A/N: As always, thanks for my Beta for her efforts. Sorry this has taken so long. This story encompasses Trakheena's Revenge Part One and Two in a way.

Kai woke up to a thunderstorm. For a moment, he wondered if the tents would leak under the onslaught, then he remembered that the meteorologists had said the skies would be clear for several days. "Just goes to show," Kai muttered as he rolled out of bed and began to dress, "You can't trust the weathermen."

"KAI!" Kendrix shouted.

"What?" Kai called back, "I'm decent."

Kendrix unzipped his tent, "There's trouble on Terra Venture."

"Trouble?" Kai repeated, checking that his morpher was in place, "What kind of trouble?"

"Leo sent a message by communicator," Kendrix replied, "He was attacked on the way to Kanyo. He was able to get his sword and go after whoever attacked them, but he wanted to back up."

The rain stopped and Kai went still, glancing up as if he could see through the cream colored fabric. Kendrix and Kai's communicators went off and Kendrix activated hers, "Kendrix and Kai here," she said nervously.

"It's Leo."

"Thank God, Leo, are you alright?"

"They left," Leo replied, sounding like he was standing in a wind tunnel. "They went through a hyperspace tunnel."

"How do you know that?" Kai asked, "Hyper tunnels can only be opened in space."

"I'm following them," Leo said. "They're headed to Earth and they have Trakheena's staff with them."

"Leo," Kai began, but the burst of static signaled that he'd already left. "Is he crazy?"

"He is a Power Ranger," Kendrix said as the tent's flap was shoved open, "Damon, did you hear that?"

"I did," Damon replied, "What is Leo thinking?"

"He probably isn't," Kai muttered. "I'll go see if Stanton's awake."

"Why?" Damon asked.

"We're going after him, right?" Kai asked.

"Kai man," Damon said, "what am I going to tell everyone?"

"You're a Power Ranger," Kai replied, "this is what we do." He looked at Kendrix, "We need to take the Jet Jammers to get to Earth."

"I can't just go," Kendrix protested, "this project…"

Kai closed his eyes, "Fine, make your excuses Damon, Kendrix, wrap up the project, let Stanton know we're going after Leo. I'll get Maya and we'll leave now. Come as fast as you can as soon as you can, whatever Leo's gotten himself mixed up in, we won't let him fight alone."

Kendrix nodded although she threw Kai an odd look at the same time, and then Damon nodded as well.

"Good," Kai said, "I'll see you two on Earth."

Although the ground was damp from the brief, but heavy storm, Kai found that the Jet Jammers were completely dry. He figured that was a good thing, as he wasn't patient enough to run from the colony to Kanyo. As he flew there, he wondered at the odd look Kendrix had given him. She wasn't the sort to throw around long, meaningful looks, mostly because Kai tended to ignore them or misinterpret them.

He put that out of his mind as he landed at the edge of Kanyo, turning, instead, to identify the person coming out of the village. It was Peyta. "Ranger Kai," the girl said, "is something wrong?"

Kai frowned, "Not really. I need to speak with Maya."

"She is with the Teacher," Peyta replied, "I will take you to them."

"Thank you Peyta," Kai replied.

Thankfully, the 'Teacher' had a home on the edge of the village close to the Quasar stone, meaning that they didn't have to go through the whole village to get there. "Kai," Maya said when Peyta let him into the house. "What are you doing here?"

Kai hesitated, "We have a problem. I need your help with something."

"Of course," Maya said, she smiled at the other woman, "I'll be back later."

"Be careful," the woman replied.

Outside the house, Maya turned to him, "What is the problem?"

"Walk with me," Kai requested, "I'd rather not alarm everyone."

They headed for the stone quickly, "We are alone," Maya finally observed.

Kai nodded. "For the past few days, there have been problems with the security on Terra Venture. Trainee Peyta swears at one point that she saw Trakheena on the monitors, but nobody could find it again. Leo was supposed to come tell you so that we could go check it out tonight."

"But Leo is not here," Maya said.

"He was attacked," Kai replied. "We're not sure by whom, but the message he sent back said that 'they' had taken Trakheena's staff and were headed for Earth. Leo is currently following them."

They found their way through the bushes enshrouding the stone, "And he's taken his saber," Kai continued.

"Why did he leave without us?" Maya asked.

"If I knew that," Kai said, reaching for his saber, "I'd understand him a lot better than I do. I'm going after Leo right now. Damon and Kendrix can't leave until tomorrow morning, but I'd like you to come with me now. Hopefully we can save Leo from himself and alert Earth to the incoming problem."

Maya pulled out her saber, "Let's go."

It was dark, but Kai thought Maya gave him a long look as they waited on the Jet Jammers to answer their remote summons.

Perhaps all that could really be said about their trip back to Earth was that it was frustrating. One of the few highlights was that they did get to meet Earth's newest Ranger team, the Lightspeed Rescue Rangers. Complete with a Green Ranger who had apparently already met Damon. "We need to talk about trips back to Earth," Leo muttered to Damon as they prepared for their final confrontation with Trakheena.

"I didn't really have a choice," Damon replied.

"Besides," Kai replied, "we really need to have a talk about heading off without talking to people, Leo."

That shut Leo up long enough for them to get back to Mirinoi, and if Stanton had a few choice words on the matter, well, Kai only added that to the list of grievances he intended to bring up with Leo at the earliest opportunity.

Kendrix, however, struck first.

They were scouting Terra Venture, again, for signs of incursions when she trapped him in one of the surviving lower levels. "We need to talk."

"What about?" Kai asked as he swept his flashlight over the dingy walls.

"About you, and Leo," Kendrix replied.

"Jesus, Kendrix," Kai said, flipping his light at her for a moment, "You're starting to sound like a broken record."

"And you are ignoring what's going on right in front of you."

"What am I ignoring, exactly?" Kai asked.

"Your feelings for Leo."

"For the hundred millionth time, I'm not ignoring them, I'm just not acting on them."

"You're not acting on them towards Leo, maybe, but that's the only thing."

"What does that even mean?"

"Look how fast you took off after him when Leo was attacked."

"He's my teammate, we're supposed to look out for each other."

"Not like that, not when you run roughshod over everyone."

Kai glared at Kendrix in the dim light of their flashlights, "Are you saying I was too harsh? That I should have waited to go after Leo?"

"I'm saying if you'd admit to Leo that you care about him," Kendrix began.

"Not happening," Kai cut her off.

"Why not? For Heaven's sake."

"Why not?" Kai interrupted her again, "Because as soon as Leo finds out that I'm in love with him, he'll have to decide what to do about it. Right now, he doesn't know. He might suspect, or guess, but until one of us says something about it we can ignore it without hurting each other. Understand this, yes, I love Leo. No, I'm not going to tell him."

He would have said more, but a thud from down the hall made them both jump.

Leo lay further down the hallway, half in and out of what looked like a cross corridor, looking utterly stunned.