Zhane didn't like to be alone, so he'd enlisted Magic's help as soon as he realized what Astronema was doing. It had taken him days to figure it out, which wasn't going to impress Andros any when he got back, but hey, he was under a little bit of pressure here. And honestly, the weirdness factor alone should get him some leeway.

Astronema was banishing everyone he liked through the dimensional portal. Childish, maybe, but after careful observation, undeniable. He could only hope she wasn't doing it on purpose because if she had that kind of control and she was using it against them, they were screwed.

He'd rather believe that she was doing it by accident. She was obviously linked to the ID portal somehow, and for some bizarre reason that he couldn't explain, she wanted him to like her. So any time she sensed competition for her attention, she eliminated it.

It left him afraid to talk to anyone. They were under siege here, and he couldn't afford to lose any more Rangers. He could talk to Magic, though, and for the first time he was glad that switching zords with Astronema had left him cut off from Zip. The Silver cat was a great zord, but he didn't communicate the way Magic did.

Zhane got Magic to contact DECA, and through her, Ty and the Elisian Rangers. He told Saryn to follow Astronema's movements on the surface, to take out the quantrons she was deactivating for them--preferably without her knowing. He told Mirine to stop screwing up Marsie's defense formations and park the rest of her zord fleet in front of the ID portal, establishing a screen instead of a mop-up response. He told Ty to get out of the fight and find Kristet, because he thought he knew where the abersiia was coming from.

And he told DECA to stay low and distract Kae from his "game" at regular intervals, because if Kerone came back and found out that he'd let her kid play battleship gunner with real live velocifighters she would either be furious or frighteningly ecstatic. He wasn't sure which, but either way he was pretty sure he'd want to temper her response as much as possible by assuring her that "it was only a few times."

The plan worked for longer than he'd expected: the Elisian Rangers and the KPD managed to coexist, Astronema's quantrons were really "neutralized," and the number of velocifighters coming through the portal started to decline. To the point where ground-based incursions became non-existent, and Astronema stopped teleporting across the surface of the planet to return to the space battle with Zip.

That was when the problems began. He noticed that she sounded tired the moment she was on a constant comm with him again, and he turned her tone over and over in his mind while he tried to figure out why. Okay, they weren't getting as much sleep as they could be, and their schedules were confused and drawn-out and didn't overlap as much as they should--but none of that could be new to Astronema.

It wasn't until the comm went dead altogether and Magic used words to relay what was probably a wordless message from Zip that he put it all together. He could have cheerfully banged his head against the console for not thinking of it earlier. Andros was going to have a field day when he got back.

Astrea didn't get tired. Not like this, not so easily, not without serious overuse of her magic. She didn't get hungry, either, and Astronema had been eating as regularly as any of them since she'd arrived. But what really should have tipped him off was the fact that Astrea couldn't use a morpher--because Astrea wasn't human.

Astronema was. And they had never bothered to vaccinate her, because hello, princess of evil with superspecial magical powers. She'd been all over the planet in the last few days, and what was even worse than the fact that she'd picked up abersiia was the fact that she'd probably been spreading it ever since.

He told Magic to have Zip return to the hangar. He sent Ty up in his place and he followed them down. And that was when he knew they'd made a mistake in having Astronema stay on the Megaship, because as soon as Zip tried to enter the hangar with Astronema, DECA scanned her, found the virus, and locked them out.

Zhane asked, somewhat incredulously, why she hadn't bothered to run medical scans on people coming and going from the Megaship if she was doing it automatically for anyone with access to the hangar. The response was a somewhat predictable, "because you didn't tell me to," which made him roll his eyes. He had to go into the hangar himself to pick up DECA's abersiia cure and bring it out to Astronema, who was unconscious by now and disturbingly vulnerable in her armor.

It took hours for the thing to work. It was tempting to just stare at her until she opened her eyes, willing her alert again, but logic won and he sent her back to the Megaship and told DECA to call him when she woke up. He needed some answers about the ID portal and her use of it before he did anything else.

It turned out that he didn't need DECA to let him know after all. He knew when Astronema woke up because Ty and Fauna vanished without a trace--and halfway around the planet, the ID portal warped spectacularly. To the point where a velocifighter that had been in transit at the time just disintegrated, torn apart by structural stress in the long seconds of distortion. The portal returned to normal, at least as far as any of them could tell, but Zhane was suddenly that much more appreciative of Astrea's decision to keep everyone she had on the other side of it for now.

"I want him back," he told Astronema the moment he strode into the medical bay. "I'm sick of this game, Astronema. Bring back my friends or I'm sending you through the portal next."

She spun, her back to the medical synthetron as she glowered at him like a cornered cat. "What did you do to me?" she demanded. "Why am I here?"

"You did it to yourself," Zhane informed her. "That kid you brought through with you last time wasn't the only sick slave on KO-35, was he. When you started opening doors between our two dimensions, the virus spread from your planet to ours."

"That's ridiculous," she snapped. "The only things coming through that portal are velocifighters."

"You're connected to it, aren't you," Zhane continued. "You're using it to open rifts all over the planet. Our people aren't seeing hallucinations; they're seeing your people, and your people are passing the abersiia virus from one side of the rift to the other."

"I don't know anything about a virus," Astronema retorted. "Or hallucinations, or the health of slaves, or whether that child had anything but a dirty face and bad luck."

"Well, you know about the virus now," Zhane told her, "because you have it. That's what knocked you out, that's why you're here in the medical bay on the Megaship, and that's why you're not leaving the Megaship until DECA can promise me you're not contagious."

"If I were contagious you'd be sick too," Astronema said scathingly. "You and all your precious friends."

"I've been vaccinated. Just like everyone coming into the hangar except you, because our Kerone couldn't get sick. We didn't realize you could until it was too late."

"How efficient of you," she sneered.

Zhane glared at her. "Bring my friends back, Astronema. You aren't doing your side any good by sending fully armed Rangers into the middle of the fighting."

"What makes you think I have anything to do with it?" she demanded. "Dark Spectre created that ID portal, not me. He wanted revenge on the dimension that cast him out. He wanted to find the person that betrayed him to enemy forces and turned his flagship against him. So he--made..."

She broke off, her eyes widening. For a long moment, she just stared at him, her face slowly paling behind the glamour. Zhane didn't bother to tell her what she had obviously just figured out. It made sense that Dark Spectre wouldn't have told her about her own role in his destruction.

"It was me," Astronema said softly. Suddenly she looked very lost. "I betrayed him, didn't I."

He tried not to sigh. "You did what you thought was right," he told her. "It wasn't an easy decision."

"How would you know?" The retort was half-hearted at best, and he didn't rise to the challenge in her voice.

"You told me," he said quietly. It was so strange, looking at her now, seeing the same confusion he had seen on Astrea's face back then. "When you found out that evil had lied to you, that Power Rangers hadn't destroyed your home and that some of your family was still alive... you struggled with that for a long time.

"You helped me, sometimes," Zhane added. "Before you knew I was a Ranger, and then even afterwards. You kept the Dark Fortress out of a fight that could have destroyed my friends. That was when Ecliptor finally confronted you, and you had to choose."

"I chose... you?" She looked skeptical.

"You brought a lot of information with you when you defected," Zhane told her. "It was enough to take down Dark Spectre. You ended up in one of the zords that defeated him."

"I chose you?" she repeated, as though she was refusing to hear anything else.

"I think you chose the truth," he said simply. "I think you chose what you thought you'd lost over what you thought you'd found, because one turned out to be true and the other wasn't."

"I'm not a child," Astronema interrupted. "I know the truth."

"Is Andros your brother?" Zhane countered. When she hesitated, he added, "How long have you known Ecliptor? Where were you before the Dark Fortress? Why don't you remember?"

"Because it's not important," she snapped. "I know what I need to know to accomplish my goals."

"What goals?" Zhane pressed. "The greater glory of Dark Spectre? The Border mutiny and a rise to power in his place? Or a rebel alliance with the Free Systems that will put you back on the same side you started on?"

"Get away from me," she hissed. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Then I'm in good company," he informed her. "Dark Spectre used you, Astronema. He linked you to your traitorous counterpart in this dimension for the sole purpose of destroying you both and sending as much of KO-35 with you as he could."

There was cold fury in her gaze as her staff appeared in a sparkle of violet. "I am the princess of evil. I can not be destroyed and I will not be used. If you think manipulating me to your own ends will serve any purpose but your own demise--"

"Then I would have tried it a long time ago!" Zhane burst out. "I'm the Silver Ranger on a team that's still cajoling its way into power! I could tell you anything and make you believe it because that's what I do! But I'm not! I'm telling you the truth, because I know you already know it, and I don't know how many more times I have to repeat myself!"

The staff spun in her fingers and he didn't have time to evade the outpouring of energy before violet electricity slammed into his chest. It knocked him back against the nearest solid object, the patient bed banging into his side, catching him, holding him up as he planted one hand and flung the other one back toward her. The telekinetic shove hit her harder than the staff attack and she went down with a startled cry.

He kept his hand outstretched as he straightened up, yanking her staff away from her and throwing it away when it flew into his hand. "If you think I won't fight you because you look like someone I love," he said through gritted teeth, "then you're sadly mistaken."

Astronema stared up at him, frozen where she was for a long moment. Instead of the fury he had expected to see on her face, there was only surprise. That was the only warning he had before the medical bay was gone and it was his own face staring back at him.

Zhane clapped his hands over his ears, squeezing his eyes shut and giving his head a shake. He was surprised when he felt it, felt his head move the way he wanted it to and saw the world go dark when he closed his eyes. They snapped open again as he glared at Astronema.

"Don't do that," he burst out, reeling from the sudden perspective shift. "Could you at least ask before you... hey," he interrupted himself with a frown. "Are you all right?"

She hadn't moved from her place on the floor. Familiar hazel eyes peered out at him from behind magic that hadn't concealed those features in a long time. "I know you," she whispered.

The dizzying rush of someone else's memories came flooding back into his mind, and he saw his own planet through her eyes--his own planet as it might have been, had the forces of evil left them alone just a little longer. He saw Kerone, a young woman in yellow with an astromorpher and a ready smile. He saw Andros, the confident leader of a Ranger team that had grown up together in the farthest reaches of Border space.

He saw himself. He saw himself as she had seen him, a rebellious dockworker who had caught the Red Ranger's eye by disobeying an evacuation order and sticking around to watch his back in a quantron battle. No connections, no responsibilities, not even a steady job or a permanent place to live. A drifter, potentially dangerous, his motives for charming Andros past all caution or common sense a mystery...

Until the day he told her he was in love. Until the day he said the words and she believed him, and she promised to do anything she could to get the media off their backs. Until the day she told Andros what he said, and Andros worried and wavered but didn't walk away.

That was when she had known that this drifter might become one of the most shattering things to ever happen to their team.

Zhane couldn't change what he was seeing. He couldn't affect the flash of memories too swift and sharp to be controlled. He had no choice but to follow along, no real conscious thought outside of her own remembered curiosity--and somehow, that was enough.

Somehow, she had found out who he really was, and the part of their shared flashback that was Zhane could see where it diverged from his own memories. Somewhere along the line, he and Andros had missed each other, missed the connection that had held him when his parents died, missed the bond that would keep him from becoming a runaway at an impossibly early age. Never taken in by his grandparents, never rescued from the rubble in the wake of an attack by the only remaining Ranger...

He had made it on his own. He had never known the odds against it, and somehow that orphaned, identity-less child had made a place for himself among the anonymous crowds of the seasonal sea trade. He had taken what he had and reveled in it. But when he and Andros finally encountered each other, years later, the widening gulf between them should have been impossible to bridge--save for that one little coincidence, hand of fate, act of god, or lucky circumstance that caused their eyes to meet.

*I know you,* Astronema's voice whispered again, but the words were silent this time, held entirely within his mind.

Suddenly, she was looking over his shoulder, seeing in his own memories what had happened to the team from KO-35. Her Rangers had never retreated to Rayven, had never been forced out by invasion or the threat of siege. They had never given up their morphers in the ensuing chaos and fear, but had held them successfully until the entire Border fell to the advancing armies of Dark Spectre.

She saw, through his eyes, the smaller wars that had kept the monarchy from encircling half the League. She saw herself leaving the Dark Fortress, joining the team she had never been a part of, and bringing down the entity that had tried to raise her to power at his right hand. She saw her own newfound peace, the quiet calm that offset her habitual temper, and the phenomenal magic she was still trying to control.

She saw the romance they had played at since before she defected. He wasn't surprised by her curiosity, given what he'd just seen in her mind, but he didn't appreciate it either. It wasn't her life, they weren't her memories, and he didn't owe this Astronema anything.

He would never know if it was something he did that threw her out of his mind or not. But the next thing he knew he was bracing himself against the patient bed again as the artificial gravity went haywire and the words I know you echoed strangely in his ears. It didn't take him long to realize that it was his head spinning, not the room, and lowering himself clumsily to the floor did seem to help.

That was when he opened his eyes and saw Astronema.

Not Astronema, he realized, staring at the silver phoenix charm twisted over her arm in the spill of curly turqoise hair. Astronema hadn't been wearing it--why would she?--and maybe it was one strand among many in the glamour she had donned as the princess of evil, but it was one he could never overlook.

Not Astronema at all, but Kerone. Astrea.

He saw her crack one eye open without moving, and only then did he notice that she wans't breathing. "Astrea?" he asked quietly, and both her eyes opened at that. It was a name she probably didn't hear anywhere else.

DECA's voice interrupted, and that probably convinced her it was safe as much as anything. "I am detecting Fauna in the upper atmosphere," she announced. "Along with Mega Vs one through five."

There was a pause, and Astrea sat up quickly, still staring around but embracing a violet glow that looked almost absent-minded in its thoroughness. Her glamour faded completely and her armor transformed in matter of seconds. She was wearing her Kerovan uniform again by the time DECA added, "I have located the Red and Yellow Power signatures on the surface of KO-35."

That was everyone, Zhane thought, a little wildly. What had just happened? One moment he was reliving the abbreviated version of Astronema's life before Dark Spectre, and the next he was on the floor with the cavalry streaming in from every direction.

"We're back," Astrea said, the hint of a question in her voice.

"Hey." Zhane slid across the floor toward her and pulled her into an embrace. "What do you know," he whispered in her ear. "You're back."

He heard her soft sound of amusement as she hugged him back tightly. "I missed you," she murmured. "I didn't realize how much advice you give me until it was gone."

*Zhane?*

It might have been the first time he'd completely relaxed in days. He felt the tension drain out of him at the sound of that voice, and it left his body trembling in its wake. *Andros.*

He didn't realize he'd spoken aloud until Astrea rubbed his back soothingly and whispered, "He's okay. I kept him out of trouble for you."

*Where are you?* Andros demanded, followed immediately by, *The Megaship? What's going on? Are the Elisians still here? You're working in shifts? DECA says you were with Astronema; are you okay?*

He felt laughter trying to force its way out, and maybe it was the effort to contain it that made him shake or maybe it was the unsteady feeling of incipient hysteria. He felt Astrea hugging him harder, and he didn't even know whether he was responding to the ridiculous suggestion that anyone could possibly keep Andros out of trouble, or the fact that Andros himself was obviously asking DECA the same things he was asking Zhane and just as fast--only DECA was keeping up.

Maybe Astronema's memory trick had set him reeling, he thought distantly, and this was just shock. That was it. He was in shock. That would explain a lot.

"Zhane?" Astrea was asking quietly. "Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah," he mumbled, closing his eyes against the rest of the world. He was relinquishing responsibility for three separate Ranger teams, giving up control of the KPD, and getting his lover back all at the same time. "I'm just peachy."

*Zhane,* Andros insisted. He was starting to sound worried, and for some reason Zhane found that funny. *Are you okay?*

*Stop asking me that!* Zhane shouted silently. *Of course I'm not okay! I've spent the last four days watching everyone I care about disappear!*

*And we spent them touring a slave planet that looked suspiciously like our home,* Andros replied mildly. *Is Kerone with you? DECA says she thinks so, but she can't tell for sure. Do you want us in our zords or back at the hangar?*

"Velocifighter encroachment has ceased," DECA remarked.

It took a moment for that to sink in, but finally he lifted his head from Astrea's shoulder to stare at the nearest camera. "There aren't any more velocifighters coming through the ID portal?"

*The hangar,* he thought immediately, knowing Andros would be hearing the same report. *And she's here. She's fine.*

"There are not," DECA confirmed. "My scanners can no longer detect the portal at all."

Because it was invisible when it was dormant, Zhane knew. Not because anything else had changed. Still, any pause in the bombardment was appreciated, and under his breath he muttered, "Thank you, Astronema."

"She did this," Astrea said quietly, partly statement and partly question. "She's helping us?"

"Kerone!" The shout was so utterly unexpected that Zhane tensed, despite that fact that every sense he had told him there was no threat. No inner alarm went off, no danger had snuck up on them--but he was still surprised when Kae shoved his way under his arms and pressed himself close against Astrea's side.

Astrea lowered one arm to wrap around his thin shoulders. She hugged both of them for one peaceful, blissful moment. Zhane wondered absently why DECA had allowed Kae to come to the medical bay if she wasn't sure that Astronema was gone.

It was DECA who interrupted them now. "I am detecting an energy buildup concurrent with the location of the interdimensional portal," she reported.

Zhane groaned, refusing to let go of either of the people he held. "What now?"

"I am not certain," DECA admitted, after an almost unnoticeable pause. "Preliminary data seem to indicate that the portal has been rendered inoperative."

"What?" Zhane sat up straight. "How? How can you tell?"

"I base my conclusion on the explosive blast that seems to have originated from the location of the ID portal," DECA said primly. "If you wish to discuss my interpretation of this event, you will need to review a quantity of data that I estimate will take you two point four hours to adequately process."

Zhane gave her camera a dirty look. "You just make those numbers up," he accused.

The red light blinked innocently at him. "It will take you much more than two point four hours to substantiate speculation like that," she informed him.

"To substantiate it?" he repeated. "Not, to realize the error of my ways?"

"The ID portal blew up?" Astrea said pointedly. "How many velocifighters were left on this side?"

"Of the sixty-eight velocifighters in Kerovan space at the time of the explosion," DECA replied, "fifty-two remain."

"Tell Marsie the portal's been shut down," Zhane said. "Tell her to keep a wing in the air and two on standby after those velocifighters are gone, and get the zords to regroup at the hangar when they're done out there."

"Andros has already issued identical instructions," DECA said gently.

"Oh." Zhane shook his head once. "Yeah. Right. That's fine then."

"Five," Kae whispered, so softly that Zhane wasn't sure what he'd heard at first. But he saw the worried look on Astrea's face and he guessed. He was proven right when Kae repeated, more audibly now, "Five."

"Maybe we should go back to the hangar ourselves," Astrea suggested.

Zhane agreed, and he was getting ready to stand up when Kae leaned back from his determined hug and looked Astrea right in the eye. "Five," he said, very clearly. Very calmly.

Astrea studied him for a moment. "Five what?" she asked at last.

There was no sign of the looming temper tantrum that had followed his use of the word "five" in the past. In fact, Zhane's eyes widened in surprise when Kae replied, "Five can shoot."

Astrea caught his eye over Kae's head, returning his startled expression with a look of confusion. Busted, Zhane thought. "He's been using the Megalasers," he offered warily. "Turns out he's got some serious targeting skills."

Astrea stared at him for a long moment before switching her gaze back to Kae. Zhane didn't think for one second that he wasn't going to be hearing about this again. But for now, her attention was focused on Kae, who seemed to be waiting patiently for--something.

"Are you Five?" Astrea asked him carefully.

His expression didn't change, but he seemed to lighten somehow. Zhane could tell the question made him happy. The answer surprised him as much as the muted happiness. "Yes," Kae said, as though he understood exactly what she'd asked. "Five can shoot."

"Who taught you to shoot?" Zhane asked without thinking.

Kae froze, casting a furtive glance in his direction and sinking toward Astrea again. "It's all right," Astrea said in a matter-of-fact voice. It wasn't the soothing tone she'd used on him before she and Astronema switched dimensions, but strangely it seemed to reassure him more. "I'm glad you can shoot. That's very useful."

"Yes," Kae agreed immediately, though he still looked like he wanted to huddle against her chest. "Ship made Five useful."

"You're useful because of a ship?" Astrea repeated, her tone encouraging but not particularly intent. "A ship taught you to shoot?"

Kae stiffened, and after a moment he turned and buried his face in her shirt. His mumbled words were barely audible. "Ship likes Five."

"Good," Astrea said, putting her arm around his shoulders as though that made perfect sense. "I like you too."

Kae didn't answer this time, but he clutched her shirt tighter. He didn't move, even to lift his head. Zhane didn't even know what had made him start talking, let alone what had made him stop. He glanced at DECA's camera inquiringly.

"It's possible there was an AI on one of the ships that transported him," she offered. "Most likely the one whose crew was harvesting his blood, since it is reasonable to assume he was on that ship for a significant length of time. The AI may have taught him to use a holographic interface to fire the ship's weapons, either under orders or of its own volition, in order to make his continued existence more profitable to the crew."

"Or to get him better living conditions," Astrea murmured, patting the boy's head gently. "He wouldn't need to be in particularly good health to produce blood, but regular rest and food would improve his weapons' reflexes."

"You said the other day that he was talking to you," Zhane told DECA's camera. "Did you talk about this? Has he said anything else about it?"

"He has volunteered little more information than he just told you, albeit in different forms," DECA answered. "He does seem to be more vocal when alone in my presence than in anyone else's."

"Which kind of supports the AI idea," Zhane remarked thoughtfully.

*Are you coming back to the hangar?* Andros' voice interrupted. *The Earth Rangers are already setting down, and the Elisians are on their way.*

"I am detecting no further velocifighter activity in Kerovan space," DECA announced. In light of Andros' comments, it was hard to say whether she considered that "keeping them informed" or not.

"We should go," Astrea said. "The others will be gathering at the hangar."

"The hangar's going to be chaos," Zhane declared.

She was right, of course. They had to go. And he was right too: the hangar was chaos personified. Cat Central had never seen so many Rangers, let alone so many at the same time. The cats loved it.

Kae hated it. He was instantly terrified, which seemed worse than it could have been considering how unusually talkative he had been just a few minutes before. Astrea hurried him upstairs, probably to her room where she could magic a distraction for him or maybe convince him to get some sleep. DECA had mentioned that Kae was reluctant to sleep on the Megaship.

Kae was going to take more explaining than the cats. Ashley tried to start, Zhane jumped in to help her, and TJ overrode both of them with a laugh. "Introductions first," he insisted, nodding at Gabe. "Does everyone know our newest Ranger?"

It turned out that Ty didn't, nor did most of the Elisians. Saryn was the only one on his team who had met Carlos' brother before, and when Kristet showed up a few minutes later it started all over again. She didn't so much as blink at the three teams assembled in the hangar, but then, she was also the only one recording everything that was said.

Introductions aside, Kristet's arrival postponed any further explanations until she had delivered her messages. Or rather, her instructions, thinly veiled as requests, to which Andros gave priority. "We have to go," he told the others. "I'm sorry we can't offer you more in the way of hospitality right now."

Zhane shot him a surprised look that faded into a smile when Andros returned his gaze with raised eyebrows and a faintly questioning air. *Look at you,* Zhane thought. *Being polite when you don't have to be. There's hope for you yet.*

"Is there anything we can do?" Mirine was asking. "If there were anything wrong back home, we'd know. And the Defense isn't exactly rushing in to fill the void."

"We're under quarantine," Zhane reminded her.

"Due to a contagion that has no history of spreading through the vacuum of space," Saryn added. "Defense wings should have been here days ago. Someone will have to answer for that."

"There's nothing we can do about it right now," Andros said, sounding vaguely impatient. "We won't keep you away from your planets any longer."

"Hey, Earth is safe," Carlos put in. "We're not going anywhere until we get some answers."

"Elisia will want us back as soon as possible," Mirine offered reluctantly. "But we're at your back door whenever you need us."

"Thanks," Zhane told her, making sure her entire team got his message. "This was a really great thing you did here."

"We owe you," Andros added. "We won't forget this, Mirine."

Mirine nodded once. "I want to talk to you when you've gotten this cleared up," she told him. "Saryn isn't kidding about dealing with the Defense. Elisia could secede over this."

"Calijyt might follow," Saryn said quietly.

That made Andros frown, but all he said was, "I'll contact you as soon as we've stabilized the situation here."

It wasn't that simple, of course, since most of the Earth Rangers wanted to talk to Saryn before he left, never mind that Kristet was practically vibrating with impatience. TJ finally came over to join her and Andros just as Andros was telling her that they needed someone on zord patrol. Kristet apparently didn't care who it was as long as it wasn't Andros, Zhane, Ashley, or Ty. Whether she really didn't mind Astrea doing it or was just fully aware that Astrea wasn't going to leave Kae, Zhane couldn't tell.

"Look, we'll handle it," TJ was saying. "If you guys have other stuff you need to take care of, we can fly around the planet and check things out."

"The KPD will want a system patrol, too," Andros told him.

"Tell us where to go," TJ agreed. "No problem."

Privately, Zhane suspected that TJ was looking for a way to entertain himself while Kristet kept the Kerovan Rangers busy. Zhane couldn't blame him, either. He was already more tired than he should be, and anything that Kristet was this impatient about couldn't be easy. He wouldn't have minded a nice, simple patrol flight.

It turned out that he got to do the press conference. It was probably the easiest job they could have given him, and the last one that anyone else on the team would want to do. So it was convenient.

He was pretty sure that the others had ended up with equally familiar responsibilities. Andros got to talk to the Council, while Ashley was dispatched to deal with the Planetary Health Authority. Ty, interestingly, was Kristet's PD liaison. Zhane was too distracted to figure out what that meant--and he was certain it meant something, since Kristet was perfectly comfortable talking to Marsie herself.

By the time he made it back to the hangar, though, he didn't care enough to wonder. Ashley, lucky woman that she was, had gotten back before him, but she was the only one. The only one other than all five of the Earth Rangers, and it was strangely disconcerting to see all of them taking up space in the hangar's living area.

It was also a little bit... crowded.

Funny, he thought, assessing the situation, that he could find such a small group crowd-like. Andros must be rubbing off on him. Or maybe it was just the very atypical feel of strangers in this place that he called home.

There was nothing for it but to throw himself down next to Ashley and pretend it didn't bother him. "Hey," he said, slinging an arm over her shoulders and managing a grin for the greetings that flew his way. "So what have you all been up to?"

"Fighting evil in another dimension," Karen replied promptly, and he didn't have to work at the smirk he shot her way. Karen was easy to please, and right now he really liked that about her.

Ashley poked him gently in the stomach. "I was just telling them about the Dark Fortress, and Astronema, and what Kae's doing here," she informed him.

"Oh, good." He made himself more comfortable. "Do tell."

"Forget it," she retorted, poking him again. She sounded amused, but the nudge was less gentle this time. "Tell us what happened here while we were all gone. How did we get back here?"

"How did we get over there in the first place?" Carlos corrected.

"Yeah, and does Andros always let your PR agent boss him around like that?" TJ asked with a grin.

"Did you really have Kae shooting down velocifighters from the Megaship?" Ashley wanted to know.

Zhane considered all that for a moment. "Don't know," he said at last. "Astronema sent you through the ID portal. No," he told TJ, then caught Ashley's eye and added, "Yes."

It made Ashley laugh. "You're terrible," she announced, but she snuggled against his side instead of poking him in the stomach again and he thought that wasn't much incentive to be good in the future.

"I thought the ID portal was stationary." Carlos had clearly figured out which was the answer to his question. "How could Astronema have sent us through it if we were all in different places at the time?"

"I don't know," Zhane said with a sigh. "I think she's connected to it somehow; either on purpose by Dark Spectre or by accident because she created it. She seemed surprised when I suggested it, but when she remembered who she was everyone went back where they belonged and the portal shut down. That can't be a coincidence."

"She remembered who she was?" Ashley murmured, not lifting her head off of his shoulder. "That she's Kerone, you mean?"

"Yeah." He rubbed her shoulder absently, lifting his hand to brush her hair back when the motion made it fall forward. "I guess I said something that reminded her of the other me in her own dimension, and after that she seemed to remember pretty fast."

"So you're saying," TJ said slowly, "that Astronema was basically willing people from one dimension to another?"

Zhane thought about that. "Yeah," he said at last. "That's what I think she was doing."

"Okay," Karen said, into the sudden silence. "That's crazy."

"Thought you said nothing about the Power made sense the first time you heard it," Zhane teased her.

"It didn't make any sense the second time you said it, either," Karen informed him. "And what does Astronema have to do with the Power, anyway?"

"She held the Power in her dimension," he offered, wondering if Kerone knew or had found out somehow. "She was the Yellow Astro Ranger. She wasn't captured by evil until KO-35 was invaded."

Ashley stirred a little, but she didn't say anything.

"Did you say Astronema created the ID portal?" TJ wanted to know.

"I don't know," Zhane admitted. "She might have. I guess it's more likely that Dark Spectre made it, but it sure looked like Astronema destroyed it."

"That's a lot of power," TJ remarked. "Even if she didn't create it... it sounds like she controlled it."

Astrea's magic was getting still getting stronger. She said someday it would level out--although how she knew, he had no idea--but he hadn't seen any signs of that happening yet. He also didn't see any reason to tell TJ about it, since it wasn't even his story to share. So he made a noncommittal sound, noted that Ashley didn't volunteer any further information either, and waited until someone got bored with the quiet.

It was Gabe who finally spoke, and Zhane wondered what Tessa was thinking about over there. She had been listening to Ashley with everyone else when he came in, but he hadn't heard a single word from her since they returned to the hangar. She was, he thought, the most analytical member of the current Earth team, and maybe as a scientist she preferred to gather a certain amount of data before speculating on it.

Or maybe she was still in awe of the hangar, the cats, and KO-35 in general. He didn't remember her ever visiting before, although he thought Ashley might have mentioned her being on Elisia at some point. Tessa seemed to relate more to the details of a situation than to the people in it.

"Just out of curiosity," Gabe was asking, "do things like this happen to you often?"

Carlos snickered, and Zhane could feel Ashley's muffled giggle. "Yeah," she admitted, from her place curled at his side. "Pretty much all the time."

"We're out of the loop," Carlos told his brother. "Turns out the less you have to actually use your morpher, the less weird stuff happens to you."

"So we trade weirdness for peace?" Gabe looked amused by the idea. "I think I'll take the peace, all things considered."

Carlos smirked. "Says the secret ninja instructor."

"To the Aquitian green card carrier," Ashley added without lifting her head.

"Hey, hey, what?" Carlos demanded, when Gabe and TJ both laughed. "It's not like we're married!"

"It'd be less weird if you were, bro," Gabe told him. "Trust me."

"Yeah, as it is, you... what--live there, study at home, and fight armies of darkness here?" Karen suggested. "That's practical. Carlos Thinly Spread Vargas."

"Like I'm going to take advice from the woman who told her parents she's working on a cruise ship this summer!" Carlos exclaimed.

"Hey, not everyone's family embraces the Power Rangers' legacy," Karen informed him. "'Gee, Mom, I'm going to be out of the galaxy for a couple of months. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe as long as the planet I'm on isn't attacked, invaded, or turned into an interdimensional portal that dumps me into the middle of a slave war. See you in the fall!'"

Carlos and Gabe exchanged glances, and then Carlos shrugged. "We try to downplay that part, actually."

Ashley shifted a little. "You know, I think Cassie did me a favor by getting pregnant," she mused. "It totally distracted my mom. And now she's so busy buying baby clothes for the twins that she doesn't ask about what's going on here so much."

TJ cleared his throat. "Speaking of that." He was looking pointedly at Ashley. "Your mom says if you don't call her soon, she's going to hijack a zord and come find you."

"I called her," Ashley said, and her tone was indignant even if her position didn't change. "No one was home. I left a message that said to call me back."

"When was that?" Zhane wondered aloud. "Before or after you disappeared into an alternate dimension?"

There was a pause, and Ashley sounded more subdued when she murmured, "Oh." She didn't ask if DECA was around, though, so he figured that if she had any messages she didn't want to know right now anyway.

Luckily, the conversation was interrupted by Andros' arrival. Zhane had his back to the rest of the hangar and didn't bother craning his neck to watch Andros approach. There was no reply to TJ's shouted greeting, though, so he knew Andros must have waved as he made his way over to join them.

"Is the Council still standing?" Karen asked, as he entered their circle and nodded to everyone in a sort of perfunctory acknowledgement.

"Sitting, mostly," Andros corrected. "Still sitting and talking while the schools shut down and the hospitals fill up."

"The role of government everywhere," Carlos put in.

"In their defense," Andros said with a sigh, glancing around as though looking for a place to sit, "it's hard to implement an effective quarantine against such a subtle disease."

"Especially when we don't know how many places were affected by interdimensional contamination." Zhane nodded at the other end of the couch he was sharing with Ashley, and Andros didn't have to be told twice.

"Not their problem," Ashley murmured, making a token effort at shifting toward him to give Andros more room. "They should be worrying about how to get supplies through local quarantines until there are enough vaccinations to keep more people from getting infected."

"What's this disease?" Carlos wanted to know. "Should we be worried?"

"You should be vaccinated," Andros said, sitting down--a little stiffly, Zhane thought--at the end of the couch. "DECA took care of all of us. Karen too, even though it looks like it doesn't affect her. She was still a carrier, and you might be too."

"It's totally curable," Karen offered. "And it starts out pretty mild, right? Just tiredness and kind of flu-like symptoms. But I guess you can die from it if it's not treated."

"Great," Gabe muttered, loud enough for all of them to hear him. "Something for my paranoia to work on."

"You walked on a broken ankle for two days," Carlos reminded him. "You're the anti-hypochondriac."

"Is DECA here?" Andros asked, glancing around.

"I'm here," DECA's voice answered. Her hologram coalesced instantly at the other end of the couch, and Zhane was amused to see some of the Earth Rangers jump.

"Still not used to that," he heard TJ tell Tessa ruefully.

"Would you get doses of the abersiia vaccine for the rest of the Earth Rangers?" Andros asked. "We don't need to help this thing spread."

"Certainly, Andros."

The vaccine arrived in the kitchen a moment later, and Ty walked in while Andros and TJ were getting it sorted out. Kristet wasn't with him. Zhane hoped that didn't mean she was still working. She'd covered their butts during the entire dimensional chaos, and she had to be at least as tired as they were.

"Did you make Kristet take some time off?" Zhane asked as soon as Ty was close enough.

Ty nodded, and that was a relief. "She went home for the rest of the day," he offered. "I told her she was welcome here, but she wanted some family time."

"Good." Zhane couldn't help thinking of Ma and Pa, and resolved to check in with them later to make sure they'd been screened for abersiia. "We're vaccinating the rest of the Earth Rangers and trying not to fall asleep before we eat."

"Sounds like a plan," Ty remarked, dropping into the chair TJ had vacated. "Just don't expect me to make anything. It's definitely a no-prep or nothing kind of day."

"I'm not sure we have enough food to feed everyone anyway," Ashley murmured. "We might have to go up to the Megaship and use the Synthetron."

"I'm not eating Synthetron food when we're at home," Zhane informed her. "Here we are on a perfectly good planet, with perfectly good restaurants and food spots and hostels, and you want to get your dinner from a machine."

"It is kind of an insult to Kerovan cuisine," Ty agreed solemnly.

"Also," he added, before Ashley could defend herself, "while we're not on the subject at all... Can someone explain to me, preferably in a paragraph or less, what happened to the ID portal and why no one's worried about us spontaneously disappearing to another dimension anymore?"

No one answered until Ashley poked him in the stomach, and Zhane sighed. Like he knew. "Dark Spectre was using Astronema to get revenge on this dimension," he said, pausing when Ty raised an eyebrow at him.

"The entire dimension?" he asked skeptically.

Zhane shrugged. "Our team in particular. He has reason not to like us." He wasn't totally sure he wanted to bring Astrea into this. He was still pretty sure she was Dark Spectre's main target, but what good would that knowledge do anyone right now?

Ty seemed to accept his explanation as it was. "You'll have to tell me that story someday," he said, looking vaguely amused. "But okay. Dark Spectre wants revenge. So... send quantrons through an interdimensional portal?"

"It's his most direct line of attack." Zhane could feel Andros watching him, listening, maybe mentally revising his explanation as he went. "But for some reason, Astronema was linked to the ID portal. I don't know how, and I don't know why," he added, before Ty could ask. "But I think she was the one sending all of you back to her dimension."

Ty considered that for a moment, but it was Ashley who asked, "Why do you think that?"

"Because I have magic intuition," Zhane told her. "Quiet."

He saw her lips twitch, but she obediently fell silent.

"When Astronema was here," he told Ty, "she remembered being Kerone there. As soon as she did, she and Astrea switched places again, you were all zapped back here, and a few minutes later the ID portal was destroyed."

"We think," Andros said quietly.

"We think," Zhane echoed. "So I'm guessing that maybe there's some kind of connection between Astronema and that portal." Ashley had obviously been listening earlier when he mentioned that he'd believed that even before Astronema disappeared and took the portal with her, but no one else called him on it.

Ty's burnished yellow gaze said he was thinking about it, though. He held Zhane's eyes until Andros asked, "Ty, did Kristet go home?"

Ty just nodded. Then he seemed to realize what Andros had asked, and his attention refocused. "We need to get her a military ID," he said. "Some of the security we passed gave her a hard time at first."

After the "at first," Zhane heard the unspoken "until they realized who I was." Andros must have heard it too. "I'll talk to Marsie about it tomorrow," he said. "We should be able to get her government clearance too, so she doesn't have to rely on DECA all the time."

"We need to get us some food today," Karen reminded them in her typically unsubtle way.

*Astrea?* Zhane asked silently.

*Here,* her voice answered. *Kae's sleeping. Is everyone back?*

*Yeah. We're talking about going out to get some food.*

*I'm going to stay with Kae,* she told him. *Bring me something back?*

*I'll give you the menu options as soon as I know what they are,* he promised.

"Wake up," Ashley whispered in his ear. "You want to eat on the riverfront or at the skyport?"

"Riverfront," he said immediately.

He could actually hear her smile. "You're lucky then," she told him, "'cause prevailing opinion agrees with you."

Zhane smiled back without turning his head. "That's not why I'm lucky," he murmured, giving her shoulders a squeeze.