Helpless
by Starhawk

*Trigger the door.*

He glanced over at Cassie, and she nodded once. He punched the final override sequence into the keypad next to the door, and it slid open.

Aura dove through, weapon in hand as she rolled across the floor of the control room. His eyes scanned the room even as the Aquitian Ranger brought her weapon to bear, and he heard Cassie's stunner power up--but none of them found a target.

One of the Barox lay face down in front of the main viewscreen, but the other must have been out of line of sight from the door. Cassie took a single step into the control room, and he followed silently, keeping his blaster ready.

Aura cocked her head toward the comm panel, where the remains of a second disabled hunter were just visible behind the bank of consoles. He nodded, approaching it carefully and looking for any sign of concealed and possibly automated weaponry.

It seemed to have been destroyed beyond any hope of that, however. He had never been involved in any of Billy's tests on the intruder defense systems in the command center, but the systems had obviously fulfilled their function. If wall-mounted lasers could take out a Barox, they were more powerful than he had believed.

"Saryn?"

He turned, certain enough of the hunter's demise that he could turn his back on it. Cassie stood over the second hunter, staring down at it with a frown on her face. "Any idea what this is?"

"We are receiving a transmission from the Megaship," Aura said, looking up from the comm console.

"Is he all right?" Cassie asked, momentarily diverted.

Aura nodded. "Your teammate has succeeded in destroying two of the--"

He didn't hear the rest of her sentence. Staring over Cassie's shoulder, a flashback tore through his mind, and he saw again the explosion that had killed his best friend and begun the destruction of the Elisian team. *My fault,* he thought, as the vision released him, but there was no time for self-recrimination now.

The thermal detonator still loosely gripped in the hunter's inactive hand had probably begun its countdown as soon as Cassie came near it. "Aura," he said tersely, grabbing Cassie's arm and shoving her toward the scanner console. "Get down!"

*What?* He heard her question in his mind, but fear overwhelmed his irritation. To her credit, she slapped the comm link and ducked behind the console without waiting for an answer.

Cassie didn't question at all, just darted for identical cover on the other side of the room. He could hear the detonator's faint hum now that he was listening for it, and it was only getting louder--they weren't going to make it.

He pushed Cassie hard, sending her sprawling to the floor, and reached for his ruby as he suddenly remembered that he wasn't morphed. The sudden explosion of searing heat and sound caught him full in the back even as his armor shimmered into place around him, his Power fighting with the deadly concussive force. The Power lost, and the world went black as he was thrown violently to the floor.

***

"Saryn!"

Her scream went unheeded in the roar of the explosion, and she felt fire flicker in the air around them. It was impossible to breathe, the flames stealing the oxygen and superheating the air.

Shrapnel stung her arm even as the wall of fire burned itself out, and she gasped for air as the ventilation systems tried valiantly to compensate. She tried to move, heard Aura's calm voice in her mind telling her to stay put, but she couldn't acknowledge it.

"Cassie," her friend was saying, from somewhere beside her. "Cassie, stay still."

She could move again, and she scrambled into a sitting position, crying out as pain lanced through her right arm. Aura was holding Saryn, his morph gone and his eyes closed. "He saved you," the Aquitian said quietly, reaching for her hand.

Cassie just stared at her, then down at her outstretched hand. Aquitians didn't offer physical contact lightly. "Saryn," she whispered, ignoring the hand and reaching out to touch her lover's face. "Saryn, wake up…"

A light spray of water was falling all around them, and she realized distantly that the fire suppression systems must have kicked in several seconds ago. The room was oddly quiet, the soft fall of water droplets mingling with the tears on her face as she stared down at Saryn's unmoving form.

"Saryn…"

***

"What's going on?" Ashley asked, trying and failing to be patient.

Andros frowned, staring straight ahead with a curiously unfocused expression in his eyes. "Aura cut off the comm link from her end," he said at last. "Zhane doesn't know what's wrong--she said two of the Barox were destroyed, and then she turned around to talk to someone else… and then the transmission just ended."

"Did he try to contact her again?"

He nodded. "He says he's been trying to reach Aquitar ever since, but no one's answering. All he gets is the Aquitian logo--the signal's going through, but if anyone's receiving it, they aren't sending any kind of reply."

Ashley sighed, frustrated. Obviously, Aquitar had to be Zhane's first priority, but she hated being stuck out here and knowing that there was absolutely nothing she could do. "I feel so *helpless*," she muttered.

She felt Andros's hand on her shoulder, and she reached up to cover it with her own. "I know," he said quietly. "Me too."

***

"This sucks!" Carlos exclaimed, pacing across the tiny room. "We finally reach Zhane, and all he can say is, 'I'll get back to you'!"

Tommy looked up from where he was perched on the edge of his desk. "You have to trust him, man. He knows what he's doing."

"Yeah, but *we* don't," Carlos said, annoyed. He knew the former Red Ranger was right, but he hated not knowing what was going on. "They could have at least told us they were taking off in the first place!"

"Tommy's right," TJ said with a sigh. "Zhane's probably doing everything he can to stay in one piece right now--we have to let him concentrate."

Carlos turned, starting back in the other direction. With two teammates already missing, it wasn't exactly comforting to have the rest of the team vanish in the space of a few hours. With no word whatsoever.

"Still," Tommy said after a moment. "This is a little different from anything we faced. I mean, we never *had* a mobile command center--the Power Chamber was always there. If someone disappeared, we could at least count on Zordon. Most of the time," he added wryly, a faraway look in his eyes.

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Carlos assured him, pausing in front of the window to glare outside.

A quiet beep made him turn, and Tommy reached out to touch the modest comm setup in his apartment. "Useful when you have friends offplanet," he had explained with a smile, when TJ asked if the former Ranger knew of anyway to boost the limited range of their communicators.

"TJ?" Zhane asked, and the Blue Ranger stepped forward.

"Yeah, I'm here, Zhane. We're borrowing a friend's comm equipment--*what* is going on?"

Zhane sighed. "We got a distress call from Aquitar this morning--"

"But it wasn't a distress call," TJ objected. "I was there when it came in; it wasn't an official distress signal."

Zhane just shrugged. "Well, they're in trouble," he said bluntly. "There were six Barox attacking their planet--"

"Six?" Tommy exclaimed, and Carlos took his eyes off the miniature screen long enough to look over at him.

"You've heard of them?" he asked, a little surprised.

Tommy folded his arms. "We *fought* one of them. Long story; sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

Zhane glanced over his shoulder, apparently monitoring something while he spoke to them. "Saryn and Cassie must have decided not to tell you; when I made it to the Bridge we were already in orbit around Aquitar.

"We couldn't contact any of the Aquitian Rangers, and the two of them went to the surface to find out what was going on. The Megaship destroyed two of the Barox ships--with help--and I got through to Aura for a few minutes, but the transmission was cut off and I can't reestablish contact."

Zhane ran a hand through his hair, a characteristically frustrated gesture, and Carlos frowned. "You can't reach *anyone* on the surface?"

"Well, I didn't try any of the civilian population," Zhane said dryly. "I didn't think they'd be much help."

He turned away before either of them could reply, and Carlos heard DECA's voice in the background. "Just a minute," Zhane said, looking back at the screen. Then it went dark, and Carlos sighed.

"I hate this," he muttered. He caught TJ's eye, and saw the same frustration with their helplessness mirrored in the other Ranger's eyes.

***

"This is Zhane," he said, when DECA routed the Aquitian transmission onto the main screen.

Instead of Aura's face, as he had expected, the Blue Aquitian Ranger appeared. "Zhane, it's Billy," he said. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah--are *you*?"

Billy glanced around. "So far. We've secured auxiliary control, but the team had to split up. Cestria's checking with the others now. We still don't know how many Barox are in the command center dome."

"No more than four," Zhane interjected. "Two of them chased the Megaship all the way to the Qesiti system, and they've both been destroyed."

Billy frowned. "Four--I may be able to isolate their energy signatures from here, and find out if there are that many in the dome." He did something to the console in front of him, and the screen's view widened as he stepped away from it to adjust something else.

"I heard from Aura just a few minutes ago," Zhane remembered suddenly. "She was transmitting from the control room, but…"

He trailed off as Billy turned sharply away from the screen. "Cestria?" Zhane could hear him asking, and the camera withdrew further to show him catching his girlfriend's arm. "What's wrong?"

Zhane boosted the amplification on the transmission, and Cestria's voice came through clearly. "It's Saryn," she whispered, her face pale. "Billy… Saryn's dead."

Zhane felt as though someone had punched him in the stomach. He could only stare at the screen, trying to remember how to breathe.

Billy seemed equally stunned. He just stood there, gazing at his teammate with an expression of horrified disbelief on his face. Then Cestria closed her eyes and bowed her head, and he seemed to rouse himself.

He guided the Yellow Ranger over to a chair near the screen, putting a hand on her shoulder as she sat down. "How?" he asked at last, his tone one of quiet shock.

"One of the Barox had a thermal detonator," she murmured. "Aura took cover… but he and Cassie were too close. Aura thinks he tried to morph, but it was too late…"

"Cassie?" Billy asked.

"She lives," Cestria replied, lifting her head. "In that, at least, he succeeded--he shielded her from the blast."

Billy nodded, his expression already calmer. "That's all he would have wanted."

"What--" Zhane finally managed to choke the words out. "How can you say that? Saryn's *dead*, and all you can say is, 'oh, at least he died well'?"

Cestria turned that impassive Aquitian gaze on him. "We will mourn later. For now, the threat of the Barox still remains, and we must focus all our energy into dealing with them."

Zhane shook his head, but Billy spoke before he could. "Don't mistake focus for lack of caring, Zhane," he said quietly. "If there's one thing the Rangers have taught me, it's that grief and anger don't win battles."

Zhane took a deep breath, decided against what he had been about to say, and replied flatly, "I should be there."

Billy frowned for a moment, then shook his head. "No--Zhane, there's nothing you can do here. All teleportation is locked down so the Barox can't sneak up on us, and there's no other way you could get down here. You'd be stuck in orbit, with nothing to do except feel helpless."

*Like I don't already,* Zhane thought, but he managed not to say it out loud. "I'm coming anyway," he said. "I just have a few people to pick up along the way."

***

"I wish I could come with you," Tommy said, a little wistfully.

TJ shot a look at Carlos, who had finally stopped wearing tracks in Tommy's floor and was now fidgeting impatiently at his side. "We can give you a ride, you know," he offered.

The former Ranger team leader hesitated. "Thanks," he said at last. "But I can't interfere. It's not my job anymore--and besides," he said with a forced smile, "I have classes this afternoon."

"Right," TJ said, sighing as he glanced over at Carlos again. "A life--I think I've forgotten what that's like."

Tommy clapped him on the shoulder. "You don't miss it till it's gone," he quipped, and this time his smile looked more sincere. "Trust me; you'll get your turn."

TJ offered his hand, and Tommy clasped it. "Thanks for your help," TJ said, and Tommy nodded.

"Anytime. Just keep them safe, man."

***

"He's *what*?"

Zhane swallowed, looking away from Carlos's accusing glare. "Saryn was killed by an explosion in the command center on Aquitar," he repeated quietly.

"But…" TJ, for once, seemed to be at a loss for words. "His armor--"

"Maybe he wasn't morphed, I don't know," Zhane said, programming a new course into the helm. "He died protecting Cassie; that's all Cestria could tell me."

"Is she sure?" Carlos demanded. "If she didn't *see* him--"

"She's a telepath," Zhane said without looking up. "Of course she's sure."

"But how could he--"

"Look," Zhane snapped, not caring that he was cutting TJ off. "Do you think I like people dying on me like this? Every time I turn around--" His voice gave out, and he swallowed hard.

*Andros?* he asked desperately.

*Yeah,* his friend's voice came back. *I'm here.*

"I thought we were going to Aquitar," Carlos said, breaking into the silence.

"We have to get Andros and Ashley first," Zhane muttered.

*You would have found a way to keep this from happening.*

*No,* Andros answered, his voice subdued. *I would have done exactly what you did--used the Megaship to lure some of the hunters away, and figured the others could handle the rest.*

"Uh, Zhane?" TJ said hesitantly, but Zhane didn't answer.

*There were seven of them, Zhane,* Andros reminded him. *Only one of you. There's nothing you could have done even if you *had* been there.*

"Zhane?"

"Yeah," Zhane said, staring out at shifting starfield.

"Zhane--we're going to pick up Ashley," TJ said, in an odd tone of voice.

"That's what I said," he answered, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

*Maybe,* he admitted silently. *But I guess I'll never know, will I?*

*Zhane--I wasn't there either. But you don't blame *me* for what happened.*

*Of course not.*

"You said, 'Andros and Ashley,'" TJ corrected.

"I know what I said," Zhane said, turning his head a little.

*Then you can't blame yourself, either,* his friend said firmly. *You did everything you could.*

"Zhane?" Carlos, who had remained silent until this point, was now frowning at him. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Zhane answered, glancing down at the console in front of him. "Let's just get Andros and Ashley and get back to Aquitar. I'm tired of having information relayed to me."

"*You're* tired of having information relayed to you?" Carlos repeated indignantly, but Zhane saw TJ motion him to be quiet.

"Zhane, have you heard from Ashley since yesterday?" TJ asked.

Zhane shook his head. "No; how could I?" Catching sight of the Blue Ranger's concerned expression, he added, "Andros says she's fine."

TJ and Carlos exchanged glances. "The last we knew," TJ said carefully, "Andros was on the Delta Megaship when it exploded. Were we wrong?"

Zhane just stared at him, wondering what he was talking about. "No…"

"But you can hear him talking to you?" Carlos asked, giving him a skeptical look.

All of a sudden, it clicked. They didn't know--and how could they, when he hadn't told anyone? He shook his head, a slight smile tugging at his lips. "You think I'm crazy." It was some sort of justice, he supposed, for the way he had dismissed Ashley when she tried to tell *him*.

The days that Andros had been absent from his mind had been glossed over as soon as he heard his friend's voice, a gap bridged as easily the years Zhane had spent in hypersleep. It was once again as though they had never been separated--but the rest of the world went on without the knowledge he held so close to his heart. And now they probably thought him as delusional as he had supposed Ashley to be.

They were looking at each other again, and he just shook his head. "I know how this sounds, but Andros *is* alive. The Delta Megaship was built with a failsafe that ejected the command module as soon as the engine core blew. It had minimal thruster capability, and its programming crash-landed it on the nearest habitable planet."

TJ didn't look much less skeptical. "Then why couldn't you hear him right away?"

"He was unconscious until sometime after the crash," he said, telling them what little Andros could remember. "He doesn't know how Ashley heard him, but he says he doesn't remember anything until she found him."

"And--he's all right?" Carlos asked incredulously.

Zhane frowned. "He will be, once we get him back on the Megaship. He won't tell me how badly he was hurt, but he says Ashley's been 'taking care of him'. They're walking, too, heading for one of the lunar settlements, so they can't be too badly injured."

"Lunar settlements?" TJ repeated. "Where *are* they?"

Zhane noted with relief that there was no doubt in TJ's question, just curiosity, and he thought he might have convinced them. "Irini's largest moon. I'm still not sure how Ashley found him there, but he's sure she saved his life."

"Wait--" Carlos still looked doubtful. "Ashley took the shuttle. Why couldn't she have just contacted us when she found him?"

"Darkonda chased her to Irini," he said, bracing for their concern. "The shuttle went down, and she says everything in the cockpit was inoperable. They've been running ever since."

***

Ashley squirmed closer, resting her head against Andros's shoulder. "What does he say?" she asked softly.

Andros sighed, his arm tightening around her shoulders. "I think he believes me. It wasn't his *fault*, Ash."

"I know," she whispered. "It wasn't anyone's fault."

He closed his eyes, leaning his head against the top of hers. Cassie was all right; that was some comfort. Zhane had told them that Kerone had indeed agreed to help them, and that Cassie was once again good--and then this had to happen.

"I feel like we've just gotten one friend back when we lose another," Ashley murmured, echoing his thoughts.

Andros nodded once, reaching out to take her free hand. "Yeah," he admitted in a low voice. "We just can't seem to keep this team together, no matter how hard we try."

She squeezed his fingers. "It'll be okay," she whispered. "The Rangers are like that--things always work out in the end."

"I thought that, once," he said softly. "Then I lost my sister."

"And got her back, maybe," Ashley said, sliding her hand out of his to run her fingers across his palm. "If she helped Cassie…"

He sighed. "I hope so, Ash. I really hope so."

"And you got Zhane back," she reminded him, tracing the line the curved around his thumb. "And you have all of us, now."

He smiled a little at her earnest tone. "I do," he agreed. "And I have you."

"You'll always have me," she whispered.

"I know," he said, hugging her closer.

She sighed, her fingers stilling on his hand. "It's not enough, is it. I love you, Andros, but the Rangers are family."

He was quiet for a minute. "Yeah, they are," he said at last. "I never thought about it that way before. Saryn was--part of your family, wasn't he?"

"Yours too," she said, wrapping her hand around his again. "You knew him longer than us. And besides, we adopted you and Zhane. Our family is your family."

He had to smile at the thought of being "adopted". "I guess it is."

Ashley sighed again. "Cassie must be devastated."

***

The spray from the fire suppression sprinklers was soaking into her clothes and running down her bare arms, but she didn't care. She held Saryn now, but Aura had not left her side. The other Ranger said nothing, just offering her silent comfort as Cassie's tears kept falling.

She stared down at the face she had known for weeks, lifetimes. His features blurred with the tears in her eyes, but the truth remained heartbreakingly clear. In seconds, her world had fallen to pieces and there was no getting it back.

There had been no warning, no fear--just the rush of adrenaline as he shoved her out of the way, and then a sudden snap as his awareness vanished from her mind. She was alone in a way she hadn't been in a long time, and she still couldn't believe it had happened.

*He's gone,* she realized, her mind tentatively trying the idea and rejecting it instantly. To spend the rest of her life without him, to go on with only her friends--who once would have been enough--for company, to try and make a life without the one person who had given it meaning…

This man--this boy, for he was not truly that old, despite the years between them--had taken over her heart and soul, reclaiming what had been his for far longer than just the brief time since Cassie Chan had met the Phantom Ranger. She could not, *would* not, go on without him.

Without knowing what she was doing, Cassie reached out and laid her hand on his chest. She swallowed hard, feeling a sob catch in her throat when no heartbeat pulsed beneath her fingers. "Saryn," she whispered, resting her other hand gently on his forehead.

*Don't leave me…*

She knew she had said the words aloud, but they echoed strangely in her mind. She could feel the Power flooding through her, uncalled but stronger than ever. She braced herself to morph, but her Ranger uniform did not appear.

She heard Aura gasp as the Pink Power swirled around her, but she was too caught up in her loneliness to notice. She would not live without him…

*I need you, Saryn.*

This time, the roaring in her ears was too loud for her to know whether she had spoken or not. The Power rushed through her, a torrent she had never felt before, let alone controlled. Her hands glowed where they pressed against Saryn's body, and she couldn't let go.

His ruby had slid along its chain to rest against the coral floor, like some tossed-aside child's toy. But as the shimmer in her vision increased, the stone flickered, and for one brief moment she felt something more than her own emotions in her mind.

Then the Pink glow flared about her, drowning out everything else as the Power flux exploded out of her control, and she knew nothing more.

***

"Cassie?"

The voice was familiar, but the noise was drowning it out. She couldn't hear anything clearly over the ringing in her ears. And the chaos in her mind… she couldn't tell is she was safe or falling, calm, scared, or out of her mind with joy.

Groaning, she twisted her head in a vain attempt to clear it. Something touched her hair, and she flinched away, only realizing then that she was being held.

The voice came again. She strained to hear it, wondering if there was amusement in it this time. "Don't hit me, please."

"What…" The word didn't sound quite right, and she struggled to get her eyes open.

"You have a disturbing tendency to hit me when you are waking up," the voice explained, and she managed to frown, certain she knew whose voice it was.

Squinting into the light that assaulted her eyes, a face wavered into view above her. "Cassie?" the amusement had gone from the quiet voice, but it was definitely coming from--

"You're dead," she whispered, trying to move, but afraid that if she did this vision would be gone.

"Surprise?" he said tentatively, sliding his hand behind her back and helping her into a sitting position. It was such an un-Saryn like thing to say that she could only stare, her heart pounding in her ears as she waited for the dream to end.

"Are you all right?" He watched her worriedly, as though she might collapse at any moment.

She tried to laugh, but it came out as a sob as she threw herself forward. "Saryn," she choked, never so glad for his embrace as she was at that moment. "Don't leave me."

"I would never do such a thing," he murmured in her ear. For a moment, he just held her, and then he added, "Now, it seems, I *can* not."

She didn't question, just tightened her arms around him and let his confidence convince her. They were together--that had always been enough before, and this time was no exception.

"I do not mean to interrupt," Aura said quietly, and Cassie started. She had forgotten anyone else was there. Saryn stroked her hair soothingly, and the Aquitian Ranger continued, "A Power surge of that magnitude will have registered on scanners all over Aquitar. The Barox could not have missed it--we must leave this area if we are to avoid them."

"You're right," Cassie mumbled, though the "Power surge" was nothing but a jumble of incoherent images in her mind. She still didn't know what had happened, but staying there probably wasn't the best idea.

Saryn waited until she pulled away. As she sat back, he flowed to his feet, catching her hand and drawing her effortlessly along with him. She smiled, then froze as she realized he was holding her right hand. "My arm," she murmured, glancing at it without thinking. There was no sign of injury, not even lingering burn scars from the day before.

"I healed you," he told her quietly. She opened her mouth to protest, knowing it drained him to use his ruby that way, but he covered her mouth before she could speak. "Do not say anything--it was the least I could do, after you saved my life."

She kissed his fingers, and he smiled at her. "Thank you," Cassie whispered, as he let his hand fall.

"You're welcome," he said, returning her gaze with a soft look of his own. They stared at each other for a moment, until he blinked and glanced over at Aura.

The Red Aquitian Ranger was standing by the door, rather pointedly ignoring them, and Cassie tried not to smile. "It is an Aquitian practice, not to intrude on private moments." "We have to go," she said, and he nodded reluctantly.

As she started to turn away, though, he caught her hand and she looked back in surprise. "I love you," he murmured. "Never forget."

"I can't," she promised, kissing him quickly and delighting in it. "I love you, too."

***

"We isolated the control room again when we left," Aura was saying, and he tried to focus on her words. "The forcefields will keep the Barox out--though I am not sure how much of the control room is still operable."

"With that kind of explosion, on top of the laser damage, they would probably find little of use inside," Delphinius agreed, settling Cetaci more comfortably against the far wall of auxiliary control.

"It is better not to take that chance," Cestria put in.

"Excuse me," Billy interrupted. "I hate to be the one to bring this up, but--Saryn?"

He shifted uncomfortably under the Blue Aquitian Ranger's gaze. The shock on the Aquitians' faces when he entered the room with Cassie and Aura had made it perfectly clear that Aura had informed them of the explosion, but not the events that followed. Aura had spoken without offering explanation, and her teammates seemed willing to overlook the situation, at least for now--except Billy.

"Not that I'm not glad to be wrong," the Blue Ranger said quickly, "but aren't you supposed to be… dead?"

He glanced at Cassie inadvertently, and she stepped closer to him. "He was," she said quietly.

"Ah," Billy said. "Well… I'm glad he isn't." There was silence for a moment, then Billy glanced around. "Could someone explain that part to me, actually?"

"Cassie healed him," Aura said, as though it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Billy looked at her, then back at Cassie. "I apologize for doubting, especially when the evidence is standing right in front of me, but--you brought someone back to life?"

"Not exactly," Cassie muttered, scuffing the toe of her sandal against the floor, and he almost smiled. It was such a normal thing to see her do. She had done it a hundred times before, and somehow, it restored some of his perspective.

"Yes, she did," he said firmly, and saw Cassie look up in surprise. "Or at least, the Power did," he amended, and this time she nodded a little.

"That was it," she agreed, her voice a little stronger. "Saryn's done it before--healed people with his ruby--this was the same thing; the Power just went through me instead."

"He has never restored life to one who was dead," Cestria interjected quietly.

"He never used someone else's Power, either," Billy said, an odd look on his face.

Cassie was frowning. "What do you mean?"

Billy cocked his head. "I could be wrong about this, but Cassie--can you make your stunner disappear?"

He saw her tug carefully on her stunner, dislodging its handle from her pocket and dismissing it with a slight movement of her hand. "Now what?" she asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Would you give me your morpher?" Billy asked, and Cassie nodded. She pulled it off without hesitation and handed it to the other Ranger, waiting expectantly.

"Now… summon your stunner," Billy said.

"My stunner?" Cassie repeated, as though she hadn't heard. "But I can't--"

"You couldn't before, either," Billy reminded her. "At least, you *shouldn't* have been able to. Just try it."

Cassie shrugged. Holding out her right hand, she declared, "Satellite Stunner!"

The weapon materialized in her hand without so much as a shimmer, and she looked startled. "But you have my--"

"You're not using your morpher," Billy surmised. "Your Power is always with you, but without your morpher, you should have no way to channel it--either someone else is doing it for you, or you're using someone else's Power."

He shifted as Cassie glanced his way. She wasn't the only one; all eyes were suddenly on him. "The Power is Ranger-specific," he reminded her, reminded all of them. "Rangers do not share Power."

"Actually, that's not quite true," Billy said. "My original team could do that--share Power among ourselves. All of us could focus our Power into one person, making them temporarily stronger."

"We share everything else," Cassie said softly, staring at him. She lifted her hand slowly, tracing a "V" shape over the neckline of her t-shirt and then pointing at his ruby.

He knew what she wanted--but he was afraid to try. He had failed her so often before… he wasn't sure which of them would be more disappointed if it didn't work.

"You don't have to," she said quietly. "But we won't know, otherwise."

He caught his ruby with one hand and slipped the chain over his head before he could change his mind. He passed the stone to her without a word and she wrapped her fingers around it, the gold chain falling across her wrist.

He stared at her for what seemed an interminable amount of time, until finally she whispered, "Can you morph?"

Her words sounded loud in the silent room, and he swallowed. Concentrating on his armor, he had time for only the briefest flicker of surprise as the Power flowed through him. He looked down in amazement as his uniform shimmered into existence.

Glancing up again, he caught her eye as a smile lit her face. "Yes," he said, somehow managing to keep his voice calm as he let his armor fade away again.

She took a step forward, searching his expression and, he thought, silently asking for his permission. After all, it wasn't just Aura this time--

He reached out and pulled her into a hug, not caring what the others might think. He heard her sigh contentedly, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Aura look away. He closed his eyes and rested her head against hers, wondering what the Aquitian team's human member had thought of their experiment.

He got his answer a moment later.

"Interesting," was Billy's only comment.