The couch creaked as she shifted, leaning into him and pushing him farther back against the cushions. She wouldn't kiss him even after she'd pinned him, and she had the nerve to giggle at his frustration. Even with her laughing and her warm hands driving his senses to distraction, he couldn't focus on anything but her parted lips.

He managed to get one hand free, tangling his fingers in her loose hair as she let him draw her closer, and finally he was allowed to press his mouth to hers. He felt her hand clench spasmodically on his, and she returned his frantic kiss in kind. As alien as she was, she could kiss like no one he'd ever known, and it was pure heaven to have her back in his arms.

*Admit it,* Aura whispered without breaking their kiss. Her voice in his mind was curiously free of an accent, and when he had nothing better to do he sometimes wondered about that. *You like it better with me because you can't take it for granted.*

Her fingers were teasing his skin mercilessly, and he couldn't quite remember when her hand had slid under his shirt. He groaned aloud as she laid her palm flat against his chest, and he could feel her giggle silently at his chagrin. They weren't the only ones at his parents' house right now, and after Friday he had had enough lecturing to last the rest of his life.

*That's not why,* he managed, loosing his grip on her hair to caress her neck. Her gills had opened involuntarily as they always did when she was breathless, and he trailed his fingers across them gently.

She tilted her head instinctively, and her tongue darted across his lips. He pressed his thumb into her palm as she started to draw back and she relaxed again, forgiving him his lapse with another kiss and the lazy circles of her hand on his chest. *Yes it is,* she murmured into his mind. *I know because I like it too.*

He didn't bother to argue, knowing he didn't stand a chance with her lying almost on top of him and every advantage in the world on her side. He didn't know how she could even think at a time like this. He was losing himself once more in blissful oblivion when he heard the telltale click of the latch on the front door.

Carlos swore quietly, rolling out from under her and sliding off the couch to sit on the floor. He dropped his notebook in his lap and grabbed his pre-calc book, giving Aura a quick once-over as she settled herself next to him. She was pulling her hair back again, and while it made her look considerably less tousled it did nothing to hide her gills.

"Breathe," he whispered, grinning at her and tapping the side of his neck.

"Shut up," she hissed, her eyes glittering with amusement. "I am breathing."

There was the sound of running water from the kitchen, and he figured his mother was washing up after her time in the garden. His dad was at work and Gabe was in school, but thanks to an in-class astronomy final and second period study hall, Carlos' first official exam wasn't until tomorrow. Aura had offered to keep him company while he "studied", and that wasn't a suggestion he could refuse.

Footsteps in the kitchen alerted him, and he glanced up as casually as he could when his mother appeared in the doorway. "Did either of you hear the weather this morning?" she inquired, using the dishtowel to dry her hands.

Carlos shook his head, not daring to look over at Aura. "Haven't turned the TV on; sorry. Want us to check now?"

"If you don't mind," she said with a smile. "I'm just going to change out of these clothes, and then I'll be off to the store. It would be nice to know how warm it's supposed to get."

"Sure," Carlos agreed quickly. "Aura, would you hand me the... little black thing by the end of the couch?"

To his relief, his mother didn't wait for the weather with them. He hit the "power" button on the remote and was about to flip to the weather channel when the news caught his attention. "Hey, look," he said, grinning. "It's ten past--you've finally been bumped from the lead story!"

Aura just shook her head. "Has nothing more newsworthy happened in four days?"

"You should have seen it when the Psycho Rangers showed up," he told her, changing the channel. "All anyone could talk about was the Power Rangers coming out of 'retirement'. I think the only reason Andros agreed to answer that reporter's questions about you was so that they'd have something else to put on the news."

"It would be different on Aquitar," she muttered, but she didn't sound particularly upset.

"Sure it would," he said with a grin. "On Aquitar they wouldn't have stopped at asking whether we were involved. They would have wanted details."

Aura made a face at him. "At least it wouldn't have been on news broadcasts for days at a time."

He rolled his eyes. "So you'd rather have one explicit report instead of a dozen vague ones?"

"Yes," she agreed. "That way people stop asking questions."

"Okay," he said, eyeing her speculatively. "In that case, there's something I want to know."

She gave him a quizzical look, and he pushed his pre-calc book off of his knees. "What's going on with Cetaci and Delphinius? Cestria said the strangest thing to me last week... 'Don't mention children in front of Cetaci' I think was the gist of it, but she never got around to explaining why."

Aura shrugged as though it was nothing important, but her smirk belied her outward calm. "Just another fight. I do not know exactly what passed between them, but Delphinius must have made some remark about Cetaci's hypothetical successor."

Carlos winced. "Doesn't he know better than to talk about leadership with her by now?"

Aura's smirk didn't abate. "I'm certain he did it on purpose. He does enjoy provoking her, no less than she deliberately offends him from time to time."

He shook his head. "So this relates to children how?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Ranger gossip?" his mother asked, poking her head into the room again.

"Aura's team," Carlos offered. "Her friends are stranger than she is."

"To say nothing of *your* friends," Aura reminded him with a less than gentle poke.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, pretending to be insulted. "My friends are perfectly normal, thank you very much!"

"Your friends are some of the oddest people I have ever met," she informed him.

"Weather?" his mom reminded them, a small smile on her face.

"Yeah." Carlos pointed at the screen, where the isotherms for most of California were currently being displayed. "Warm."

"Warm," his mom agreed. "Check. Do either of you need anything at the store?

"Oh, Aura," she said before they could answer. "While I have you here, I wanted to ask you about Saturday. Will you want anything special at the graduation party? Can I pick up bottled water or anything else for you?"

"Saturday?" Aura echoed, sounding puzzled.

Carlos glanced at her. "Graduation," he prompted. "You're coming, right?"

She blinked. "Well... if you wish."

"You don't have to," he said quickly. "But you're invited, if you want to come. Graduation is three nights from now, and my parents and Ash's are throwing a party for us the next day."

"The Hammonds are doing most of the work," his mother amended. "Andres and I are just helping with the preparation. I know I speak for the Hammonds when I say that we'd all be delighted to have you there, Aura."

"I--" Aura hesitated, but she looked pleased when she finally agreed. "I will come if I am able. Thank you."

"It's our pleasure," his mother answered with a smile. "I'll be back in an hour or so. Don't forget to study, Carlos. The information doesn't just leap out of the closed book and into your head, you know."

He rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Mom."

She waved, and he heard her pick up her keys on her way through the kitchen. The front door opened, closed, and locked behind her, and he shook his head. It wasn't like the two of them couldn't handle a hypothetical and highly unlikely burglar, but he supposed he would always be son first and Ranger second.

"So," Aura said, capturing his attention with the single word. "Where did we stop?"

Her expression when he looked at her was completely innocent, but he felt a grin spread across his face. "Let me show you," he offered, setting his notebook on top of his textbook and pushing them both aside.

***

"One exam down," Cassie said, dropping her bag inside the door and heading for the sink. "Three to go."

"Two down, for me." Ashley caught the screen door before it could slam, and her backpack joined Cassie's on the floor. "Still three to go. That doesn't seem fair."

"You know what they say," her friend answered, holding her glass under the faucet. "That's the way the cookie crumbles. Want some water?"

"Sure, thanks," Ashley agreed. "And no one says that!"

"I do," Cassie informed her, filling a second glass.

"Since when?"

"Since fifteen seconds ago when I said it," Cassie replied promptly. She came over to the table and proffered one of the water glasses. "Are you going to eat, or study?"

Ashley sighed. "You're asking me to make a decision? I thought we didn't have to do that during finals."

Cassie nodded in sympathetic agreement, twirling her glass to make a miniature whirlpool. "There are always more appealing options, if that's any help. Taking a nap, for one. Or going to the beach..."

"Or taking a nap beside books and food on the beach?" Ashley suggested hopefully.

Cassie laughed. "I like the sound of that!"

"I don't think so," a new voice called, coming from down the hallway.

"Mom?" Ashley set her glass down and peered in the direction of the voice. "I thought you were at work!"

"Mmm... dentist appointment, remember?"

Her mom wasn't coming into the kitchen, so Ashley wandered toward the hall leading to the bedrooms. "Just checking up on us?" she asked lightly, joining her mom in the doorway to her own room.

"I wasn't sure you'd come straight home from school," her mom answered, gazing around the room. "So I stopped in to let Jetson out for a while."

"Thanks," Cassie murmured, as she slipped in to stand next to Ashley. "I really appreciate you guys looking after him all weekend."

"You're welcome... to tell the truth, I think I'm going to miss having a dog around," her mom said with a sigh. "Not as much as I'm going to miss having daughters around," she added with a slight smile, "but enough to notice."

"We're going to miss *being* around," Ashley said fervently, leaning against her mother's shoulder.

Her mom put an arm around her and gave her a fierce hug. Despite that, her voice was light when she teased, "Oh, I don't know about that. I noticed Cassie's already started filling up her frame pack."

Cassie cleared her throat. "It's not that I want to leave..."

"I know, I know." She reached out and drew Cassie closer, putting her other arm around the Pink Ranger's shoulders. "What am I going to do without either of my girls?" she murmured, squeezing them tightly.

"You'll still see us," Ashley promised, forcing the words out around the lump in her throat.

"I'd better." She hugged them again. "You'll always have a home here. Both of you."

Their communicators chimed simultaneously.

"Sorry," Ashley murmured, straightening up. "It's always something."

Her mom shook her head, letting them go with a final squeeze. "It's what you do," she said simply. "You don't have to apologize."

"We'll have to get you guys a boosted comm," Cassie said, speaking to her but catching Ashley's eye briefly. "So we can all call each other without crashing Tommy's place every other night."

"Yeah," Ashley agreed, as their communicators beeped again. "We should do that this weekend.

"This is Ashley," she added, lifting her wrist to speak into her communicator.

"You're needed in the park," DECA replied without preamble. "Psycho Pink has located reinforcements."

***

There was a folded piece of paper tacked to the doorframe when TJ paused on the front steps, and he grinned at the shooting star penciled on the upper lefthand corner. It was addressed simply to "TJ", but he'd recognize Tessa's doodles anywhere.

He pulled it free, sticking the thumbtack back into the doorframe for next time, and unfolded her note. Tessa refused to send e-mail to anyone that lived within "reasonable biking distance", and as a result he had quite a collection of handwritten messages from her. He tried his best to return the favor, but it was a hard habit to get into.

TJ, the note began. I must have just missed you this morning, but I'll see you when I get out of work. Want to do dinner tonight? I haven't been to the Surf Spot in ages.

She had taped a penny to the bottom corner, and he touched it with a smile. She had gotten stationary for Christmas with the words "penny for your thoughts" scrawled across the bottom, and she had felt it needed illustration. The stationary was gone, but the tradition continued.

He was putting his key in the lock when his communicator beeped. TJ rolled his eyes, but it was a gesture without meaning. They had all known what could happen this afternoon. He tapped his morpher, mentally crossing his fingers that "their" three Psycho Rangers hadn't switched sides again.

"It's TJ," he said, pushing the front door open. "What's going on?"

It was DECA's voice that answered. "Psycho Pink is in the park, and she is not alone. The others need your help."

*Damn.* He dropped his bag and tossed Tessa's note on top of it. "Send me there," he said, yanking the door shut behind him.

The world dissipated into sapphire sparkles, only to reform an instant later in the shape of the park. The first thing that crossed his mind was that there were way too many Rangers, and the second was that he was in trouble: the Psycho Rangers hadn't shifted to their armored forms. He had said he could fight enemies that wore his friends' faces, but faced with the reality of the idea, he wasn't so sure.

Ashley wasn't having any trouble--the thought had only just taken shape when he was forced to stop and reassess the situation. Ashley was fighting her own double, but she wasn't alone. She was fighting back to back with--herself?

That was when he saw Justin. Or more accurately, Justin saw him, and was making a beeline for him when TJ registered the motion. He hadn't managed to get out a single word before Justin's spin kick literally knocked him to the ground.

Finally it clicked. It was Justin that did it--the Blue Turbo Ranger had never been able to do that to him without being morphed. Lying on the ground and staring up at the sky, he had a half-second to realize what DECA must not have known when she called him.

They weren't fighting the Psycho Rangers at all. They were fighting the Robot Rangers.

***

"Who are they?" Saryn shouted, slamming a Carlos lookalike to the ground. The Black Ranger's twin rebounded with an impossible twist, and Saryn was forced to duck as the other swung around after him. The fist he had so narrowly avoided splintered bark against the tree behind him on impact.

Then Cassie was there, driving her fist into the doppelganger's solar plexus. It stumbled a little, one step back--just enough to give them a breath of room. "The Robot Rangers were one of Zordon's experiments," she gasped, shaking her hand out. "Bad idea, great execution; it's kind of a long story."

"They're androids?" Saryn evaded another swing and lashed out in return, sweeping the robot Carlos' feet out from underneath him. This time the other stayed down, if only for a moment, and suddenly Kerone appeared at their side.

"Can you morph?" she demanded, whirling her staff over her wrist as she kept an eye out all around. "Anyone who can is going to have to; they're too strong to take otherwise."

He saw Cassie glance in his direction, and he nodded once. They took two steps back, he reaching for his ruby as she threw her right hand forward. "Let's rocket!" he heard Cassie yell, and the Power flooded through him in a roaring flash of crimson.

Robot Carlos was on his feet again, and Kerone was clearly ready to fight--but he moved in the other direction. For a moment Saryn thought he was retreating, but then he saw the other "robots" disengaging from their opponents and moving to join each other. That couldn't be a good sign.

It gave him a moment to glance around, though, and he noted that Psycho Red and Psycho Yellow had fought alongside Andros and Ashley just as they had promised they would. At first it had surprised him that Andros would consider turning them loose, much less in an emergency, but the unwilling presence of Psycho Blue made it clear that he simply didn't trust them on the Megaship alone.

The other Astro Rangers were already morphed, as was Aura, but that was the only other thing Saryn had time to notice before an all-too-familiar cry came from the gathered Robot Rangers. "Shift into Turbo!"

His head jerked around, and he could only stare as Turbo keys appeared in the imposters' hands. In seconds, the Astro Rangers were facing off against a team from the past as the "Turbo Rangers" attacked.

There was no Pink Turbo. Somehow his subconscious had been checking for her, and only as his armor absorbed another well-aimed robot blow did he realize that she wasn't there. The Pink Ranger's place was filled by Psycho Pink, and apparently had been all along. He had never seen the shapeshifter mimic Cassie before, for which he supposed he should be grateful, but he had to wonder what was different now.

"TJ!" Cassie's scream was enough to send fear tearing through his heart, but the Green Robot Ranger seemed to have it in for him. He barely managed to turn enough to see Cassie desperately clawing at the Red Robot Ranger's chokehold.

"It's me, Cassie!" she yelled, struggling against his grip around her neck. "Don't you remember us?"

Even as he managed to call on some inner reserve, forcing his own attacker to the ground, two things happened simultaneously. His Power faltered, a feeling almost as heart stopping as hearing Cassie scream, and the robot holding Cassie let her go.

The Red Robot Ranger spun on his heel and walked away, leaving Cassie on her knees behind him. Saryn couldn't tell if she was down because of the Power fluctuation or because her captor had shoved her there, but he didn't wait to find out. Grabbing her wrist, he hauled her to her feet just as the Green Robot Ranger came at him again.

He braced himself for a block that he knew wouldn't be enough, but the expected blow never landed. Kerone's staff cracked against the robot's arm hard enough to elicit an electrical-sounding "pop", and she jammed the point into his chest before he could recover. A violet discharge traced spidery lines all across his body, and the robot convulsed briefly before collapsing.

"Should have tried that earlier," he heard her mutter, and then she was gone, back to Zhane's side as he fought to keep the Blue Robot Ranger off of Andros.

The teamup didn't last long, for the robot that had shown Cassie mercy was stronger than Ashley and Psycho Yellow combined. Kerone, Zhane, Aura and Carlos were the only ones at their accustomed power levels, which left four Rangers to fight four robots. Not that Andros and Ashley weren't managing to hold their own, with their Psycho Rangers' help, but they certainly weren't doing more than holding their own.

Psycho Blue had refused to join the fray at all, Saryn realized. It was as good as it was bad, he supposed, since there was no telling which side the sullen Psycho would join if he did decide to fight. TJ, unfortunately, was even more disadvantaged for the Psycho's refusal to assist, but at least they weren't in direct competition. Carlos and Aura were covering him adequately.

*Four against four?*

No sooner did the thought register as wrong than he heard Cassie's warning cry, but it was too late. A vicious blow to the junction of neck and shoulder brought him to his knees, his vision greying under the force of a swing even his armor couldn't fully cushion. "Liar," he heard Cassie's voice hiss.

He closed his eyes briefly, knowing he wouldn't be able to do this. He couldn't face Cassie in battle; he had always known that. Why did the universe insist on testing him?

"You said you'd always remember." The voice was Cassie's, and there was more emotion in it than he'd ever heard from Psycho Pink. "You promised me!"

There was no Pink Turbo. Now, abruptly, he realized why. Psycho Pink had not only recruited replacements for her lost "teammates", she had also stolen the memories she had originally been denied--but not from Cassie. She had gotten them from Cassie's Robot Ranger.

"I kept my promise," he said evenly, glad he could not see her face. She must have a weapon trained on him. At close range, his armor might not be enough, and it was the only explanation for Cassie's inaction.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught glimpses of the continuing battle. He thought the Green Robot Ranger hesitated once when Ashley got in his way, but it was hard to tell with things as chaotic as they were. The only thing he was sure of was that the robots must be onto Kerone's staff, for they were all avoiding her with great dedication. He couldn't see Psycho Blue anywhere, and he could only hope that Psycho Pink's "teammate" hadn't abandoned his neutrality.

"You didn't!" Cassie's voice was scathing. "You've never kept a promise in your life! I should know, since most of them you made to me!"

His eyes narrowed, and he tried to keep his tone level. "I made two promises, both to someone who was certainly not you. I kept them both. The fact that you do not know it proves you are not who you pretend to be."

"You're the one who's pretending." Her tone was calmer now, more calculating. "I kept track, you know. Or she did. She knows you don't really lead the Elisian Rangers."

His eyes widened. For a woman whose existence he hadn't even been aware of until today, she was remarkably well informed. He thought about demorphing, but no matter how aware Cassie's Robot Ranger had been, he suspected that it was the image of the Phantom Ranger that she knew best.

So he stayed as he was, climbing slowly to his feet so as not to startle the Psycho Ranger behind him. Turning, he saw that she did indeed hold a replica of Cassie's Astro Blaster, but she had yet to do more than wave it menacingly in his direction. Astro Power and Turbo memories--he wasn't sure how he felt about that combination.

"I may not lead the Elisian Rangers," he said, regarding her as steadily as he could. It helped that she remained morphed. "But they are my teammates, and they always will be. That is a bond stronger than almost anything else in the world. Who are your teammates, Psycho Pink?"

"I don't need teammates," she sneered.

"Then why was my promise so important to you?" He had no idea where those words came from, but it often happened that he didn't know what he was going to say until he said it. "You do have a team--a real team, and they have found something more important than destruction. Can you not bring yourself to join them?"

She didn't answer.

"I fell in love with someone very like you," he said gently, hoping it wasn't the wrong thing to say. "You are not she, but you are just as special. Please... let that person in you live."

She hesitated, but her blaster wavered. "You'll just take me prisoner," she said at last. She didn't sound at all certain, and he wondered how strong those memories were that the Psycho Rangers could lose their own identities in them.

*They never had their own identities.* Cassie's faint thought startled him. He hadn't even realized he had lowered his empathic shields enough to "read" the two of them, and in that moment he knew Mirine was right. He would never be able to hide this for the rest of his life.

"They're not prisoners," Cassie said aloud, when he didn't answer. "Psycho Red and Psycho Yellow were helping us track you. Psycho Blue... well, maybe we didn't want him to leave the Megaship. But that was because you're all still draining our Power, and we weren't really sure we could trust him."

"You won't be able to trust me, either," Psycho Pink informed her.

"I do not believe that," Saryn said firmly. "I have never not been able to trust you."

He was fully aware that he was addressing her as though she was, in fact, Cassie, but it seemed to be working as well as anything else. Her grip on her blaster shifted, and he thought she might be about to lower it--

A ship shot by overhead, banking at an inhumanly steep angle as it arced around for another pass, and confusion and shock started to creep in on him. He pushed the feelings back, clearing his mind of everything but his own emotions, and the barriers that were becoming second nature reasserted themselves.

To his dismay, Psycho Pink had raised her blaster again and was staring around wildly, but the Robot Rangers were down. He only had time to notice that and comprehend that he had missed something before the little fighter had landed, and a shimmering teleportation stream discharged two very familiar looking figures. The first was Justin, and the second was--

Saryn sighed, very quietly. The second was Cassie.

"Hi guys!" the perpetually cheery youth exclaimed. "Did you miss me?"

"Justin!" TJ looked as though he couldn't decide whether to be grateful, exasperated, or wary. "What's going on? Where have you been?"

Psycho Pink's blaster hummed, but when Saryn dared to glance at her, he was relieved to see it pointed at the ground. "I kidnapped him," she declared. She didn't sound particularly remorseful.

"Has she left the dark side or something?" Cassie's double wanted to know. "Why is everyone just standing around?"

"Mostly because we don't know what the hell is going on," Carlos informed her. "Care to enlighten us?"

"Psycho Pink kidnapped me," Justin told him. "She made me reprogram the Psycho Rangers, except for Cassie--Psycho Pink wanted her deactivated. So I pretended to deactivate her, but I really just put her to sleep for a little while. She let me go when she woke up, and we came here."

"Sorry about the mess," Cassie's Robot Ranger added. She sounded sincerely apologetic. "If it had been anyone but Justin and Cassie... It didn't even occur to us not to trust them. The shutdown override only works at close range, unfortunately, so we couldn't do anything until we got here."

Saryn couldn't help being surprised that they even had such an override. No doubt only the Robot Rangers themselves knew what it was. Who would create an android identical to an already existing person in the first place? They were not only redundant, they were unstoppable should anything go wrong.

"Not your fault," TJ was telling robot Cassie. "Thanks for your help--sorry to have inflicted our trouble on you."

"That's what we're here for," robot Cassie said with a smile, putting her hand on Justin's shoulder. "But we owe today to Justin. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him."

Justin shrugged off-handedly. "I'm the one who changed your programming in the first place. I had to do *something* to fix it."

"At gunpoint," robot Cassie reminded him. She glanced at Psycho Pink again. "You didn't exactly have a choice."

"I was doing what I was made to do," Psycho Pink snapped. "Maybe it wasn't right in your eyes, but it's all I knew."

"She's right," Psycho Yellow said unexpectedly. "She didn't know there was anything else--she's less guilty than any of the rest of us, because at least we had your memories."

"She has memories," robot Cassie grumbled. "Mine."

Psycho Pink sounded surprised. "I didn't think you'd remember."

"I know the symptoms of telepathic intrusion," robot Cassie said, so matter-of-factly that Saryn was more curious than ever about this experiment of Zordon's. "I'm glad if it gave you something to live by, but you could have asked first."

"Maybe next time." Psycho Pink's reply was as deadpan as her counterpart's had been, and Saryn raised an eyebrow. What might it be like to know someone as well as they two must right now?

He decided he would probably rather not know.

"As amazingly weird as all this is," Zhane was saying, in a way only he could manage, "I feel like we're overlooking some problems here."

"The Psycho Rangers can't stay on Earth," robot Cassie agreed.

Justin rolled his eyes. "Well, duh!"

Saryn blinked. Ashley said those words in almost exactly the same way. He had never been able to determine the origin of the word "duh", but it did seem prevalent in Angel Grove. It was certainly a versatile word, whatever it meant.

"There's a place for you on Eltare, if you want it," robot Cassie offered. "Believe me, we can teach you all about living with memories that aren't your own."

"That's not quite what I meant," Zhane interrupted. "The Psycho Rangers are draining the Astro Power, whether they mean to or not, and if it keeps up half the team won't be able to morph."

"We may not need to," Andros said unexpectedly.

Saryn wasn't the only one who turned to stare at him for that. How long did Andros think they were talking about? The Psychos' tap on their Power wasn't going to go away on its own, no matter how long they ignored it. It could even, conceivably, render the Astro Rangers completely powerless if left uncorrected long enough.

"Think about it," Andros said into the silence. "Except for the Psycho Rangers, Earth hasn't come under serious attack in almost a year."

"Yeah," TJ muttered. "And except for Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, nuclear power has a great safety record."

"Look," Andros said firmly. "It's not like Dark Spectre's still out there to send the forces of evil crawling into every corner of the universe. Evil's still recovering from his destruction, and thanks to the Alliance the forces of good are more organized than ever. If there's a problem it's not like Earth will be defenseless, or even on the front lines."

The words Andros left unspoken hung in the air, and Saryn knew he wasn't the only one to be aware of them. "What did you expect? We're splitting up after this weekend anyway, and none of us would have agreed to it if there were a real threat here."

"Although I agree with the sentiment," Saryn said aloud, "allowing a drain of this nature to continue unchecked for a long period of time is not practical."

"I'm not saying we should let it continue," Andros answered cryptically.

Saryn raised an eyebrow at him. "You have something else in mind?"

For answer, Andros lifted his left wrist and tugged his morpher off. He held it up without a word, then offered it to Zhane.

Zhane just stared at him. "You've got to be kidding me."

Andros shook his head. "The Psycho Rangers can only draw on the Power through us. If we give up our connection to the Astro Power, so do they."

"That's a little drastic, don't you think?" robot Cassie asked.

"DECA can keep them safe for us until we need them again," Andros replied. "They won't be in any danger of falling into the wrong hands. And in the meantime, maybe we'll appreciate the Power more if we have to do without it for a while."

Again, the unspoken words were there. "Maybe it's time for a new start."

"What if it doesn't work?" Ashley asked softly. It was hard to tell whether she was responding to Andros' words or to the subtext.

"It will," Psycho Red assured her. His tone was thoughtful, and perhaps slightly admiring. "The Power drain has to be continuous. Once it's broken, it's broken for good. It can't be reestablished."

Ashley seemed to consider that, but in the end she just reached for her morpher and slid it off over her hand. She, too, tossed it to Zhane, and then twisted her left wrist experimentally. "Feels weird," she remarked, her tone noncommittal.

Andros glanced around at the others, ignoring the fallen Robot Rangers that Justin would have to reprogram before reactivation, letting his gaze slide across the Psycho Rangers who had fought, if not all with them, then at least not against them. Though he didn't exclude Kerone, Aura, Saryn, or even Zhane, he picked out his original teammates with his eyes.

"This is a personal choice," Andros said, his voice quiet but strong enough to reach all of them. "They're not my morphers anymore; they're yours. They'll always be yours, whether you take them off today or not. Keep them or don't, but know that DECA will never deny their true owners access to them."

Out of the corner of his eye, Saryn saw Cassie unfasten her morpher and lift it carefully off of her wrist. A moment later and several steps away, TJ followed suit. Carlos hesitated a little longer--his Power wasn't, after all, being drained--but at last he pulled his morpher off with the rest of them and handed it to Aura. She looked a little startled at the gesture, but she didn't object.

"I became a Ranger because of you," Zhane said, pulling out his Digimorpher. "No way am I keeping it without you."

Andros didn't look surprised, but he gave Zhane a fond smile that he seemed to reserve for no one else. "It's settled, then. We'll try life as non-active Rangers for a while.

"But first," Andros added, gazing around once more, "we'll help Justin with our friends. Someone has to have seen that fight, so let's get them back to the Megaship before the reporters arrive."

It was the work of maybe a minute and a half to organize the Robot Rangers, the Psycho Rangers, and what Ashley laughingly called "the Astro Rangers and co." When Kerone finally reached for her communicator to single the Megaship, Zhane predicted, "DECA's going to freak out when she sees this many of the same people."

They were the last words Saryn heard before the sparkle of teleportation proved the Silver Ranger wrong.