"Shane Clarke." He didn't even try to shake her hand, just nodded once and in a surprisingly authoritative way. He didn't look timid or worried--maybe a little wary, but mostly just like he was biding his time. Like this was his planet, and he knew it. And he hadn't given up on it.

"Tori Hanson." The girl standing next to him just lifted her chin a little, a defiant gesture that could get someone as pretty as her into trouble faster than anything she could say. She didn't even seem aware that she was doing it.

There was a brief pause, and then the third kid seemed to realize that he was the only one left. "Oh, uh, Dustin Brooks." He glanced at his friends, then broke into a wide grin as he caught her eye again. "This is like, totally amazing! I can't believe I'm actually meeting a Power Ranger!"

Ashley flashed a smile in his direction, then gave Gabe a bemused look. "Who are they?" she repeated, feeling no more enlightened than she had been before they introduced themselves.

"Blake picked them up downtown," he said, sounding a little apologetic. "He thinks they have ninja potential. Hunter's going to check them out, make sure, but he's not back yet..." He trailed off with a shrug.

"And I'm here," Ashley finished for him. She gave the computer terminal currently displaying zord specs a last look, hoping she had committed enough of them to memory that she would be able to fly. "Okay. That's fair. What do you need me to do, exactly?"

"Fill them in," Gabe told her. "Blake told them there's a resistance and they're being recruited." He stopped there, and after a moment she stopped staring at him expectantly and switched to outright astonishment.

"That's it?" Ashley gave the kids an incredulous look. "And you believed him?"

"Well, Tori did." The one who was excited about meeting a Power Ranger didn't seem to be their spokesperson so much as he was just the one who couldn't keep his mouth shut. "We just came along 'cause she wouldn't listen to us and we did kind of promise to keep her safe."

"Dustin," the girl hissed.

"C'mon, Tor," the other boy said under his breath. He had folded his arms, but he turned toward her just enough to nudge her with his shoulder, all while staring straight ahead. "You got suckered by a pretty face. Admit it."

"I did not," she snapped. "I happen to believe in this, and last I knew, you guys did too."

"How much do I tell them?" Ashley wanted to know. "What if Hunter takes one look at them and says his brother's wrong? What then?" And how did Hunter know, anyway? She added that to the long list of private questions to which she didn't consider getting answers likely.

"He won't," Gabe answered. "Blake's never been wrong before. None of us asked for a second opinion. He wanted one, though, since if he's wrong, we're all screwed."

"Excuse me?" The girl definitely had attitude. "Wrong about what, exactly?"

"You want me to explain what ninjas are?" Ashley asked Gabe, with what she felt was a totally justifiable amount of skepticism.

He only grinned at her. "Do your best," he advised, clapping her on the shoulder before turning to walk away. He didn't give the kids a second glance.

She stared after him for a second before turning to look at the kids again. "How old are you?" she asked at last.

"Fifteen," the girl said, folding her arms.

"Sixteen," said the boy next to her.

Shane just stared back at Ashley. "What does it matter?"

She felt a smile threaten in spite of herself. The same age she had been when she first picked up a morpher. "It doesn't," she admitted. "Let me show you what you're going to be working with, at least."

Taking them on a tour was the fastest way to explain everything she didn't understand herself. Or, if not to explain it, then to give them an impression better than what she could convey in words. Ashley told them what she knew, and she was honest about what she didn't. This wasn't her operation, she told them. She was just here to share information and reinforce the existing resistance.

They were up on one of the catwalks when Hunter arrived. His sudden presence was made more obvious by the fact that no one teleported into this facility. They could, as Ashley understood it. But they didn't. Because in order to do it the ninja in question would have to bypass almost every security measure they had, and that set off too many alarms to count.

Hunter set off too many alarms to count. He appeared in the middle of the floor below, the streak of black that trailed behind vanishing as he collapsed. The shouting was directionless, but people began to rush toward him immediately. Ashley's brain noted that the ninjas must consider the situation safe even as her feet carried her toward the nearest stairs.

He was surrounded by the time she got there, but he was awake and snarling--holding people back with the sheer force of his irritation, Ashley thought. Bleeding, yes, but breathing too, not unconscious, not fatally injured, and those were all good signs. Only as she slowed down did she realize the kids had followed her.

"What's going on?" Cam's voice demanded, wiping the thought from her mind. He was easy to hear, even over the sound of the alarms. "Either tell me what happened or get out of the way!"

"Sorry." Hunter sounded genuinely chagrinned, the irritation melting away as the people separating him from Cam fell back. "I wasn't thinking about the alert system."

Cam didn't even flinch as he caught sight of Hunter. It was like he'd expected it somehow, like he'd known who it would be at the center of the crowd before he even got there. "Are you all right?" he demanded. "What happened? Can you walk? I'm two seconds from calling for a stretcher, just so you know."

"I can walk," Hunter muttered, staring up at him. He was pale, too pale, even for his complexion, and Ashley didn't like the way he was breathing all of a sudden. "Turn off the alarms. I'm fine. I screwed up, is all."

Cam glanced around at the people gathered there, and his eyes lit on someone Ashley didn't recognize. "Get those alarms off," he said. His gaze flicked to the next person in line, and he added, "Get a stretcher."

"I'm fine," Hunter repeated. He lifted a hand, and Cam reached down to clasp it automatically. Hunter stumbled as he was pulled to his feet. Ashley knew what was going to happen before he lost his balance completely and she and Cam ended up supporting his unconscious frame between them.

Go or stay, she asked Cam silently? They wouldn't be able to carry him easily; he was taller than either of them and he was a lot heavier than his "pretty boy" clothes made him look. But she knew how hard it was to let go of an injured teammate, logic or not.

"Stretcher," Cam said curtly. As they lowered Hunter to the ground, she heard him say to someone else, "Tell Blake."

Hunter was conscious again before the stretcher got to the room they were using as a makeshift infirmary. He grumbled the whole way. Cam stopped everyone at the door and told them to go away. Hunter overruled him, though, and she saw Cam's jaw clench.

"Those're the ninja kids Blake found, right?" How he could tell, Ashley had no idea. "Let 'em come in. They need those morphers like, yesterday."

She blinked at the sudden slang, but it made Cam step away from the door reluctantly. The kids filed in, and Hunter waved the stretcher carriers away like he was shooing flies. "Come on, come on, let me do my job already."

"Staying alive is the sum total of your job at this point," Cam snapped, which earned him an annoyed look from Hunter.

"And you," he said, pushing himself up on his elbows for the sole purpose of glaring at Cam. "The stretcher was total overkill. Geez, one little blackout and suddenly I'm helpless!"

"Yes, that's the traditional definition of 'blackout'." Cam was glaring back at him. "Why are you sitting up?"

Because he was, Ashley noted with covert amusement. Hunter had pushed himself into a sitting position while the kids glanced back and forth among themselves. He was watching them, though, not Cam. He was even squinting a little, like he was looking at something just a little too far away or out of focus.

"Water," he said. He obviously wasn't responding to anything any of them had said, and Cam was no longer trying to get his attention. He glanced at the taller boy, his expression not changing.

"Air," Hunter said, after the briefest hesitation. "Weird amount of fire potential, though."

The two of them looked at each other while Hunter transferred his attention to the other boy. Dustin, Ashley remembered. Maybe a little less hardened than the other two, enthusiastic despite everything happening around him, and oddly charming in his ignorance. Hunter looked at him for a long moment.

"Say something," Hunter said at last.

Dustin didn't hesitate. "Dude, are you feeling all right?"

The question provoked a soft snort of amusement from Hunter, and the smile that flickered on his face made his expression soften unexpectedly. "Earth ninja," he muttered, lowering his head and pressing a hand to his forehead. "Definitely an earth ninja."

"Good, fine, you're done," Cam interrupted. "Blake agrees. Can I kick them out now?"

Hunter didn't look up. "They need morphers."

"Bro?" Blake hung on the doorframe for a second, then shouldered his way into the room when he caught sight of Hunter. "You all right?"

Hunter glanced at Blake long enough to nod, then caught Cam's eye. He didn't say anything. Cam looked away first, turning his glare on the kids Hunter had just identified. "Come with me," he said shortly.

"What happened?" Blake looked from Hunter to Ashley, as though she might know something he didn't.

"I took a beating," Hunter muttered. His voice might have been embarrassed or deliberately quiet, to keep it from carrying after the departing ninjas in the hallway. "Nothing serious, just, you know. Fists and... sticks."

That was when she realized he'd meant the "beating" part literally. She studied him more closely, try to assess the damage. Funny they'd so completely missed his head... or was it?

No, she realized, with a sinking sensation in her stomach. It wasn't strange at all. Without having to ask, she suddenly understood that he hadn't been beaten for associating with the resistance. He meant, he'd taken a beating for flaunting his body on the streets. And they hadn't avoided his head--they'd avoided his face. Hard times or not, Hunter was selling sex, and few people were immune to that.

"Take off your shirt," Blake was telling his brother. "I'll help you clean up. You got any serious injuries we should know about?"

"Nah." Despite his words, his usual killer grace was reduced to a painful flinch as he went to raise his arms. "I don't think they broke anything important. Wasn't sure I'd make it in without passing out, though."

"Yeah, they told me the alarms were you," Blake said with a grin that seemed out of place. "Cam's gonna be pissed at you for days."

"When isn't he?" Hunter muttered, finally managing to peel the rest of his shirt away. "I swear he makes up for being good in bed by being an asshole the rest of the time."

"Way too much information," Blake informed him, and Ashley realized suddenly that she was just staring.

"I'm going to, um--" She stopped when Hunter looked over at her, a small smirk on his face that she couldn't interpret. Blake didn't even stop what he was doing. "I'm going to get back to work... unless there's anything I can do?"

Hunter shook his head once, but it was Blake who spoke. "Nah, we're good. Thanks for looking out for my bro," he added, throwing her a smile over his shoulder. The look gave her a glimpse of the charmer he really was when not bowed by the pressure of war.

She couldn't resist smiling back, but Blake's focus was already back on his brother.

So she got almost an hour of uninterrupted study time, and when the zord specs started to get boring she decided to see how far her former Ranger status could get her. She tried to go check out one of the zords. Somewhat to her surprise, they let her, and that was where Leanne found her some time later.

"Ashley?" The red-haired woman appeared on one of her comm screens without warning, and she tried not to start. "Nice ride."

Ashley blinked, then felt a smile spread across her face. "Isn't it, though? Thanks for letting me check it out."

"Not a problem," Leanne said easily. "You want to meet me up on the catwalk for a few minutes?"

She assumed it wasn't so much an invitation as it was an order. "I'm on my way," Ashley told the screen.

The only people on the catwalk above the zord she'd been inside were Cam and Hunter, but Hunter nodded in her direction as soon as she looked up at them. "Leanne's on her way," he called down.

Interesting, she thought, climbing up to join them. Not a personal chat after all, but some kind of informal meeting? Why here? And why her, she wondered?

"You agreed," she heard Hunter saying, as she got close enough to catch their voices over the sound of her footsteps on the metal rigging. "We all agreed; there's no other way to do it."

"I changed my mind," Cam answered, and it was hard to say how much of the annoyance in his tone was directed at Hunter's attitude and how much was directed at Hunter's condition.

The blonde ninja was wearing long sleeves and baggy pants without holes--they were the most concealing clothes she'd ever seen him in, and she didn't like what that said about the state of his body underneath. He was standing awkwardly, almost braced against the catwalk railing but not quite. As though he wanted to look casual, but his limbs weren't completely cooperating.

"Look, you saw those kids," he was telling Cam. "They couldn't shoot a rifle without an instruction manual. They need those morphers or they're dead. And the zords'll be destroyed with them."

Cam's gaze flicked to her as she joined them, and he tipped his head just the slightest bit. From Cam, she decided, it was quite an acknowledgement. He didn't say anything to her, but she didn't expect him to.

"They need the morphers," Cam said. "But they're not Rangers."

A vibration in the catwalk alerted her. Otherwise quiet and almost camouflaged, Leanne didn't step quite lightly enough to go undetected. Neither of her fellow ninjas looked up, though, even when she got close enough to participate in the conversation, which made Ashley wonder how much sooner they had noticed her.

"They don't have to be Rangers," Hunter told Cam, which didn't make any sense to Ashley. "They just have to fight."

"Am I missing something?" she asked, when Cam grimaced. "If they have morphers, then they're Rangers. Of course they'll fight."

"Technology doesn't make someone a hero," Cam said impatiently. "Any more than ninja potential makes someone a ninja. Yes, they'll be able to fight, but they're not exactly the rallying figures we need on the front lines."

"Technology has never made a Ranger," Ashley pointed out, surprised. "The Power does that. If the Power chose them, they'll be whatever you need."

"The Power didn't choose them," Hunter interjected. "We did."

"What made you choose them in particular?" Ashley countered. "Did you just pick them off the street? Doesn't it seem like kind of a coincidence that they just happened to be exactly what you needed, when you needed it?

"The Power does that," she said, when the two of them exchanged unreadable looks. "It finds the people you need, the people who will do the most good in any given situation. Sometimes it's Rangers. Sometimes it's other people, people that help the Rangers somehow--whether they know it or not."

"I don't believe in fate," Hunter informed her.

"You don't have to believe in fate," Ashley replied. "You just have to trust the Power."

"Fine." Cam's tone was curt. "Trust the Power. Take a morpher."

She didn't grasp what he meant at first. But he was looking straight at her, and Hunter and Leanne were following his example. "What?" she said at last. "Me?"

A movement from Leanne drew her attention. The red-haired woman was holding up a single morpher, silver wings emblazoned in a red circle, and for one crazy moment she thought of Zhane and Andros. Then she shook her head.

"I don't need a morpher," Ashley reminded them. "I have more experience controlling a zord without one than anyone else here."

"That's why you should have one," Cam said, as though that made sense. "Those three kids Blake picked up today have morphers because they need them. You have a morpher because we need someone we can rally behind--and you're it."

"What about my kids?" Blake's voice asked.

Ashley sighed silently. She really needed to figure out how they did that. She wondered if she could get someone to teach her to move that quietly... and that fast.

"Cam doesn't find them inspiring," Hunter told his brother idly.

Blake shrugged, leaning against the railing with all the boneless ease the other Bradley brother was trying for and failing at miserably. "No one told me to look for inspiration. 'Find some ninja affinities, Blake.' That's what they told me, and that's what I did."

"They don't have to be inspiring," Cam snapped. "But someone does. No one wins a fight without a leader."

"You have leaders," Ashley pointed out. "There are leaders here, at every hangar, and field leaders in every fleet. You don't need me for any of this."

"In principle, yes, every fleet will have a field leader," Cam corrected impatiently. "We don't even have fleet rosters yet. We do need you, and I told you the first day you arrived that we might need your leadership. You came here to rally us and you expect to do it from behind?"

"I came here to bring you information," she told him. "And to put you in contact with your allies. I'm pretty sure you weren't too excited about that leadership idea when you first brought it up."

"It's a good idea, though," Hunter put in. "I know a lot of people who'd be more comfortable with a real Ranger fighting alongside them."

She knew what the Ranger name meant to people, and how much trust they had in the Power even when--like Cam and Hunter--they said they didn't. But she didn't like giving people false confidence. And she definitely didn't like taking on the protection of a morpher when it could be saving someone else's life.

"We'll have Rangers," Ashley said. "We already do. Their names are Shane, Tori, and Dustin. And that morpher you want to give me could make a fourth."

"We already have a fourth," Leanne remarked, and Ashley understood that she was with Cam on this.

"Look, I'm not going to sit on the sidelines no matter what happens." She didn't know how to make it any clearer to them. "I'm going to be out there, fighting, whether I have a morpher or not. And I already have a better chance of keeping myself and my zord intact than anyone else does. So give that to someone who needs it and I promise you, I'll lead anything you want me to lead."

"Good," Leanne said, as though it was all decided. "You're in charge of the Thunder fleet."

Ashley felt the grip on her arm before she even saw Leanne move, and only residual reflexes let her grab the hand before it could slap the morpher on her wrist. "Don't fuck with me," she said evenly. She even mustered a smile for Leanne's startled expression. She was channeling Cassandra today, no doubt about it.

"I told you," she added, not releasing Leanne's hand. "I don't need that morpher. Save someone else's life."

"Hey, Ashley." Blake sounded unexpectedly disarming. "You said yourself, it's not us that chooses. It's the Power. It's already chosen you once, so... maybe you should let it choose you again."

That was a fatalistic argument. She could just as well say that the Power wanted her to resist this assignment specifically so that it could choose someone else. There was no predicting and no second-guessing a force like that.

"It's not easy to be a figurehead," Cam told her bluntly. "But that's what we're asking. You don't need a morpher. We need a supersoldier. And you're it."

Andros had let them do it to him, she thought with a sigh. He'd let them make him into some kind of icon, and she'd seen for herself the good it was doing. The difference was that Andros was that good--she wasn't. But she would never convince them of that, and what would it do to the other pilots to see a former Ranger turn down a position of leadership in the resistance?

With a flash of insight, she wondered if that was why they were having this conversation on a catwalk in the zord bay.

Reluctantly, Ashley let go of Leanne's hand.

The Red Thunder morpher latched onto her wrist like it was her own. In that first quiet surge of Power, three things came to her simultaneously. One, she was going to have to start wearing something that wasn't yellow. Two, morphing was going to fill her brain to capacity with really bizarre information. And three... she knew who the other Thunder morphers were for.

She lifted her gaze to Leanne's, and their eyes met. Leanne knew that she knew. But neither of them looked away from the other for a long moment, and finally Ashley said, "Just for the record? The Yellow Power has chosen me twice now. I don't think a Red morpher is a good idea."

Leanne's lips curved into a smile, but it was Cam who answered. "Sorry," he said, not sounding at all sorry. "You're not an earth affinity."

Then Leanne turned and calmly placed a second morpher on Hunter's wrist. While he was gaping at her, the third one claimed Blake, and they all just stood there staring at each other. Ashley resisted the urge to laugh, because no, they hadn't seen that coming at all. Leanne and Cam must have made this decision on their own.

"Okay, for the record?" Hunter was the first to find his voice. "I'm not an earth affinity either!"

Cam had a distinctly odd expression on his face, and it didn't seem to have anything to do with his answer. "It's not like you don't look good in every color ever invented," he informed the other ninja. "Deal with it."

"Hey--" Blake started to speak and cut off abruptly. "Wow," he continued after a second, holding up his arm to stare at the morpher on his wrist. "Does it always feel like that?"

"No," Ashley said with a smile. "It gets worse after you morph. The good news is that you get used to it."

"If you think this is gonna make me wear yellow..." Hunter trailed off in what was probably supposed to be a threatening way, but the evil eye he was giving Cam wasn't terribly convincing. She wondered if he could already feel the Power probing his injuries.

"Why does it work if you don't have the right--" Ashley scrambled for the words, and to her surprise, the Power provided them immediately. "Elemental affinity?"

"He doesn't have any affinity," Leanne answered. "He's a ninja elemental."

"Sounds cool, doesn't it?" Hunter said dryly. "Really it just means I have three times as much work." This last seemed to be directed at his sister.

"It's not so much no affinity as it is all of them," Cam offered. "Equally. Or almost equally."

"I prefer air," Hunter grumbled. He threw a look at Ashley. "No offense."

She couldn't help but smile. "I'd trade if I could," she promised.

"Does it help to morph?" Leanne wanted to know. "You said whatever feeling Blake has gets worse after you morph--should you do that now so that you have as much time as possible to get used to it?"

Ashley nodded. "Us, and the other Rangers too. Where are they?"

"I sent them down to one of the other bays," Cam said. He still seemed oddly preoccupied.

"The lion zord," Ashley guessed, watching his reaction.

He looked up in surprise. "How did you know?"

It was nice to have the Power back, she thought, then felt guilty for enjoying it. "Lucky guess," she told him. "We'd better go find them."

"I want to introduce you to the other pilots afterward," Leanne added. "We have forty-two hours until the Aquitians arrive, and we need those fleet rosters."

"Not to mention a chain of command and an attack plan," Cam muttered.

"One thing at a time," Leanne countered mildly.

She was startlingly calm under pressure, Ashley thought. Like the rest of them. Her own team excluded, she didn't think she could ask for a better force at her back than the ninjas. She could only hope that she was what they needed up front.

The problem with being the one up front was that everyone could see you if you faltered. Zhane was pretty sure that Andros wouldn't make that mistake. But he could see the preoccupation in his friend's demeanor, and even if he was the only one, it still worried him. Just a little.

Just enough to call in reinforcements, actually. He knew enough to get Cassandra before TJ, because TJ would come no matter what if he thought there was a problem. Zhane might have to sweet-talk Cassandra into meeting if she knew in advance that TJ was going to be there.

"Hey." He greeted her at her door with a smile. "Want to come to an intervention?"

Cassandra smiled back. She might not have any idea what he was talking about, but she liked him, and that had always worked in his favor. Most people liked him, actually. He tended to take it for granted.

"Trying to change someone's life?" she suggested, folding her arms as she studied him. She didn't invite him in, and he wondered if it was because of his request or because she had company. She didn't act like she had company.

"Trying to change them all," Zhane agreed cheerfully. "Why stop at just one?"

"Ambitious," Cassandra observed.

"Yeah." He dropped the cute and went with serious. "I'm worried about Andros. I don't know what's wrong, but I think he needs more support than just me."

Cassandra's smile vanished, but she didn't question him. "What do you want me to do?"

"Come with me," he said. "Informal team meeting. We need to talk."

"Okay." She unfolded her arms and turned away from the door, calling over her shoulder, "Let me get my blaster. I'll be right there."

He waited for her in the hallway, and she didn't protest when they headed for TJ's apartment. The two of them should have roommates. No one was supposed to be living alone, not now. But they were Rangers. Cassandra had been in the medical ward for a long time. And no one wanted to get in the middle of that breakup.

Cassandra didn't stand right beside him when he stopped outside TJ's door. She waited a few steps back, almost on the other side of the hall, and when he looked over his shoulder he caught her pretending to look at something else. He thought she was trying to give TJ space as much as she was trying to avoid a confrontation.

It took a moment before TJ opened the door, and he didn't look particularly happy about the interruption. His expression cleared when he saw Zhane, then descended into a frown at the sight of Cassandra behind him. "What's wrong?" he said simply.

"I don't know," Zhane admitted. "But Andros is doing his broody leader thing, and that can't be a good sign. Not when things are going so well."

TJ's frown deepened. "If Andros is worried, I'm worried."

"Yeah." A smile tugged at Zhane's expression. "I'm with you. We're gonna go try and get him to talk."

TJ just nodded. "Let's go."

So the three of them took the teleportal back, and Zhane led them straight up to the apartment he shared with Andros. It was a rare moment when most of the team could be caught at home, but he knew for a fact his partner had been headed here after the strategy session in Co-Op. He opened the door without waiting for an answer and gestured TJ and Cassandra in.

*Zhane?* Andros was nowhere in sight, but his voice in Zhane's head probably meant that he'd heard the apartment door open.

*In the living room,* Zhane answered. *With Cassandra and TJ.*

When Andros emerged from the former meditation room a moment later, Zhane didn't say anything. The room had been Ashley's for almost a year, and he didn't think Andros had been using it to meditate. But Andros looked more curious than upset--a sign that he hadn't been indulging in idle self-recrimination, at least.

Pure worry, of course, was another matter entirely.

"What's going on?" Andros asked, his gaze inspecting each of them before finally coming back to Zhane. "Something wrong?"

"That's what we were going to ask you," Zhane told him. "All we've gotten all day is good news, but you left Co-Op in a funk. What made you so quiet?"

Andros glanced over at Cassandra again, and then at TJ. "Did you notice too?" he wanted to know. "Or did Zhane just bring you along to keep himself from getting distracted?"

"Hey," Zhane protested. But TJ and Cassandra were looking at each other, not at him, and he figured that trying to get back at Andros would only prove his point for him. He'd show Andros what "distracted" was later.

"I didn't notice," TJ admitted at last. Cassandra shook her head too, and only then did Zhane notice the sudden casualness of their interaction. No matter what had happened between them, they still turned to each other in the face of trouble.

"Good." Andros turned his quizzical look on Zhane. "Did you pick them deliberately, or could you not find the others?"

"I thought you'd be more likely to talk around people who were used to you," Zhane said bluntly. He knew what Andros was asking--why weren't the newest members of the team here? He also figured that whatever was bothering him wasn't something he wanted to share with just anyone.

Andros wasn't quite... typical, in anything he thought or did. Usually it worked for him. Occasionally it freaked people out.

"This is a team thing," Andros said at last. "If we're going to talk about it, we might as well do it right.

"EDN," he declared, lifting his head to look over at the nearest terminal. "Find the Black and Yellow Astro Rangers and ask them to come to this apartment."

The local AI made the terminal flash in acknowledgement. Impersonal, Zhane thought, but efficient. Very Andros, to take the AIs for granted. Zhane preferred to do some of the work himself when he could.

"It's late," Andros was saying. "Has everyone eaten? There's leftovers in the kitchen if you guys are hungry."

Cassandra raised her hand, a rueful smile on her face. "I'll take you up on that," she remarked. "I haven't even had dinner yet."

"Hey, you've come to the right place," Zhane assured her. "Follow me, and I'll take care of all your culinary needs."

"Do you know something we don't?" TJ asked Andros, as the two of them headed for the kitchen. Zhane knew Andros, but Cassandra stopped where she was and listened expectantly.

"No," Andros told TJ. Then he looked at Cassandra and added, "I'll tell you when the others get here, I promise. If the problem is so imminent that you don't have time to eat, nothing I say is going to matter anyway."

Great. Imminent danger. That would explain the broodiness.

True to his word, though, Andros didn't say anything else until Cael and Karen arrived. The Black Ranger showed up first, apparently having been impressed enough by TJ's tactical training that he gave a summons from the Red Ranger top priority. Karen came a few minutes later, but all it took was one look at the assembled team to bring her concern to the forefront.

"Hi," she said, turning all her attention to Andros. "This strikes me as bad."

He smiled a little at that. "You're not the only one," he said dryly. "This whole meeting was Zhane's idea. He thinks I've been too quiet."

"You have," Zhane put in, when every gaze in the room came to rest on him. "There are major uprisings in progress in monarchy territory. Eltare is actually considering a strike into the heart of the border. The Free Systems are rallying like never before."

He paused, narrowing his eyes at Andros. "And you, my very dear Ranger, are brooding. I want to know why."

Andros still had that faint smile playing about his expression. It was as endearing as it was exasperating, because it could only mean one thing. No matter what he'd told TJ before, he did know something they didn't. It was just a question of whether they'd believe it or not.

"Look at it from Dark Spectre's point of view," he said at last. "Rebellion on KO-35 and Calijyt. Insurgency on Earth. The reappearance of a free Aquitar. The possibly mutiny of his second-in-command." He paused, almost expectantly.

"It's gotta look bad to him," Cael said with a shrug. "Good for us. I don't see the problem."

TJ was studying Andros. "You're worried about how Dark Spectre's going to respond?"

"He can't let a rebellion like this spread." Andros leaned back against the arm of the sofa, next to Zhane. He waved at Karen, who was the only one still standing. "He'll strike back, and it's not going to be pretty."

"Everyone knows that," Karen pointed out. She came over to join him and Zhane anyway, navigating between Cael's chair and Cassandra's impromptu dinner. "They knew there would be consequences way before they started this."

"Yeah," TJ agreed. "This is war, Andros. They knew what they were getting into."

Andros didn't answer, and Zhane kept his mouth shut. He knew, somehow, that that wasn't what Andros meant. But the others were chiming in now, reassuring each other as much as Andros, and he let them.

"Every one of those planets knew what they had to lose," Cassandra was saying. "And Aquitar's the only one that doesn't come out ahead. I'd rather die fighting than in chains, and that's the choice they're making. All of them except Aquitar."

Cael scoffed. "Aquitar can disappear again any time. They're not risking anyone who didn't volunteer."

"It's not actually the rebellions that I'm worried about," Andros said quietly.

Quiet, maybe. But it silenced the room.

Not the rebellions. Even though his own teammates were out there fighting for them. Not the monarchy either, then, despite the fact that his sister was in the middle of it. That only left...

"Us?" Zhane guessed. "You think he's going to come down on the Free Systems?"

Andros just looked at him, and that was all the answer he needed.

"He's been trying," TJ pointed out. "We're still here."

"If the monarchy had anything else to throw at us, they would have done it already," Cassandra agreed. "I'm not saying it's not dangerous. But the uprisings have to draw Dark Spectre's forces away, not toward us."

"I don't think so." Andros folded his arms, but his pensive expression didn't change. "He can't put down all of them. The best thing to do is to send a signal, something that will do his work for him. Dishearten the rebellions. Make them think they have nothing left to fight for."

"Wait a minute," TJ objected. "Even aside from the question of what Dark Spectre could do that would actually accomplish that, I thought the point of inciting this kind of mutiny in the first place was to divert his forces. Divide and conquer."

"Get the heat off of us so we can help," Cassandra added. "That's the plan, isn't it? We chip away at whatever direction seems the weakest, and ideally we break through to an ally on the other side."

"That was the plan," Andros agreed. "I didn't expect it to work quite this well."

"You're saying it's too successful?" Cael looked like he wanted to laugh. "That's crazy. It's working! We should be getting ready for a real offensive, not worrying about how to defend ourselves!"

Zhane bristled, but Andros just said mildly, "All of Eltare is getting ready for a real offensive. We're not holding anyone back by considering other possibilities."

"We're wasting time!" Cael exclaimed. His gaze locked on Andros' again, and his tone was suddenly grim. "We'll kill morale. You have to know how important this momentum is. We can't take away the only hope people have just so we can indulge in a game of 'what if'."

"This isn't a game," Zhane snapped, unable to let it go any longer. "Andros is the reason we have hope, and I'm not going to stop listening to him just because things have started going right!"

He felt Andros' hand drop to his shoulder, but he didn't take his eyes off of Cael. The new Black Ranger was a teammate in name only at this point. He didn't ask that anyone worship Andros. He only wished they could have a fraction of the faith that had transformed his own life.

"Look, I have plenty of respect for Andros," Cael informed them. He nodded once to Andros, and Zhane saw Andros return the gesture out of the corner of his eye. "I'm just saying that these are circumstances we have to take advantage of. We can't sit around waiting for the other shoe to drop!"

"I agree," Andros remarked calmly. "We have to work with whatever situation we find ourselves in."

Cael pressed on. "The situation is success. It's easy to forget what that feels like around here, but we have something going here. We've gotta follow through."

Zhane couldn't figure out why Andros had insisted on having him here. Karen, okay, she'd been with them as long as Carlos had and she knew what it took to get Andros to talk. But Cael wasn't helping anything.

TJ seemed to realize it too. "Assuming you're right," he said to Andros. "What do you think Dark Spectre can do to the Free Systems?"

"Abandon the line on the border," Andros said. "Give the border planets over to the rebels and concentrate all of that firepower on what's left of the League."

Zhane stared at the low table in front of him, running through the calculations in his head. Estimates of the calculations, anyway. There were a lot of fighters on the border, spread out to enforce restricted areas and slave routes, on top of the military presence required on the planets themselves. If everything that held the front lines of monarchy territory just abandoned their orderly advance and made a suicide run at the heart of the Free Systems...

It would be disaster. For both sides.

"Without the Free Systems," Andros continued, "the border planets won't have anywhere to turn. Dark Spectre can go back through and suppress them--basically at his convenience."

"He won't do that for the same reason we wouldn't," Cassandra said. "The cost is too high."

"When the alternative is losing the border anyway?" TJ might be responding to her, but he was still looking at Andros. "You thought Astronema was lying, didn't you. Like the rest of us."

Andros didn't answer.

"What do we do?" Zhane asked into the silence.

"Defend the Free Systems," Andros said simply. "Eltare is full of Border Rangers who want to jump into the middle of any independent movement on their homeworld. We can't go rushing in to support our planets at the cost of this one."

"That's not going to be a popular decision," TJ warned. "Not when Eltare is looking so strong. Especially not if the raids keep decreasing like this."

"It's not about being popular." Andros sounded irritated for the first time. "It's about getting it right."

"Maybe we should talk to the other Rangers," Cassandra offered.

"Wait, hang on just a second," Cael interrupted. "You want to tell the other teams what to do because Andros has a bad feeling about this?"

Zhane glanced over at Cassandra, then at TJ. Cassandra's expression was neutral, and TJ actually shrugged a little. "He's been right before."

"He's been wrong before!" Cael countered. "Look, Andros, I appreciate everything you've done as a Ranger, and I realize I'm kind of new at this. But out of nineteen Rangers defending this planet, you're the only one who isn't celebrating right now. Don't you think maybe, this time, it's the rest of the world that's right?"

"Don't you think people are more willing to believe good news than bad?" Zhane retorted. "Everyone's all ready to follow Andros when he's telling them what they want to hear. But when he says, 'gee, maybe this isn't such a good idea,' everybody decides he doesn't know what he's talking about!"

"We have a duty to Eltare," TJ reminded them. "That doesn't change just because we see a chance to do good somewhere else. If this planet is threatened--"

"This planet has been threatened for years!" Cael exclaimed. "Expanding the Free Systems will make us safer!"

"Not if Dark Spectre decides he has nothing to lose," Cassandra said quietly.

"Are you telling me not to fight because you're afraid he'll fight back?" Cael demanded.

"I'm saying that I follow Andros." Cassandra had thrown down the gauntlet. "The border is on its own until he tells me otherwise."

"I second that," Zhane said firmly.

"This isn't a vote," Andros told them. "Cael is right: the Free Systems have hope on their side, and they need to hang onto it for as long as possible. We're not in charge of anything except ourselves and our fighters. This is just a hypothetical discussion."

"You've never had a hypothetical discussion in your life," Zhane muttered, loud enough to be heard by the entire room.

"I think there are other Rangers that would be interested in this hypothetical discussion," Cassandra remarked. Her agreement was obvious.

"They'll have to decide for themselves." Andros glanced at Cael. "Eltaran defense is the responsibility of all its resident Rangers."

"They can't decide anything unless we tell them there's a decision," TJ declared. "I'm calling Ma'Ree. Just for a friendly chat," he added, the hint of a smile lightening his expression. "With a hypothetical thought question thrown in."

Cassandra shifted uncomfortably. Zhane decided not to wait for her to volunteer. "You want to mention it to Saryn?" he asked. "He knows Andros. He'll listen."

"I will," she murmured, not looking at anyone else. "He and Jenna don't have anything to go back to anyway."

Their planet had been devastated in the fighting. No longer habitable, maybe, but Zhane didn't think a little thing like that would stop the Elisian Rangers from charging out to the border. Just in principle. Saryn was as reckless as Andros--without the ties that made Andros stop and think.

"Andros," Cael declared. "I don't like this. Maybe Zhane's right, maybe I just don't want to believe it, or maybe everyone else is right and you're wrong."

He hesitated, and Zhane wasn't the only one watching him. They were all waiting now. "Maybe you're wrong," Cael repeated at last, "but you're the Red Ranger. I don't want you to think that just because I disagree, I won't follow your orders."

Zhane glanced up at Andros, still perched on the arm of the sofa. "The strength of a Ranger is the team," he said calmly. "You wouldn't be here if we couldn't count on you."

"Yeah, I tell Andros he's wrong all the time," TJ put in, making an obvious effort to lighten the mood. "And it got me command of my own patrol!"

"And you're welcome to it." Zhane pretended to relax a little, reaching over to nudge Karen. "Do you think anyone else on this team wants their own patrol?"

"Just the opposite," she replied promptly. Apparently her silence didn't mean she wasn't paying attention. "On the other hand, you argue with Andros more than any of us, and you get to sleep with him!"

Zhane gaped at her, but TJ whooped and Cassandra started to laugh as soon as she finished choking on her water. Karen just widened her eyes at Zhane, presumably going for an innocent look. "What?"

"Come on, guys," Cael interrupted dryly. "There's no need to threaten me."