"Well," Zhane said, throwing himself down on the couch in their apartment. "This is pretty awkward, isn't it."

Ashley managed a weak smile, but she didn't answer. She'd barely said a word since Karen had triggered the teleportal that brought them here. He didn't know whether her silence was due more to them sharing quarters, or to Carlos' reaction to their situation.

"Did Carlos bother you?" he tried again, studying her expression more carefully. It was hard to deal with someone else's skepticism when they didn't even know where they stood themselves.

She shook her head mutely.

"I think I've figured out the patrol schedule," Andros announced, wandering out of the bedroom. He was frowning down at a datapad, paying no attention to Ashley's distress or the pointed looks Zhane was giving him.

"There are five rotations," he continued, pausing in front of the couch. "Zhane, it look s like you and I patrol separately from the rest of the Astro Rangers. The Elisians have their own patrol, too, and I think they've been splitting the Eltaran and Calijyt teams to cover for us while we were gone."

"We haven't been gone," Zhane interrupted, glancing sideways at Ashley. "They're not us, Andros. We're just filling in for them for a while."

Andros finally looked up, his frown vanishing as he caught Zhane's eye. "Right," he agreed, a little too quickly. "That's what I meant."

Ashley got up and left the room without a word.

Zhane glared at his friend, and Andros' eyes widened. "What?" he whispered indignantly. "What did I do?"

"Tell me this isn't weird," Zhane whispered back. "I don't know what to say to you, let alone to her!"

Andros just stared at him, and for a moment Zhane wondered if his friend could actually be that oblivious. Andros had always had a one-track mind... maybe he really was thinking about patrol schedules. Maybe the fact that he was sharing an apartment with both his ex-girlfriend and his would-be boyfriend really didn't bother him.

"It is hard," Andros admitted at last. The only sign that he was uncomfortable came when he looked away, frowning down at the floor. "I wish I could make it better, because I feel like... well, I'm the one that screwed it up. But I don't know how."

"You don't have to whisper," Ashley put in quietly. She was standing in the doorway with a glass of water in her hand, watching them. "I really don't mind."

Zhane sighed. That was all they needed: someone else being noble and repressed. "I mind," he said bluntly. "I hate this whole situation. I hate not knowing who's upset, or why, and I hate not being able to tell people when I'm upset because I'm afraid of making it worse. And I really hate having to tiptoe around everything and pretend there's nothing wrong in front of the others!"

There was a brief silence, and to his surprise it was Ashley who broke it. With a tentative smile, she offered, "Carlos was pretty obnoxious, wasn't he."

"He thought he was protecting you," Andros muttered. "He didn't know you already knew about me and Zhane in this dimension."

"No thanks to you," she shot back. "After everything you did to keep me from noticing!"

Zhane glanced from her to Andros uncertainly. If she thought they had been keeping something from her then that was his fault, not Andros'. He had hidden his feelings as best he could, it was true, but Andros had been oblivious.

"I didn't..." Andros stopped, his gaze flicking toward Zhane.

"He didn't know," Zhane said, coming to his rescue. The words hurt, and more than he had expected, but he couldn't let Andros take the blame for something that wasn't his fault. "Andros didn't know how I felt until yesterday. He wasn't covering anything up."

"No--" Andros choked. He swallowed hard, shaking his head as Zhane looked at him in surprise. "She means in the other dimension. Here--when we were here before, you told me we were together, and I tried to keep Ash from finding out."

Zhane frowned, trying to sort that out. Ashley clearly knew what he meant, and she was staring at Andros expectantly. The Red Ranger kept his gaze on the floor, but if he couldn't sense her regard he must still have known what she was asking.

"I don't know why," Andros confessed, as though one of them had said the word aloud. "I guess... I didn't want anything to change."

"I would have believed you," Ashley said softly. Zhane felt as though he should be following this conversation but couldn't quite get a handle on it. "If you had said you didn't love him, I would have believed it, and nothing would have changed."

"But it would have been a lie!" Andros burst out. He looked up at her, then glanced away immediately. "I do love him! That's why I didn't want you to ask--I knew I'd lose you."

For several long moments, no one said anything. Finally, Ashley sighed. "That's my decision, though, isn't it?" she reminded him. "Didn't I at least deserve to know?"

"He told you about his vision," Zhane pointed out, unable to stay silent any longer. "He talked to you before me, you know. He never wanted you to get hurt."

"Zhane," Ashley began, but Andros overrode her.

"Stop defending me!" he cried. "I don't deserve that, Zhane! I've hurt you more than anyone and you act like nothing's changed!"

Taken aback, Zhane glanced at Ashley. She looked almost as surprised as he felt, but she didn't say anything. If she had been about to tell him to stay out of their argument, she must have changed her mind.

"I'll defend whoever I want," he said, as much for her benefit as Andros'. "Ash is right when she says it's her decision to stay with you or not, and as long as you say 'I love you' and mean it, I have the same choice. Sorry, but you don't get to decide whether you deserve us or not."

Andros gaped at him for a moment, and Zhane managed a rueful smile. It was getting easier and easier to speak sharply to Andros. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"You..." Ashley distracted him before Andros could answer. "Do you really mean that? That it's my decision--" She swallowed involuntarily and didn't bother to finish.

"Whether to stay with Andros?" he guessed.

She nodded wordlessly.

"Yeah," he said with a shrug. "I'd have tried to talk you out of breaking up if I could have, but it's not like I can tie you together or something."

"Why?" Ashley demanded, staring at him. "Don't you want me to leave?"

"No!" he exclaimed without thinking. "You're practically my closest friend!"

The look she gave him made him pause. She would see right through anything he told her, because she was in the same position he was. They were both desperately in love with a former boyfriend too dense to know it half the time.

"Maybe at first," he admitted with a sigh. "Before I knew you I might have resented you a little. Can you blame me? You took my best friend away, even if you didn't know it then."

"Now I know," she pointed out evenly. The words were neutral, even impassive, but her eyes were uncertain. She didn't want to fight anymore than he did.

"And now I know you didn't do it on purpose," he answered. "You wouldn't have kissed him that day if you'd known. But I'm glad you did, because he needed you.

"Maybe that's why you're not with Andros in this dimension," Zhane realized suddenly. "Because we were still together when you met us."

"Lucky," Ashley murmured. Her smile was pained.

"No," Zhane said forcefully. He hadn't known he believed that until this moment, but maybe now he could make her see it too. "It's not lucky. It's too bad, because you and Andros are so in love that you've overcome everything else, even death, to be with each other."

"So have you," she said wistfully.

"So?" Zhane countered. "That doesn't change anything. It's not like I just started loving him. Andros said I'm acting like nothing's changed, and I am because it hasn't. I've loved Andros all along, and you can't change that anymore than I could change your feelings two years ago.

"He isn't lucky here because he never got the chance to love you the way he should. I'm sorry for the way things turned out here, for him and for you... even if I did get to keep him a little longer. If there was any way I could knock some sense into the Andros in this dimension, I'd do it in a second."

"Would you?" Ashley asked quietly. There was an odd look in her eyes. "You told Andros... When we met your counterpart from this dimension, he told Andros that he'd be jealous of me if he was in your place."

"You heard that?" Andros blurted out. "Did you hear the whole conversation? I thought you were still downstairs!"

"I am jealous," Zhane replied honestly. Ashley didn't so much as glance at Andros, and since the question hadn't been directed at him he ignored it too. "But I'm not jealous because he loves you. I'm jealous because he acts like he doesn't love me."

"Wait a minute," Andros objected. He was starting to sound distinctly uncomfortable. "Can I say something here?"

Ashley sighed. "Not unless you say it better than you've said everything else," she muttered, asperity in her tone.

Zhane shot her an amused look before he thought, and when she looked up he knew she'd caught it. Apparently he wasn't the only one exasperated by Andros' emotional ignorance. He had to admit, if only to himself, that it was nice to share a joke with her again, even at Andros' expense. Maybe especially at Andros' expense.

The Red Ranger looked from one to the other, and he didn't look quite as disgruntled as Zhane had expected. "Should I be relieved that we're all still talking?" he asked carefully. "Or worried that you're ganging up on me?"

Zhane exchanged glances with Ashley, and he knew what she was going to say before she opened her mouth. "Worried," they agreed simultaneously.

Andros cracked a smile, and Zhane found himself relaxing incrementally. They were still talking, after all, and he had been more honest with the two of them in the last few minutes than he had been in the year before this. If only he could get Ashley alone for a few minutes, to tell her about the conversation with Andros earlier...

A chime from the door prevented him from implementing any such plan. After a moment's hesitation and a nervous look or two, it was Andros who crossed the room to the source of the noise. He had some trouble getting the door open, but any comment Zhane might have made was forgotten when he caught sight of their visitors.

Amanda from Kalikay's stood there, a friendly smile on her face. She looked for all the world as thought she stopped by every day. And at her side, calm as could be, was Cassie's dog Jetson.

Calm, that is, until he saw Ashley. Before anyone could say a word, the dog launched itself past Andros and landed in the room at Ashley's feet. He didn't jump up on her, as the Jetson Zhane knew would have, but he danced back and forth with little hops and an impatient whine until she reached down to pat him.

"I just got in," Amanda said, by way of greeting. "I saw your light was on, and I figured the apartment must feel pretty lonely without him."

She was smiling down at Ashley, who had dropped to her knees to hug the dog. She missed the confused looks Andros and Zhane exchanged, and she continued blithely, "Bgoua made some extra dinner tonight, if you're too tired to cook."

It took Zhane a moment to realize that she had lifted her head to gaze inquiringly at him. Him specifically, not Andros or Ashley. Since when did he make decisions about dinner, he wondered? He found himself at something of a loss: what was the right answer?

"Thanks," he said hastily, trying not to look at the others. "None of us is very good company right now, though, and I think we have some leftovers. We'll be all right."

"Leftovers, huh?" Amanda looked amused. "You must be tired. I'll let you get some sleep, but let us know if you need anything, okay?"

"We will," Andros promised, giving her what was obviously intended to be a reassuring smile. "Thanks for the invitation. Maybe some other time."

"Sure," Amanda agreed, glancing down at the dog again. "Welcome home."

Ashley looked up at just that moment with the most innocent smile on her face. "It's good to be back," she said sincerely. "Thanks for bringing Ranger over."

"Oh, it was no problem," Amanda assured her. "He and Angelo get along really well. We should thank you for letting him stay with us when you're gone!"

Ashley laughed as though she knew exactly what Amanda was talking about. The red-haired singer smiled as she took a step back, wishing them a casual good night. Zhane replied automatically, but as soon as the door closed Andros turned on Ashley.

"'Ranger'?" he repeated incredulously. "How did you know what the dog's name was? Is that Jetson? And did you recognize that woman? She looked familiar, somehow."

"Dog tags," Ashley said tiredly, jingling Ranger's collar before she stood up. "I hope I wasn't too obvious about it. He looks like Jetson, but I'd have to ask Cassie to be sure. I wonder what he's doing with us instead of her.

"I don't know who that was with him," she added as an afterthought. "Maybe a neighbor?"

"She's the singer from Earth at Kalikay's," Zhane told them, surprised they didn't remember her. "She sang the night of graduation. Amanda?"

"Amanda and Bgoua," Ashley repeated, almost to herself. "I wonder how many people we should expect to have dropping by without any warning like that?"

"Not a lot, I hope," Andros said fervently. "Maybe we'd better look around some more and see what we can find here."

"Wait," Ashley said, before Zhane could agree. "First, did you say you'd figured out the patrols? I know Karen told us when to be back in the zord bay, but it would be nice to know how much time we have before then. And after. I want to sleep," she added, a little petulantly. "And maybe even eat."

"You are demanding, aren't you?" Zhane teased, falling back into the banter they'd become so used to over the summer. "What will you want next, a shower and a change of clothes?"

"Are you saying you think I need one?" Ashley retorted, a small smile on her face.

"I do," Andros put in unexpectedly. "I guess I'd better find something red to wear."

"That'll probably be hard in a Red Ranger's apartment," Zhane remarked, straight-faced.

"Not as hard as getting you to cook something edible," Andros informed him. "Amanda must not know you very well."

He grinned, inexplicably pleased to be the recipient of such heckling. It was something normal in a situation that had been horribly awkward even before they'd been transported to an alternate dimension. He could only hope that Andros' smirk and Ashley's giggle were harbingers of things to come.

***

Ghostly illumination flickered in the quiet room. Though Karen had shown him how to log in and access the Ranger network, it had taken a good deal of trial and error to get the computer to tell him what he wanted to know. It still wasn't cooperating fully, because the question burning in his mind remained unanswered.

He stood abruptly, turning away from the screen to stare into the semi-darkness. She slept on in the double bed alone, apparently untroubled by his absence. She must have had too much time to get used to it. He wondered how often her husband and his teammates were off on missions so dangerous that JT had to risk their lives to bring them back.

Carlos rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the tension in them. Sitting so long in front of the computer had taken a toll on muscles already stressed by the events of the day, but he hadn't been able to sleep. He had tried. He had lain in bed for almost an hour, staring up at the ceiling and listening to Karen breathe. The presence of someone who was almost--but not quite--her husband hadn't seemed to bother her anymore than the lack of it did now.

It didn't seem to. He knew it did, no matter how good her nonchalant façade was. He had heard her voice crack when she joked about how long she'd been wearing his shirt. He had seen the faroff look in her eyes when she showed him around "their" apartment, touching things fondly and telling him any story he asked to hear without hesitation.

She didn't ask him any questions, though. He couldn't decide whether to be relieved or worried. The moment his "wife" had shocked him into silence with a face that wasn't Aura's, he had vowed to find out what had happened to the Aquitian team. But the longer Karen went without asking about his life, the more uncomfortable he felt about bringing it up.

So he lay awake not sleeping until he couldn't stand it anymore, and he logged into the Ranger network with the code she had given him. His exhaustive search didn't hurt the computer's feelings at all. Unfortunately, it also didn't yield the information he wanted.

His eye fell on the phone he had left beside the bed. He wished he could turn it on, if only to see the Aquitian logo blinking comfortingly on the screen. But as Jenkarta had already proven, the phone link only confused his astromorpher in this dimension, making it impossible for him to use his communicator when it was turned on. Logic had to take precedent over sentiment this time.

He moved quietly over to the nightstand and picked up his wallet instead. Inside was a picture TJ's sister had taken at their graduation party, and another that Ashley had taken the same afternoon. He had chased Aura into the sprinkler, grabbing her hand when she almost tripped over the plastic wand, and she had retaliated by flinging her open water bottle in his direction. They were both drenched, laughing, and about three seconds from getting busted for trampling his mom's sage.

He stared at the picture a moment longer before snapping his wallet shut with finality. Screw logic. If he couldn't ask Karen, and he couldn't ask the computer, then there was only one place left to go.

She was right when she said it was less than a second by teleportal. He had the presence of mind to change first, putting on his own clothes before stepping through the door that took him instantly back to the Ranger building. The place was crawling with people, and even Co-Op wasn't immune to the press of frantic activity.

"JT." He managed to locate Justin's doppelganger without too much trouble, probably because much of the chaos seemed to revolve around him. "I need your help."

"Shoot," JT replied. The screens in front of him ranged from flight control monitors to countdown readouts and status indicators that Carlos could make little or no sense of. But JT's gaze tracked from one to the other as he read them like a book, apparently giving Carlos as much attention as he was giving anyone else.

How much attention that actually was, of course, was open to question.

"I need to get to Aquitar," Carlos told him. "I think your dimensional transference thing can send me."

"What part of 'war' don't you understand, Carlos?" JT didn't so much as glance up from his control panels. "This isn't a vacation. This isn't a training sim. This is life and death, every minute of every day. You don't get time off."

He didn't know what he was going to do until he had already done it. JT's back was pressed up against the monitors he had been scrutinizing, eyes wide, and Carlos' fist was full of his shirt. The room was so busy that there was a noticeable lag between action and reaction.

"I don't want time off," the Black Ranger enunciated carefully. "I want to go into hell and get someone out. One person. Is that so much to ask?"

Then people were pulling him off of JT, a woman with green slitted eyes and a man he recognized as one of the Eltaran Rangers. Their concerned looks were first for JT, who waved them away distractedly, and then for him. He ignored them, waiting for JT's response.

"This is a really stupid idea," JT said at last, turning back to the consoles. "I'm not saying I won't do it," he added, forestalling Carlos before he could say anything, "but I think it's a really stupid idea."

"Thanks for the opinion," Carlos muttered. "It means a lot to me."

"I can see that." Without turning, JT held out his hand. "Give me your morpher."

Carlos handed it over, watching as JT set it on the console and started reprogramming it through an unfamiliar interface. How long he worked on it was open to question, since several times he seemed to be doing something else entirely, but Carlos didn't dare stop him at this point. So he didn't know what was going on. That was nothing new, and it didn't really matter at this point. He knew what he wanted. That would have to be enough.

"It's set to automatically piggyback on any signal booster they still have," JT said at last, handing the morpher back. He still didn't look up from his control panels. "That means don't use it unless it's an 'I'm about to die' emergency, because anyone will be able to overhear everything you transmit. On the plus side, it also means that if Aquitar has any comm satellites left at all, you'll be able to get a message to us when you need to.

"Don't do it unless you need to," JT reiterated, looking up at last. His eyes were impassive. "We'll assume that any contact is an extraction request. No matter what you say, coded, coerced, or otherwise, we'll bring you back the instant we receive your signal."

"So you can transfer me," Carlos said, searching his expression for confirmation and finding none. He had told himself he wouldn't question, but he found he couldn't help it.

"Now you ask." JT gave him a discomfiting smirk. "I don't know. But it was nice of you to volunteer as a test subject."

Then, before Carlos could protest, the Blue Turbo Ranger lashed out faster than the eye could follow and he found himself flat on his back on the floor. "Don't ever threaten me again," JT warned him. He turned back to the console and entire room disappeared.

There was a grey oblivion sharp as an electric shock, a muddy view of the Aquitian control room, and a twisting agony so all-consuming that he knew he was in pain before he could feel it. Grey nothingness again, and then Aura's face in the dimness. He couldn't scream, couldn't breathe, couldn't even comprehend; he could only endure until the nightmare crystallized into something his mind could wrap itself around.

Acrid smoke rushed into his starving lungs like so many splinters, forcing him to cough most of it back out even as his body demanded more. His eyes watered under the assault and his skin seemed to be on fire, echoing with phantom pain even as the tearing transference came to an end. For a moment, the only thing he recognized was the fact that it was over.

The bulkhead beside him exploded outward and survival once more took precedence in his mind. He half-rolled, half-scrambled out of the way, peripherally aware of a body on the floor where he had just been, and his astroblaster was in his hand as he swung around to face the point of impact. He thanked Karen silently for insisting that they carry their weapons at all times, uniform or no.

Fresh smoke billowed through the new opening in the wall, and nothing he could do made his vision any clearer. He could hear the wet slipping sounds that still haunted his nightmares, and even after all this time the sound of pirahnatron sent a thrill of fear up his spine. He fired blindly, praying the reflex hurt no one but the bad guys.

Splashing sounds told him he was hitting targets, and that they were the right ones. The hole in the wall made an improvised holding point, a place to cut off his unseen enemy without being surrounded in the smoke. He hoped it didn't also mark his only escape route, because even the sound of retreat wasn't enough to convince him to step through that wall without a whole lot more information.

Carlos backed up slowly, letting his fire taper off as the pirahnatron ceased to respond. He kept his blaster ready in one hand as he knelt beside the prone form that had come flying through the bulkhead, glancing down only long enough to identify it as Aquitian and find a place to check for a pulse. The heartbeat was strong beneath his fingers, but between the smoke and the way his eyes were swelling shut, he couldn't see well enough to determine whether it was someone he knew.

Then a hand clamped down on his wrist, and he jerked back with a curse. It did no good, for whoever the fallen soldier was had a grip as strong as Aura's. He stopped resisting, peering into the smoke in the direction of the blown-out bulkhead, wondering how much time they had before reinforcements swarmed through that hole.

"Who are you?" a voice from the floor rasped. The harsh grating of much abused vocal cords turned the normally lyric Aquitian language into a painful hiss.

"A Ranger," he answered in kind, choking as his throat closed involuntarily. His own voice wasn't in much better shape. "From--Eltare." He remembered just in time not to say "Earth".

And there were the reinforcements. It certainly didn't take them long. The figure beside him rose through the smoke and took his arm with her into the dimness. Given the circumstances, he didn't argue, but he couldn't help a chill when he realized he was thinking of her as female. Could his subconscious know something he didn't?

He shoved her out of the way as a roar tore through the space between them, acting more on instinct than any quantifiable sense. His shoulder banged into a wall and his return shot went wild, but he could hear a stunner taking up the slack from somewhere nearby. How she had managed to hold onto her weapon after getting thrown through a wall he had no idea.

"This way!" The damaged voice now held a note of command that he recognized, and he stumbled toward the sound without question. The odds against this encounter were phenomenal.

Their pursuers were almost on top of them by the time their running space dead-ended, but he didn't have time to panic. He also didn't have adrenaline to spare. Such concerns were pushed aside as two more stunners opened up, one on either side of him and his fellow Ranger, and a hand yanked him through the wall.

A familiar voice shouted, "Go!" His heart constricted at the sound, and then the ground lurched and he was thrown into something hard and sharp. He didn't bother to get up, partly because he suspected they were in some kind of transport vehicle and partly because he couldn't breathe well enough to move.

There was the sound of a stunner arming, and he had a sinking sensation that it was pointed at him. That impression was confirmed a moment later when the same voice that had yelled for them to go inquired, "Shall I shoot this one, or do you want it for something?"

"Not--" The raw voice that answered somehow maintained an air of authority even when it gave out completely. "Not an agent," she gasped, from somewhere in front of him. "A Ranger."

The whole interior of the vehicle was blurred by his battered vision, but he thought he saw movement off to one side at those words. "You're sure?" the second voice asked skeptically. Someone's face was in his, and he inhaled sharply at the scent that reached him even through the smoke and fear.

It was Aura that stood beside him, debating his continued existence with the leader he had just rescued. He flinched as fingers wrapped around his wrist roughly enough to bruise, but he didn't protest. He knew she was inspecting his morpher, and he knew too that no matter what Cetaci said she would kill him in an instant if she thought it was fake.

The vehicle lurched again, but this time his position on the floor kept him from getting the wind knocked out of him. It also dislodged Aura's grip, for which he was grateful. She didn't use that strength on him very often, and it wasn't so much that it was disconcerting as it was just plain painful.

"Are you all right?" Aura wanted to know. As the haze slowly melted from his vision, he could see that she hadn't turned her back on him as she moved to Cetaci's side. He didn't want to know what kind of lives they led that they didn't even trust Rangers anymore.

"I got it," Cetaci coughed, pulling something from her vest. She let Aura take it before gesturing in his direction. "Thanks to him. He covered me when the 'tron caught up just--" She choked again, then wheezed, "Just outside the rendezvous point."

"Stop talking," a third voice ordered, tight with fatigue and strain. "If you can't breathe, say so and shut up. I won't listen to you suffocate yourself."

Maybe it was a trick of his still-clearing vision, but Carlos thought he saw a small smile on the White Ranger's face. The next thing he knew Delphinius was taking Aura's place at her side, sliding an arm around Cetaci and cradling her head against his chest unashamedly. He whispered something Carlos couldn't make out, and Cetaci closed her eyes.

"We should abandon the pod," Delphinius added, in a more normal tone of voice. "How far can you walk?"

"As far as I have to," Cetaci mumbled, not lifting her head from his chest. "Do it."

He touched her face once more before gently extracting himself from their embrace. Cetaci leaned back against the console bank again, eyes closed as her head rested on the edge of the control panel. Delphinius got back to work at the pilot's console, and suddenly Carlos found himself the center of Aura's attention once more.

"We must walk from here," she told him, and her careful English sounded foreign to his ears. It occurred to him belatedly that she had no reason to think he could understand their language, and he wondered if he should tell her.

Cetaci knew--he had answered without thinking when she asked who he was. But she wasn't saying anything now, and Aura didn't seem in a mood to be upstaged. So he just nodded wordlessly and waited to see if she would elaborate. It wasn't as though he had any choice in where they went.

She didn't explain after all, and he supposed he should have expected that. He had thought he would be relieved to find her alive, no matter what condition she was in. Somehow he had thought...

Well, maybe that was the problem. He hadn't thought. He had just acted, and damn the consequences. Here he was, and here she was, and she seemed as likely to kill him as hear him out--even if he could figure out what to tell her.

"It will head for the surface as soon as we're clear," Delphinius was saying, as he helped Cetaci to her feet with a tenderness she only accepted when she was too worn to protest. "The self-destruct will activate on first contact with the enemy. You have the disc?"

Cetaci nodded tiredly to Aura, and Delphinius frowned. "For as long as you draw breath we will not leave you," he informed her. "There is no reason to pass it on."

"You will not leave me," she whispered, barely loud enough to be heard. It seemed to be all she could manage without hurting her voice further. "Aura will, because she knows what is at stake. That is why she carries it."

"We're wasting time," Aura reminded them. "The sooner we are away, the fainter the trail they will have to follow."

Delphinius' expression was dark, but he helped Cetaci out of the pod without another word. Aura waited for Carlos, but since she still hadn't holstered her stunner he harbored no illusions about her intentions. He supposed he should be grateful that he wasn't being escorted at gunpoint.

The pod was nestled inside some sort of subterranean cavern, and it further occurred to him to be thankful that he hadn't been expected to disembark in the water. His breather was back in Karen's apartment on Eltare. It was a testament to his state of mind at the time that he had put his wallet in his pocket but left the breather in a drawer with his ID.

The pod's autopilot took over the moment the hatch closed. Aura watched until it cleared the first overhang, but Delphinius and Cetaci didn't bother. Carlos followed them deeper into the slowly darkening cave, and a moment later he heard Aura's rapid steps catching up with them from behind. She paced him in the dimness, and he had the sense that it galled her to walk with him instead of her teammates. But he was equally sure that she wasn't about to turn her back on him, so it was really her only option.

The light was gone in minutes. Just as he opened his mouth to say something about the impenetrable darkness, Delphinius produced a miniature light from somewhere and illuminated a narrow path in front of them. Most of it was blocked from reaching Carlos and Aura, but it was better than nothing.

Carlos had no way to gauge how long they walked, and no one volunteered any information. No one volunteered anything at all. They walked in a silence broken only by Cetaci's frequent coughs. The route they followed didn't seem to be marked in any way, though several times the path shrank small enough that Carlos had to squeeze sideways to fit through a gap.

Delphinius never showed any uncertainty, though he did pause for Cetaci's sake more than once. Her coughing grew steadily worse, and Carlos' throat began to ache in sympathy. He could hear Delphinius murmuring encouragement to her, and not once but twice did he see the glow of rehydration pass between them. He tried not to think about the last time he had seen Aquitians lend strength that way, but it was hard to keep his mind occupied with nothing else to focus on but interminable darkness.

At first he thought that the odd double shadows in front of them were his imagination. Just as the thought crossed his mind, however, Delphinius turned off his light and swung Cetaci into his arms as though it was no great effort. The shadows remained. As attuned to Aura as he was, Carlos felt her relax the tiniest bit, and he wondered what destination they had reached.

The source of the light turned out to be a single lantern, casting shadows down the incline on which is was perched. Delphinius started up the slope without hesitation, and a figure detached itself from the shadows at the top and met them halfway down. It was with a start that Carlos recognized Tideus.

The former Ranger's gaze flicked over him briefly, measuringly, and then he turned back to Delphinius. "I brought supplies enough for an overnight stay, but no longer. Will she require treatment?"

"No." Delphinius rejected Tideus' silent offer of help, continuing up the incline unaided. "She lets me carry her like this all the time. Of course she needs treatment; she was knocked through a wall!"

Carlos blinked, wondering how much of the silence on the way in had been telepathic conversation. He had gotten so used to sharing in such discussions that it hadn't occurred to him that he was being excluded. He shot a sideways glance at Aura and found her scanning the cavern as though expecting an ambush. Apparently even Tideus' presence wasn't enough to reassure her.

"I'm all right," Cetaci murmured, clutching Delphinius' shoulders as he set her down in the rough circle of lantern light near the top of the slanted cavern. "A night's rest will be enough."

"Who's your companion?" Tideus asked bluntly, keeping his eyes on Cetaci. The lack of acknowledgement seemed to be deliberate, as though Tideus didn't want Carlos to know they were talking about him. "If you brought a wall down, he looks as though he was underneath it."

"He was," Delphinius answered for her. He didn't look in Carlos' direction either. "She says she found him holding off the 'tron singlehandedly when she came to. He checked her vitals, told her he was a Ranger from Eltare, and covered their retreat as soon as she could move again."

"He's not Eltaran." How Tideus could tell, he had no idea. "But I understand a lot of the neighboring teams fell back to the Free Systems when Dark Spectre's last sweep came through. He looks human, at least."

"What is your name?" Delphinius asked suddenly, pinning Carlos with an intent look as he switched to English. "What is your purpose here?"

They didn't waste any words, he reflected wryly. He'd give them that.

"I'm Carlos," he answered, wondering whether to tell them that he understood what they were saying perfectly well. "I was a Ranger for Earth... at least, I was until Dark Spectre drove us out," he added awkwardly. It was hard to say that to Rangers that obviously refused to be driven, but he didn't know what else to tell them.

"And you operate out of Eltare now?" Delphinius surmised.

Before he could so much as nod, Aura cut him off. "What business does Eltare have with us?" she demanded, surprising him with the venom in her voice. "They've never cared before. Why start now?"

His hesitation was obvious, and he knew it wasn't winning him any supporters. He sighed, not at all certain he was quick enough to get something past people this suspicious. Especially when he didn't know that much of the story himself.

"It's kind of a long story," he hedged, trying to gauge their reactions. Not good.

"Tell us," Aura invited, and not in a pleasant way. There was a decidedly dangerous edge to her voice. He definitely wouldn't be able to make it sound plausible with that glare turned on him the whole time.

"Look, I'm from another dimension," Carlos blurted out. "One of the Rangers on Eltare was doing some experiments with interdimensional travel and he accidentally switched his Rangers with ours. He says it might be a while before we can get back, and I wanted to check on you."

This was greeted by absolute silence. They were staring at him as though he had just started tap-dancing. Even Aura had abandoned her glare in favor of a more generic look of bafflement. They didn't seem to know what to do with an explanation like that, and he didn't really want to make it worse. The fact that their hostility had been temporarily averted was enough for now.

"Is it possible that he's unbalanced?" Aura asked at last, switching to her native tongue. She shot an uncertain look at Cetaci, then on to Tideus. "Just because he has a morpher..."

"It has happened before," Tideus agreed. "Especially in times such as these. But how did he come to seek us out? What could have prompted him to incorporate us into his delusion?"

"Maybe he didn't," Delphinius offered. "Maybe he has suffered some trauma at the hands of evil, and he fixated on the first people he recognized as different."

"I'm not crazy!" Carlos broke in, torn between exasperation and anger. "You don't know how I got here because JT used his dimensional experiment to do it. I'm 'fixated' on you because in my dimension you're my friends! Who would make up a story like that, anyway?"

"A crazy person," Cetaci murmured, but she sounded more amused than anything else. The others were staring at him again. Suddenly he realized he didn't need to worry about telling them he knew Aquitian anymore.

"You understand our language?" Delphinius asked, in his own tongue.

"I've been almost living on your planet for more than a year," Carlos answered in the same language. "I hope I've picked up a few things by now."

"You could have learned Aquitian anywhere," Aura said, in English this time. "I fail to see what bearing your language skills have on the subject of your mental stability."

"Then how did I get here?" Carlos demanded. "Isn't your planet under siege? I couldn't have just flown in!"

She shrugged. "Perhaps your are an escaped prisoner. Or a slave."

"With a morpher?" Tideus countered, a note of skepticism entering his voice.

"Then are many ways onto a besieged planet," she insisted stubbornly. "It's getting off that's difficult."

Sudden inspiration made Carlos reach into his back pocket. If the sentimental study of a picture had gotten him into this, then the picture could damn well get him out. "Explain that," he said, opening his wallet and holding it out to her.

Aura frowned, clearly not certain what she was looking at. Then her expression went completely blank and he knew she had recognized herself. She took the proffered billfold slowly, bringing it close enough to study.

"What is it?" Tideus demanded, when another moment passed and she still didn't say anything. "I don't recognize that object."

"It's not the object," she said quietly, not taking her eyes off of it. "It is... the image it contains."

"Which is?" Delphinius prompted.

She passed it to him without a word.

"I see," Delphinius said a moment later. He sounded as taken aback as she looked. "This, then, is the Aura from--your dimension."

"Yeah," Carlos agreed softly. He cleared his throat when Aura shot him an odd look, reminding himself that there was no point in telling the whole truth. "That's her. We've been... uh, pretty good friends for a while now. That's a picture from a party we had a few months ago."

"It does lend credence to your story," Delphinius admitted, offering the wallet to Cetaci for inspection. "May I inquire as to the status of the League in this--other dimension?"

"Pretty peaceful," Carlos said, watching Cetaci give the picture a cursory glance. When she nodded to Tideus, Delphinius passed it on. "Nothing like this, anyway. We destroyed Dark Spectre more than a year ago, and his forces have fallen back to the Border. Things are pretty quiet right now."

"You destroyed Dark Spectre?" Cetaci whispered. Her voice was half-wistful and half-incredulous. "You say that like it's nothing..."

"Well, you almost died," Carlos admitted. "And Aura, too. But we did it. We had help from the inside; that's what made the difference."

"Help from the inside?" Aura repeated, giving him a sharp look. "Who? Or what? Is it someone we could contact?"

He hesitated, but even if he told them it wouldn't do them any good. "No," he said at last. "Andros and Zhane are the only ones that can reach her."

And I bet they're already trying, he added silently.

***

"Ash," a voice whispered. "Ash, wake up."

She groaned, flinging one arm over her eyes before she dared to crack them open. The light wasn't as bad as she expected, but she didn't see anything familiar. She moved her arm then, frowning at her surroundings before turning toward the source of the whisper.

"Zhane?" Her voice was slurred with sleep, but he grinned as though she'd said something particularly clever.

"You're cute in the morning," the Silver Ranger teased. "Come on; Andros is talking to Cassie."

Ashley sat up abruptly, staring around the room. They were on Eltare, in the apartment Zhane shared with Andros. They were, more specifically, in the bedroom Zhane shared with Andros... she remembered now. Her counterpart had a separate room. Being the only unattached Astro Ranger, Zhane and Andros had invited her to share their apartment. She didn't know how permanent they had intended the situation to be, but the place looked pretty settled to her.

She glanced over at Zhane, bouncing impatiently on the other side of the double bed. Andros had offered to sleep on the couch, but Zhane had suggested--rather whimsically--that Andros sleep in Ashley's room while they shared the larger bed. She had been just tired enough to agree, and Andros' expression had been priceless.

"Weird night?" Zhane suggested, seeing the look she was giving him. "We can kick Andros out of your room tonight if you want."

Ashley shook her head, not sure she could put it into words. "No..." Suddenly she realized that Zhane had just suggested putting Andros out, instead of offering to sleep on the couch himself. That was very un-Zhane like.

She smiled, deciding to take it as the peace offering it probably was. "Actually, you're a lot easier to sleep with than he is. Andros moves too much."

"No kidding," Zhane agreed, grinning back at her. "Plus he always steals the blankets."

Ashley couldn't help laughing. "He does!"

As she pushed the covers back, Zhane bounced up again. "Ready?" he demanded, waiting for her to get out of bed. "I don't want to miss the Cassie-TJ saga."

"Is there a Cassie-TJ saga?" Ashley asked, amused by the suggestion as much as his obvious impatience. It was rare that he woke before she did, but he had clearly been up for some time. "What's going on?"

"Don't know," he retorted. "Someone won't get up and find out."

She laughed again, dragging herself to her feet. "All right, all right. Let's go see what's happening."

Zhane was out of the room in an instant. She followed him more slowly, wondering how he had managed not to wake her if he had that much energy. Had he been talking to Andros? He had told her what he'd said to Andros yesterday. She hadn't known whether to be more upset that he had tried to give up Andros for her, or that Andros wouldn't let him. Now, though...

Well, to be honest, it was just too early in the morning to fall back into yesterday's drama. She was still in the state of complacent lethargy that always seemed to follow being woken too early. If only she could hold onto this kind of peace the rest of the time.

"I don't know," Cassie was saying as she emerged from the bedroom. The Pink Ranger was on the comm screen by the door, managing to look exasperated and worried at the same time. "All Karen knew was that JT sent him to Aquitar. And all JT will say is that we have until the end of the Elisians' patrol to come see him in Co-Op, and then he's going to bed."

"Who?" Ashley interrupted, frowning. "What's going on?"

"Carlos is gone," Andros said over his shoulder. "JT wants us to meet him in Co-Op."

"We don't have that much time, either," Cassie added. "According to Karen, the next patrol is usually ours, but the Eltarans are taking it because you guys took theirs yesterday. They're already gone, so Saryn and Jenna must be on their way back by now."

Ashley's eyes widened. "Jenna?" she repeated without thinking. "Jenna's here?"

"Yeah." Cassie didn't look at all happy about it. "And that's another thing: if anyone asks, the twins are TJ's. I'm sorry to ask you guys to lie, but it's kind of important. TJ says it's okay with him."

"We understand," Andros promised, while Ashley tried to suppress a dozen Jenna-related questions. "We'll meet you in Co-Op in a few minutes."

"Would someone please make a reference sheet?" Zhane complained as soon as Andros had broken the comm link. "I want a list of who's dating who, who's married, and whether or not there are any affairs going on. It would help to know how we all got here, too, and what happened to our planets. Just for purposes of conversation, you know?"

Ranger roused himself from his place by the couch long enough to give Zhane a baleful look for his raised voice, and Zhane immediately pointed at him. "I also want to know where that dog came from!"

Ashley had to giggle. His mock outrage was so close to what she actually felt that it couldn't be anything but funny. "We need a cheat sheet for life," she agreed, dropping onto the couch with a sigh. Ranger nosed her ankle, and she leaned forward to scratch his ears absently. "They're probably just as confused in our dimension."

"At least they don't have to get in zords and let people shoot at them every few hours!" Zhane exclaimed. "I'd rather be him there than me here!"

Andros looked up, a puzzled look on his face. "What?"

"Well, not really, of course," Zhane said hastily. She thought Andros had just been distracted, but Zhane obviously wasn't taking any chances. "I think I'll go change," he added, retreating toward the bedroom. "Back in a minute."

Ashley watched Andros watch him go. The Red Ranger shook his head when the door slid shut behind Zhane, echoing her sigh. "I can't say anything right," he muttered.

She gave him a sympathetic look. "I don't think any of us can right now," she said, leaning back against the couch. The ceiling had a mosaic painted onto it. She hadn't noticed until now. "Zhane's just easier to hurt because he's more honest than us."

There was silence for a moment. "Do you think so?" Andros asked at last.

"No," he said, before she could answer. "Don't answer that. You're right."

He sounded almost surprised by the revelation, and she felt her mouth curve upwards. "Doesn't seem fair, does it?" she asked rhetorically. The mosaic was full of Ranger colors. She tried to picture the three of them painting anything, let alone a surface that big. Upside down.

"No," Andros repeated, more slowly. "It doesn't."

They sat in companionable quiet for a little longer. Then, out of nowhere, Andros surprised her by saying, "I love you."

The mosaic above her blurred, and she blinked several times in quick succession. "I know."

To her astonishment, he backed off. "Do you think our counterparts have figured out what happened yet?" he asked, kicking the bottom of the sofa idly. "They must have guessed what JT was trying to do."

She lifted her head to stare at him. Not for weeks had Andros let something go without being asked. In fact, now that she was trying, she couldn't even remember the last time it had happened. He was stubborn to a fault, and more so lately than usual.

"I hope so," she said at last, wondering at his sudden lapse in persistence. "It's hard enough for us, and we knew right away."

Staring at the far wall, Andros didn't answer.