Disclaimer: Saban created the Astro Rangers, and script writers took them through a two-season saga of space. Fanfic authors just carry on the insanity.

Awakening
by Starhawk

An old, familiar, six-tone beep broke into Ashley's concentration, and she started. It had been a long time since she'd heard that sound, and though she'd missed it at first, the high-pitched noise now sounded out of place coming from her wrist.

Setting her morpher down, she tapped her old communicator. "What's up, Carlos?"

"I've almost got this camera up and running," he answered, his voice sounding more tinny than usual on the smaller speaker. "Mostly, I'm just bored. How are you doing?"

Ashley sighed, stretching. "I'm not sure. The rest of the equipment that was affected by the damping field started working as soon as we left it, but our morphers seem to be permanently damaged."

"Hmm," Carlos said noncommittally. Over the communicator, she heard the snap of metal clicking into place, and he said, "I was asking about you, actually. How do you feel?"

She shrugged, glancing down at the micropic she still held in her left hand. "Whatever DECA gave me must have worked, 'cause I'm not having any trouble with these tools." Her head throbbed as she refocused her eyes, and she winced. "The painkiller's wearing off, though."

"Well, go get some more," Carlos suggested. There was another pause, and she thought she heard the tiny whirring sound of the camera's motor. Then the Bridge's main viewscreen lit up, and there was Carlos, staring sternly out of the monitor.

"Move along, young lady," he said, mimicking Principal Kaplan's voice, and Ashley dissolved into giggles.

"You got the camera working," she managed.

He grinned. "Yeah. Not bad, if I do say so myself."

"I don't know," she said, getting herself under control. "Isn't it against school policy to impersonate the principal?"

Carlos snorted. "What's vacation for, if not for making fun of everyone at school?"

*School.* Somehow, the word hit home in a way that the reminder of Kaplan had not. "Carlos," she said slowly. "What's today?"

He shrugged, looking puzzled by her sudden mood swing. "Wednesday, I think. Why?"

"No, I mean the date." Thinking back, she could call to mind only a vague impression of mid-August. Lost in the laziness of summer, she hadn't been paying attention to the passage of time, and since last weekend, she'd been too busy to care.

"On Earth, it is the nineteenth of August," DECA interjected.

Carlos whistled. "How did it get so late?"

"We go back to school in two weeks," Ashley said softly.

Neither of them said anything for a few moments. *Time's running out for this kind of rescue mission,* she thought, wondering what they would do if the others did not manage to rescue Zordon, if he were still imprisoned come September.

*Or worse--what if Dark Spectre manages to drain all his Power by then?* With that kind of strength, the forces of evil would be nearly unstoppable, and she suspected Earth would be one of the first casualties. "School" would become a word with no meaning at all.

Just then, DECA broke into her musing again, this time with a non sequitur. "Aberration detected in the healing chamber."

Ashley frowned, her thoughts drawn abruptly back to the present. *The healing chamber?*

"What?" The confusion in Carlos's voice told her that it wasn't just her. "You mean the Medical bay?"

"There is an aberration in the healing chamber," DECA repeated. "Alert: life signs are fluctuating."

"*Whose* life signs?" Carlos demanded.

"That information is classified," DECA answered. "Aberration detected in the--"

"We know, we know," Ashley cut her off. "What are you talking about?"

"Alert," DECA replied calmly. "Life signs are fluctuating."

Carlos rolled his eyes. "I'm coming up there."

"No, Carlos, wait." Ashley leaned forward, setting the micropic down and tapping the console in front of her. Calling up the ship's schematics, she asked, "DECA, show me where the problem is."

The computer hesitated for a moment. Then, apparently deciding that Ashley's request did not violate any programming codes, DECA complied. A small area next to the engine room lit up, blinking red as DECA repeated, "Alert: life signs are fluctuating."

"Ash?" Carlos asked impatiently, obviously tired of listening to DECA's monotone.

Ashley squinted at the monitor, wondering if her vision was failing her again. Try as she might, she could see no lines or labeling around that blinking light. *But the rest of the schematic is perfectly clear,* she realized. *It can't be my eyes…*

"I have a location," she said at last. "But according to this, there's nothing there."

Carlos sighed. "Probably a malfunction."

"There is an aberration in the healing chamber," DECA reminded them. "Alert: life signs are fluctuating."

"On the other hand, I'm not listening to *that* for the rest of the afternoon," Carlos growled. "Let's go check it out."

"Right," Ashley agreed. "The indications I have put the--" she paused. "Aberration, I guess--right outside of the engine room."

"I'll meet you there," Carlos said, reaching up to terminate the video link.

Ashley nodded, and the screen went dark. She climbed to her feet carefully, breathing a sigh of relief when the room didn't spin. She made it to the door before her headache caught up with her again, and she paused a moment to squeeze her eyes shut. *Should have listened to Carlos,* she thought ruefully.

She forced herself to ignore it, making her way to the engine room with no worsening of the discomfort. She stopped outside, leaning against the doorway for just a second to press two fingers to each temple. She must have been there longer than she thought, for the next thing she knew, Carlos's concerned voice was asking her if she was all right.

She opened her eyes, realizing only then that they had been closed, and lowered her hands. "I'm okay," she said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "I should have taken your advice and gotten DECA to give me another painkiller."

"Alert," DECA interrupted for the tenth time, and Ashley winced.

Carlos glared at the nearest camera. "DECA--shut up."

DECA obediently fell silent, and Ashley sighed. "Thank you."

"No problem," Carlos said, with another dark look at DECA's camera. "Let's get you to the Medical bay so you can get something for that headache."

"No," she protested. "I want to figure out what DECA's so upset about first. I'll be okay, really."

Carlos nodded reluctantly, accepting her judgement. "Right. Let's find this 'aberration' quickly, then."

Ashley straightened, stepping away from the doorway and into the engine room. "The place DECA indicated on the schematics was in this direction…"

They headed left along the wall the engine room shared with the corridor. "There's no door in the hall outside," Carlos observed. "So if there's any way to get to this mysterious place, it has to be in here."

"Unless you come from above or below," Ashley pointed out, surveying the corner they now faced. There was no evidence of a door they might have overlooked these past months, indeed, no sign of any kind of opening at all.

"DECA, what's on the other side of this wall?" Carlos asked.

"That information is classified," DECA said primly. Apparently deciding that Carlos's question negated his earlier command, she continued to repeat her warning. "An aberration has been detected in the healing chamber."

"The healing chamber," Ashley repeated, before DECA could continue. "Is *that* what's behind this wall?"

"That information--"

"Is classified; yeah, we know," Carlos interrupted. "Look, DECA, if you don't tell us how to get in there, how are we supposed to fix this aberration?"

The computer seemed to consider that. "Andros is the only person authorized to enter the healing chamber," DECA told them at last.

Ashley sighed. "Well, he's not here, is he. If there's someone in there who needs help, we're the only ones who can give it."

There was a moment's pause. Then, without warning, a section of wall slid open, and dim lighting spilled out into the shadows of the engine room. Ashley glanced at Carlos, seeing the surprise on his face. Even she hadn't been completely convinced that DECA's alert was anything more than a computer glitch--after all, Andros had never said anything about a "healing chamber", and there was no reference to this place in the Megaship's databanks.

The proof was here in front of them, though, and she took a tentative step forward. When the movement didn't trigger any sort of alarm, she continued into the hidden room, feeling Carlos right on her heels.

A quiet beeping that no one could mistake for anything but a heart monitor reached her ears as soon as she entered, and she turned instinctively toward it. The only two objects in the room were a hexagonal tower that was clearly the source of the beeping, and what looked like some kind of medical stasis unit.

"That looks like the biostasis unit we used to have in the Power Chamber," Carlos said, echoing her thoughts.

She nodded, approaching the tower with trepidation. "It looks like there's someone alive in there."

"Life signs are fluctuating," DECA said, her voice overloud in the almost silent room. Ashley glanced over her shoulder, catching sight of the single camera mounted on the wall behind them.

"That's bad, right?" Carlos asked uncertainly.

Ashley shrugged, turning back to the tower, where a readout on the occupant's condition was displayed. "How would I know?" The beeping of the heart monitor was holding steady, but a display to its left was flashing red. "This is a lot more sophisticated than the one we used on Earth."

Suddenly, below the flickering display, a text readout appeared: "Auto healing deactivated." She exchanged worried looks with Carlos. The words vanished, to be replaced by: "Suspension terminating."

"Suspension terminating?" Carlos repeated. That was all they had time for before the seal on the translucent lid broke, and a hydraulic hiss sounded in the small room as the cover lifted away from the bottom of the unit.

***

*For the second time in less than five years, the colony world of KO-35 was burning. The defense force fought valiantly, but the fact was that they were merely postponing the inevitable. Even with the help of the Rangers, there would be barely enough firepower to cover the colonists' retreat.

But they would never give up. This planet, a little blue-green marble on the outskirts of League space, had become their home. It was so far from anywhere, even the other frontier worlds, that only its perfect climate had made it a viable target for colonization efforts--but those efforts had brought a select group of people here, and they would not surrender it without a fight.

They had run once. Once, a seemingly random attack had forced them to fight with the limited resources of a newly established colony. Too far from the League's official borders to get help in time, they had been forced to evacuate.

For four years, they had waited for a chance to go home. The recent victories over Dark Spectre had given them hope that they might finally achieve their dream--Elisia, Aron, and Calijyt had all repelled invasion attempts, and they had become rallying points for a counterattack. Dark Spectre was pushed back again and again, and reclaiming KO-35 had become a realistic goal.

This was the result. Dark Spectre had fallen back, all right, but not for long enough. The series of defeats had barely made a dent on his forces, and they came back stronger than ever. KO-35, once a random target, was now a matter of pride for the Monarch of evil, and he was determined to make it fall with the rest of the League's primary border.

The colonists knew it--but they weren't going to make it easy.

The defense force battled on even as fire ravaged their rebuilt cities, and pirahnatrons swarmed through the streets. A cheer went up as the last civilian transport soared by overhead, a fighter escort trailing it into the safety of hyperspace, but the fighting did not abate. They had abandoned their home once, and this was their chance to make the enemy pay before they had to do it again.

Two Kerovan Rangers fought side by side, augmenting the defense force tenfold. They knew they had no chance against these numbers--the border knew the tale of Elisia's team by heart--but it did not keep them from trying. The one in red plowed heedlessly through the ranks of pirahnatrons, distancing himself from his friend as he sought revenge for all the hurt in his life, and the silver-clad figure let him go. He had his own scores to settle.

But the two could never be truly separated, no matter the physical distance--Zhane heard Andros's cry echo in his mind even through the battle rage in his skull. He swung his blade in a violent arc that dispatched his opponent without another thought and spun around, searching for the telltale flash of red.

Andros was not far from his own position, knocked to the ground by one of the monsters Dark Spectre had loosed on the besieged planet. Zhane had vowed long ago that Andros was one friend he would never, *ever* fail, no matter what the cost, and this time was no exception. Even as the monster raised his weapon to deliver the killing blow, Zhane was at the Red Ranger's side.

With no time to move Andros, and no room to fight without injuring his friend, he threw himself forward. The blow that had been meant for Andros caught Zhane full in the chest, but his momentum carried him into the monster and he took the alien being with him as he fell.

The resulting explosion deafened him, but he heard Andros's scream in his mind as the world went dark around him. His last feeling was sorrow, his last coherent thought an apology. *Forgive me, my friend, for leaving you…**

*As so many others have before,* he thought into the freezing darkness. The chill was welcome after the heat that the explosion had sent tearing through his uniform, but as he clenched his hands--realizing as he did so that he could--he felt fingertips pressing against bare palms.

*Could the explosion have completely destroyed my uniform?* He immediately rejected that thought, for it was the nature of Ranger uniforms to regenerate--*my digimorpher.* Somehow, he must have lost it in the effort to take the monster down. That was the only thing that could account for his demorphed state.

Suddenly, it occurred to him to wonder how he was still aware. *I should be dead,* Zhane thought, blinking his eyes open. Or at least--*I must have been unconscious,* he realized. *Andros brought me back to Rayven, and I've been recovering here.*

The thought that he was no longer on KO-35--that it was, in all probability, several days after the attack that he remembered happening only seconds ago--was unsettling, to say the least. He reached out instinctively, seeking a familiar thought pattern.

It had been with him this whole time, from the beginning of the battle to the end, from the moment when his awareness had shifted from the field of combat to wherever he now found himself. The thoughts were subtly different now than they had been only moments before, but reminded himself that days had likely passed for Andros. Naturally he would be thinking differently than he had in the middle of the fighting.

*Andros?* Zhane asked, staring up at the translucence above him that was only now beginning to register. *What happened? Are you all right?*

There was a strange hesitation in the way his friend answered, as though he was being distracted, or was simply out of practice. Of course, that was ridiculous--Andros was the most focused person he'd ever met in his life. No one could distract *him*, and the thought that he was out of practice was equally laughable.

*I'm all right,* Andros answered at last. *How are *you*?*

Zhane frowned. Whatever this plastic was that had been positioned above him, he didn't like it. *Well, I'm in a coffin. Other than that, I feel fine.*

*Push up,* the thought came back. *It's designed to open from the inside.*

He did so, and the omnipresent hum, noticeable only in its absence, ceased as soon as he moved. Placing his hands against the lightweight plastic, he pushed, hearing something click as he applied pressure. Then the covering lifted away, and he blinked in the soft silvery luminescence that surrounded him.

He knew immediately that he was *not* on Rayven. For one thing, the lighting in every medical wing he'd ever been in was almost painfully bright. And for another, he knew every single person in the group that called KO-35 home by sight if not by name, and the two people standing over him were utterly unfamiliar.

*Andros.* He sat up, distantly surprised that he could do so with no twinge of pain. He didn't take his eyes off the strangers, noting that they were regarding him as warily as he was watching them. *Where am I?*

*I'm sorry,* Andros's voice replied instantly, as though he'd been expecting this question. *I wanted to be there when you woke up, to explain… You're on the Megaship.*

"Hi," the girl before him offered hesitantly, interrupting the conversation. She was beautiful, he thought, noticing her sparkling brown eyes and charming smile for the first time. "I'm Ashley," she said, holding her right hand out.

He ignored it, still studying her. She wore a Kerovan uniform--indeed, they both did--but there was a conspicuous lack of any type of morpher. *Who are *they*?* he demanded, projecting an image of the two in front of him. There was a moment's pause, and he tensed, ready to defend himself at a single word from Andros.

*They're--friends,* Andros answered at last.

He didn't understand, but if that was true, he owed these people some semblance of courtesy. A memory from a function on Eltare tugged at his memory, and he caught the girl's hand before she could withdraw it. Giving her his most endearing smile, he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it.

"I'm Zhane," he told the startled girl. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Letting go of her hand, he nodded to her companion. "Carlos," the other said, in what Zhane assumed was an introduction.

"Forgive my rudeness, earlier," he apologized to both of them. "You have to understand that I woke with no knowledge of where I am, or, to be blunt, who you are. But Andros says you're friends, so I'm sure you're trustworthy."

The two exchanged glances, and he wondered exactly where they had come from. Andros's teammates had given up the Power soon after they had come to Rayven, and Zhane couldn't believe that they had reclaimed their positions within the last few days. And the girl--

He looked more closely at her face. He had known Andros's younger sister indirectly, as the sibling his best friend was almost unnaturally fond of. She had joined the boys on several of their excursions when they were younger, but she had been abducted so long ago that he had trouble calling her features to mind. There was only one thing he was sure of: this was *not* Kerone.

"Andros?" the girl--Ashley--asked. "Andros told you that we're friends?"

*Andros, who's Ashley?* Zhane wanted to know, wondering what could have made his friend allow someone to take his sister's place. Andros had always been adamant about the yellow morpher--it was not to be used until Kerone returned to either claim or refuse it.

*Ashley…* The thought trailed off, and Zhane frowned.

"You're not his friends?" he asked, puzzled both by her reaction and Andros's hesitation.

"We are," Ashley hurried to assure him. "It's just that--" She looked to her friend for help.

"Ashley's my--girlfriend,* Andros said at last, and Zhane choked.

"Your girlfriend?" he exclaimed out loud, and Ashley blushed.

"Who are you talking to?" Carlos demanded.

"Andros, of course," Zhane told him. He had thought that had been obvious.

"How?" Ashley wanted to know, still looking a little uncomfortable. He shouldn't have embarrassed her like that, but Andros's words had startled him beyond politeness for a moment.

*I was only gone for two weeks!* He didn't mean to project the thought, but knew Andros had heard it anyway. *Couldn't you have said something on the transport?*

"Mental telepathy," he told Ashley with a smile. It surprised many people that he and Andros, outwardly so different, were close enough to share thoughts. "We've always been able to do it, ever since we were little."

*Zhane…* Andros's thought came right on top of Carlos's startled exclamation.

"Telepathy?" He gave Zhane an odd look, shooting another glance in Ashley's direction.

*It's been a lot longer than you think,* Andros continued, oblivious to Zhane's distraction.

*What do you mean?* Zhane asked, giving Carlos a strange look of his own. "Of course, telepathy." He held his hands out to his sides, emphasizing the absence of his digimorpher.

*Zhane--the attack on KO-35 was two years ago.* Andros's mental voice was soft, but his words were impossible to ignore. *You were hurt in the explosion, so badly I didn't think you'd ever recover. You've been in hypersleep ever since.*

If Zhane hadn't already been sitting, his knees would have given out on him. "Two *years*?" he whispered incredulously.

"Hey," Ashley said, stepping closer with a concerned look on her face. "Are you all right?"

He looked up at her in total noncomprehension. "I've been asleep for two *years*?"

She sat next to him, motioning her friend to his other side. "Is that--did Andros tell you that?"

Zhane nodded slowly, trying to reorient himself. Two years…

*I'm sorry,* Andros said again. *I wanted to be with you when you woke up.*

"Well, if Andros said it, it's true," Ashley said with such conviction that he knew she believed every word, and Zhane couldn't help but smile a little.

"You have a lot of faith in him," he observed, scrutinizing her calm expression as she nodded.

*I see what you like about her,* he told his friend.

*Yeah, well, don't get any ideas,* Andros retorted, and Zhane's smile widened.

*I don't think you have anything to worry about,* he assured the other. *Her eyes light up every time someone says your name. I wouldn't have a chance--not that I would try,* he added hastily, hoping Andros hadn't taken that the wrong way.

*I know,* Andros replied. *Are you all right now? We'll head back as soon as we can, but we're sort of in the middle of something.*

Zhane couldn't help but notice Andros's use of "we". Since when had the Kerovan team been reformed? He was careful not to let Andros overhear the thought, but he couldn't help the faintest twinge of jealousy. He had been all Andros had for years--sharing his best friend was going to take some getting used to.

*I'm all right,* he promised, letting the telepathic bond fade a little. *Let me know when you're on your way back…*

He heard Andros agree, and then there was nothing but the subtle awareness of his friend's presence in the back of his mind. Ashley was watching him carefully, and he gave her and Carlos his full attention, figuring that he was going to have to get to know them at some point.

"You were talking to Andros just now, weren't you," Ashley said. Despite her words, it was more of a statement than a question.

He nodded, feeling Carlos shift on his other side. The other boy seemed far more suspicious of him than she did, possibly because of his obvious protectiveness toward Ashley. "Yes--he says he's in the middle of something?"

"That's one way to put it," Ashley agreed, glancing at Carlos. Those glances were really starting to bother him--every time they exchanged looks, it reminded him of just how much he didn't know. "How do you--talk to him like that?"

With that question, another piece of the puzzle clicked into place. "You're not Kerovan." He felt silly as soon as he said it--of course they weren't--but the fact had not really registered until now.

"No," Ashley agreed. "We're from Earth."

"But you are human," he said, just to make sure. They looked it, but appearances could be deceiving.

She smiled. "KO-35 isn't the only place where humans live."

Carlos chuckled at that, and Zhane couldn't help feeling that he had missed some private joke. Ashley must have noticed his confusion, for she apologized. "Sorry about that--it's something Andros said once about Earth. I've been waiting for a chance to get him back, and I guess I took it out on you."

Zhane smiled warmly at her. "I'm guessing he didn't say it as politely as you did, then."

"No," Carlos agreed. "He certainly didn't."

"But you were saying," Ashley prompted, dragging the conversation back to her original question. "About telepathy?"

Zhane shrugged. "It's just something we can do. I don't really know what to tell you."

"Like telekinesis?" Carlos suggested, and Zhane looked up in surprise.

"Andros uses his telekinesis in front of you?"

"Yeah," Ashley said. "He does it all the time."

Carlos shifted again. "I wouldn't say 'all the time'. Once in a while, maybe."

Ashley cocked her head. "Really? Maybe you just don't notice anymore--he uses it a lot. Did you see him this morning at breakfast?"

"The ketchup?" Carlos raised an eyebrow. "Sure. But before that, I hadn't seen him use it for days."

"No way," Ashley protested.

Zhane watched, amused, as they argued. It was obvious to him what was happening, but they couldn't seem to see it. Around Ashley, Andros used telekinesis "all the time", while around Carlos, it was an infrequent occurrence.

He grinned. His friend was showing off for a girl. *Never thought I'd see the day,* Zhane mused.

"Anyway," he said, breaking into what was rapidly becoming a heated debate, "telepathy isn't really the same as telekinesis. You can practice telepathy, and get better at it, but the connection has to exist already. You can't do it with just anyone; you have to think alike to a certain extent for it to work."

"So," she said slowly, the previous argument forgotten, "if I were going to talk to Andros that way, what would I do?"

Zhane hesitated, seeing the seriousness of her expression. "It doesn't work for everyone," he repeated at last. "It happens or it doesn't--it's not something you can just decide to do."

"You can," she pointed out.

"But Andros and I have been talking that way since we were little," Zhane said, not sure how to disillusion her without hurting her. "Most people can only do it with a very small number of people--Andros is the *only* one I can talk with telepathically."

Ashley sighed. "I understand. I'd just like to try, even if it doesn't work."

"She can do telekinesis," Carlos interjected unexpectedly.

"Really?" Zhane looked at her with interest, and she blushed.

"Andros has been teaching me," she murmured.

If hearing that Andros used his telekinesis in front of them had surprised Zhane, the fact that Andros had been *teaching* someone astonished him. His friend had grown more and more reluctant to move things telekinetically after his sister had been kidnapped, to the point where he would get up and walk across an empty room rather than summon an object to him mentally.

During those first few weeks on Rayven, Zhane had not been sure Andros was still using the skill at all. One evening, though, he had found the other Ranger alone, staring at the old telekinesis ball he had used when he was younger. Sensing his friend's sadness, he had tried to lighten the mood by snatching it out of Andros's hands and tossing it into the air, letting it expand as it went.

Andros had whirled, anger written all over his face, and the ball had slammed to the ground behind him. Startled, Zhane had stammered an apology, and Andros, to his infinite surprise, had burst into tears. Not knowing what else to do, Zhane had walked into the room and hugged his friend hard.

They had stayed together until Andros calmed down a little, and ever since, Zhane had been the only one Andros would consciously use telekinesis around. But he had *never* offered to teach another person after his sister, and Zhane had known better than to ask.

"All right," he agreed at last, the memory fading as he regarded her determined expression. "I'll tell you what I know--but don't be surprised if nothing happens."

He didn't mean to sound so discouraging, but the fact was that the chances of her actually making Andros hear her were practically nil. He wasn't even sure how to explain what they did. How did you teach someone to speak, after all?

But she looked so eager that he couldn't say no. "The way it was explained to me was as a kind of focus," he said, thinking back to the lessons they had been given when it was discovered they were communicating without speaking.

Even as he remembered, though, he realized this couldn't work. He had always been aware of Andros on some level, in some part of his mind, even when he was thinking about something else entirely. And it was that awareness that the two of them had been trained to use and talk through. As he had told Ashley before, you either had it or you didn't.

He tried to explain anyway, suspecting she would not be satisfied with that answer. "If telepathy is a sense, like vision," Zhane told her, "then talking to someone is like reading. The person you're talking to is the book, and you have to narrow your focus to just them. Their thoughts are the storyline, and in order to be able to understand them, you have to know what's happened before in the book."

She looked puzzled, but not frustrated. "Telepathy isn't like speaking out loud," he said, trying a different comparison. "When you talk to, say, Carlos here, the words you use all have the same meaning. Even if you'd never seen Carlos before in your life, you could understand what he was saying--assuming you were speaking the same language.

"With telepathy, it's not the same at all. Thoughts aren't absolute, the way words are, and the only way you can understand another person's thoughts is by understanding the *person*."

He stopped, seeing her frown. "I'm not explaining this very well, am I."

"I think I see what you mean," Carlos said, surprising him. "But I still don't understand how you do it."

Zhane sighed. "It's not really something you understand--it's just something you *do*. When you first started talking, did you understand how you were doing it, or did you just make noise until you said something that someone understood?"

Ashley had closed her eyes, he realized suddenly. She looked as though she was concentrating, so he said nothing more, waiting for her to give up.

Her eyes flew open at exactly the same moment that he heard Andros yelp, *Zhane! What's going on?*

Zhane's eyes widened. *She couldn't have…* But Ashley looked pale, even in the washed out lighting of this spartan room, and from Andros's startled exclamation, he suspected his friend was in much the same state.

"What?" Carlos demanded, seeing them lock gazes. "What happened?"

"I'm… not sure," Zhane said, still staring at Ashley. "Did you--hear something?"

"I could have sworn I heard Andros," she breathed.

*Zhane,* Andros repeated insistently. *I know Ashley's voice, and *that* was Ashley. *What* is going on?*

"He heard you too," Zhane told Ashley ruefully, putting a hand to the side of his head. "And I'm getting an earful about it."

*She wanted to know how I was talking to you,* he tried to explain. *And then she wanted to try it--*

*It's okay,* Andros answered, cutting him off, and he felt his friend's attention shifting. Something was taking the Red Ranger's full attention, and Zhane stopped talking to let him concentrate.

"Did I distract him?" Ashley asked worriedly.

"I think 'distract' would be an understatement," Zhane told her wryly. "He says it's all right, but he's trying to focus on something else right now."

Ashley looked chagrinned. "I didn't think it would work," she murmured apologetically.

"Oh, don't worry about it," he said lightly, trying to cover his own worry over what could be taking so much of Andros's attention. "Andros can use a little shaking up."

Sliding off the surface on which he had woken up, he added, "Let's get out of this closet. I want to see what Andros did to my room in all this time."

Ashley jumped off the stasis unit as well, laughing. "I'm sure it's just the way you left it. Did you stay on the Megaship often?"

He stopped suddenly, staring at her. "I *live* here--well, I used to." The two years he had been unconscious crashed home once more, and he wondered what else had changed in that time.

She looked a little taken aback, but she covered it up quickly. "Well, let's go look around. You can tell us everything, and we'll try and catch you up."

The sincere smile she flashed in his direction kept her words from being condescending, and he agreed. She bounced forward to take his arm, and he sensed her friend flanking him on the other side, almost like an honor guard--*or a prison watch.* He shook the thought away and let Ashley lead him out of the dim illumination and into the heart of the Megaship.

***

"He's the Silver Ranger," Andros was telling them, as the Delta Megaship set down. "We were a team for almost four years, until KO-35 was attacked during the recolonization attempt. He's been healing in hypersleep ever since."

"Why didn't you tell us?" TJ wanted to know, shutting the engines down.

The thrusters went offline a moment later, but Andros didn't turn around. "You never asked," he said simply.

TJ gave Cassie a wry glance, and she rolled her eyes. *And what were we supposed to say?* he wondered rhetorically. *Hey, Andros, you don't happen to have anybody hanging around the ship in cryogenic stasis, do you?*

Granted, the near-death of your best friend wasn't something that came up over breakfast. But the possibility of a sixth Ranger awakening on the Megaship did seem important enough to warrant comment by Andros at *some* point.

Before he could press the issue, though, Andros warned them, "I'm teleporting us off the Delta Megaship."

The desert shimmered into view around them as they reformed just outside the Megaship's ramp, and TJ had to wonder if Andros had something against ship-to-ship teleportation. Then he heard Cassie's wordless exclamation, and he turned to see Phantom, eyes closed, suddenly leaning heavily on her.

Andros went to help support him, and TJ unclipped the scanner from his belt. It had a medical mode--not much more than first aid diagnosing ability, but sufficient for emergencies. He turned it on Phantom. The other Ranger tried to protest, but Cassie shushed him.

TJ raised an eyebrow at the readout. *That's one that never occurred to us,* he thought, almost amused by the diagnosis.

"I am only tired," Phantom said, but TJ shook his head.

"No, you're not." He turned the scanner around so the others could see it. "You're hypoglycemic. Low blood sugar," he clarified, when no one said anything. "When did you last eat?"

He heard Cassie try to stifle a laugh. "Should have thought of that," she muttered, a smile on her face despite her best efforts.

Andros looked up suddenly. "Zhane's on his way," he murmured. Then, realizing that all eyes were on him, he added, more loudly, "Ashley and Carlos are with him."

"Well, I don't want to be rude or anything," Cassie began, "but would your friend be terribly offended if Phantom and I weren't here to meet him?"

Even as Andros shook his head, Phantom objected, "I can find my own way to your Glider holding bay. There is no need for you to come with me, Cassie."

"Oh, yes there is," she told him sharply. "With your luck, you'll faint on your way there and we won't even know until we go to have dinner ourselves."

Phantom finally agreed, and TJ couldn't help grinning. Cassie had no qualms about bullying their headstrong ally into doing whatever she wanted. And it worked, every time--he wondered if she realized the power she wielded, for it was obvious there was nothing she couldn't talk Phantom into.

The two disappeared into the Megaship while TJ and Andros waited outside for the others. TJ still didn't know quite what to make of Andros's newly revealed telepathy, but he couldn't miss the fact that Andros looked up several seconds before Ashley's voice echoed down the hallway.

It was only moments later that their teammates appeared at the top of the ramp. Carlos settled for a cheerful wave, but Ashley ran down the ramp toward Andros with enviable abandon. She stopped just short of throwing herself into his arms, and looked delighted when he pulled her into a fierce hug anyway.

TJ smiled, looking away from them and back toward the Megaship. A blond-haired boy joined Carlos on the ramp, blinking in the bright sunlight, and TJ assumed that this was the Zhane they had heard nothing about until today.

Dressed in a black version of the Astro Rangers' own uniforms, with a silver-gray shirt beneath his jacket, Zhane smiled at the couple at the bottom of the ramp. "It's about time you found a girl," he opined, just loudly enough for Andros to hear.

TJ raised an eyebrow, shifting his gaze to meet Carlos's. He wasn't sure how he expected Andros to respond to the jibe, but it certainly wasn't with a retort of his own.

"That's a good one, coming from you," Andros shot back, keeping an arm around Ashley's shoulders as he gazed up at his friend. "The person who can't make any relationship last for more than two weeks!"

Carlos ducked his head, obviously trying to hide laughter. Zhane grinned, not at all fazed by the accusation, and TJ was amazed to see an answering smile on Andros's face. The Red Ranger stepped away from Ashley and walked up the ramp, and Zhane turned to face him.

For an instant, the two just stood there, looking each other over. The setting sun cast a surreal glow over everything, framing the two warriors in the Megaship's main hatch and bathing them in a crimson radiance.

Then the moment was gone, as Andros held out his right arm in a movement that was immediately echoed by Zhane. Then it was left forearm to left forearm, and two more side blocks that Zhane also copied, looking like nothing so much as a little kid's secret handshake when it ended with their clasped hands.

But it made Andros laugh, and for a second, TJ saw the Red Ranger as he must once have been. The aloof leader was gone, and in his place stood a boy delighting in the presence of his best friend--a friend who had been gone for far too long.