Years ago, Cassie had complained to her best friend and housemate that she never got any phone calls. Ashley had sympathized, telling her it was only a matter of time before she made friends at her new school--friends that didn't wear communicators on their wrists. It had been comforting and annoying at the same time, coming as it did from a popular cheerleader, but Ashley had been right.

Still, she could remember a time when no one called her. Now, staring at the constantly blinking comm screen, it seemed like there was no one who didn't.

She had come home early hoping to sleep the afternoon away, and she had found messages waiting from both Nen and Kerone. The latter wasn't technically to her: Kerone had called looking for Saryn, but it would be rude to ignore her nonetheless. The former was a request from Nen for both Cassie and Saryn to stop by whenever they got home, though he didn't say why.

With a sigh, Cassie sat down in front of the comm screen and had the network trace Kerone's signal. She would just say hello, tell Kerone that Saryn wouldn't be back until later, and then go see what Nen wanted. Barring unforeseen emergencies and undue socialization, she would still have plenty of time for a nap before dinner.

Undue socialization, she thought, amused in spite of herself. I'm starting to sound like Saryn.

It didn't take long for the network to initiate a link; one of the benefits of Ranger access was that she had priority over normal comm traffic. The Astro Ranger logo flashed across her screen, and to her surprise Kerone answered almost immediately. She wasn't sure what time it was on KO-35, but she hadn't really expected the other girl to be in her room.

"Hi, Cassie." Andros' sister greeted her with a sort of curious equanimity, but she supposed Kerone had been expecting Saryn. "How are you?"

"Tired," Cassie admitted. "I came back for a nap, but I saw your message and thought I'd say hi. How are things with you?"

"Strange," Kerone said fervently, surprising Cassie again. Kerone was nothing if not honest, which occasionally struck Cassie as an unusual trait for the former princess of evil, but she was quicker to comment on other people's circumstances than her own. In that, she and Saryn were a lot alike.

"I'm worried about Zhane," she added, unaware of Cassie's musing. "I was calling to see if Saryn had any cryptic insight to share that would make me feel better."

Cassie couldn't help smiling at that. "He may not be much help when it comes to Zhane," she warned. "You know they're only friends when they're on different planets."

Kerone shrugged. "Mostly I just wanted to complain, so it doesn't really matter."

"What's wrong?" Cassie asked, frowning a little. "Is everyone all right?"

"No," Kerone said bluntly. "Zhane and Andros are tearing each other apart, and I'm stuck in the middle of an argument that Andros doesn't even know they're having. It's really frustrating."

"Whoa, back up--what?" Cassie stared at her. "Zhane and Andros are fighting? Over what?"

For the first time, Kerone hesitated. "Bad communication, I guess," she said at last. "Did you hear that Andros gave up his morpher?"

Cassie's eyes widened. "What? To who?"

Kerone shook her head. "No one. He handed it over to the Council. He said he was tired of putting them first, and he needed to concentrate on his friends instead. But Zhane thinks Andros ditched us because he can't control things anymore."

"Control things? You mean the Council?" Cassie couldn't help feeling taken aback. Zhane gave complete strangers the benefit of the doubt--he had been the first one to trust Astronema, after all--so it was hard to believe that he would think the worst of his best friend.

"The Council, the Astro Rangers, Zhane... I don't know. He's probably more upset that Andros didn't talk to him about it than he is that Andros did it in the first place."

"Andros didn't tell you first?" The more she thought about that, the less it surprised her. Andros was nothing if not volatile. "Did you say he doesn't know Zhane's mad?" she added, frowning. "How could he not? Saryn says Zhane gets mean when he's angry."

Kerone gave her an odd look. "So this isn't unusual? I've never seen him angry before."

"*What* isn't unusual?" Cassie demanded, a little frustrated at having to repeat everything the other girl said. "Kerone, what's going on?"

There was another pause. The look on Kerone's face was troubled, and suddenly Cassie missed the days when she could just walk down the hall and shake her friends until they told her what was wrong. Not that she had ever really done that, but then, she hadn't had to. There had been a time when they were close enough that she hadn't had to ask. Now she had to intercept other people's comm transmissions just to find out something was going on.

"It's mostly Zhane," Kerone said at last. "He's--he's trying to hurt Andros. Not physically hurt him," she said hastily, seeing Cassie's expression. "Just... I think he's trying to get back at him for--for being distracted."

Cassie frowned, reminding herself not to echo Kerone yet again. "That doesn't sound like Zhane. He doesn't hold a grudge against anyone, let alone Andros."

"Even Zhane has limits," Kerone said with a sigh. "And Andros has been more self-centered than usual lately. If it doesn't have a Ranger code on it, he doesn't even see it."

"Andros has always been sort of single-minded," Cassie pointed out. "It's not like that's anything new. What's Zhane doing that makes you so worried?"

Kerone looked away from the comm screen. "Come in," she said, responding to something the comm hadn't picked up. Her expression was wary, and when her visitor entered Cassie's field of view she knew why. It was Andros.

"We were just talking about you," Kerone told him, with her usual lack of concern for what was polite. "What have you done now?"

Andros gave her the Look, and Cassie hid a smile. Some things didn't change.

"I was looking for Zhane," he said, choosing to ignore her question. "I haven't seen him since this afternoon, and he's not in our room. I thought maybe he was with you."

"He's not." Kerone was on the receiving end of the Look again, and Cassie wondered if the expression seemed a little more exasperated than usual.

"I can see that," Andros informed her when she didn't elaborate. "Any idea where he might have gone?"

Kerone shrugged, as though Zhane had told her but she hadn't been paying much attention at the time. "He said something about touring the city. I don't think he'll be back till late."

"It's late now," Andros objected. He glanced at the screen when Kerone didn't answer, seeming to notice it for the first time. "Hi, Cassie."

"Hey," she said, smiling at his distraction. He didn't smile back.

"Look," he was telling Kerone, "can you at least tell him I'm looking for him when he gets back? I don't care what time it is; I just want to talk to him."

"He doesn't report to me, Andros." Something in his demeanor must have made her relent, for she added, "I'll tell him if I see him, okay?"

He nodded, but he didn't look very happy about it. He disappeared without another word to either of them, and a moment later Kerone looked back at the screen. "See?" she demanded. "He's been like that all evening!"

"That's just Andros," Cassie insisted. "He likes having something to obsess over. If it wasn't Zhane it would be Ashley, or you, or the Council. He has a one-track mind and he doesn't like to wait, that's all."

"That's not what I mean." Kerone looked frustrated at her inability to explain. "Since when does he have to ask where Zhane is? Have you ever known *either* of them to do that? Even when they're not together, they just know. Or they find out telepathically."

"That's true," Cassie admitted. "They do have that telepathic thing going for them. I wonder why Andros didn't try that."

"I think Zhane's blocking him." Kerone leaned forward, as though she was on the verge of making Cassie see something that still evaded her. "I really think he's avoiding Andros, and Andros doesn't know what to do about it."

"You said he was out touring the city?" Cassie asked, frowning a little. "That's not so strange, is it? Or is it? I mean, you've been there for months."

"It's strange," Kerone replied immediately. "Well, not that he's touring, because he's doing that with a friend from Chessa Brook. But it's strange that he's out with someone other than Andros for the second night in a row, and he didn't even tell him where he was going."

Cassie hesitated, her confusion dissipating a little. Kerone had known Zhane when he first woke up from hypersleep, but back then she had been the non-Ranger friend he could go to when the others were too absorbed in each other to socialize. Now he had found someone else to fill that role, and Kerone probably didn't even realize how lonely a small team could be for someone like Zhane.

"Zhane's not like you and Andros," Cassie pointed out, wondering how to make her see without sounding rude. "He doesn't like to be alone. He needs people. He likes people--he likes crowds, the same way Andros hates them.

"He's like Ashley," she said, the connection suddenly clicking in her mind. She got along with Zhane so well partly because he reminded her of her best friend. "They both love us, but we're not enough by ourselves. If they don't have friends outside the team they're going to be lonely, no matter how much time the rest of us spend together."

Kerone was very still, an odd look on her face. She didn't say anything for a long moment. It was as though she was listening to some internal monologue that had no outward manifestation except intense concentration, and Cassie wished she could overhear some of it.

"That's an interesting comparison," the other girl said at last. "I hadn't thought of it that way."

She lapsed into silence again, and this time Cassie interrupted. "It doesn't mean we're any less important to them," she offered. Without knowing exactly what was going through Kerone's mind, she couldn't know what to say, but she didn't want to say nothing. "Ashley's been my best friend for years, and I know she considers you her best friend now as much as me. When it comes to friends, 'best' doesn't mean 'only'."

Kerone studied her over the comm, considering that carefully as though she had said something entirely different. "Do you think Andros sees it that way?" she asked abruptly. "If Zhane were to have another best friend, would Andros mind?"

Cassie blinked, somewhat taken aback. "He has you, doesn't he?" Even as she said it, she realized that wasn't what Kerone meant. She wasn't talking about a girlfriend, she was talking about someone that could conceivably be everything that Andros was to Zhane. His own sister wasn't competition.

Even as she thought that, though, Kerone was nodding. "That's true," she said, almost to herself. "He doesn't mind me. Maybe..."

"Do you really think Andros would be jealous of Zhane's friends?" Cassie asked when she trailed off. "He's knows Zhane better than I do; it's not like he doesn't know how social he is. Zhane must have had a lot of other friends--before."

She hadn't meant that to come out quite so awkwardly, but Kerone just shook her head. "I'm not sure he did," she said, obviously understanding what Cassie meant. "Not after he got his morpher, anyway. They were younger then, and the colony was in complete chaos. I think they depended on each other because there wasn't anyone else."

"But Andros has other friends now," Cassie argued. "He can't expect Zhane not to."

Kerone didn't answer, but there was something in her expression--

All of a sudden it was like she had put a magnifying glass to the situation. "I think he's trying to get back at Andros for being distracted..." It wasn't Andros that was jealous at all; it was Zhane. Zhane was angry with Andros for not being the same friend he'd had all those years ago, and he was trying to replace that friend with someone else. And if Andros' earlier distress was anything to go by, he was only now starting to notice.

"Why now?" Cassie asked out loud, and Kerone gave her an odd look. "You said Zhane was trying to hurt Andros," she clarified. "If he's upset about being left out, why now and not before?"

"Critical mass?" The words were flippant, but there was a wary note to Kerone's voice that Cassie didn't understand. "It takes a lot to make Zhane mad, but this has been going on for a while. Maybe he just got sick of it."

"Maybe," Cassie agreed slowly. "Or maybe when Ashley left he thought he'd get Andros to himself again."

Kerone's eyes widened, though Cassie wasn't sure what she had said to startle the other girl. "You knew?" she blurted out.

Her reaction confirmed Cassie's suspicion: there was something going on that Kerone wasn't telling her. "That Zhane was jealous of Ashley?" she guessed. She watched the other girl closely, trying to figure out what it could be. "I guess it should have been obvious."

"Yeah," Kerone agreed after a moment. "I guess."

That wasn't it; there was something more to this. Kerone had only recently seen it, too, or she wouldn't have been so surprised when she thought Cassie had figured it out. "Does it bother you?" she asked, looking for a way to keep Kerone talking without revealing her own ignorance.

Kerone gave her a look of neutral curiosity. "What do you mean?"

Either she had said something wrong, or Kerone was no longer sure she knew. This was usually Saryn's area; she wasn't as good at coaxing things out of people. "That Zhane's so..." She searched for the right word. "Attached to Andros. You said you didn't like being in the middle of their arguments."

Kerone sighed. "Are we playing word games?" she asked bluntly. "Because I hate that. Zhane told me something that I can't tell you, okay? And it makes me more worried about him and angrier with Andros at the same time. I'm not upset with Zhane at all."

"Okay," Cassie said carefully, then stopped. Just like that, it clicked. Zhane was jealous of Ashley. Zhane was avoiding Andros. Zhane was going out with someone other than Andros. He was... trying to make Andros jealous?

"Oh, god," she breathed, her eyes widening. If she hadn't already been sitting down, she would be now. "He loves him."

Kerone didn't answer, and Cassie just stared at her in disbelief as she remembered. She remembered Zhane sacrificing himself for Andros in the prisons of Dark Spectre's flagship. She remembered Zhane giving up his morpher for no other reason than because Andros did. She remembered Zhane dancing with Andros on graduation night... and she remembered him with his head in his hands the day before, slouched morosely at the table in Andros' absence.

"That's it, isn't it," she whispered, still watching Kerone. "Zhane's in love with his best friend."

Kerone looked uncomfortable, but still she said nothing. Her silence was damning enough, for if Cassie had been wrong she would have denied it immediately. She clearly felt that to speak would be a betrayal of confidence, though, and Cassie searched for something else to fill the silence.

"Does Andros know?" she asked at last, and then she could have kicked herself. "No... of course he wouldn't."

"I don't think Zhane wants anyone to know," Kerone said softly, not looking at the screen. "He didn't even tell me; I guessed, like you did."

"I won't say anything," Cassie assured her, then winced. "Except--Saryn will know, if he asks."

Kerone lifted her head, her mouth quirking in a smile. "Is it something that's likely to come up in idle conversation, then? Don't worry," she added, when Cassie smiled reluctantly. "I know. He probably would have figured it out from me anyway, the way you did. I don't know why I thought talking to him was a good idea."

"Are you okay?" Cassie asked, concerned. "How do you feel about--everything? Have you and Zhane talked about it, or are you on the avoidance list now, too?"

"I don't think so," Kerone said with a sigh. "We hung out all afternoon, even after I dragged it out of him. I just can't help being angry with Andros for not seeing it. He has no idea how much he's hurting Zhane. He doesn't even mean to, and that almost makes it worse."

"What about you?" Cassie persisted. "How do you feel about all of this? Are you and Zhane... okay? I mean--"

"I'm not going to break up with him, if that's what you're asking," Kerone interrupted. "You just got finished telling me how much Zhane needs people, and I'm certainly not the commitment type. Neither of us is exactly suited to an exclusive relationship anyway."

"Sounds like you talked about it," Cassie ventured, wondering how she could be so calm about it. If Saryn... no. She didn't really want to think about it.

Kerone actually shrugged. "It's come up before. What I don't like is having to interpret for them. Zhane's gotten to the point where he can't see anything Andros says or does objectively, and Andros... well, he's just Andros."

"He's not exactly Mr. Interpersonal Relations," Cassie suggested wryly, and Kerone nodded. "Maybe this is for the best, then. Zhane avoiding him, I mean. Maybe they just need some time apart."

Kerone wrinkled her nose, a habit she must have picked up from Ashley. "I'm not sure that's going to help. Andros is just going to end up stalking him until he finds out who Zhane's hanging out with, and then he'll throw a fit. Or move back to Earth. Maybe both. Neither one's very productive."

"Productive in terms of what?" Cassie pointed out. "Maybe if Andros left, Zhane could work things out. Or--" She stopped when she realized the usual suggestion in this case wouldn't be very polite.

"Find someone else?" Kerone didn't hesitate to finish her sentence. "He already has. That's part of the problem."

Cassie frowned, not understanding. "I thought you said it didn't bother you. Not that I'd blame you," she added hastily, but Kerone was already shaking her head.

"Not me," she said. "He's been seeing my friend's brother. That's who he's with tonight."

Cassie stared at her, open-mouthed. "Who--what?" Andros was one thing, but this... "Zhane's seeing another guy?"

"His name's Ty. Zhane says he's really nice." Kerone made another face. "But guess who he looks like."

"Wait a minute," Cassie objected, wishing she could rewind this conversation and listen to it from the beginning--in context this time. She had definitely missed some things the first time through. "Zhane, who kisses girls' hands and holds doors and stands up for us at the table... you're saying Mr. Chivalrous Flirt himself is gay?"

"Is that derogatory slang on your planet?" Kerone asked, frowning a little. "I've heard it before, but I don't know what it means."

"No, it's--" Cassie's mind was way ahead of her mouth. It wasn't that homosexuality bothered her; it just startled her in someone like Zhane. Or maybe, in all fairness, it surprised her because he was her friend and she had always taken for granted the fact that he was straight. But he couldn't be gay, not with the way he and Kerone kissed...

"It just means someone who prefers their own gender," she said, when she realized Kerone was still waiting for her to explain. "You know, sexually. 'Gay' usually means men, and lesbians are women who prefer women."

Kerone's frown evaporated, and she looked more surprised than anything. "You have words for that? Do you have one for the opposite--women who prefer men, and men who prefer women?"

"Straight," Cassie answered, wondering how Kerone had managed to miss that part of the vernacular. She supposed that of all of them, Kerone had spent the least amount of time on Earth, but still--

"That's just slang, though," she added belatedly. "Homosexual is a better word for gays and lesbians, and straight people are considered heterosexual. You probably use those words instead."

Kerone just shook her head. "No, I've never heard them before. Do you consider people who prefer one or the other an aberration, then? Unusual? You seem very... straight? Is that the right word? I would have said you preferred men."

Cassie blinked. "I do. Don't you?"

"I prefer Zhane," she said simply. "I'm kind of prejudiced toward humans, too, but I think that's just because I didn't meet many aliens until after I was kidnapped."

Cassie stared at her in surprise. It hadn't occurred to her that species would matter in a relationship. "So how do you feel about Saryn?" she asked before she thought.

Kerone gave her an amused look, and Cassie blushed as she realized how strange that sounded. "I didn't mean--" she began awkwardly, but Kerone just laughed.

"I'll tell you, if you really want to know," she said, smiling. "But you have to promise not to hold it against me."

"I promise," Cassie said instantly, though she felt a flicker of nervousness. Now she was too curious to back out.

"He's pretty," Kerone admitted. "And there were a couple of times when I might have kissed him, if things had been different. But he's still an alien, and I don't know if I'll ever really get over that. I associated aliens with evil for too long to just shrug it off."

Cassie nodded, more relieved than she had any right to be. It wasn't as though Kerone would ever hurt her, it was just... easy to be defensive. She'd like to blame that on Saryn's influence, too, but she knew she was jealous enough in her own right.

"You promised not to hold it against me," Kerone reminded her, a gently teasing note in her voice. "What are you thinking?"

Cassie laughed, startled out of her reflection. "It's funny," she said, studying her friend over the comm. "It never occurred to me that Saryn being alien made a difference, but it never occurred to you that Zhane's new 'friend' being a guy mattered either. I guess we all have our biases."

"Are you considered unusual on Earth?" Kerone asked curiously. "Because you prefer one gender over the other?"

"No," Cassie said, realizing belatedly that she hadn't wondered about Zhane until Kerone mentioned her friend's brother. When confronted with the possibility of Zhane and Andros, she had worried only about the complications between two friends, not to mention Ashley. And that's a pretty big "only", she thought wryly.

"No," she repeated, smiling in apology for her distraction. "Heterosexuality is the norm in Angel Grove, so it's people who are bi or gay who are considered unusual."

"'Bi'?" Kerone repeated.

"Bisexual," Cassie offered. "No preference. Kind of like you, I guess."

Kerone sighed in obvious exasperation. "You have separate words for all of those things? How do you keep them straight?"

Cassie resisted the temptation to giggle at her unintentional pun. "It's just because we grew up with it, I guess," she said, trying to suppress a smile. "Most of Earth doesn't have much contact with aliens, so that kind of prejudice doesn't occur to us."

Kerone nodded slowly, but she still looked puzzled. "Well," she said at last, "you managed to distract me, anyway. Thanks," she said with a rueful grin.

"You're welcome," Cassie said automatically, but her concern returned as soon as she remembered what had prompted their conversation. "Is there anything I can do, really? I feel bad about you having to handle this all by yourself."

"I don't have to." Kerone's smile turned more sincere. "Thanks for listening, Cassie. I mean it."

"Anytime," she promised. This time she could smile back. "Keep me updated."

Kerone rolled her eyes at that. "I'm going to bed now," she said firmly. "If they want to act out any more melodrama today, they can do it without me. I'll talk to you later."

"Sleep well," Cassie said, stifling a giggle.

"You too."

As the screen went blank, Cassie reflected that the wish was probably a futile one. She was tired, yes, but her mind was now struggling to wrap itself around the Zhane-Andros dilemma and she wasn't sure it would stop long enough to let her fall asleep. Besides, she still had to go see Nen...

She hoped he didn't have anywhere near the bombshell that Kerone had unwittingly dropped, or she would have to write off rest in any form until tonight.

***

The common room was dark and quiet and for a moment he wasn't sure how he had gotten there. As soon as he sat up, though, the lights blazed to life and he flinched back instinctively. His eyes teared in the brightness and he blinked hard, trying to take in everything as quickly as he could.

The room was empty... he must have fallen asleep down here. He didn't know what time it was, but there was one thing he was sure of. Zhane would have woken him up when he came in, if not accidentally with the noise of the front door, then on purpose so that Andros didn't spend the night in the common room. He hadn't been woken up, thus Zhane hadn't come back.

*Kerone!* He should find out what time it was. She had said Zhane would be out late, but he didn't feel tired enough for it to be much before dawn now. Something must have happened to him.

There was a noticeable hesitation, and when her answer finally came back it was curt and to the point. *What.* Her tone was more threatening than curious, and he realized belatedly that he had probably woken her up too. She didn't say anything else, but he was too worried to apologize.

*Zhane isn't back yet,* he said, running a hand through his hair in an unconscious imitation of his best friend. *Did he say anything about where he was going? Is there any way to track him down? He wasn't going anywhere dangerous, was he?*

*He's here, Andros; he's fine.* She sounded only slightly more civil than she had before. *Go back to sleep.*

He stared around him in confusion. Zhane had already come back? He would have had to walk right past the common room to reach the stairs, but Andros had heard nothing. And why hadn't Zhane stopped? It was dark, certainly, but he knew from experience that the light from the hallway was enough to illuminate the couches in the common room. Zhane couldn't have missed him.

He pushed himself to his feet, deliberately keeping his thoughts to himself. Kerone sounded irritated enough without him compounding the problem. When he forced himself to think, he admitted that she didn't have the answers he wanted anyway. But she did have Zhane, so that meant at least one thing was right with the world... he could corner the Silver Ranger in the morning.

The light in the hallway was dimmer than that of the common room, but it was enough to get him to the stairs. The stairs themselves were lit from both above and below, and he concentrated on the way they glowed faintly beneath his feet as he trudged up to the second floor. One foot, and then the other... it was a route he had followed innumerable times before, but rarely did he give it this much attention.

Unexpected motion made him look up as he reached the next floor. He had thought the hallway would be deserted this late at night. The hostel was home to people displaced by war and those waiting to rebuild, refugees, travelers, and the occasional visitor. Most hostel residents these days were long term, and Andros knew everyone on his floor by name if not by reputation.

The boy coming out of the bathroom as he crested the stairs wasn't anyone he'd met before. Andros nodded anyway, assuming he was someone else's guest, and the other boy returned his greeting just as calmly. He must have known in advance that there were Rangers staying here; it was rare that Andros encountered such indifference in a stranger.

Kerone's room was next to his, and Andros slowed involuntarily as he passed. He was sorely tempted to knock, just to see for himself that Zhane was safe and accounted for, but he knew his sister wouldn't thank him for waking her a second time. Zhane might not appreciate his concern either, what with the way the Silver Ranger had been behaving around him lately.

The boy he had passed earlier must have been more flustered than he let on, for he paused in front of Kerone's door while Andros watched and keyed the door open. It wasn't unheard of for visitors to get confused in the long, arcing hallways, but most people used the privacy locks for exactly that reason. Kerone must have forgotten to set hers, and Andros opened his mouth to say something when he caught sight of Zhane.

The Silver Ranger looked up at the sound of the door and a welcoming smile lit his face--not for Andros, but for the boy in the doorway. The other's presence was obviously no intrusion. Andros could only stare as the stranger joined his best friend inside and the door closed behind them.

He backed away without thinking, fumbling the code for his own door before he realized his hand was shaking. An adrenaline reaction, he noted distantly. He wondered if he had actually expected the stranger to pose a threat. Ranger reflexes were a strange thing sometimes. There was no predicting what the Power would react to.

The lights in his room didn't brighten automatically when he stepped inside, but he was too distracted to consider what that meant. When the door slid shut, cutting off the dim illumination from the hallway and leaving him blind in the darkness, he remembered that Ranger reflexes were no longer an excuse for his actions. He sank down on Zhane's bed, staring numbly at the blackness.

There was a silent hum like a static charge, and it would have alerted him had he been reacting normally. As it was, he didn't notice anything through the haze of confusion until something sharp crackled against his back. He stiffened, his mind crystallizing into one single perception: threat.

"Dammit, Andros," he heard Kerone mutter, and the pressure on his back relaxed abruptly. "Don't startle me awake. I've told you over and over."

"What--" He swallowed, glancing carefully over his shoulder. An electric purple shimmer outlined the knife clenched in her fist, but the weapon dissolved even as he looked at it. Being a psychic manifestation didn't make it any less dangerous, of that he had no doubt. "What are you doing here?"

She yawned, shaking silver wisps of hair out of her eyes. At least, they were silver in the starlight; there was no telling what color they would be when he could see properly again. "Zhane and I switched rooms," she said, propping herself up on her elbows and blinking innocently at him. "So he'd have someplace to take Ty."

"Who's Ty?" Andros demanded. "Why didn't you tell me when he got back?"

"You were asleep," she said, stifling another yawn. "I told him you had been looking for him, though." She waited a beat, then added, "You're welcome."

He narrowed his eyes, not fooled by her casual air. Zhane would have woken him up if she had really told him. "Who is *Ty*?" he ground out.

Kerone squirmed out from underneath the blankets, drawing her knees to her chest as she sat up. "Friend of Zhane's," she answered at last. "They met at the hay party last night."

"Yesterday?" Andros repeated incredulously. "And he's still here? What's he doing spending the night?"

His sister shrugged. "It's hard to have sex when you're on different continents."

Andros gaped at her, broadsided by the reality his mind had been avoiding. It was no more pleasant head-on than it had been lurking in the shadows. "He's--he's sleeping with him?" he echoed, his voice cracking. "You... did you--break up?"

"No." Her tone was more impatient than anything else. "Why do people keep saying that?"

"But... Because he's cheating on you!" he burst out. "How can you still be together if he's sleeping with someone else!"

"He's not cheating on me." Now she sounded downright cross. "For him to cheat, he'd have to think I care who he sleeps with. If anything," Kerone added irritably, "he's cheating on you."

His stomach clenched and he stared at her in shock. "What?" he managed. He tried to make his voice louder than a whisper and failed miserably. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, you obviously care," she said, studying him frankly.

Andros swallowed hard, wondering how she could take this so calmly. "Because you're my sister," he muttered. Some of the strength was returning to his voice. "He shouldn't be sleeping around if he's going out with you."

He could have sworn she rolled her eyes. "Andros, we're in love. Love and sex aren't the same thing. And to be honest, if we want to have an open relationship then it's really none of your business."

"How can you say you're in love when he's sleeping with someone he just met?" Andros insisted angrily. "He's treating you like you're--like you're nothing!"

"No, *you're* treating me like I'm nothing." Her tone was even, but her eyes flashed violet in the dimness and he drew back in surprise. "You're treating me like I'm still a little girl you have to protect, who can't make her own decisions or understand the consequences! This isn't your relationship, Andros; it's ours!"

"It's not you I'm angry with," Andros protested, not sure what he had done to upset her. "Zhane's the one who's wrong; it's not your fault he's treating you so badly."

"Do you ever *listen*!" Kerone's eyes were glowing now, and he resisted the urge to back away. "You gave up any say you had in Zhane's love life a long time ago, Andros. And you certainly never had any in mine. So back off and let us figure this out on our own."

He stared at her, stung beyond words. He didn't know whether it hurt more that his little sister was telling him to mind his own business, or that she had for the first time completely excluded him from her and Zhane's relationship. Kerone had never been possessive, and she had certainly never tried to monopolize Zhane's attention. The Silver Ranger was allowed to be her boyfriend and Andros' best friend simultaneously, without ever having to choose one over the other.

Maybe that was why Ty didn't bother her. Maybe she had gotten used to sharing. But if it truly didn't bother her, then why did it bother him?

He sighed, his eyes sliding away from that luminous violet gaze. "I'm sorry," he muttered, staring down at the shadows on the floor. There was more than starlight coming through the windows, and he realized with a start that the sky outside had started to lighten. It was almost dawn.

Zhane had stayed out with Ty until dawn.

He caught himself frowning, and he forced his fists to relax. Kerone was right, it wasn't really any of his business. The Silver Ranger was an incurable flirt, and Andros had always known he wouldn't settle down. His relatively long-term relationship with Kerone continued to be a surprise, but if she was content than Andros had no right to get involved.

Or did he? He sighed again, still frowning. No matter his sister's protestations, he had trouble convincing himself that Zhane's actions weren't traitorous. And yet the idea that his best friend would ever intentionally hurt someone was laughable... what was he supposed to do with such a contradiction?

"I accept your apology," Kerone said primly, out of nowhere. She scrambled off of the bed as though eager to escape the silence, pausing in front of the door just before it would have detected her presence and opened automatically. "Try not to do anything drastic while I'm gone, all right?"

Her pajamas sparkled, straightening themselves out and unwrinkling under the magical light. She slipped through the door while he was still trying to gather his thoughts to answer, and he blinked. The door hadn't opened. She didn't usually teleport this early in the morning.

He was thinking about crawling into bed and making up for some of his lost sleep when the comm chimed. His best friend was sleeping with someone he'd never met, his sister wouldn't listen to a word he said, and on top of it all someone was calling him. The sun hadn't even risen yet and already it was the worst day he'd had since Ashley left.

The incoming link wasn't live, and he was tempted to let it lie. Something told him that it wasn't good news, and he'd already had too much shock on too little sleep. He wasn't sure how much more he could handle at this point.

Responsibility won out over reluctance, though, and he let the comm deliver its message. As soon as he saw the seal of the Frontier Defense, he knew he should have obeyed his instincts and gone back to bed. He should have known better than to think that giving up his morpher would change anything. Hadn't Kerone warned him?

He was still staring at the screen when his sister returned. Her bare feet padded over to the closet, then paused. A moment later he felt her at his side, scanning the words over his shoulder. He almost smiled at her intuition, but he stayed silent until she finished reading.

"It's taken them longer to regroup than I expected," she said at last.

Andros looked up, catching her eye as she braced one arm against his workstation. "You saw this coming?"

She shrugged. "Dark Spectre wasn't the embodiment of the forces of evil. He was just their monarch. By destroying him we drove them back, but we didn't obliterate them."

"No," he agreed with a sigh. "Nothing ever does."

They were silent for a moment, and Andros contemplated the screen. For a while, he had allowed himself to forget that there were things in the universe worse than the Council. Now, too late, he realized that was what Zhane had been trying to tell him all along. Being a Ranger was about more than politics and power struggles.

"Kerone," he said suddenly. He wasn't the only one who was going to have to change. "You keep saying you're not a Ranger. Do you want to be?"

There was a noticeable hesitation. "What do you mean?" she asked warily.

He turned around to face her. "You commanded the Dark Fortress," he said, searching her expression. "What would it take, right now, to bring down KO-35?"

She gazed back at him, as though trying to decide how much of the truth he could take. "Not much," she said finally. "I could do it with a couple of wings of velocifighters."

He nodded, not surprised. He deliberately didn't glance at his wrist, for the absence of his morpher was all the more disturbing in light of Saryn's message. "It's time to change that," he told her. "Will you help me?"

***

Saryn contemplated the comm, as though he could see each of the recipients' reactions to their message. "The leaders of Border teams know as much as we do, now," he remarked aloud. He didn't know if it would be enough, but they had to do something.

"Which isn't much." The zords' comm channel rendered Mirine's voice clearly, and she sounded pensive. "What do we tell Elisia?"

"The truth, I suppose." He lifted his gaze to the simulated starlines on the cockpit's forward screen. "That quantrons are massing and velocifighter attacks are becoming more frequent. That we suspect the rise of a coordinating force within their ranks, and we must stand together now as we have in times past. It is why Ranger teams exist, after all."

He heard her sigh. "I was hoping for something less dramatic and maybe a little friendlier. How about, 'the bad guys are coming, but we'll protect you'?"

"I refuse to use the phrase 'bad guys' in front of an audience," he replied firmly. "If you wish such a statement made, you will do it yourself."

"Spoilsport," she teased. "It would sound better coming from you."

"You believe that precisely because it is not something I would say," he countered. "I fail to comprehend how you grew up with a colonial accent when both our parents were Eltaran."

"Easy," she said impishly. "I had friends. You spent way too much time reading."

"I was not as unsociable as that," he objected, reaching for the comm again. "I can recall several times when you were the one who had to be coaxed outside during winter celebrations or the spring festival. You had quite the aversion to large gatherings."

"You say that like I'm the strange one!" she exclaimed. "I still don't understand why you *chose* a profession that's all about intense emotion and huge groups of people. I think there must be something wrong with you."

He smiled slightly. "You are not the first to say so."

She muttered something he probably wasn't supposed to overhear, and his smile didn't fade as he began a private static message for Linnse and Tobin. "If you are through insulting me," he commented, "you should know that I plan to resign as a governing member of the Frontier Defense."

There was silence from the comm. This time he had truly startled her, and he felt some amount of satisfaction at the knowledge that it was still possible. He continued his message while he waited, choosing his words carefully as this would no doubt surprise them as much as it did Mirine. They knew he was less content than he had once been, but they three had founded the Defense together and it was hard to imagine it being run by anyone else.

"Well, I didn't see that one coming," she admitted at last. "Is this because of the surveillance briefing?"

"No," he said honestly. "But circumstances have given me an opportunity that I intend to take advantage of. An active Ranger can not serve offplanet in a time of war."

"We're not at war," Mirine countered. "We're on alert--or we will be soon--but that's the way it is on the Border. We didn't end martial law only to bring it back at the first sign of trouble."

"Agreed. Nonetheless, the possibility exists that fighting will resume before the year is out. I do not welcome the thought, but that is no reason not to be prepared."

He heard her sigh. "You taught me everything I know about paranoia, Saryn."

"You only say that to flatter me," he answered.

She laughed, and her tone was lighter when she asked, "So what's the real reason?"

He hesitated. Allowing the static message he was composing to lapse, he turned his full attention back to Mirine. It was hard to tell her the truth, but if there was anyone he could count on for support it should be his teammates. "I am overwhelmed," he said quietly. "I can not continue to function at this level on a daily basis."

She didn't answer, and he knew she was waiting for him to elaborate. "You said you did not understand why I chose this work," he reminded her. "I chose as I did because diplomacy intrigues me, but right now the Frontier Defense is too much. My allegiance is first to Cassie, then to you and the Rangers. The Defense is a consideration only after these obligations are satisfied, yet I find my priorities of late do not reflect this."

"I see," she said after a moment. She sounded thoughtful again, all trace of their earlier banter absent from her voice. "Saryn... your marriage is up to you, but I hope you don't feel like you're being forced to choose between the team and your job. We'll take you whenever we can get you--you know that, right?"

"I do," he assured her. "And I appreciate the allowances you have made." He knew he sounded a little rueful when he admitted, "You run a much looser team than I did, and it works as well if not better than mine. I will resign because I want to, not because I have been pressured into it."

"If that was supposed to make me feel better," she began. There was a brief pause, and she added, "Well, it worked. Are you going to set down at the compound?"

He glanced at the nav display, which was even now showing imminent system entry. "Yes," he decided. The comm registered the recognition code as they dropped out of hyperrush, and the zord's autoresponse function bounced it back. "Cassie implied that she might be home early today, so I will stop there before going on to the fair. Do you--"

He choked on the words, unable to stifle a cry as pain lanced through his midsection. He doubled over under the assault, gasping for breath as he struggled against the consuming fire inside his body. He was dimly aware of Mirine's sharp query, but he couldn't focus on anything with enough coherence to answer.

Fear washed over him then and his vision sparkled to black, dragging him under despite his best efforts.

"Saryn!" She was saying something, but all he could make out was his name. The roaring in his ears was starting to subside, and he was relieved to finally see something when he blinked his eyes. The blackout couldn't have lasted long, for he was still in his zord and on final approach to Elisia.

"Mirine," he muttered, staring at the comm as though he could will his hands to work it himself. "Call Nen. Tell him..." His breath caught, and his arms tightened across his stomach. "Find Cassie," he breathed, squeezing his eyes shut.

The last time this had happened, Cassie had nearly faded out of existence before collapsing in his arms. This time the pain was twice as intense and he wasn't there to catch her. He didn't even know if she was still here to fall.

Damn the Blue Turbo Ranger and his experiments. If anything happened to her, nothing in the universe would save Justin Stewart from his wrath.