First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who've taken on the Ranger Romance Theme Challenge! I've been very impressed with the creative and varied interpretations of the same thematic words and phrases. I'm also glad to see such an assortment of couples and approaches, from Mighty Morphin' through Mystic Force, from developing a non-canon match completely from scratch, to in-depth explorations of a canon couple's interactions.

After nine months I've finally settled on a couple to explore through the Ranger Romance Themes: Karone and Zhane. It was incredibly hard for me to pick one, so I'm excited to finally dig a little deeper into one of my favorite couples.

Expect sporadic updates, varied lengths, and diverse styles and tones for the different installments. This will inevitably tread some similar ground to my other Z/K fics, but I hope to shed new light on their unique relationship with this project, initially focusing on their early interactions. I plan to pick and choose between Volumes One and Two of the Themes, aiming for a healthy handful of stories. While these will not be written in chronological order, I do plan to re-order the installments so the progression of their relationship is evident. You can see when each chapter was written by the date embedded at the top of each story.

Incidentally, if you're curious about the Ranger Romance Theme Challenge, check out my profile for a link.

Disclaimer: The Power Rangers and all associated characters belong to Disney. No infringement intended.

Setting: This theme takes place during the beginning of "A Date with Danger."

Written May 2006.

Reaching Out

Chance

It was just by chance that Zhane had arrived late to battle the Horrorbull. He'd been in the shower when the alarm had sounded that Astronema had sent a new monster to the business district, and as a result he'd been six minutes behind the other Rangers. Six minutes for which he'd chosen to compensate by riding into the battleground on his motorcycle, navigating the city streets to find the best angle from which to approach the fight, ready to help wipe out the new monster quickly and efficiently.

It was a coincidence that the angle he'd selected was the same angle from which Astronema herself watched the battle. It was the best angle – slightly elevated and just out of sight from the fighters.

And what Ranger with half a brain wouldn't take advantage of the chance to catch the Princess of Evil by surprise? She rarely faced the Rangers herself, and never without her escort warrior Ecliptor. In fact, Zhane had never seen her before.

She'd summoned a wolf creature to defend her, and he'd goaded her just enough to force her hand. Violet energy seared air particles, aiming to fry him with all her anger; but it was an accident that her assault hit her creature instead.

It was a strange twist that the summoned monster had no loyalty to its mistress at all, and turned on her in a heartbeat.

It was no less a surprise that the Princess of Evil, warrior trained since childhood – at least according to rumor – couldn't simply vaporize the creature. She may have been overextended, since she did just summon two creatures over the course of half an hour. But the result was definitely an upset.

Zhane could at first only gawk at the shocking scene. But it wasn't mere chance that made him spring into action. It was his deeply-ingrained sense of honor that refused to let him leave the helpless without a defender. Typically it would be hard to define Dark Specter's hand-selected heir as "helpless," but at that moment, as she lie still and unmoving, all he saw was a person in danger. The labels of "good" and "evil" didn't matter.

A raised hand summoned his glider. Half a thought helped him catch it. And before he knew it he had the limp body of a death-dealing villainess in his arms, flying her into the foliage of the closest neutral ground he could find.

Five minutes later he had settled on a dense part of a forest by a babbling stream. He surmised that few people wandered there, judging from the overgrowth and fences that had hindered his way.

And as he stood there, staring at the peaceful greenery, the Princess of Evil cradled in his arms, he thought back upon the series of events that brought him to this moment, and shook his head wryly.

How do I get myself in these situations?