The first thing he heard was beeping, a steady, rhythmic noise that annoyed him even as it somehow reassured him. Then he heard the hissing of air, and felt a breeze pass over his chest. He was cold, and as he reached up, his hand encountered a cover of hard plastic. He opened his eyes as he pushed, and after a moment, the room came into focus through his helmet. It was the Healing Chamber on the Astro Megaship. Andros? Zhane thought as he sat up, looking around. It was rare, very rare for either of them to need the Healing Chamber. The one time, in fact, that Zhane could remember them using it was when that building had fallen on Andros while they assisted another Ranger team. Even then, Andros had only been in it for a day.

Banging noises intruded on Zhane's thoughts and he stood up, a little shaky, but the Power was there to bolster him easily. He hurried through the engine room, absently noting the signs of battle damage as he did, and onto the lift to the bridge corridor. There, he found strange, hooded creatures trying to access the bridge. Zhane snarled softly, nobody messed with Andros's ship. He strode forward and watched in satisfaction as the group fled. He followed them, and when they tried to pull a stand at the entrance, he set them flying.

As he stepped onto the ramp, he clearly heard Andros's disbelieving cry, but he couldn't stop to reassure his friend. There was the monster, who, no doubt, had been trying to destroy the Megaship.

It was a relief to destroy a monster, given the half remembered fight that must have led to his stay in cryogenic suspension. As the monster exploded, he found himself facing, not just Andros, but the Astro Rangers in all their glory.

Before Zhane could really get beyond reacting and really start thinking, the world fell apart, and he was left on the Bridge to watch as his best friend led four strangers into battle. It was unsettling to see the Megaship become the Megazord, but it was even stranger to hear, and feel more than one Astro Ranger. He hid it, playing to the reputation that he had created years ago, a reputation that Andros played along with. For fifteen minutes that stretched to forever, Zhane pretended that he wasn't a disoriented young man who had just lost two years, and was, instead, Zhane the unflappable, fearless, unstoppable Silver Ranger.

It wasn't until the door slid shut on Andros's room that Zhane sagged, nearly stumbling as he banished his morph and walked over to sit on Andros's bed. He stared at his hands, and the decking as Andros moved about his room. Zhane clung to the familiar sounds that filled him, the rustling was Andros taking off and hanging up his jacket, the jingles and thumps were his boots coming off and the nearly silent brushing sound was his friend, walking over to sit down beside him. "Two years," Zhane said, finally, looking into the familiar eyes.

"You woke up," Andros said, "that's all that matters."

"So…what happened? How did we go from defending KO-35 to here? Where ever here is…" Zhane let his voice trail off as Andros smiled bitterly.

"We lost KO-35 the day you fell," Andros said. "I'm sure you realized that, at least. Dark Specter was aiming for Eltare and the Kerova System was in his way. I-I may have went a bit mad. When you fell, I wouldn't; couldn't, let them take you from me, so I hid you in the Healing Chamber, and then restricted knowledge and access. I implied you were dead and that I'd buried you on KO-35. I don't know if you remember Phantom, but we worked together for a while, trying to stop Dark Specter, or at least ensure that any planet his armies went after was protected or evacuated as needed. We lost contact about a year ago, longer, I think. He was helping Zordon with a project on Earth. Along the way, he had to hide the Delta, but I found her and she's one of ours now; you'll have to work with the commands and connection. I don't know how to get through all of the security that she's got."

"I can do that," Zhane said, thinking of the old battleship with a slight smile. "So, who are these new Astros, anyway?"

Andros smiled a smile that Zhane hadn't seen in years. "My team? Well, I guess I have to start about six months ago. I was tracking Astronema when I got word that Eltare had fallen and Zordon was missing. I would have returned to Eltare, but decided to stay on Astronema's tail. She's slippery at times. I got lucky; she went to the Samarian Planet, where the UAE had a little get together. I remember hearing Divatox brag about Earth, but I was too busy trying to stay unnoticed. Especially when they revealed Zordon in his warp tube. Then I got caught, they were doing toasts with lava juice, and I was morphed."

"Not to mention allergic," Zhane added.

"Let's not," Andros agreed. "Well, I had to make a hasty retreat, but when I got to the Megaship, there were these four strangers on board."

"On the Megaship? How did they manage that?"

"The shuttle, and their Alpha unit, communicated with DECA. We chased each other around the ship for a bit, while they tried to explain that they were power rangers from Earth without powers. Then Astronema attacked with the Dark Fortress and they saved the Megaship by fixing the engine. We landed on a nearby planet and I tried to send them home. At the time, I was rather irritated by them, especially Ashley. She walked up ad acted like I was the prey and she the androthis. She poked me in the shoulder and was utterly stunned, exclaiming 'you're human' as I watched them"

"What, did she think you were a lizard or something?"

"I have no idea, anyways, I almost left them behind, but instead, I gave them the Astro Morphers. Then we learned that the shuttle could turn the Megaship into the Megazord and, well, it all felt right." Andros shrugged.

"So, where did they come from?"

"They're from Earth," Andros replied, "they held the Turbo powers with a fifth, a boy named Justin. Justin stayed on Earth while TJ, Cassie, Carlos and Ashley went into space. TJ was the Red Ranger, Cassie was Pink, Carlos wore Green, Ashley was Yellow and Justin was Blue. Now, TJ wears Blue, and Carlos wears Black while Cassie and Ashley kept their colors."

"You said 'held', does that mean their Power was lost"

"Yes," Andros replied. "Divatox destroyed their base, the Power Chamber, and cut the morphers off from the grid. Justin helped them sneak onboard the shuttle that now forms the Megazord's head and command post, and got them off Earth. He's a good kid, reminds me of you in some ways."

"Why? He got my killer good looks?" Zhane asked, giving Andros his trademark carefree grin.

Andros held still for a moment, "Well, now that you mention it…" he stopped, eyed Zhane for a moment, "Nah, he doesn't look like you, but he's got that same attitude you do. It was funny, when he showed up, it was like you as a kid all earnest sincerity and fierce courage. I kept expecting him to trip or something."

Zhane sniffed, "Ouch that stung."

Andros leaned against Zhane for a moment, and then sat back, "Hey, Zhane?"

"Yes?" Zhane asked.

"Remember when we talked about how the Silver Powers would affect you?" Andros asked.

"I do," Zhane replied, it had been early in their time as a team, and he'd explained that being Silver could cause physical changes, "Why?"

"You were right," Andros said, "your hair's gone white."

Zhane lunged for the mirror, hearing Andros laugh behind him. As he stared into the mirror, Zhane couldn't believe his luck. He'd once had thick, dark brown hair that he'd cut short after becoming a Ranger. Now, the spiked hair was nearly silver in color. He touched it for a moment and tried a smirk, "Well, it works," he announced, as he met his own eyes in the mirror. Still their distinctive brown, they now had a ring of silver delineating the pupil and the iris. It was unsettling, but Zhane had expected that, it was a gift from his mother, who had a green ring between the two. "Very dashing," he opined, "perfect for meeting new friends."

Andros shook his head, "Only you, Zhane." He walked over and draped himself over Zhane's shoulder, staring at them in the mirror. It was an intimate pose, more suitable for lovers, but for Zhane and Andros, it was part of them, like sleeping in the observatory when they'd stargazed too long, or writing a sim program that would enable them to run around like a pair of kids instead of respected warriors. They were best friends and brothers, not lovers, but every other adjective used to describe a close, male/male relationship fit in some way.

Zhane was acutely aware of the face that Andros could now rest his head on Zhane's shoulder, where as before he would have been more in front, head against his collar bone. "Will you be ok?" Andros asked, breaking Zhane's thoughts like a sledgehammer on goo.

"I will be," Zhane said freeing his arm and letting it trail down his friend's back. "I will be."

Zhane wandered the empty, echoing hallway of the Delta Megaship. It was late, almost, but not quite, morning, and he couldn't sleep. In one hand he held the silver Astro Morpher, in the other, he held a thick, silver chain from which hung a green, eight sided crystal. Finally, he headed past the engine control room and entered a special code on a half hidden key pad. A concealed door slid open and Zhane stepped inside. Although the rest of the ship was martial to the extreme, and was meant to present the image of a warship, here, in these three rooms was Zhane's first home.

The walls were painted cream, with green and blue geometric designs at waist height and at the top of the walls, and the floor was covered in thick rugs with complimentary green/blue patterns. Without thinking about it, Zhane toed off his shoes and left them on the metal decking to the left of the door, then he stepped onto the rugs and let memories draw him away. His mother had been a beautiful woman, with waist-length auburn curls and laughing, brown eyes that Zhane had inherited. She had laughed often and loved to live. Even after she'd left her planet, having lost everything to Dark Specter, she'd been a happy woman, her green spirit undaunted by the task of raising a child on her own in a universe that was slowly growing darker.

Zhane walked over to his mother's room, and found it as it had always been. Her clothes were gone, donated to charity after her death, but her jewel box was still in its slot, and her photos in their proper place. All the souvenirs of a hundred worlds were there, as they had always been. He smiled and let the door close, then turned to his childhood room.

The walls were blue, starting at a pale, nearly white at the bottom and darkening to nearly black on the ceiling, with silver stars painted in the constellations of a world he'd never seen. The bed was still suited to a little boy, and not the man Zhane had become, but he smiled to see it. He'd been so proud when the little bed in his mother's room had been retracted into the wall and this room given to him. He'd been a real big boy then.

As Zhane walked over to the bed, he wondered if his own 'treasure' was still there. He bent over the bed and pressed the wall behind it. A two foot square section retracted, then slid to one side at his prompting, revealing a collection of rocks, feathers and other items that he'd collected to have 'alien treasures' just like his mother. He considered them for a moment, and then closed the panel; they'd be fine there for now. Instead, he returned to the main room and settled onto the couch that was set to one side. He settled there and regarded the two morphers in his hands, what am I supposed to do? Zhane asked, staring in the depths of the green crystal his mother had worn until her death. The digimorpher mocked him, seeming to him with power that was beyond Zhane's reach. Glaring at the digimorpher, Zhane dropped it on the shelf beside him, and spotted one of the holocubes that littered the rooms, filled, he knew, with pictures of him and his mother.

Zhane activated the cube and looked at the picture that appeared. It was him and Andros, actually, racing each other down a slope. He smiled; it was shortly before his mother's death, when they'd been neighbors and had run around playing at being Power Rangers or adventurers and explorers. From the cape around Andros's neck, and the stick Zhane was waving, this had been during their short-lived obsession with 'Captain Thunder', an Earth-style holocast that had played for a while before being cancelled.

Thunder.

Zhane stared at the cube, turning it over for another picture as his mind dragged up memories that he knew was there…

Yi'mar and Zhane had met up on Eltare again, while Andros "consulted" with the Red Eltarean Ranger, Trebon. Both Silvers knew that their Red Rangers were heading out to drink and talk. Instead of joining in this time, Zhane and Yi'mar were meeting in Yi'mar's home, sharing mugs of vishi'gan, and talking about the Power and how it affected the Rangers. "I can't believe how much Power I can feel in the digimorpher," Zhane said at one point. "It's like being caught in a lightning storm." Sitting in his favorite chair in Yi'mar's quarters, there was little of the carefree persona that Zhane presented to the Galaxy. Here, as when they were alone on the Megaship, Zhane was himself, a quiet, reflective young man with little innocence left, but a heart big enough to love the galaxies.

Yi'mar smiled, "Each of the morphers is different. For instance, mine has always reminded me of the ocean. That feeling, whatever your Power puts you in mind of, is what gives it strength." He paused for a moment to refill their mugs, and then continued, "A few years ago, my morpher was weakened by a monster, all I had to do was place it in the sea for a few hours and it was fixed. I don't know why, and most of the Silvers I've met don't either. I suspect that the Elders know, although I have never asked."

Zhane considered what Yi'mar was telling him, "So, you're saying that I would need to get struck by lightning if something ever happens to my morpher?"

Yi'mar nodded, "It would appear so. Electricity might help, but it's best to go for the natural source of your element if you want the best fix."

The chime of his morpher broke through his memory and Zhane knew he was needed; grabbing his digimorpher from the shelf, Zhane teleported back to the Astro Megaship just in time to be left behind because of Andros. Zhane hid a smirk at his friend's look. There might be jealousy there because of the way he was hanging out with Ashley all the time, but there was also worry and concern underneath. In response, Zhane offered Andros a silent message that everything would be well, and soon.

At least, as soon as Zhane figured out how not to kill himself while fixing his morpher.

Left behind on the Delta Megaship, an eight-sided green crystal glowed as the lights in the living quarters cut off. For a brief moment, a woman appeared, glowing a similar green. She had long, curly hair and a smile that was part proud and part sad. She touched the holocube, and her hand passed through it. Then the light faded, and she was gone.