Bet you weren't expecting that! And I can assure you that ch.26 will follow in a week or two - you won't have to wait longer than that. Will, believe me, is a comfort you'll need later on.

Love and Gratitude to the Constellations Team: Camille and Mara (friends and beta readers), Navot (character development) and Roie (who made this possible).

Enjoy, and please review!

25. For All That We Let In, part 1

They were closing shop when Hunter's morpher went off. The Rangers were the only ones there, so he didn't bother stepping aside before answering the call. He regretted that as soon as Shane's voice came through.

"I need you," said Shane.

Something was terribly wrong.

Dustin's head snapped around as he heard that; Blake was locking the back door and out of hearing range.

"Where are you?" asked Hunter, gesturing for Dustin to remain quiet. "What happened?"

"About two miles out of town, northbound."

Silence stretched too long. Hunter decided there wasn't any point in asking again what had happened. "Dustin and Blake are here, too," he said carefully. "Should they come also?"

"No need." Shane had gone from stressed to distant. Hunter really wanted to curse, or break something. I just might get to break someone, the way this day is going, he thought.

"I'm coming," he said out loud. "See you in a few. Hunter out."

"Dude, you sure you should go alone?" asked Dustin as soon as Hunter lowered his arm.

"You heard Shane," said Hunter. "Tell Blake where I went. Call CyberCam, see if he can tell you anything. I'll call you when I know what's going on."

Dustin nodded.

One and a half miles out of town Hunter switched from streaking to running: something ahead of him felt seriously wrong, and he'd rather approach slowly. It was hard to see in the dark, and he could only hope that it was equally hard to see him. At some point along the road a white vehicle came into view – Cam's mobile command center, he realized as he drew closer. That was also when he realized what, exactly, was wrong. His hackles rose involuntarily: the place reeked of the Dark Ninja powers.

He found Shane leaning against the car on the side facing away from the road, arms wrapped about his body, looking every bit as awful as he'd sounded. He raised his head when he heard Hunter approach.

"What happened?" demanded Hunter. It was obvious Shane and Cam had never made it into town with Sensei. "Where – "

"Cam's in the car, unconscious," said Shane. "He collapsed shortly after…" The red Ranger took a deep breath, obviously steadying himself. "Lothor's got Sensei."

Well, things make more sense now, thought Hunter. "Lothor was here?" he asked as he bypassed Shane and peered into the car – yeah, Cam was still in the passenger seat.

"Yeah. He was glowing black." Shane shook his head as if to clear it.

"You okay?"

"Major dizzy spell. Nearly blacked out."

Hunter opened the door and undid the safety belt. "You will if we stay here," he said as he picked up Cam's unconscious body. He braced himself for a shock or something, but nothing happened. "This place is soaked with Dark Ninja. It messes with your brain."

"Oh." Shane pushed himself away from the car. "But we can't leave the mobile command center, if someone finds it…."

"First we get you out of here," said Hunter.

Luckily, Shane didn't argue.

"So, what, Lothor just showed up in the middle of the road?" asked Hunter. Some detail beyond "Lothor's got Sensei" could be useful.

"Yeah. Cam tried to stop him, I think, and then everything exploded and Sensei was gone. Lothor also."

"And Cam was unconscious."

"No, it took him half a minute." Pause. "Why's he unconscious and I'm okay?"

"You are not okay," Hunter told him, "And he could be more sensitive because, y'know. Or it could be because he's not a ninja – the elements help. You'll be okay once you get some clean air around you."

They walked. At two hundred yards from ground zero, Shane's face gained some colour. At four hundred yards Hunter decided they were far enough for comfort and broke away from the road, finding a secluded spot among the vegetation. He laid Cam down and sat. Shane sat down next to him.

"Now what?"

Hunter touched his communicator.

"Go for CyberCam," said the AI promptly.

"How much of this did you follow?" asked Hunter.

"Pretty much everything."

"Can you estimate how long until the mobile command center is safe to move?"

"Twenty-four hours."

"We can't wait that long."

"I can teleport it, but it'll burn the teleporter as well as some of the more sensitive on-board systems."

"How much of a bother will it be to fix all these things?"

"The teleporter, maybe two hours. The on-board systems, depending on the particular damage."

"Teleport Cam over, put him in his room or something. Then get the mobile command center."

Cam's form dissolved into light. "Anything else?" asked CyberCam.

"Not for now. Thanks."

"Anytime. CyberCam out."

Hunter let out his breath.

"Now what?" asked Shane. He was beginning to sound like himself again.

"Now we wait," Hunter told him. "I'm not leaving you alone here."

"Do we have to stay here?"

Hunter glared at him – thought it was probably hardly visible in the darkness. "If you think you're good enough to streak you are so wrong."

Shane smiled faintly. "Okay. I'll stay put." Then his expression crumbled. "Damn. I can't believe we lost Sensei."

"We did not lose Sensei," said Hunter sharply. "If Lothor wanted him dead he wouldn't go to all this trouble. So long as he's alive there's a chance that we can get him back, and we will."

Shane shrugged a little. "I guess. But it's not like we can get on that ship."

Hunter touched Shane's cheek. Shane turned his head, looking at him. Hunter rested his hand on Shane's shoulder. "We're the Power Rangers, remember? Everything is possible."

"That's quoting Dustin's comic books."

"You say it all the time, and you've been right so far," Hunter told him. Shane started to speak again but Hunter had had enough. He pulled Shane close. "Stay put and shut up for five minutes."

Shane shifted, resting his head against Hunter's shoulder. "Longest day ever," he muttered.

Hunter could think of a couple of days that had been worse, but he kept his mouth shut.

"You didn't," hissed Tori. She had to keep her voice down and it was pretty hard when she was this angry. "Cam's alone up there? Are you nuts?"

"Tori, he doesn't want company." Shane sounded weary. "Dustin tried and Cam kicked him out. If he won't let Dustin in the rest of us don't stand a chance."

That much was true, she knew. Didn't mean she had to be happy about it. She flopped down on the bed. "The moment my parents fall asleep I'm out of here, and I'm not using the sickness excuse ever again. Do you realize I have to stay here tomorrow too?" she made a face. "My mom wants me to stay home and 'rest', and I have double term calc tomorrow!"

"Good," said Shane. She wanted to ask if he'd heard a word she'd said, but he was already continuing. "CyberCam's preparing a mission file. I want you and Blake to plan this one."

"To plan what?" she asked suspiciously. There was only one 'mission' she could think of and Shane had to be out of his freaking mind.

"The rescue mission," said Shane and yeah, he was as crazy as she thought he was.

"We can't go in there! It was a disaster the last time – the one time – anyone did this." Toxipod's island… she suppressed a shudder.

"Which is why I want you and Blake both on this one."

She wanted to yell at him, but he was right. They couldn't leave Sensei and if she and Blake together couldn't figure out a plan that wasn't completely suicidal, nobody would. "Okay," she said after a moment. So help us.

He was too alert to so much as sit still so he slipped downstairs and out to the yard. Maybe if he managed to work his way through a kata or two he would calm down enough to be able to sleep. He tensed up when he saw the approaching shadow but then he realized who it was and relaxed.

"Dude, don't do that," he told Hunter. "You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry."

Dustin shook his head. Hunter could be so weird sometimes. "What's up?" he asked, a little uncertainly. What was Hunter doing there? "What's going on?"

Hunter shrugged a little. "I've been thinking," he said slowly. "Lothor's gonna expect a rescue mission."

"Well, duh."

"He's going to expect us to be pretty scared."

"I don't know about you, but I really am."

"Shane's like Sensei that way," continued Hunter. "They both slow down when they're uncertain. Lothor could be expecting that, too. So, I've been thinking – we could move tonight."

Dustin opened his mouth, closed it and tried again. "Dude – what?"

"We can move tonight," repeated Hunter. "No, Dustin, think about it. I know it sounds crazy but it's not exactly what Lothor would expect of us, so it might actually stand a chance. They're going to put Sensei in stasis – he's no good dead and they're not gonna bother looking after him. I know where the stasis bay is. There's a teleportation platform right off of there, and I still have a teleportation key."

"You are so mental," muttered Dustin. "How come you're not doing this with Blake?"

Hunter shrugged again, looking down. "I didn't ask him. You and Tori are the only ones any good with healing, anyway, and Sensei was really sick when Lothor got him. It'll be better if one of you is on hand when we break him out of stasis."

It was pretty obvious why Tori wasn't an option – she'd hand Hunter's ass directly to Shane – but Dustin still didn't get why Hunter excluded his brother. He said so.

"He's not going to want to go up there," snapped Hunter. "I don't think he will. Don't look at me like I'm trying to set you up or anything. I'm going to do it whether or not you come with me."

"You really think we can do this," said Dustin after a moment.

"Or I wouldn't be standing here. We could be back with Sensei before the date changes."

Dustin nodded. "Do we morph here or there?"

"We don't morph. There are all sorts of alarms that go off when we do that."

"I really don't like this plan."

"You in or out?"

"In."

The teleportation platform was just an open alcove off a wide hallway. Dustin looked about him. The hallway was painted in ominous colours of black and dark red. He touched his hand to the bulkhead. Metal. The whole place was made of metal, with not even a thin layer of insulation. "This place gives me the creeps."

"Yeah," agreed Hunter. He peeked cautiously around the bend. "Let's do it quickly and get the hell out of here. The stasis bay is that door at the end of the hallway."

"The really wide one?"

"Yeah. It leads directly into the level where they keep the senior staff."

"The level where – dude, how big is this place?"

"Pretty big. They wiped out all the clans, you know. Not just the US ones. And they've taken everything."

Dustin gave a low whistle. "Hey, I just thought – what do we do if it's locked?"

"It's never locked – I don't think they lock anything except private quarters here, not even the zord bay." Hunter smiled, a cold expression that spelled trouble. "Halfway there."

They didn't notice the line of light on the floor until it was too late.

Shane sat straighter. "What do you mean, 'gone'?" he demanded. "How can they be gone?"

"Teleported, by the looks of it," said Cam. His voice was way too emotionless for Shane's liking but right then they had more pressing problems.

Like Hunter and Dustin missing.

"Lothor – "

"I don't think so. It looks like the signal initiated from one of them."

"Like what?" It was one in the morning and he'd only had two hours of sleep.

"Wherever they went they did it of their own volition."

"But how could they – oh, no." Shane buried his face in his hands. "I'll kill him."

"You think Hunter retained teleportation access to Lothor's ship," said Cam. His tone suggested that he'd come to the same conclusion.

"I'll kill him," repeated Shane. "Cam – I want the whole team at Ops."

"There's nothing you can – "

"Is our teleportation system operational yet?"

"Yes."

"Can it take teleporting the whole team – " what's left of us, anyway, thought Shane grimly " – without burning down?"

"Maybe."

"So we all come to Ops, now, and we sleep there. This way if something blows, or anyone else decides to play hero, we're all already on site and there's no need to burn the teleporter. How much of a bother will we be?"

Pause. "Not much, actually," said Cam after a moment. "I can't really block you out anyway."

"You kicked Dustin out earlier."

"Don't try helping, okay?" Finally, something of what Cam had to be feeling broke to the surface.

"Okay," said Shane. "I'll tell Tori to stay out of your hair, too." If that's how Cam wanted to play it, fine. For now.

"Blake'll probably keep her busy," said Cam, and the fear Shane managed to push away for a moment came crashing back.

Damnit, Hunter!

The cell was deceptively large but it was a holding cell, all right: there were two bunks at the opposite sides of it, what seemed to be a toilet in one corner, and one 'wall' was an opaque force field. Hunter had tried knocking off the force field, but it got them nowhere and gave the Thunder Ranger a splitting headache which had him sitting on one of the bunks with his palms pressed firmly against his eyes. Dustin had tried to help, but it was futile – broken bones and torn muscles he understood. Headaches were beyond him.

"Sorry," he offered.

"I should be saying that," muttered Hunter. "Shouldn't have dragged you along."

"Don't go there," said Dustin. He was too tired to really mean it as a warning. "And then what, you're be here alone, freaking yourself out?" He tapped Hunter's knee. "I knew what I was doing, okay? I wasn't going to let you do this alone. That isn't how Rangers do things."

"Doing things 'like Rangers do' is why I came up with this plan. Which Lothor obviously knew to expect."

"Dude, you don't know that. Any plan would've brought us to the stasis bay. Lothor could've wired all the entrances, for all we know, not just that one.

"Last time I was here," said Hunter, his voice forcibly calm, "Blake and I were brainwashed and later I almost killed all of you."

Yeah, Dustin remembered that. Vividly. "But Blake got through to you then. Even if Lothor tries the same trick again, the guys will break us free."

"That was Choobo's idea. Zurgane wanted to throw us out the airlock. And Choobo hasn't been around lately."

"If Lothor wanted us out the airlock we'd be space trash already."

Finally, Hunter removed his hands from his eyes. "How can you be so optimistic?" he demanded.

"Because right now, it's the most constructive thing I can do."

The force field flickered, became transparent. Marah was standing on the other side of it, hugging herself tightly.

Both Rangers jumped to their feet. Headache or not, Hunter placed himself in front of Dustin. "What do you want?" he demanded.

Marah blinked. She was crying. "That wasn't me," she said. "Kapri switched the devices, she was on to me. She didn't want Lothor to be angry with me so she did that. I didn't betray you, Dustin, I swear."

'Lothor', Hunter noted. Not 'Uncle'.

"Please," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. You have to believe me."

Dustin walked past Hunter and to the force field. He raised his hand as if to lay his palm against it, but thought better of it. "I believe you," he said. "I don't think you're really evil, Marah."

"I don't think so, either." Her smile was startlingly bright. "That's why I've come to break you out."

They hadn't fallen asleep. None of them even bothered to pretend to. Cam locked himself in lab one, and CyberCam reported that he was trying to do several months' work in a single night – the technical details went straight over Shane's head. Tori and Blake also retreated to one of the side rooms, taking every possible holodisplayer they could find with them.

Shane sat alone at Ops' main room, having refused CyberCam's offer of company. They had no way of tracking things or people on Lothor's ship – it was simply out of range – but it had already been an hour and every moment that passed suggested that Hunter and Dustin were in trouble. Shane stared into the darkness and tried not to think of everything that could've gone wrong. He couldn't afford to. Too many things had gone wrong already…

He tapped the comm. "Cam?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah?" came Cam's voice after a moment.

"You said something earlier that implied distance isn't really a factor in your sensing people."

"Just the Rangers," said Cam cautiously. "And it's not that it doesn't matter altogether, it's more like – "

"Can you sense them?"

Pause. "Do you realize what you're asking?"

"I'm asking you to try and figure out if two of your friends are alive," said Shane tiredly. "I was going to ask you about your dad also, but you just said it only works for Rangers."

Another pause, so long that Shane wondered Cam had hung up on him. "They're alive," said Cam finally. "They're not in any immediate danger. That's all I can tell. I can't find – " his voice cracked. "But I think you just gave me an idea. I'll talk to you later. Cam out."

Shane tapped his comm. again and relayed the news to Blake and Tori. "Any progress?" he asked.

"Not really," said Blake. "Even assuming Lothor hadn't expected a rescue before, he will now. It complicates matters."

"To put it mildly," muttered Tori in the background. "We'll keep you posted, Shane."

And he was alone in the darkness again.

Marah had rigged a ten-minutes security override, more than enough time for her to turn off the force field and for the three of them to find the nearest maintenance hatch and crawl inside. The metallic tunnel was narrow and cramped, but the cargo bays were only two levels down from the holding cells. Teleportation would create a traceable signature that would get them all in trouble, Marah said, but the bay that housed the emergency pods had semi-independent systems and she'd set another override in place which should allow them to teleport undetected from there.

"Won't Lothor wonder how we got out without leaving a sign?" asked Hunter. He was last in the line and he wasn't sure if his faint whisper will carry over to Marah, who was first. "Won't he get it was an inside job?" Lothor wasn't stupid, and Hunter suspected Kapri's assessment of the situation was correct. Marah could get into a whole lot of trouble for this, if she was for real.

"I thought about that," she said. "Once you're free, there's going to be a power surge. It'll start from the holding cells and spread from there. A lot of systems are going to burn. There won't be any sign of sabotage."

"I tried doing that. Not strong enough."

"You would've been if you morphed."

"And alerted the whole ship that I'm about to do something?"

"He thinks you're pretty reckless. And the surge will erase those recordings, so there'll be no way to know for sure. He has a lot of faith in you. He'll buy that."

Dustin laughed, or maybe choked. "He has a lot of faith in us? He keeps trying to do us in!"

"No, he's not. He wants your power, not your life. He thinks you still have a lot of unused potential. A lot of the attacks are meant to trigger you to become stronger and better."

"This is even scarier than him just trying to kill everybody," said Dustin. Then he stopped crawling.

"We're here," whispered Marah. There was the sound of metal as she opened the hatch.

Hunter crawled out as soon as Dustin cleared the opening. The yellow Ranger hugged Marah fiercely. "Thanks," he said. "You're awesome."

Marah dipped her head and though it was impossible to tell in the dim emergency lights, Hunter was pretty sure she was blushing, as she said: "No, I'm not."

"You are," Dustin told her. His hands were still resting on her arms. "You're one of the most awesome, bravest girls I know."

"Thanks. We don't have much time, but – can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Will you kiss me?"

For a second, Dustin froze. Then he leaned forward and –

A movement in the shadows.

Hunter threw himself forward, knocking all three of them to the deck. A blaster shot singed the air where Dustin's head had been a second before.

The lights went on full.

Kapri was standing halfway across the bay, her blaster still trained on them.

"Good plan, sister," she said, "But not good enough."

Cam returned to the main room less then fifteen minutes after his conversation with Shane.

"I think I know how to redo the sensor array," he said, "Expand its range. If this works then I can expand the other systems also – we could snatch them away from there."

Shane straightened in his chair. "Anything I can do to help? Or we can get Blake or Tori, they're better at the technical stuff than I am."

"Hand me tools and shut up," said Cam. Was it Shane's imagination, or was there the hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth? "You need the distraction more than they do."

Shane faithfully passed tools and kept silent, but after half an hour Cam ruled that he needed another pair of hands and they called Blake and Tori. Neither of them was up to the level of independence Cam expected, though.

Cam threw down the screwdriver in anger. "Half the systems need to be redone. I can't possibly do it in time on my own, and if I have to instruct one of you I can't do my share of the work. Elements!"

It was the first time any of them had heard Cam swear.

Blake shifted.

"You have an idea?" asked Shane.

"You won't like it."

"Try me."

"We can call Adam." Blake crossed his arms on his chest. "He'd been a Ranger for about three years. It's worth it to at least ask him."

Shane considered it for a moment. Then he turned to Cam. "Your call. You're the one who'll need to work with the guy."

Cam shrugged minutely. "You three are unrecognizable from what you were when you became Rangers. It's quite possible he may have picked up something useful, if he served so long."

Shane nodded at Blake. "Call him."

They pushed themselves to their feet.

"What are you doing here?" demanded Marah, stepping in front of the two Rangers.

"Step away from the Rangers, Marah. I don't want to hurt you."

"Not pointing a gun at her might be a step in the right direction," said Dustin.

"There was nothing wrong with my plan this time," said Marah angrily. "You're just interfering."

"They're the enemy, Marah, which I'm pretty sure you've forgotten."

"No, they're not – not my enemies. They're the enemy of the person who sent my best friend to die!"

"When your best friend's a mercenary, stuff happens!"

"Well, it's not the kind of life I want. I'm miserable here, Kapri!"

"Because I'm so happy here, right?" Kapri's indifferent mask shattered into fury. "We're mercenaries too, in case you failed to notice. That's what we've been taught and trained to do. Right now, the only jobs either of us could get out there would be grunt work with a high mortality rate. With a victory behind us, though…"

"I don't want to do this!" Marah stomped down her foot. Tears were spilling down her cheeks again. "I will not kill people for my living. I won't."

Kapri still had her blaster trained on them. "Step away from the Rangers, Marah," she said, very softly.

Marah stuck out her chin. "If that's the life you want, you might as well go all the way with it."

Kapri's arm shook, ever so slightly. She swallowed. "We're sisters."

"I'm sorry." Marah choked back a sob. "I love you, but I'm sorry."

Kapri's expression flattened again. "So am I."

A blaster shot cut through the air – Dustin caught Marah, who was screaming – she reached out to Hunter, for some odd reason, and he took her hand, knowing better than to doubt her in that moment –

Everything went black, then they were standing by the shore of the lake just outside of Academy grounds. Dustin was still holding Marah, who was sobbing hysterically.