Behind Silent Eyes

Leo sighed softly in bliss. This was the life. No attacks, no duties, nothing keeping him and Kai from enjoying this rare downtime. The two of them had finally managed to get some time apart from the others and they were spending it in the Mountain Dome. He was leaning against a tree and Kai's fingers were tracing idle patterns on his stomach through the thin cotton of his shirt. The benefit of living on a space colony with regulated weather was that you were never caught off guard and the standard temperature was usually balmy enough that thick clothes weren't necessary.

Beep!

The pair straightened immediately. "What is it, Alpha?" Leo asked, inwardly bemoaning the interruption to their free time.

"Trakeena's sent a warrior to the colony!" came the rapid response. "She's in the City Dome right now."

"We're on our way," Kai said firmly. "We'll meet the others there."

Running onto the scene, a demolished street in one of the quieter areas of the City Dome, Leo stared at the latest reject Trakeena had sent to face them, certain that he'd seen her before: Impostra, the one who'd almost managed to get the Lights of Orion for Trakeena. But they'd beaten her; he was sure they had.

"Hello, rangers," the alien woman said lightly, holding a staff almost the same size as herself easily in her right hand. "We haven't met, so allow me to introduce myself. I am Hypnosia and we have some business to attend to."

"How's that?" he demanded. Not Impostra, then. Maybe the same species, though? That would explain the similarity.

"You killed my sister," she hissed, "and now you will pay."

Sister? he thought, stunned. Impostra and this Hypnosia? Damn. He knew how powerful the need for revenge could be, she wasn't going to hold back at all.

"She attacked the colony," he responded anyway. "We did what we had to."

"Enough talking!" was the outraged yell as Hypnosia launched herself at them. Sure enough, she didn't hold back. She was relentless in her attacks, savage almost, relying not on strength but her speed and flexibility, dodging and weaving out of their way, wearing them down bit by bit. Falling into formation, Kai and Karone beside him, Maya and Damon behind them, they readied themselves. It was time to take this to the next level.

"Lights of Orion!" he began. "Activa--"

The blast of pure power sent them flying to the floor, their morphs gone. Looking round, Leo spotted Kai lying next to him, struggling to push himself back to his feet, as were the others, and he instinctively reached out as the other man sank back to the ground. Hypnosia, though, had seen his aborted gesture and she laughed.

"Oh, red ranger you're a fool. You've just given me the weapon to destroy you." He stared back at her as the tip of the staff glowed a faint green-blue. "You took someone precious from me, now I'll take someone precious from you."

She levelled the staff at Kai and the light shot out like a bolt of turquoise lightning, impacting on the blue ranger a moment later and blasting him across the street until he crashed into a wall. Leo's scream of Kai's name was drowned out by the sound of Hypnosia's laughter as she relaxed into a more casual stance. Leo literally saw red behind his eyes, his vision narrowing until the alien woman was all he could see. She would pay for that.

Apparently the other rangers felt the same way, the call 'Go Galactic' echoing in the air as they re-morphed and threw themselves back into the fight. Hypnosia retreated before the ferocity of their attack, but even as she fell back she radiated smugness, managing to get in a parting shot as she fell back. "This isn't over, rangers," she taunted. "He's just the first. Soon I'll have all of you." And with that, she was gone.

His team-mates beside him, Leo ran over to where Kai was still lying on the floor, unmoving. When he reached the other man he was thrown by the dark eyes staring sightlessly at him and his first reaction was a sharp kick in the gut, a twisting knot of pain in his chest followed by instant denial. Kai wasn't… he couldn't be… He reached out with trembling fingers, ignoring the anxious questions behind him and he relaxed with a shuddering breath as he found a pulse - slow but steady. Kai was alive. Now all they had to do was get him to the infirmary and work out what had just happened.

"I don't know what she did," Karone sighed, standing by the door to the infirmary, her hands twisting together as she spoke. "I'm not familiar enough with the species to know. Ecliptor was a good teacher, but there was so much to learn that some areas got glossed over. All I know for sure is that as a species they're masters of deception and infiltration. If you wanted information or anything like that you went to them. Unfortunately, I don't know what she's even done to Kai and without knowing that I wouldn't have any idea how to reverse it."

Leo sighed himself, the sound born of anger and frustration. "So we have no clue what's happened, no clue how to fix it and we have an alien woman bent on revenge just waiting to hit us with everything she's got. This is just great."

There was quiet in the room as the situation sank in. "Then we find out what happened," Mike said firmly into the silence. "We might not know what Hypnosia did to Kai yet, but Alpha's working on it. All we have to do is wait and see what he comes up with. Then we can assess our options again."

Maya nodded, her expression brightening slightly. "I agree. We can't let her beat us and that's what we're doing right now."

Damon nodded as well. "Right. I say we hit the databases, see if there's anything there that'll help us." He looked round to see who agreed and found the girls and Mike nodding slowly. Leo nodded as well, reluctant to move though he was. He knew he shouldn't give in so easily but the blank look in Kai's eyes even now ate at him. His boyfriend was sitting on the bed, staring mindlessly into empty space, no trace of the usual dry humour or exasperation that was always so present in the other man's gaze. The emptiness there made him want to scream, cry, kill something, anything that would bring Kai back to him. He hadn't felt that way since Mike had fallen down the crevasse back on Mirinoi, for all intents and purposes gone forever.

He startled at the hand he suddenly felt on his shoulder and spun round to find the infirmary empty of everyone except for himself and Mike. And Kai of course, but he didn't exactly count at the moment.

"We'll get him back," Mike said quietly, his eyes firm, full of conviction and radiating surety. Leo wanted to believe him, he really did, but he'd lost a lot of his innocence since becoming the red ranger and he couldn't afford to believe that his big brother had all the answers anymore; couldn't afford to believe in Mike when he said everything would be alright, not when it might never be right again.

"Yeah," was all he said though, his eyes turning back to Kai, still sitting on the infirmary bed, staring sightlessly at him.

"Why don't you stay here?" Mike continued. "If anything changes you can fill us in, okay?"

He nodded back. "Sure." He wasn't an idiot, he knew Mike was giving him an excuse to stay here where he most wanted to be, just in case something changed, no matter how unlikely that chance was.

"This is useless!" Damon snapped, slapping his hand against the console he'd been working at in an uncharacteristic display of frustration. "We're not getting anywhere." DECA's red light blinked at him and he absently stroked the console in apology. "Sorry, girl," he muttered and Maya looked over from the monitor she was standing at, slowly pushing at the buttons as she made her way through the archives.

"We'll find something," she said calmly, but the serenity that she usually projected only served to heighten his own impatience. Mike glanced across at the pair of them, his fingers pausing from the console he was working at.

"She's right, Damon," he said. "We just need to keep looking."

The green ranger sighed, but with the majority of his team focused on the job in hand he tried to refocus his own thoughts and concentrate on finding an answer. Karone hadn't even blinked at the brief fit of temper, her fingers flying over the console as she went from database to database, correlating information along the way. While he might be the mechanic, Karone was Kerovan and therefore familiar with this technology, almost on an instinctive level. She was also the only one of the team DECA hadn't originally seen as an interloper and he sometimes suspected the AI of favouritism, opening digital doors for the pink ranger that she wouldn't for the rest of them. The fact that she was also Andros' sister probably didn't hurt either, he thought wryly. Karone had connections with this ship that he could only dream of and there were times he envied that about her. Still, those connections might be the only chance they had to find anything that would help Kai and if DECA opened doors for Karone, he wasn't going to complain this time.

"Yes!" came the quiet hiss as Karone stopped, her hands hovering over the screen.

"You found something?" Mike asked quickly and she looked up, blonde hair flying round her face as she turned.

"I think so," she replied. "There's not a lot of information, but it's enough."

"And?" Maya asked, her body tense.

"Hypnosia used a spell of some kind, probably one that's been implanted into the staff she used. It separates the soul from the body, leaving only a shell behind."

"That fits what happened to Kai," Damon said slowly. "So how do we fix it?"

Karone shrugged. "Break the spell. Do that and all the souls she's stolen should return to their bodies, including Kai."

"Any ideas on how we break the spell?" Mike queried, his face reflecting the rising hope they all felt.

"Possibly."

"A spell?" Leo said dubiously. "Since when does Trakeena use magic?"

"She doesn't," Karone replied, "she's not a sorceress like I was. But that doesn't mean she wouldn't use it indirectly, through someone else."

"She'd use anything she thought would get her what she wants," Maya pointed out. "We all know that."

Leo nodded. "I'm assuming there's a plan?"

"There's kind of a plan," Karone started, but she was interrupted by the sound of the ship's alarms.

"Mountain Dome, rangers," came Alpha's voice over the comm system. "Hypnosia's back."

"We'll fill you in on the way," Mike finished as they all headed for the door, fully intent on ending things this time.

On his way to the door, Leo hesitated by the bed where Kai was sitting, dark eyes still blank and unseeing and his stomach tightened again at the sight. "I don't know if you can hear me," he began quietly, "but we're going to fix this, Kai. I promise. You'll be back in no time."

"Leo, come on," Damon called from the door and Leo nodded in response.

"I'm coming." He paused once more at the door, taking one last look. Reminding himself of what Trakeena had to pay for.

Arriving in the Mountain Dome, Leo's vision narrowed once again as they found Hypnosia leaning against a tree, staff held loosely in her hand.

"You certainly took your time," she said, tone bored. "Ready to die yet?"

"Are you?" he snapped, pulling his sabre out and holding it steady. "You get one chance and that's it. Undo what you did to Kai and we'll find another way around this."

The alien woman laughed. "Right. Like that would happen." She straightened abruptly, moving away from the tree she'd been lounging against and shifting into a battle-ready stance. "I already have one of you and eventually I'll have you all. Who do you want to lose next, red ranger? The yellow ranger?" She pointed the staff at Maya who barely managed to roll out of the way of the blast. "Or the pink one, perhaps?" Karone dodged and the blast hit the tree behind her instead. "The mighty Magna Defender?" Mike took the blast on his sword, reflecting it back at her and sending her flying right into Damon's waiting arms. At least until she jabbed him in the stomach with an elbow and slithered out of his grasp, kicking his feet from under him and levelling the staff at his head. "Or maybe the green ranger will be next. What do you think?"

"I think not," Leo growled and, realising Maya was readying her transdagger he kept Hypnosia's attention firmly fixed on him. "How about you fix Kai and we don't destroy you?" Maya fired a split second after the scathing rejection, blasting the alien woman away from Damon, allowing him to roll to his feet.

The battle was savage, more so than usual. Neither side was prepared to give quarter, both going all out and it was clear that there was really only one way this would end. Badly.

"Leo, break the staff!" Karone shouted as he temporarily fell back, taking a quick moment to catch his breath. "That should break the spell she has on Kai."

He nodded in acknowledgement and threw himself back into the fight, going after Hypnosia with a flurry of strokes from his sabre, attacks that she was barely able to block until finally she over-extended, the staff far from her body where she wouldn't be able to react quickly enough. Bringing his Quasar Sabre down swiftly, Leo poured all of his emotions into the strike - his fury, his fear, his need for Kai to be alright again - and shattered the staff before she could react, his sword flaring a bright red at the contact. Much to his surprise though, he didn't feel the sense of satisfaction he would have expected had he stopped to think, he was simply numb. Much like when he'd finally defeated Furio, the monster he'd held responsible for the presumed death of his brother, the defeat meant nothing without Mike, or in this case, Kai.

With Hypnosia down and her staff broken Leo quickly activated his communicator. "Kai? Kai, are you there?"

There was a moment of excruciating silence until Kai's voice came through loud and clear. "Yeah, I'm here. Leo, what's going on? Why am I in the infirmary?"

Unable to stop his smile Leo shook his head, even if Kai couldn't see him. "Doesn't matter. Just get your butt over here, we need you."

"On my way," was the immediate response and the line went dead. Sagging in relief Leo quickly straightened again as Hypnosia got back to her feet.

"You may have destroyed my staff," she hissed. "But you won't stop me."

It was with a sinking heart that Leo watched her grow until she dominated the horizon, laughter echoing around the mountain bluffs in an eerie ricochet.

"Fine," he replied. "If that's how you want it. Galactabeasts. Arise!"

The cries of their zords rent the air: the roar of his lion; the growls of Karone's and Maya's galactabeasts; the screech of Damon's condor; the roar of Torrozord as Mike transformed. Another roar indicated the Gorilla was there as well. As the beasts transformed into the megazord it was with great relief he saw the blue-clad figure entering his zord in time with the rest of them. Kai must have broken a few speed limits to get here so fast. That or Alpha had something to do with it.

The battle went pretty much as planned now that they were all back together. As a team they were practically invincible - no one kept them down for long - and the moment Hypnosia had taken it to the big league she'd all but doomed herself. Sagging back slightly from his zord control panel once the final explosion was finished, Leo sighed quietly. It was over.

Demorphing, Leo was the first to reach Kai as they exited the megazord, throwing an arm around him protectively before the girls launched themselves at him, Damon and Mike not far behind.

"Okay, okay," Kai laughed as he firmly extricated himself from the pile-on, "can someone please tell me what happened?"

"Later," Leo said, not yet ready to talk about it. "Let's just go eat or something."

Back in their quarters after the impromptu meal at Bulk's restaurant, Leo sank down onto his bed and pulled Kai down with him, the other man not resisting, simply making himself comfortable in the small amount of space. They lay there in silence for a while, Leo combing his fingers through Kai's hair, reassuring himself that he was there, that he was really alright and not still an empty shell sitting in the infirmary.

Kai's head turned slightly towards his. "I'm alright, Leo," he said quietly, breath tickling the side of Leo's neck, his nose brushing briefly against his ear, hand sliding across Leo's stomach.

"Yeah, I know," he replied, trying to sound more upbeat than he felt. There was a soft snort of derision that told him Kai didn't buy it for a second, but as no comment was forthcoming Leo tilted his head so it was resting against Kai's and simply let himself feel, the warmth of the other man's presence easing his tightly strung nerves, relaxing him as Kai's fingers toyed absently with his shirt hem.

Secure in the knowledge that everything had worked out, Leo sighed softly in contentment and let himself drift off, Kai's quiet, even breathing lulling him into sleep better than any lullaby.