier camp that it made his eyes widen: several people were sprawled full-length on actual bedrolls, while others gathered near a portable cooking unit. There were two people passing the time with a hand game he had never learned, and another who was departing the room with some amount of urgency as they entered.

That was when he realized that the room he saw was only one part of a larger subterranean complex. Mirine glanced his way in time to catch his startled expression, and she smiled. "I did warn you," she reminded him, a touch of pride in her voice.

"That you did," he murmured, following when she gestured him down a short hallway and into what had to be the main chamber. He had to wonder what such a network had been used for in the days before the siege.

"Ledeyan!" Mirine called, waving to someone on the other side of the room.

A man wearing an Eltaran voyager's vest looked up, caught her eye and lifted a hand in acknowledgement. His eyes slid to Saryn with a penetrating look, and for a moment they reflected a disconcerting echo back at him. It was an empath's stare, and Saryn was careful to keep his walls up. The man looked away, and he couldn't help a quiet sigh of relief.

"I'm taking another shift of sentry duty before I sleep," Mirine was saying. "You've been accounted for to Jenkarta, so I want you to take my spot by the heat generators and get some rest. You look exhausted."

"I am," he admitted ruefully. He was grateful for the warmth, though, and he tugged his jacket open a little further. "But I do not wish to--"

"I'll wake you when I come back," she interrupted, anticipating his protest. "We can switch places then." Her eyes focused abruptly on his chest, and she cocked her head. "We do have some catching up to do," she said, her voice a little softer as she reached out to touch the necklace he wore over his shirt. "Who's this?"

He glanced down at the ring in her fingers, smiling involuntarily. "Cassie Chan," he said, taking it from her and slipping the necklace off over his head. He activated the embedded holomatrix and held it out, so she could see the miniature image that smiled up at him. The holomatrix was a piece of technical gadgetry, but the enspelled ring projected Cassie's voice for his ears only.

"She's beautiful," Mirine offered, studying the hologram carefully. "Is that a Ranger insignia she's wearing?"

"She's an Astro Ranger," he said proudly. "The Pink Ranger, in fact," he added, catching his sister's eye with a smile.

She smiled back. "I've heard of the Astro Rangers... I thought they were Aquitian, but she's not--is she?"

He shook his head. "The Astro Rangers are human, as she is. I hope you may meet her soon."

"So do I," she agreed, straightening up. "I'm happy for you, Saryn..." She stared at him so intently that for a moment he wondered what she was seeing in his gaze. Then, finally, she smiled shyly and added, "And I'm happy for me, too, because you're here."

In those words he heard the echo of the teenager she had once been, and he touched her forehead again without thinking. It was a big brother gesture that he supposed he had never quite outgrown--putting words to his feelings had never been his strongest area, but she had always known how he felt. He had made sure she knew... he knew from the smile that lit her eyes that she could feel his love in that touch.

He let his hand fall and she took a step back, her brisk rebel persona not quite obscuring the smile that lingered on her face. "Sleep, Saryn," she told him. "I'll be back later."

He acquiesced with a smile of his own, glancing in Ledeyan's direction as he made his way toward the place she had indicated. To his relief, the empath appeared to have completely missed the exchange--he would have to be more careful in the future.

Someone acknowledged him sleepily as he stretched out by one of the heat generators, but his other neighbor did not stir. Mirine's bedroll was the epitome of luxury compared to the hard surface of the streets, and he could feel his tired body relaxing the moment he lay down.

With something between him and the ground, and warmth seeping into him from all sides, he was more comfortable than he had been in days. Before sleep could sneak up on him, he reached for the ring Mirine had inquired about and wrapped his fingers around it carefully. Once more he heard Cassie's voice saying, *I love you, Saryn,* and he smiled to himself as he closed his eyes.

Voices from somewhere nearby woke him. He didn't know why that should be so, given that the low-pitched murmur of conversation was neither intrusive nor unusual in this environment. But as consciousness made its persistent presence felt, he heard Mirine's voice intertwining with one he didn't recognize and sounding more urgent than he would have expected.

He struggled to overhear without moving from his warm and extremely comfortable position beside the heat generators, but she was too far away. With a sigh, he pushed himself up and climbed stiffly to his feet. He forced his legs to carry him across the room, maneuvering around an array of sleeping bodies and noting absently that the hour must be quite late.

"Authorize blue group to deploy two individuals," Mirine was telling someone he had never met. A relay, by the way he stood to attention and breathed deeply as though still trying to repay an oxygen debt. "Only two--and make sure they know they're to be physically clear of that building by oh five hundred."

The relay nodded, but before he could turn to go Jenkarta had appeared soundlessly at Mirine's side. "What's happening?" he asked, stifling a yawn and nodding once to Saryn.

Mirine did not look happy. "Blue group's empath was captured almost an hour ago. We think she's being taken to the capitol building to await 'trial' in imprisonment."

Jenkarta frowned. "When can we go after her?"

"We can't." She didn't look pleased with what she was saying, but she didn't hold back either. "The organization for this goes back weeks now, and we can't change a militia-wide effort for one person. We can't really even spare the people from blue group to go after her, but she's their teammate and I can't keep them from trying."

With that reply, Saryn finally made the belated realization that had been evading him since he arrived. Mirine didn't have an unusual amount of information for someone who wasn't a section leader--Mirine *was* the section leader. And Jenkarta knew it too.

"What if a Ranger went after her?" Saryn asked, when Jenkarta fell silent. "One of the battleships could lock onto the Power signature from orbit and teleport them both out."

"There's no time," Mirine told him. "We don't have direct surface-to-ship communication. Or at least, none that's secure--they'd be waiting for you the moment you set foot inside the building."

His fingers twitched, and he deliberately didn't look at the ring he wore around his neck. They might not have secure communication, but he did. He knew that if he went in alone, his chances of effecting a rescue would be no better than blue group's--but he didn't have to go in alone.

"Don't even think about it, Saryn," Mirine warned, giving him a hard look. "I know that expression."

"Is there really no secure communication?" Jenkarta wanted to know. "I was under the impression that we were receiving orders from the air."

Mirine hesitated. "It's more complicated than that," she said at last, and Saryn took a casual step back. Her gaze swung toward him, eyes narrowed, and he shook his head at her suspicion, indicating the heat generators. She kept her eyes on him until he settled down again, closing his eyes briefly in the pretense of sleep.

As suspicious as she had been, it wasn't suspicious enough. Distracted by the conversation with Jenkarta, she wouldn't glance back at the heat generators for several minutes, and by then his prone form would be gone. She would curse quietly, scanning the room, but the search would come up empty. All she would find was his ring on her bedroll, glowing faintly in the well-lit room.

And when Cassie and the Megaship came for him, snatching him and his rescuee away less than an hour before the assault would have decimated the capitol building, her relief would only narrowly override her anger at his risk. The reaction was later mitigated by the triumphant liberation of Eltare's capitol--along with Cassie Chan's identical response to Saryn's insubordination--but she would secretly hold close to her heart the knowledge that her brother had not changed so much after all.