Chapter 25

Jayden stepped into the Ranger's Rest with a sigh of relief. Before he'd even had a chance to look around, an arm draped over his shoulders and Zhane said cheerfully, "That is the sigh of a man who needs to moan about something. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Jayden said automatically.

Zhane made a buzzer sound. "Wrong. Would you care to try again?"

"Nothing."

"Buzz! I'm sorry. One more try?"

"Zhane," Jayden said patiently.

"Three strikes and you're out." He spun away from Jayden – who found himself holding a glass of something sticky and brightly coloured, somehow; he studied it, bemused. "Your penalty is to sit with Andros today. He needs someone to complain at."

"Why don't you sit with him?"

"I would, but he's grumpy about Karone, and when he's grumpy about Karone it's best if I keep my distance. Long story, it involves dating the enemy." He squinted at Jayden. "You didn't date your enemy, right?"

"He was a demon," Jayden protested.

"I don't judge."

"He wanted to kill me. And everyone else in the world."

"You're a Ranger, if someone doesn't want to kill you you're not doing it right."

"Who dates their enemy?"

"You'd be surprised."

Jayden considered. "I did keep sneaking off to fight him on my own."

Zhane waved that away. "That's just being Red, that doesn't count. Here." He pushed another drink into Jayden's other hand. "Don't mix them up, his has alcohol in it."

Jayden gave up. It was often the easiest way to deal with Zhane, just like it was with Antonio. Taking the two drinks, he threaded his way through the tables to Andros, putting down the second glass. "Zhane sent you this. I don't know what it is."

Andros glanced at the glass. "Daiquiri."

"Gesundheit," Jayden offered. He wasn't sure why that was funny, but Mike assured him it was.

Andros snorted, reaching for Jayden's glass. "That one's non-alcoholic," Jayden warned him.

"They're both non-alcoholic. Zhane says I'm a boring drunk."

"Boring," Jayden repeated.

"No. Who said boring? Maudlin."

"Have you been getting your own drinks?"

Andros ignored him. Jayden ignored him right back, studying the room. Ranger's Rest was busy today, half the tables full, people in most of the booths. Kira was sitting on the edge of the small stage, picking idly at the strings on her guitar and talking to Trent. Some of the Lightspeed Rangers – Jayden could see Carter and Kelsey, but there were at least two others he couldn't see properly – were crowded around a table together. Time Force were in, immediately after their mission with Wild Force, laughing and joking, still high on success.

"She shouldn't have done it," Andros said abruptly.

"Who shouldn't have done what?" Jayden asked absently, trying to remember the names of the Morphin' Rangers over in the farthest corner. Tommy Oliver looked ridiculously young.

"Karone."

Jayden looked back at him. "Who's Karone?"

"My sister."

"And what did she do?"

"She told DECA to give me more vegetables." He said it with such indignation Jayden had to look away or risk bursting out laughing at him. "Eleven years she was gone, and I spent all that time looking for her, and then she's back six months and she runs off to join another team, and when she comes back she decides it's her right somehow to interfere with what I eat!"

Jayden nodded, thinking over the not-quite suggestions Lauren kept giving him and Ji. She was Clan Head, of course, it was her right to give them orders, but still it grated, somehow. "And how you plan your day, and what you wear, and the furniture…"

"Eleven years," Andros said again.

"Twelve, almost thirteen," Jayden told him. Andros frowned at him, and Jayden added, "She wasn't missing. Technically. We could have found her if we'd tried. But if we'd tried, she might have been killed."

"Did you look?"

"I tried, once." No one knew this; only Ji. He hadn't told Lauren, or Antonio, he hadn't told Merrick who'd become a strange sort of confidant, no one. "When I was about eight. She'd been gone three years, and I couldn't remember her face any more. So I went looking for her, to remind myself."

"What happened?"

"My mentor found me. And he told me that if I found her, if we were together, she might be killed by our enemies. That the best way to bring her home was to work hard and be ready." He took a deep breath. "Did you look for your sister?"

Andros waved vaguely. "All the time. Zhane used to come with me to make sure I didn't get killed."

"He obviously did a good job."

"He mostly waited till I was too tired to stop him and then brought us home."

Jayden considered the table for a moment. "And now she tells you what to do?" he asked in a lighter tone.

"All the time! When she's not running off because her team called, anyway." The disgust he put into her team made Jayden smile. "Because I didn't manage for eleven years without her and two without Zhane, I must have imagined those."

"Were they the same years?"

"What?"

"The two years, were they some of the eleven years or different years?"

"Some of the eleven."

"That's better, anyway."

Someone dropped down at the table, nodding absently at Andros. "Is that alcohol?"

"No," Andros told him. He shrugged, reaching for it anyway. "And it's Jayden's."

"I don't mind, I didn't want it anyway," Jayden said quickly.

The newcomer tipped it towards him. "Leo."

"Jayden."

"Who're you hiding from?" Andros asked, studying his glass intently.

"Mike. He keeps trying to get me to join the GSA. He wasn't there last time I tried that."

"Didn't go well?" Jayden asked.

"Complete disaster. And it'll be another disaster if I try again, and Commander Stanton knows it, he keeps vanishing when Mike tries to talk to him about it. He's just overcompensating because he was dead for a while."

Jayden blinked, looking at Andros, who didn't seem surprised. "Mike was dead?"

Leo waved vaguely. "Spirit swap with a three thousand year old spirit. It was a whole thing. Can I have some more of this?" He held up the glass.

"How are you two getting drunk on non alcoholic drinks?" Jayden demanded, looking around for the waitress.

"It's a skill," Andros told him.

"Why is Mike compensating for being dead? I mean, compensating to you?"

Leo shrugged. "Big brother guilt complex, I think."

Jayden leaned back in his seat, suddenly getting it. "Your older brother was missing for a while."

"A few months," Leo agreed. "Why?"

Jayden shook his head, lifting his new glass to hide his face. "No reason."

"Because his sister was missing for years," Andros said. Jayden started to protest, and Andros said over him "You didn't know where she was, that's missing."

"Someone knew where she was."

"Someone knew where Mike was, too," Leo agreed. "Didn't tell me, of course, just let me run around getting beaten up and not –" The rest was lost when he took another drink.

Jayden glanced at Andros again – he still didn't look surprised, so either he was much drunker than he looked or he'd known this already. "Does this happen a lot? Long lost – or short lost – siblings turning back up unexpectedly?"

"What's this about long lost siblings?" Ryan asked, leaning on the fourth side of the table.

Jayden squinted at him. He didn't know the Lightspeed Rescue team very well, except that Carter was generally considered to be a nice guy and Joel tended to turn up when someone needed flirting with. "Did you lose someone?"

"I got lost. Does that count?"

"You got lost?" Leo said, emerging from his glass. "What, like, you took a wrong turn somewhere?"

"No, I was kidnapped by demons. You were on the Aquabase."

"Yeah, but you weren't there." Leo squinted at him. "Were you kidnapped then?"

"Depends on your definition," Ryan muttered. More loudly, he added "No, I wasn't kidnapped then. I was away."

"Older or younger?" Andros demanded abruptly.

"You mean in our family? I'm older than Dana."

"Do you tell her what to do?"

Ryan laughed. "You've clearly never met Dana."

"I met her," Leo offered.

"No one tells her what to do," Ryan continued. "Not me, not our father, not her Red, no one."

"Good. Don't try. Just cos you're older doesn't mean you can," Andros said solemnly.

Jayden caught Ryan's eye and mouthed "He's a little drunk."

Ryan nodded. "I definitely won't," he told Andros. "Dana makes up her own mind."

"How long were you gone?" Leo asked.

Ryan shrugged. "Fifteen years. Give or take."

"Did they know you were alive?" Jayden asked quietly.

Ryan glanced at him. "My dad did. Sort of. Dana didn't."

"Did she look for you?" Andros asked. "I looked for Karone, and Jayden tried to look for –"

" – Lauren –" Jayden provided when Andros looked expectantly at him.

" – but his mentor stopped him, and I don't think Leo looked for Mike but he was dead on another planet that was turned to stone."

"He talks a lot when he's drunk," Jayden murmured.

Ryan shook his head slowly. "If she looked for me, I don't know about it. She wouldn't have found me."

Andros studied him for a moment and then clumsily patted his arm. "I'm sure she tried. But you still can't tell her what to do."

"I won't tell her what to do," Ryan said patiently.

"Good." Andros abruptly put his head down on the table.

Leo snorted, reaching over to rescue Andros' drink before he dropped it. "No tolerance for real alcohol, he's too used to that synth stuff."

Jayden smiled faintly. "Let Mike fuss a bit, Leo. He must have missed you, too."

Leo studied him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. I guess. I'll see you around, maybe."

"Yeah, I'll be around."

Ryan had been studying the empty glasses; he looked up as Leo left. "Your sister trying to tell you what to do?"

"I can handle it," Jayden told him. "Yours?"

Ryan laughed softly. "Dana? She doesn't need to ask, she just needs to look at me a certain way – no," he added. "She doesn't try to tell me what to do. Dana trusts me."

"Trust," Jayden echoed softly.

"You went looking for yours?"

Ryan's voice had changed. Jayden kept staring across the room.

"Yeah. My mentor told me – it was dangerous, for her, if we were together; safer to be apart. But I didn't forget her, and I didn't stop thinking about her. I fought for years to keep her safe."

"I don't know if Dana looked for me."

Jayden still didn't look at him. "Even if she didn't? I bet she didn't forget you."

Zhane leaned over Andros, poking his shoulder gingerly. "Did you give him alcohol, Jayden? I thought I told you not to do that."

"You told me I was giving him alcohol," Jayden protested. "He drank mine."

"Yeah, I figured he'd do that, I switched the glasses," Zhane agreed unrepentantly.

"You need a hand?" Jayden asked.

Zhane shot a glance at Ryan, so quickly Jayden wasn't sure he'd seen it. "Yeah. Thanks. Just give us a hand to the door, I can manage from there."

Andros wasn't quite asleep – at least, he was awake enough to move his feet, so all Jayden had to do was steady him. Zhane steered him to lean against a wall near the door, glancing at Jayden. "Better not try and get any closer with us. I'll manage. Lots of practise." He studied Jayden for a minute. "Feel better?"

"Yeah. I do," Jayden told him. He meant it, too.

"So what were you hiding from? When you came in."

"I wasn't hiding," Jayden protested.

"Yes, you were."

He scowled. "I was just enjoying being on my own."

"Without a sibling ordering you around?" Zhane grinned at his look. "I can read a group, you know."

"Clearly," Jayden agreed dryly. "Yes, without a sibling ordering me around."

"Feel better about it now?"

"I understand it a little better now, yes." He glanced back at Ryan; Dana was sitting beside him and they were talking quietly.

"Good." Zhane turned to catch Andros as he tried to wander away. "I'd better go. See you 'round, Jayden."

"See you, Zhane. Thanks."

Zhane grinned, turning to shepherd Andros out. Jayden looked back at Ryan and Dana, still talking; then he turned to head out. Lauren would be at home; maybe they could talk through some of her new ideas.

Of course, he still couldn't let her just tell him what to do. It was the principle of the thing.